To rise and walk...by faith

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

July 1, 2021: Genesis 22: 1-19; Matthew 9: 1-8

Imagine the Gospel scene of today: what if the man had decided not to get up and walk, because he was not sure if he were able to. He would have been justified...because after so many years of his lying down there, inability to stretch his limb, it is justified even if he thinks, it would logically be impossible to just rise and walk, so instantaneously as Jesus wanted him to. That fact of being justified notwithstanding, who would have been the loser? The man himself, and without knowing what he would have lost or missed. 

Many a times, out thinking goes this way. In the name of being careful and thoughtful and observant and prudent, we don't leave any space for God. We have everything pre-thought-out, everything fixed in its place, every judgement made and every calculation done! At the end of it all...we are at a loss, how things dont go the way we want them to. At times we do not even know what it means to depend on God - we say we believe in God but in practice we do not ant to take any chances, as we say!

Today the Word challenges us to believe, that nothing is impossible for God. Nothing is too big for God, be it forgiving sins or curing the sick, proves Jesus. Rising and Walking was a decision that man took to trust in the Lord and hope in his command over absolutely everything on earth. When Jesus said 'rise, pick up and walk'...he did not argue or reason out or ask for scientific proof that it would happen. He just wished to do what Jesus said, he just wanted to give God, God's space! Lo and behold, there was a miracle!

Abraham was just beginning to cherish his life, but he was cherishing it to the extent that he was growing unmindful of the One who gave him that life. But he was given a chance to rise and walk, to prove his trust and hope in the Lord. And he just rose, and walked...walked right up to that peak of giving up all his dreams and plans, all his future hopes and human urges. He rose above them all, and walked with the eye of faith!

Today in our daily experiences we are called to rise and walk...to find Lord right beside us all through and remember for ever, "we walk by faith not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7)!

With open eyes...

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

June 30, 2021: Genesis 21: 5, 8-20a; Matthew 8: 28-34

Hagar had almost given up. For her it was all over. She found no scope of living on and no chance of surviving that desertedness. All that while the well was just round the corner. She was so filled with self pity that she was not able to see the ample opportunity just there for hers to take. All that God did was open her eyes that she may see the well. 

However blinded she might have been, Hagar, finally does see unlike the people of Gerasene who never saw till the end, who it really was that had entered their village. Their self pity of having lost their swine in thousands blinded their eyes from perceiving the great and wonderful blessings that Jesus had in store for them. What a great miss it was, they asked Jesus to leave! 

Our problems and troubles, our suspicions and judgements, our prior experiences and disappointments, can easily blind us to the great things that surround us. Sometimes these may even block the blessings that we could receive in life. Not that miracles do not happen, but most of the times we are not in a position to see the miracles that abound all around us. We choose what is not necessary, what could be easily done away with, what does not really help us live our life to the full. And we reject the truth, the fact, the light, the way, the meaning, the sense of life!  

If only Hagar still failed to see what the Lord was showing her, she would have thrown her life away. If only the people of Gerasene saw who they were rejecting; if only they beheld the blessings that he brought; if only they lived their lives with open eyes...

Peter, Paul and Francis...

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 29, 2021: Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul
Acts 12: 1-11; 2 Tim 4: 6-8, 17-18; Mt 16: 13-19

The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, marks the day of their martyrdom...of course they were not martyred together; neither were they martyred in the same place or manner! But they were both martyred in Rome and Rome has these two principal apostles as its patron. There is one thing told of these two apostles in the readings today. They were called, and given a specific task. You shall be the rock... you shall be my instrument to take my name to the gentiles... these were the words with which the Lord invited them. And the Lord constantly protected them and rescued them, while they were on their part ready to give up anything, including their very lives, for the sake of the task entrusted to them.

However, why is this twinning...Peter and Paul? Because they were two solid pillars of reference in the early Christian Community. The Tradition of Papacy is a combination of both these apostles: Peter referring to the governance and the Paul referring to the doctrines! Both of these are equally important as roles of the Holy Father. This is the reason, this day is celebrated in many places as the "Pope's Day."

It is a day to celebrate the great God-given gift of Pope Francis! It has been 8 years! We are well aware of the numerous forces that are up in arms against the present Holy Father... from other domains of the world other than faith and religion, many from other denominations and some even from within the Catholic Church. But at a closer study and understanding it is easy for one to realise the amount of good that the present Holy Father is doing to the Church and to the world in the name of the Church.

Pope Francis seems a beautiful combination of Peter and Paul - making his mark in the governance of the Universal Church and having recourse to deep doctrines to make sense of the ordinary day to day experiences. Today, let us keep the Holy Father in our special prayers! God bless our Pope!

Our choices punish us, not God!

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

June 28, 2021: Genesis 18: 16-33; Matthew 8: 18-22

The first reading today is a bit confusing! It presents a scene which looks as if God is waiting to destroy some cities and Abraham is trying to appease the wrath of God. Though apparently that is how it is narrated, the message communicated is quite different. Apart from an important learning from today's Word, there is an important unlearning that has to happen. 

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities filled with filth and sinfulness, wickedness and devilishness and on account of these, they were cities that were running themselves into destruction! It is like the ecological crisis and the nuclear risks that we have created for ourselves today! Anything goes wrong anywhere, it is going to affect a large section of humanity. One day or the other we are to reap its fruits! We already are facing the brunt of such foolishness, with the pandemic that is draining the life out of  us these days!

The Wisdom of God in warning against these kind of craziness and pointing the right way is either rejected or belittled. The natural law and the divine law that is imprinted on our spirits, is the only guarantee towards a peaceful life. But we have ruined our prospects, disrespecting and discarding any law that comes from God! 

When Jesus discourages one from following him and chides the other for not following him, he knows exactly what is good for each of them. God has set laws and order, keeping in mind the needs, wants and requirements for peaceful living of the entire humanity. In human pride, irrational greed and ruthless selfishness, we have made a mess of the world entrusted to us. The warning is to all of us today, if we do not mend our ways and return to the ways of the Lord, we are leading ourselves and our world into destruction. As he did with Abraham, the Lord is negotiating with and through every good willed person even today!

Now coming to the learning and the unlearning: to learn the laws of the Lord inscribed on our hearts; to unlearn any misunderstanding that God punishes or God destroys! God does not punish, our own choices do!

WHO IS YOUR GOD?

A relevant question today!

June 27, 2021: 13th Sunday in Ordinary time

Wisdom 1:13-15,2:23-24; 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15; Mark 5:21-43

Who is your God? This is a question the people of Israel were asked every now and then, by those who surrounded them. And the people would say: the one who brought us out of Egypt, the one who gave us bread in the desert, the one who gave us water from the rock, the one who saved us and the one who made us into a people. That was the experience of the people of God - an expeience of the God of alliance who promised them: You shall be my people and I shall be your God. But the problem began when people underwent some trials - they made wrong choices and were reaping the fruit; they lived by wrong priorities and it was getting back on them; they needlessly depended on the forces that they thought would save them but when it misfired they were submerged in troubles - they were trying to make sense of one question: but where is God during these moments? They thought and interpreted that - God had abandoned them, or that God refused to care for them, or worst of all, that God was punishing them! Was it really the right answer or the right way of looking at God?

