Knowing God is from within...

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 26th week in Ordinary time

September 28, 2021: Zechariah 8: 20-23; Luke 9: 51-56

Though Evangelisation is one great mission that is entrusted to every person who knows God, it is not a means to force anyone to get to know God. One cannot know God by force - neither by brutal force nor other milder moral force! In fact, attempting to make people know God by any force only works against the very objective. 

Knowing God has to happen! It should come from within. The concerned person should feel the presence of God in and through the persons around, the situation around and the experiences that happen. Hence evangelisation essentially, is not making people know God but making people see what I have known about God, how I know God and as what I know God!

It is not forcing someone towards knowing God, but creating a situation, enabling experiences, that would enable people to know God and experience God. The key and the secret here is that my life has to be so encompassed by the presence of  God that those around me find a clue to experiencing God in our day to day normal relationships. It is not to do with some exceptional moments or miraculous happenings but with my daily life, normal choices, habitual words and my spontaneous outlook on life events.

Once I really experience God, know God and fall in love with God, people around me see the experience that makes such a difference for me, and they wish to get to know God from me and begin to love the One whom I love! This is true evangelisation, and that comes from within because, without any doubt, knowing God is from within.

The Lord calls us 'My People'

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

September 27, 2021: Remembering St. Vincent de Paul

Zechariah 8: 1-8; Luke 9: 46-50

The Word time and again reiterates that the Lord shall be our God and we shall be the God's people. To be the Lord's people, we have to make some definitive choices: for an instance, there are two grounds presented in the Word today. 

One, that we behold and recognise the presence of the Lord amidst us! To behold the Lord's presence we should be worthy and prepared. To recognise the presence of the Lord we should be open and eager to experience it. And finally to cherish the presence of the Lord we should be humble and docile, to listen to the challenges posed by that presence, in our daily life. That leads us to the second ground.

The second ground is, to choose to live our life according to the values and criteria that are given by the Lord and worthy of the Lord. As St. Paul would often remind us: not conforming to the standards of the world but being recreated in the image of Christ (cf. Rom 12:2) and putting on Christ (Rom 13:14). Putting on Christ who is the visible image of the invisible God, is to become as merciful as possible, as loving and compassionate as possible, as other-oriented as possible. 

Here the saint we commemorate today, St. Vincent de Paul, stands a great example to us. He was someone who challenged himself and shaped his entire life towards becoming like Christ to the needy, the poor, the suffering, the neglected and the least in the society. That is the absolute criterion of becoming like Christ, that is becoming truly God's people, in imitation of the Son of God!

Yes, the Word and the Saint of today pose this question to us: the Lord calls us "My People"... are we prepared and worthy to call the Lord with courage, "My God"?