Being true prophets

WORD 2day: Monday, 18th week in Ordinary time
August 1, 2022: Jeremiah 28:1-17; Matthew 14: 13-21

The readings today remind us of our call to be a prophet. First of all, we need to ask ourselves, do we really know that each of us baptised in the Spirit is called to be a priest, a prophet and a prince (or princess)! Of course, knowing is one thing, but being convinced of it is totally another thing.

Being a prophet is not speaking things that others would love to hear from us -like the so called fortune tellers and prediction prodigies do to woo more and more customers. Jeremiah warns Hananiah today in the first reading against his false sense of prophecy! And we read the sad end of Hananiah. The Gospel has a symbolic message in the same lines.

Jesus chides his disciples for their lack of faith. It might look a bit too demanding on Jesus' part to expect the disciples to remain unperturbed when they are almost sinking. But the point that the Master makes is that his disciples should be perturbed by nothing, absolutely nothing! 

"Let nothing disturb you", he would say. In today's world so immersed in numerous kinds of concerns, wouldn't it be prophetic to live a life so unperturbed! 

PILGRIMS TO PARADISE

Wisdom, Knowledge and Discernment - a journey kit for the wayfarer

18th Sunday in Ordinary time: July 31, 2022
Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:21-23; Colossians 3:1-5,9-11; Luke 12:13-21

A wise man lived in a tent in the deserts of Arabia. Numerous people went to meet him everyday either for a blessing or a counsel or merely to see the saintly man! Once entered a man who was totally surprised that there was nothing, absolutely nothing inside the tent – not even a stool for a furniture! And he asked the wise man, “Where are your furnitures?” The wise man looked up and instead of answering that question, retorted, “and where are yours?” “But I am only a traveler, a passer-by” protested the visitor. And without losing his calm the wise man quipped, “So am I; a traveler, a passer-by!”

We are all travelers, passers-by, pilgrims towards our heavenly home, pilgrims to paradise! We do not have a permanent home here, we are looking towards it, says the letter to the Hebrews(13:14). When the Word of God repeatedly reminds us that we are merely “strangers and pilgrims” (Heb 11:13; 1 Pet 2:11), it is not a negative outlook on our life here and now, but a lasting perspective to understand it in the right manner! We are not permanent here on earth, however famous or important we are – and that is an obvious truth, so much forgotten or so much neglected by our ambitious world! We are not in an oblivion, as if to say we do not know our origins nor our future! No! The second reading today tells us, “Brothers and sisters, you are risen with Christ” – We are resurrected people, people of the Risen Lord, who awaits us in the heavenly abode, for us to be with him for eternity! We are on a journey, we are on a pilgrimage! And on this pilgrimage we need a travel kit! The Liturgy today reminds us of three essential components that should find their place in that kit – those components are Wisdom, Knowledge and Discernment!

The first of the components is Wisdom – the capacity to know the difference between the vanities and values in life! There are those who run after wealth all their life and finally discover that they have infact lost their whole life for nothing! Attachments, Ego, Vain glory, prestige, power and pleasure can mislead our minds and spoil our spirits, leading to a life so empty and erroneous. Persons entrusted to us by God, Love that brightens every morning and illuminates every night, Relationships that give meaning and make us feel wanted- these can help us live our life for others and ultimately for God, who is the very source of that life and the only One who can throw light on its real meaning! Vanities and Values – both shine but it depends on me to differentiate the real brilliance and the fake lustre.

Knowledge is another necessary element to never lose our way on this journey! Knowledge is not merely a collection of information, it is the capacity to choose between the virtues and vices! St. Paul instructs us through his letter to the Colossians today (3:10) that to put on the new person, is to be renewed in the fullness of knowledge after the image of the One who has created us! God is the fullness of knowledge, that is, the fullness of Virtues who shows us how our lives have to be lived! “To make them know the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vices” was the task given to Don Bosco, the educator of the young, by the Risen Lord and the Blessed Mother. The right knowledge guides us on our path and leads us through right choices.