No!, says Jesus emphatically in his thoughts, words and deeds. This was one of the life tasks of Jesus: to reintroduce God to humanity...to clear the wrong interpretations of  God, to make people look at God from God's perspective and not from human perspective, to make humanity really understand the Love of God and its boundless nature. Jesus had to struggle for it... when Jesus had to explain to the people that God has no favourites, and God's favourites are those who are renounced, negated and relegated to the peripheries of human existence. He had to tell people that God's nature is to forgive, all that they could manage was a maximum of seventy times seven; he had to insist every now and then, that God is a merciful father and mother, but all they could think was rewarding the good and punishing the evil! 

Today, after so much that God has done for us and after all that Jesus has done to reveal the true sense of God to us, do we really know God? Do we really understand who is our God? The experience of the pandemic and many other elements around it, even today, challenges us - do you really know who is your God? 

The pandemic has not ended...it is on and it continues to challenge us in many ways! One of the reflections, as inspired by the Word today, is to understand how compatible our image of God is, with the God that Jesus wishes us to see, experience and believe in.

God of life or death

The first reading speaks to us of the God of life... and we very often make of God, a god of death. Our God is a God of life - life, new life and endless life. We need to work out of the temptation to think of God as someone who has the noose in his hands, threatening us with death. There are two things that we need to understand here from Christian point of view: Death is not destruction! The end of our life here, is not the end of all! The Lord who gave us life, awaits us after life too! And death is not the obliteration of a person. Secondly, anything that appears to be a destruction or a ruin does not come from God, it comes from the evil one. An untimely death, a gruesome death, a painful death, an unexpected death - though the experience they give us is pain and sorrow, for the person who has that experience it is, another experience of his or her existence. It may be difficult to understand, but that is life. In the perspective of eternity, the fact is, whether we live or we die, we are with God. Even in the pain of separation from a person, this is what we need to believe and understand. Reflect on the first reading taking time with God. 

God of prosperity or poverty

The second reading points to us the folly of looking at God as someone who gives is prosperity! This is all due to the craze of the humankind which has prioritised prosperity and idolised the sense of having! Why is it that having in plenty and having in abundance is better than, having what you need and being happy with just the minimum! It looks like a thought out of the world, a thought that does not work! How easily we accept a statement like: you believe in God and you will have every thing you need in life; you submit yourself to God and you will have all the blessings that you think of...what a fallacy it is! St. Paul reminds us today: we believe in a God who made of Godself so poor, a God of total self-giving. God so loved the humanity that God gave everything including God's only son for our salvation; the Son so loved us that he gave us everything, including his own body and blood; the Spirit so loves us that the Spirit has deigned to make us the dwelling place! God became poor that we may feel enriched, blessed, filled with graces. So what should be our mentality? To seek to receive as much as we can? Or to give of ourselves as much as we can? That will decide whether we hold on to a god of arrogant prosperity or the God of loving poverty!

God of healing or punishment

The Gospel speaks to us of the consoling God of healing...specially in these days when everywhere the talk is about disease and death, the God of healing is a great consolation indeed. It is so disheartening to hear some, although they call themselves persons of God, or prophets, or preachers, or evangelists or whatever title they wish to give...but speaking words like: this pandemic is a wrath of God, a punishment from God and so on! How I wish these were dumb, for God's sake! Jesus connects us to the God who is Love. Love does not wish the pain of others, love wishes nothing but good. At times there are things which come as a consequence of our actions, a collective damage that we create for ourselves, the effect of the greed of some which affects even the others and the innocent...but can we attribute that to God? Punishing God was an interpretation that the people of Israel often had recourse to, to explain their sad and unfortunate predicament...but Jesus trashed it...Jesus overthrew it...Jesus has challenged us to grow over it. Whether we touch God as the woman with hemorrhage did today, of God touches us as Jesus did to the girl on the death bed...the result is healing, wholenses, life! God is a healing God. God gives wholeness! God gives life. God gives health! God gives meaning! God gives purpose! God gives eternal life!

Who is my God? God of life! God who embraced poverty out of love for me! God who gives me healing! Can we rest with that question today: who is your God?

When the Lord enters...

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

June 26, 2021: Genesis 18: 1-15; Matthew 8: 5-17

The Word today has the leitmotif of the Lord who enters homes and when the Lord does that, there is something marvellous happening. 

The Lord enters Abraham's house, and the childless Sarah bears a child. The Lord enters Peter's home and Peter's mother in law rises up from her fever. The Lord's presence makes things come anew. There is a third episode here which brings the same theme to the next plane: a mere Word from the Lord can make things beautiful.

The Word, is the living presence of the Lord... it represents the entirety of the Lord to us, for two reasons: Incarnation and the Mystery of the Trinity. 

Incarnation, is the Word becoming flesh and coming to live among us. That initiated a new relationship between us and God. A God who was of course loved and respectfully acknowledged all through the Old Testament, was still a powerful Other who was out there setting everything up for our wellbeing. But with the Incarnation, God becomes One among us, someOne who can empathise with us! That is the Word.

The role of the Word in the mystery of the Trinity is something beautiful and sweet...because, it is through the Word that we know God. Word is not merely about words spoken or written, but it is all about Communication. The Communication of God, is what makes us truly children of God... no one has known or seen God, but the Word introduces God to us and the Word is the Spirit at work...what a great gift we have in the Word of God. 

If we allow the Word of the Lord to enter our homes, everything will be renewed testifies the Centurion in the Gospel. Allowing the Lord to enter our homes is a marvellous thing to do; but it involves a great risk too. Things will not be the same anymore. We will have to be ready to forgo of a few things because, when the Lord enters everything is renewed! Are we ready for the renewal?

The folly of a Back-up plan!

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

June 25, 2021: Genesis 17: 1, 9-10, 15-22; Matthew 8: 1-4

At times we act smart. Though we ask God for a favour, we begin making a back up plan...if in case we do not get what we ask! That actually spells a doom in most of the cases and instead of backing up, it backfires. 

We see Sarah, wife of Abram, making a back up plan of begetting a child through the maid servant and how it backfired. Today, even as he listens to God communicating his plan, Abraham is intent on having a back up plan, seeing Ishmael as his progeny! Abraham has still to grow in his faith, true and total faith. He will grow and he would soon be an epitome of faith, but not yet.

Faith is not having a back-up plan! It is a total entrustment to the Lord. How preapared are we? How many times we make back-up plans in spite of telling the Lord - Lord you are my all, my refuge and my fortress. Just imagine when a person asks you for a favour, and you get to know the person has asked a number of others too, for the same favour, how would you really feel?

In the Gospel today, we have an instance that shows us what it means to believe without a back up plan. ..'Lord if you wish. ..' An attitude of surrender, a total surrender that is not tempted by the folly of having a back up plan. Alternatives are in the hands of God. ..it is not for us to make back up plans when we believe in God, but to make an act of faith and leave everything into the hands of God. 

As children of God, would we realise that a back-up plan, in terms of faith, is really a folly!

Call, Purpose & destiny

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 24, 2021: Solemnity of the nativity of St. John the Baptist

Isaiah 49:1-6; Acts 13: 22-26; Luke 1: 57-66,80

The Gospels narrate a long list of similarities between the stories of John and Jesus... the apparently 'impossible' conditions in which the mothers conceived, the direct intervention of God in the conception, the apparitions of the angels to the fathers, the prior choice of the name of the child to be born - one simple message is the image of John the Baptist as the precursor of Jesus.

The birth narratives of John and Jesus, together have another important message to reveal to us and that is, we are not here by chance! We are part of a complex plan, an eternal design of God. We are willed into existence by God; we are loved into existence, by the Creator! In fact nothing happens by chance and there are no coincidences... if we look harder, if only we spend more attention, we can certainly see the hand of God, a miracle therein!

We have a purpose, because God knew us right when we were being formed in the womb of our mothers! We have a special mission because, it is the Lord who has called us by name, even before we were born! We are chosen in the eyes of God, because as St. Paul says, God has chosen us before the foundations of the world in Christ Jesus, to be holy and blameless! Many of us, how blind and lazy we remain, not willing (not that we are incapable) to see what God really wants of us! If only we grow in our eagerness to respond to God's will, we shall be living miracles of God, wherever we are.

So, we are created, called, commissioned and destined to usher in the Reign of God, as John announced the coming of Christ. Let us become aware of our call, our purpose and our destiny, which is much larger than the petty preoccupations of our daily worries! Troubles, disease, and suffering - where can they at the most lead us to? To death! Even that is won by the Lamb, whom John foretold. All that we need to do is become more and more intensely aware of our call, our purpose and our destiny.

Before you call yourself a Christian, prove it!

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

June 23, 2021: Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18; Matthew 7: 15-20 

The Tree and the Fruits! Abraham, was a man of God, he was the father of the covenantal people! Abraham listened, obeyed, believed and remained loyal to the Lord who called him. The Covenant the Lord made was the tree and Abraham's life choices were the fruits

The eternal covenant that is made in the blood of Jesus Christ, is the guarantee of the grace and the gift of faith within us. It is the sap of the tree that we are, as God's children. While it is God's action that God has transformed us into God's children in our baptism, our daily life and regular choices have to bear fruits that will make it visible to the world and to ourselves, that we are trees of God. 

An anonymous author reminds us, 'you may be the only gospel that someone reads! So be careful with the way you live your life!' May your fruits identify who you are, not merely your self-trumpetting words. Let not your fruits betray who you really are, in spite of all the over-blown claims that you have about yourself - as a child of God, person of God, instruments of God and so on and so forth!

I am a Christian... and that has to be a fact not merely in my title or in my words and claims, not merely even in my activities, responsibilities and external duties that I carry out; but in every choice of mine, every thought and expression of it, every intention that gives rise to my word and my deeds at every moment of my life. 

I remember a question once a preacher posed during a retreat, 'if today they detain you for being a Christian, will they find enough evidence in you to implicate you?' A powerful question, extremely simple in its categorical demand that before you call yourself a Christian, prove it!

Fairness and Justice: a sense of God

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

June 22, 2021: Genesis 13: 2, 5-18; Matthew 7: 6, 12-14

I was impressed by a child in the train during one of my trips. She had her younger brother with her and every time the mother was giving anything to her or buying something for her from the vendors, she instantly would turn to her younger brother as if asking her mother, what about him? The curious climax was, when she returned the biscuit packet that she was sharing with her brother, to her mother with just one biscuit remaining in it. When the mother asked her why she left just one biscuit behind there, she said there is only one, how we two will take it? The simplicity of that innocent mind...just blew me away. I began wondering where has this kind of a spirit gone, in the world today!

Selfishness and greed, jealousy and competition has become the order of the day. Hardly anyone wishes to do anything if that does not bring them dividends atleast in some measure or kind. Notice the way Abraham dealt with his brother Lot. And pay attention to the golden rule: doing what you would wish others do to you. These are narrow doors. Those won't be the kind of behaviour that you can expect the mainstream humanity to choose spontaneously, especially today. However, as disciples of the Lord, our choice has to be precisely this: a choice for fairness and justice, that would be the right sense of being a person of God.

To let go!

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

June 21, 2021: Genesis 12: 1-9; Matthew 7: 1-5

We will be presented with Abraham for our reflection for the next few days. But what was so special about Abraham? From the very first moment the Word clarifies that. Leave your country and your people, calls the Lord and there he is doing it with such confidence. He lets go of everything, everything that gave him an identity.

The Gospel presents to us a similar and greater challenge: to let go... of our opinions, judgements and prejudices about people and to be open minded. At times we become so handicapped, not because of any physical or mental disability, but the spiritual incapacity to remain open, so filled with our own opinions and judgements. 

We decide on seeing a person, what kind of a person someone is - and worse, we boast about it saying, 'I can say what kind of a person someone is, at the very first sight!'. With one experience with someone, we decide everyone from that background or from the same context, will be the same and we become cautious or judgemental about them! When someone does something we are alright with it, but if someone else whom we do not have a great opinion about, does the same thing, we make a hue and cry as if the whole world is crumbling!

How many new experiences we would have lost because of our opinionated approach! How many enriching encounters we would have lost because of our prefixed judgements! How many growth experiences we would have lost because of our prejudiced mindset. How prepared are we to let go of our opinions and judgements and look at persons and realities everytime with fresh eyes? It is truly a spirituality, to let go!

WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE HAVE!

Be still, behold and be urged... 

June 20, 2021: 12th Sunday in Ordinary time

Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17; Mark 4: 35-41

Be Still... and you will know what a mighty God you have!

But is this so easy to do in times such as these...when all we hear is about sickness, contagion, disease, death, ICU, emergency, lockdown, second wave and third wave, virus, variant and vaccination! It seems so difficult to think of God in terms of God's benevolence and might.

Even otherwise, we are so fond of lamenting, fretting, complaining, grumbling, panting and gasping, that we fail to notice the mighty presence of God right beside us as we struggle in the daily storms of life. It takes that moment when the Lord finally intervenes and says: Quiet! Be Still...I am here, right here, in the midst of it all. Don't you see? Don't you believe? Haven't you experienced my interventions in the past? Haven't you learnt that lesson yet?

It is one of our regular unfortunate experiences - that we do a series of good, a long list of acts of love and compassion, and every duty of ours to perfection until one mistake, or one misunderstanding, or one misfired act... people react as if we have always been that way! We begin to wonder, all the good and the perfect things that I did so far, do they count at all? At times, we put God through that kind of an experience too! When things go wrong, when things are out of control, it is important to 'Be still, and know that the Lord is!'

Behold! a New Thing... the mighty God is creating it for you!

At times the turbulence that you go through may be a new thing in the making! You know how the east coast of Chennai was affected due to Tsunami. Yes, that was a big tragedy. But once going for some work to a place near the East Coast, the person who was with me commented looking at a mighty building there: if it were not for the Tsunami, we would not have this building here! Though it may sound less sensitive to the disaster and its effects, the statement triggered an insight in me. At times the turbulences that we experience in life, may lead to newer and fresher outlooks on events.

Loss of job, crisis in a work place, calamities that affect daily life, transfers, change of leaderships...these at times may look like big hurdles. But as times goes by and when we overcome these situations for good and experience a new lease of life, we would realise how through what was once thought of as a problem, we have had pleasant surprises, experiences of growth and an opportunity to live life more intensely. But if we do not reflect we would miss it all. When Socrates said it - an unreflected life is a wasted life - he did have a great sense, particularly in the spiritual sense. It is our responsibility to behold the new things that the Lord deigns to make for us. It is easy to miss them all.

Be Urged by the Love of Christ... the mightiest experience of God!

In every thing and at every moment, be urged by the love of Christ; a love that so powerfully brings the presence of God into our life. Allow God into your life, feel the presence of God and enjoy the love that God continues to shower on you - a love so immense and unconditional. If only we taste that love of God, we would become so filled with that love that we will overflow with that love. Our words, our thoughts, our gestures, our relations, our interactions and everything in us will be flooded with that love and people around us will experience it. That love will urge me to be loving; that love will push me to reach out to the other in love; that love will not allow me to remain quiet about the goodness that I have experienced; that love will make goodness so contagious and of course everything around me will be created anew! 

Yes... can we stand up and accept the challenge: The Love of Christ urges us, to be still and recognise the presence of God, to behold everything new that the Lord is creating for us and to be urged by the love of Christ, to share the same loving presence of God with everyone in need! If only we realise, what a mighty God we have! 

Sense of Sufficiency - sign of sanctity

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

June 19, 2021: 2 Corinthians 12: 1-10; Matthew 6: 24-34

The rich and the poor, the affluent and the needy, the influential and the ordinary... they seem to be no different from each other! They wish for more and more and more. And at no point in their life they seem to have a sense of Sufficiency. People with thousand pairs of footwears, a couple or more of private jets, scores floors in more than a few apartments, are known facts today; and at a more ordinary level, people with a few cellphones and scores of sim cards, cupboard full of dresses and loads of wasted food...these are no rare sights too! There is no saying enough, for the human mind today, or has it been so for all times? 

St. Paul today explains the importance of the attitude of saying enough, the sense of sufficience and considers it a sign of sanctity. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul considers himself 'blessed' with a sense of sufficiency, in plenty and in want (Phil 4: 11,12). In our families, in our personal lives, in our social life, in our religious communities... where does this virtue stand?

Be it Indian spirituality, Western monastic spirituality, Eastern yogic spirituality... everywhere there is a strong point made for detachment, possessing less and learning to live with the minimum! Where do all these spiritualities go, in spite of the highly religious people who live! And the so called people of the religion, are precisely the ones who goad wealth, create a culture of promiscuity and indulge in frivolities unheard of. 

And above all, the sense of sufficiency comes from and is a fruit of gratitude, a sense of having received enough and in abundance from God. Gratitude is a sign of a sense of sufficiency that one feels with God; and this sense of sufficiency, is obviously therefore, a sure sign of sanctity. 

The heart, the eye and the lesson!

WORD 2day : Friday, 11th week ìn Ordinary time

June 18, 2021: 2 Corinthians 11:18,21-30; Mathew 6: 19-23

Jesus speaks of the heart and the eye and the importance of these to a being. St. Paul presents himself as a madman who is putting himself through so many trials. He knows more will be coming but remains ready to risk them all. We have hosts and hosts of martyrs who have died for what they believed in, Saints who lived for God and God's purposes till the last breath of their lives, and people who continue to risk their lives for causes they commit themselves to.

Where lies their strength? In their heart and in their eye, says the Gospel today. Heart refers to their Priority and eyes to their Perspective! 

When God becomes my priority, nothing else would matter to me more than being Godly. Not my career, not my comforts, not my social status, not the conventional success, not the power and the position that everyone clamours for...nothing can deter me from living my life for God and God's purposes. That is my heart...and where my heart is there my treasures will be too!

When God becomes my perspective my whole world changes, because I begin to see everything the way God sees them. The jealousy of God that St. Paul spoke of yesterday is nothing but the way God looks at us: as God's own! Hence it is only right and just that we consider ourselves God's own too and in every way make ourselves so - that is becoming like God, in the way we see, think, judge and make choices. That is our eyes...and the way we look at others and at the world, will decide to whom we truly belong.

What is expected of us thus is, we form our hearts and our eyes, that we ascertain our priority and clarify our perspective. May the Spirit of the Lord help us to become aware of our heart, our eye and the lesson that the Word gives us today.

A God who relates - cordiality and difference!

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

June 17, 2021: 2 Corinthians 11: 1-11; Matthew 6: 7-15

St. Paul wishes that the believers stand in front of the Lord as brides and Jesus proposes a parent-children relationship between God and humankind. There is a common denominator that dominates this vision of the God-human dynamics, a vision that can be identified as a typical Christ-ian vision. 

A Christian vision of God would refer to God in terms of the relationship that believers have with the Divine, rather than in terms of a power or an impersonal being. Be it the marital covenant or the parental commitment, the Word abounds with metaphors that call for a personal relationship with God, as God's beloved children. 

But let us go a step deeper in analysing this relationship that is characteristic of our faith - this relationship should be characterised by two indispensable elements: Cordiality and Difference. 

Cordiality would be the closeness a person feels with the Divine according to one's experience and need. This is the Bhakti tradition that the Indian religious mind so well comprehends - a deep seated personal love for God, as a result of a similar love experienced from God. However, cordiality or this closeness alone would not suffice. At times it becomes so personal and subjective that it can be suspected! And that is where the second characteristic comes in.

Difference would refer to the difference that the relationship makes in one's life - in one's thinking, choices, attitudes, priorities and in decisions. Because a genuine cordiality has to necessarily lead one to a concrete difference in one's life and in those around. This balances the subjectivity that is seen in cordiality and leaves a person committed to testimony, witness and example. Look at St. Paul who is able to say with such audacity, 'be imitators of me, as I am of Christ!' 

A truly Christian life would be filled with meaningful relationships as we carry within us, in our core, we are images of a God who relates!

Value Added Deeds

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

June 16, 2021: 2 Corinthians 9: 6-11; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

I know a person, a good friend of mine, who is a trainer. He does the training of the younger cadets of the organisation that he was trained in. He distributes training kits and accessories on his own cost to those young trainees and does not receive any payment for his services other than the train ticket for his travel up and down! This is going on for quite a few years now and I have not revealed his identity because he will not like it absolutely!

Thinking of Giving...there is so much of talk today of 'giving'... the donations and funds collected today to help those affected by covid, the funds that are collected during natural calamities, the scholarships distributed...all these have a big label attached to them. At times what is spent on making known what is given, is more than what is actually given! The cheerful giving that St. Paul speaks of today, is certainly not this type of a giving, instead it is the type that was narrated earlier! 

Our doing good, is good! But to be truly Christian, the doing has to be of a specific nature! It cannot be just a philanthropic, that good of the other or just the common good. All these are good, but there has to be another value added to these... the value added good deed!

The true value of whatever we do depends more on why we do than on what we do. What we do will vary according to our ability and the context provided possibilities. But the why will never change whether what I do increases or reduces. What I would wish to reap I will reap; if it is popularity or publicity that I wish, exactly that I will reap! If it is true satisfaction and divine interior joy that I wish, precisely that the Almighty will grant! These are truly the Value added deeds!

God: a poor businessman!

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

June 15, 2021: 2 Corinthians 8: 1-9; Matthew 5:43-48 

Among us friends we have a good laugh whenever we think of an elderly religious (of happy memory), who was put incharge of the farm in one of our religious communities. Every year at the annual audit he was used to repeating a remark, in his own inimitable modulation: "what put I get, what I get I put...no profit, no loss, no problem". 

If we look at the love that God had lavished upon humanity, he would not have certainly got back even a tiny fraction of what he has put in! 

Incarnation is just one of the many mighty investments that God had made on our behalf (cf. 2 Cor 8:9)... but consider the dividends! God seems to be such a bad business person and the strangest part of it is, Jesus invites us to follow God's logic! Knowingly to invest in a losing business, who ever will oblige today?

You are almost certain what you give will not come back to you... still you are called to give! You know by forgiving a person that person is not going to in anyway become better or convert for good, still you are called to forgive! You know the one in need right in front of you, has been someone who has done so much damage to you in the past, still you are called to reach out with compassion and do the needful. What kind of a logic is this? Will anyone rational really accept this kind of a reasoning? 

If you do not accept this logic, you risk not being part of the band of Christ. This lifestyle may look illogical, but nothing else is fitting enough for being truly God's children. Let's love without counting the cost; Our Master, is undoubtedly a poor businessman!

Be compassionate - right here and right now!

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

June 14, 2021: 2 Corinthians 6: 1-10; Matthew 5: 38-42

The best is the enemy of the good, is a statement attributed to Don Bosco, they say in the context of doing good to the other. Even the better, sometimes is a formidable enemy. What do we mean by that? We mean, thinking of better options and the best prospects, we can easily miss out on the opportunity and the possibility of the good that we can do at a given time. Is this not a common experience?

At times I have caught myself lamenting the times and the conditions instead of doing whatever little I could to express my true compassion. If only I were someone else or if only I were somewhere else or if only I had such and such a possibility... these are the yearning for the better that neglects the good that is already available.

The Gospel today invites us to go out of our way to express our compassion to the other. The first reading emphatically  adds: now is the time and now is the hour for it, just go ahead do whatever good you can! We may not be able to give or do great things for those whom we come across in dire need, but we can always be compassionate, caring and respectful towards them, wherever we are! Does that need a special condition or time?

Hence what we do and how we do, do matter a lot - but how much love we put into these, matter much more! And that is where compassion comes into play. When we are compassionate we are godly! However righteous we could be, if we are not compassionate, we are nowhere close to being godly! Let us strive to be compassionate - right here and right now!

THE WAY OF FAITH

Surrrender, Transcendence and Awe

June 13, 2021: 11th Sunday in Ordinary time

Ezekiel 17: 22-24; 2 Corinthians 5: 6-10; Mark 4: 26-34

The parable in the Gospel today is a fascinating one, specially taking into consideration the tall unrealistic claims of certain sections of humanity, who forget their limitation and vulnerability in their times of upward mobility. Life is filled with ups and downs, twists and turns, and curves and bends, that we are at times at a total loss as to how one can understand and approach issues in life. In spite of this there is no end to the haughtiness of human kind, especially on the part of certain sections of humanity which thinks, imagines and acts as if every thing is in their perfect control. Unfortunately, their attitude, their claims and the decisions that these so-called powerful sections make, affect the entire lots, particularly, the simple and weak, the voiceless and the meek. Human beings would do well to understand that so many elements in their life is actually not in their control and so many other elements that they would like to blame it on something beyond, is actually their making. The Word this Sunday, invites us to understand the right sense of this perspective of life - the human-divine relationship.

Our faith life, specially in days such as these, when we are going through tough times, comes into crisis. There are other days when we may not pay even the least attention to this aspect of our life, because we are flying on the top of the world riding the waves of the good times. The call is simple: to have a clear perspective that would guide our life consistently - whether in happiness or sadness, whether in problems or amidst prospects, whether facing failures or relishing success, we would remain balanced and in equanimity. Is it not the key to understand a truly "spiritual" person in Christ-ian terms. What is this right sense, according to the Word given us today:

1. A Sense of Surrender

First is a sense of Surrender that would remind us always that there is someOne beyond us who not only controls us and moves us around, but loves us and cares for us. At times the difference between an impersonalistic theism and Trinitarian faith is eclipsed and forgotten due to some of our modes of interpretation and approach. We look at God as some kind of force controlling everything and determining things before hand or taking to task those that which upsets God's plan! Instead, God is our loving parent, someOne who is walking beside us, helping us to make sense of our life at every step of it...some of those steps may be difficult, some advantageous, some challenging, some even unbearable...but we are through all these, and God is with us. The first reading reminds us of this sovereignty of God, and our need to understand that this Sovereign God is with us, helping us cope with whatever be the moment in life. It is not always easy to take it that way, but the way of faith helps us - if we develop the sense of surrender and say, Lord, you are the Sovereign, you have your way, and I follow.

2. A Sense of Transcendence

The second is a sense of Transcendence that makes me aware of the fact that I am created by God, called by God and meant for God. I belong to God and I need to have that longing to belong to God totally...it is not merely a grammar of the consecrated way of life...every Christian in fact is called, consecrated and commissioned to belong to God. The second reading from St. Paul may sound like promoting the dichotomy between body and spirit...it is not the point that the Apostle is making. The point is, our life is not merely what we have here. The body, the world, the things, the experiences, the others, the attachments, the pleasures, the likes, the dislikes, the discomforts, the problems, the difficulties, the temptations...all of these are passing. And there is just One who is eternal...and that is God. Our way of faith has to help us realise this fact more and more, it happens gradually. We grow into this sense, the sense of transcendence has to come by, as days and years and experiences go by. The way of faith helps us tell God, Lord, for you and for you alone I long, hide not your face from me and I shall transcend everything.

3. A Sense of Awe

The third sense is that of Awe that makes me remain always in wonder like a child who looks at everything with a freshness, the freshness which is not ignorance but innocence. A sense of awe helps me give God the place that truly belongs to God. God has an indispensable place in this world, in my life and in everything that exists...how prepared am I to give that space. The exaggerated claims of some - that we are in control of everything, that we can predict everything and that we can tackle everything - are being questioned and broken with a lot of experiences these days. Let us not make the mistake of making that an experience to point and finger and cruely make statements against the suffering humanity. What is important is to allow our mind and our spirit to have and to grow in a sense of awe at the presence of God with us, around us and in us. Just like that seed buried, lives on, sprouts and grows into a life form...so does our life too... it is guided by the power of God, the magnificence of God, the loving aura of God. The more we surrender to that sense of awe, we shall become that presence of awe for others, specially those who are struggling to find it for themselves in their life! The way of faith should help us see the presence of God in every thing, and in every moment of life and say, Lord, I see you and I stand in awe of you!

Our way of faith needs to be marked by these remarkable senses - sense of surrender, sense of transcendence and sense of awe. May the Spirit help us in this way of life! 

The Memory of the heart - a Spirituality in itself!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 12, 2021: Celebrating the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Isaiah 61: 1-11; Luke 2: 41-51

To Remember is a Spirituality in itself!

And in the normal parlance, when something has to be learnt to memory, it is termed - learning by heart! An interesting terminology...to remember is to keep something in the heart...not just the mind. The memory of the heart... it is a spirituality in itself, indeed.

Mary's heart is exalted today...
because she remembered...
she kept everything in her HEART...
Abraham, Moses, Prophets...everyone exhorted the people to remember, and presented that as the criterion to be blessed people of God. They themselves remembered, they remembered the good that the Lord had done to them... and God remembered them and blessed them without end!

Just after the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
the Church proposes that we remember the Immaculate Heart of Mary...
because a heart that resembled
the heart of Jesus.

Learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart...
Mary observed that heart from close,
infact she had her part in forming that heart...
and she herself treasured a heart that resembled that meek and humble heart of the Lord!

She kept everything in her heart! To remember the goodness of the Lord, to remember the great things done to us by the Lord, to remember the mighty presence of the Lord ever in my heart - that is the spirituality that Our Blessed Mother teaches me today!

When I remember all the good that the Lord has done to me, the hurdles and heart aches that come to me sometimes will look much smaller. All I need to do, as the responsorial psalm instructs today, is rejoice and exult in the the goodness of the Lord, because... to remember is a Spirituality in itself!

CELEBRATING the Heart of Christian Faith: LOVE

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Hosea 11: 1,3-4,8-9; Ephesians 3: 8-12,14-19; John 19: 31-37

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is the feast of the very heart of Christian faith, that is Love; the feast of Love, the Love that God is. The feast invites us to meditate on the love that God has for each of us, to realise how unworthy we are at the same time as we are gifted and to make a choice to strive to become bearers of the same love to everyone around us. The Word and the feast, offer us a reflection on three important faces of this Sacred heart which inspire and challenge us at the same time!

The Parent-Heart

The Sacred heart comes across to us as a parent heart, the heart of a Father who longs to hold us close, guide us by our hand, lead us on the path of righteousness, as Hosea speaks of. It is presented as the heart of a mother who longs to nuture her child and see the child grow safe and sound right in her arms. It reflects the heart of the creator who made the creature and owns every bit of it and rejoices in its life and well being.

The Parent-heart loves us every moment, however we are and whatever we are upto. As we reflect in the words of Hosea, the Lord draws close to us and longs to draw closer - depends on us to really receive that love and be filled with it. The sad fact is that majority of us reject that love - some knowingly and others unknowingly. The grades of this rejection ranges from an absolute disregard for the love of God which consists of speaking against God and demeaning the image of God, to an insensible choice for ungodly ways of life being taken up by the immediate pleasure and ephemeral excitement. But the Lord never rejects us - as the imagery that Jesus gives us in his famous parable, the Parent-heart awaits with arms wide open for the return of the prodigal children.

The call that we have here is to GRATITUDE... to thank the Love of God, so caring, so warm and so unassuming! To thank the Love of God shared through persons so close and so far - those who are in the family and those who are friends; those who are unknown but still do so much good and those who come by in such miraculous ways to share this love with us! All these are ways in which the Parent-heart reaches out to us and should we not be grateful for it?

The Powerful Heart

The Sacred heart is certainly meek and humble, but definitely not weak nor little! It is the heart that reveals the mightiness of God in its simplicity and humanness. As St. Paul indicates, all sovereignties and powers are subject to it, and they learn from this heart the comprehensive Wisdom of God, a wisdom that is planted in love and built on love - not in haughtiness and cruel arrogance. We do not possess the capacity to grasp the breadth or the length, the height or the depth of this love, a love beyond all our knowledge.

The Powerful heart, is large and powerful, mighty and all-embracing. It is a heart that loves without measure and boundaries, loves all and everyone. It knows every move that we make and every choice that we pick, and even the motives and the intentions, however hidden they might be! How powerful and awesome it is. The awesomeness does not consist merely in knowing everything, but in the fact that despite knowing it continues to love and embrace us, in genuine and sincere care! 

The call that we have here is to AWE at the immensity of this love. At times, it is so unfortunate that persons and groups are prone to presenting God as avenging, retaliating, self-protective, ego-conscious and even arrogant! Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart; come to me and I shall give you rest... this is the type of heart we are reflecting on today: this is the true power to be celebrated, to be awed at.  It is important to unlearn the terror-instilling images of God and learn to stand in awe at the unfathomable love and the incredible mercy that God is. The power of the Sacred heart is its meekness and mercy! Should we not truly recognise and realise with awe the fullness of God that we are surrounded by, in and through this heart?

The Pierced Heart

The Sacred heart is the pierced heart, the heart to which we look up for grace and mercy, for forgiveness and acceptance into the life-giving embrace of God. As the Gospel points to, the Sacred heart is a giving heart, a heart that gave of itself until the last drop of blood and water. The water that flowed washes us and the blood that oozed gives us life - a washing away of the past and a promise towards a future, which is the crux of the hope that Christ our Lord promises us, as children of God. 

The Pierced heart, is broken, torn, hurt, injured, battered...all because of our insensitivities and our narcissistic tendencies. The heart bleeds due to our rejection and refusal to understand the obvious facts. The heart remains hurt by our self-centred choices and egoistic tendencies, considering ourselves the most important in the entire universe, expecting everything and everyone to serve our needs and our pleasures, and never opening our eyes to the needs of the other, even after it is brought to our notice in varieties of ways!

The call that we have here is to develop a DETERMINATION to reach out, to go out of ourselves, to feel for the other, to understand and empathise with the other and never take the other for granted. For God so loved us, that God gave us the Son who would die to save us, to make us children of God. The pierced heart commissions us to flow out, to stop looking at ourselves and our own private lives and needs and to take the love of God to the others, to our brothers and sisters, to our friends and neighbours, to the so-called strangers and every one who stands in any need! It is this determination that will make us and our faith truly Christ-ian. It has to be seen in our choices and priorities, in our decision making and daily lives, in terms of the heart of Christain Faith - love!

The Sacred Heart, which is a Parent-heart, a Powerful heart and the Pierced heart, invites us to celebrate love, in our daily lives, in our personal faith and  Christian community living. Let us realise that today in celebrating the Sacred Heart, we celebrate the heart of Christian faith: Love!

Witness: Deeper, brighter and freer!

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

June 10, 2021: 2 Corinthians 3:15 - 4:1,3-6; Matthew 5: 20-26

'Preach not by words, preach by virtues' - St. Anthony would often say. Just as St. Francis who would repeat, 'preach always, when needed use words'. Witness is the first form of proclamation that the Church recommends to every baptised person. A life of witness, is a life marked by the Spirit of the Lord - this is the crux of the Word today.

We cannot be mere common people, we have to become committed people. We cannot be just any people, we have to be inspiring people. We cannot be just acceptable people, we have to be challenging people. We cannot be satisfied with just a mediocre life of non-disturbance and mind-myself mentality, we have to be people who disturb the world and be the conscience wherever we are.

This means that our life has to be lived in a personal and common space that is much deeper - going to the roots of what rules and regulations mean, not just obeying them for what they are or rejecting them for the sake of it. 

It means that our words and more so our actions, should shine brighter in a world that is filled with so much fear, fear to have personal opinions, fear to have personal choices, fear to live a convinced life, fear to stand up for truth, fear to stand by those who are true.

It means that our mind, heart and our spirit is more free, looking at the right and the good, as something to be lovingly chosen and integrally held on to. Laws, rules and principles would not be then something that bind us or limit us, but would free us more and more, for truth and integrity.

All these are possible only with the Spirit who can deepen our perspective, brighten our convictions and free our spirits! The Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom!

A sure ground to stand on

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

June 9, 2021: 2 Corinthians 3: 4-11; Matthew 5: 17-19

What was celebrated good one day, is not considered good any more another day. What seems true today is soon proved a lie another day. A court finds one gravely guilty, a higher court acquits the same person as totally innocent! What is criticised one day, is identified as a norm another day. We are living in times of change! Can we base our life on facts as flimsy as these?

Even the covenant made with the people of the Old Testament is something that has become outdated with time, claims St. Paul in the first reading! Oh, what an alarming situation it is then! But he himself clarifies, that outdated covenant has been replaced with another covenant, that will never change or never expire - a covenant that is sealed forever by the blood of Christ! And Jesus give us another similar assurance.

Jesus refers to the only sure foundation we have: the foundation of rock, the foundation of the Word and the Holy Will of God. Nothing, not a dot, not a line shall go unfinished says Jesus. A sure foundation, an unfailing ground, a never expiring assurance, that comes in the person of Jesus, who reveals to us the true, One and Only God who is all love and goodness. In following the Lord, the Absolute love, the unconditional Good, we have a surity of peace, joy and love. When we go against what God is and what God expects from us, we have all the miseries we face in these days!

At times people place so much of confidence in persons who are around, that when they feel let down they feel as if the whole earth under their feet is giving way - just think of the famous 'break-ups', 'depressions', and other phenomenon people experience these days. We have nothing to assail us because we have a great wall of defence, a sure foundation in the Lord. 

Let us realise, we are standing on the promises of God, and that is a sure ground to stand on!

Salt, Light and an Yes

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 10th week in Ordinary 

June 8, 2021: 2 Corinthians 1: 18-22; Matthew 5: 13-16

There is a close relationship between being salt, being light and saying an Yes to the Lord! The Word today highlights it for us in a symbolic way.

To say Yes to the Lord means to be like the salt... totally dissolving oneself in the yes that is said, choosing to remain insignificant and hidden but making a difference in the entire reality! The Yes that is said, does not exclude any part of one's life, however insignificant. It is therefore a warning against any compromise... compromises which curiously disturb us in the beginning, but as days go by we get accustomed to it, and it becomes almost 'normal'...the call is to be mindful of one's Yes!

To say Yes to the Lord means to be like the light... remaining wherever one is called to be, and from there to burn bright and spread light, not counting the cost like melting oneself down or burning oneself up for the sake of the Yes that has been given to the Lord. It is about our proactive lifestyle that makes those around us, turn and take a look, stand and wonder, and even dare to come to us and ask us a question like: how are you able to do this! The call is to be enthused by one's Yes!

The first reading today places it plain and clear in front of us and adds that, it is only through the Lord that we are empowered to say an Yes to our call...it is not merely our capacity, our prowess and our goodness! It is Jesus, who was a personification of this Yes in his own life, who affirms us and makes us capable of it. Jesus was never an yes and a no! He was always yes! And that is what he wants us to be - to entrust ourselves totally into the hands of God and be an yes always! 

Responding to that call, requires an enormous faith and relentless hope, filling us with a matchless love for God and God's ways. We will do well to pray for this grace every single day!

Encouragement: A Spirituality of memories and promises!

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

June 7, 2021: 2 Cor 1: 1-7; Mt 5: 1-12

Fear not, Take heart,  Be firm... these are some exhortations that we find in abundance in the Word of God. St. Paul explains to us today, why it is so.

As people of God and in union with God we are constantly encouraged,  that is filled with courage for times that can be trying, filled with an inner peace even in the face of troubles, filled with hope even at the so called times of despair. This is so because of a past that is so filled with care and concern on the part of God and a future that seems so heavenly.

Memories and Promises, play a great part in our faith experience, in our identity as people of God. But there is also a tendency that has to be avoided for a holistic spirituality ...the tendency to a selective memory of negative things and selective amnesia of so many positive experiences; and the tendency to make faith moments a series of foretelling and soothsaying. Instead memories should be of the gracious moments of the past and promises should be a childlike surrender to the will of God. 

The Word today draws on the past and the future to instruct us that a life that is filed with God, the memories of God and the promises of God,  will be a life of Courage and Commitment.

WITH US, IN US & FOR US

Covenantal Presence, Corporal Union and Concrete Commitment

June 6, 2021: The Solemnity of Body and Blood of Christ
Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrew 9: 11-15; Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26

The Feast of Corpus Christi reminds us of a drastic decision that God made in our favour - With Us, In Us and For Us - God loved us, God came amidst us and God came to stay within us! The solemnity that we celebrate today explicates this decision inspiring in us a similar attitude as we live our daily life. 

WITH US: That decision to stay with us is a Covenantal Presence... As St. Paul writes to Timothy, even if we are unfaithful, God is faithful forever. God has made a covenant with us throughout the ages, and finally God had sealed it and convalidated it with the very body and blood of God's Son, and that covenant is, to be with us forever! The Covenantal Presence of God with us is the highest form of security and protection that we can feel. It gives us the sense of sonship and daughterhood. 

The call here is to be WITH OTHERS, specially when someone suffers, struggles, grapples and fights to live meaningfully. In the time of this crisis, with the terrorising Pandemic, how much are we able to assure persons who are affected, that we are with them. With the quarantine and social distancing, are we also emotionally and spiritually isolating and distancing ourselves from the others, specially those who are suffering? 

IN US: The decision to stay with us is a desire for Corporal Union... Our Lord and Saviour becomes one with us, unites in our bodily existence too, enabling us to say, It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. It is a decision to be in us forever. It is a decision to purify us from within us, it is a decision to infuse sanctity within us, it is a decision to make us whole from within. 

The call here is to be IN THE LIVES OF THE OTHERS. Just like the Son of God becomes one with us, we are called to empathise with others with whom we share this common home: the World. It is crucial with whom we side: with those who really need empowerment or with the dominant rows. Aren't we tired to see today those in governance and public administration, thinking predominantly in terms of economy and development, ready to stifle and set aside the poor, the weak and the economically insignificant of the society? It is ready to criticise them...but very important to examine our own inner most logic. 

FOR US: The decision to stay with us is a Concrete Commitment that the Lord takes on our behalf; that we may be saved, sanctified and brought back to God. It is a call that Christ gives us to offer ourselves entirely to God, in every thing we are and everything we do. This is my body; this is my blood which shall be shed for you, says the Lord. It is a concrete commitment the Lord makes to be forever for us. 

And the call is obvious: to GIVE OF OURSELVES FOR THE OTHERS. A truly Christian life is a life that is lived for Others, for it is in living for others that we live for God. The Others here would begin from one's immediate family, the faith community, the universal brothers and sisters, specially those who are weak and oppressed. Giving should remain an extraordinary act of goodness, but our very nature of being Christian. 

The Body and Blood of Christ that we celebrate is a living reminder of the extraordinary love that God has to be WITH us, IN us and FOR us! Let us heed the invitation and become persons with others, in others, for others!

The two copper coins in time of pandemic

WORD 2day: Saturday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 5, 2021: Tobit 12: 1, 5-15, 20; Mark 12: 38-44

Half way through the first reading it should certainly strike us in these times... Tobit was blessed for his exceptional corporal act of mercy - burying the dead! An honourable and a Christian funeral these days cannot be taken for granted. Oh what times we are experiencing!

What is after all burying the dead when seen in relation to the agony and the grief that a family or a loved one goes through in having to see their beloved ones suffer and die. It is neither curing the person and bringing them back to the family, nor bringing them back to life from the dead. Yes, it is not a great remedy to the pierced hearts of people...but it is a minimum solace that is possible within the human capacity...to give a decent, holy and a minimum Christian Farewell to our loved ones.

Just as Mother Teresa said, it is not in how great a thing we do, but in how much love we put in, that our acts become truly blessed. Added to the love that they put in, those persons who involve themselves in giving a human and decent burial to the deceased due to the prevalent pandemic, risk their health, wellbeing and even life, in doing this. So many volunteers who involve in this unseen ministry stand out today in the eyes of God, just as the widow did in the eyes of Jesus.

What we can do to others and the society - a genuine good wish, a sincere good word, a selfless simple smile and whatever material outreach that we can...will be considered much greater than what sometimes even crores or millions that are donated with vested interest. So, let us never refrain from giving the other whatever we can, even if it is just two copper coins, in this time of pandemic. 

Identifying the True Lord

WORD 2day: Friday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 4, 2021: Tobit 11;5-17; Mark 12: 35-37

At times for the fun of it, with a few like-minded friends I do have a good sport reading out the predictions based on zodiac signs - be it on the dailies or on the other social network means. It has happened quite a few times that we are surprised at the pricision that emerges in some of those predictions. There arise sometimes even a kind of temptation to believe, that it may after all be true and that these constellations have a kind of influence on our personality and our eventualities. That said, the real surprise rests on the One who made all these, in such order and precision, making life possible!

True faith in God consists in seeing through all the creaturely order and logical wisdom, and acknowledging the true Lordship - the absolute and sovereign Lord, our God! Tobit sings a hymn of glory and praise to the Lord for the great things that happened in his life, for his son and for his daughter in law, and for the graciousness with which God had dealt with him and his household. 

How we wish to do that in our own lives - we see Tobit so blessed, miracles one after the other and the great assurance of God's presence and grace on his and his entire family. Today with all the troubles and struggles that we are going through, with the situation of COVID and all the repercussions that it has caused - we too wish to receive the graces of miracles, goodness, favours, protection, healing, and serene family moments! But the real faith lies in seeing beyond, and hoping in the Lord; seeing through, and trusting in the Lord.

Jesus challenges us to see beyond the apparent and identify the True Lord, who is in control of everything, That is a gift of faith that the Spirit alone can give us. Let us thirst for that grace all our life - to identify the concrete presence of the Lord with us, around us and in us!

Love - do we understand it at all?!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 3, 2021: Tobit 6:10-11; 7:1, 9-17; 8:4-9a; Mk 12: 28-34

Two unfortunate sharings I heard recently: one about a husband who decided to disown his wife a year after their wedding, because she was diagnosed with a serious illness; the second a religious who said she had not spoken for the past four years with another sister living with her in the same convent. These two and many such experiences raise a fundamental doubt: are we truly Christian? Have we, as we claim in and through baptism, really immersed ourselves into the mystery that God is? God is love and if we are born of God, we should love.

And there arises another perennial problem: what is love? Have we really understood it? How do we understand it? Have we really imbibed the sense that Jesus wants us to perceive, in love?

While the Gospel reiterates this call that each of us has received, in the first reading today we have a typical example in the person of Tobiah. Once he decides that he loves Sarah, nothing deters him from growing in that perfection. He is told how fatal it can be if he loves Sarah, but he does not hesitate. The reason is, he believed that Sarah was brought into his life by God. Just imagine, if only we look at every person in our life - our parents, our brothers and sisters, spouses, neighbours, colleagues and every one with whom we rub shoulders on a daily basis - as someone who has been brought into our lives by God, how blessed our life shall be. 

God entrusts with persons to love, in our daily life. Love is not merely a feeling; it is an act of faith. To look at every person around me and see and believe that God has given me that person, that brother or that sister, to love- that is the secret. That is true Christian love: does the world today, does every Christian today, do I today, really understand it at all?