The third and the most difficult of all is Discernment! To store up right treasure in the right place! The clarity of what is truly the treasure to be sought and the choice of the right place to store them, is the most important truth every religion and faith intends to present. The readings today direct us to this discernment! Living in a world of consumerism and globalization, days of technological advancement and communication revolution, we are today made to think deep with the situations of war, violence, killings, greed, corruption, domination, deception, exploitation and dehumanization all around us. The choice is ours, either to be carried by the current or to swim against the current! If we are carried by the current we are dead and buried in this world of vanity! If we dare to stand against it and swim countercurrent, we are people of the Risen Lord, the followers of the living Lord, real pilgrims to paradise!

The plight of a prophet

WORD 2day: Saturday, 17th week in Ordinary time 

July 30, 2022: Jeremiah 26: 1-11,16 ; Matthew 14: 1-12

Constant threat to life, drastic insecurities of life, total unacceptance from the rest of the so called normal people, pressures of helplessness...these form part of the usual plight of a prophet, not just in the days of Jeremiah and John the Baptist but even today. That explains why real prophets are a rare phenomenon. However, it has often occured to me that, the difference between a true prophet and a self-righteous egoist is very thin and dangerously subtle.

The first element that can demarcate the two is the FOCUS. When Jeremiah spoke to the people and the princes, he never looked for support or people who can come to his defence. His focus was determinantly on what God wanted him to say and nothing else.

The second element is DETACHMENT from the result. Though the message is definitely pointed towards a change, a result, the prophet is not excessively anxious about it. At times a self righteous person can be on a ego trip claiming credits and proving his point. A true prophet desists this tendency naturally.

The third element is absolute FEARLESSNESS. A fearlessness that makes them hard people to handle for the authorities and the hierarchy. But that fearlessness comes from their unwavering trust, confidence and hope in the never failing presence of the Lord!

The plight of the prophet is the plight of every Christian, if he or she lives one's Christian call to the full. Are we prepared really for this plight?

Beware of Selective Hearing Impairment

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

July 29, 2022: Remembering Martha, Maria and Lazarus
Jeremiah 26: 1-9; John 11: 19-27.

The auricular experts explain that there are different kinds of deafness... mild hearing loss, moderate hearing loss, moderately severe hearing loss, severe hearing loss and profound hearing loss! At times spiritually too these hearing impairments can be calculated in a similar fashion, but we need to add one more crucial type of hearing challenge. That is, Selective Hearing Loss - hearing only what I want to hear, or refusing to hear what I do not want to hear merely because it causes me inconvenience. 

When Jeremiah spoke to them about the impeding danger and their need to return to the Lord, the pople deemed him liable to death. The Word of God keeps rushing into our hearts. It would cleanse it, refresh it and fill it with life, if only we allow it to. If we are biased, prejudiced and suspicious, we would break no ground towards perfection. At times with these biases and prejudices, we fall prey to the syndrome of 'hearing merely what we want to hear'!

When Martha told Jesus, "if you were here, my brother would not have died!" Martha's (and Maria's) hope in the Lord was plainly expressed in those words. But the Lord challenges them to journey further in her hope, not to get stuck to cliches, not to remain with mere statements and memorised aphorisms...but to go all the way out in trusting the Lord. It is like what St. Paul says about Abraham (Rom 4:18)... Jesus invites Martha and Mary to hope against hope! 

Martha's confession about Christ has nothing less than the confession of St. Peter! The faith that Martha had in Jesus was so profound that she believed when Jesus was around nothing could go wrong. Jesus acknowledges the trust that Martha had in him, but invites her to go a step ahead and trust that even if things went wrong, she had nothing to fear for the Lord was with her always! Martha, Maria and Lazarus are given to us, in contrast to the people whom Jeremiah encountered, as persons who accepted the challenge from the hands of the Lord... to hear completely, to hear integrally... and to avoid the prevalent malefficence of selective hearing impairment. 

To hear and trust in the Lord, is simple in times that are pleasant. It isn't that very simple to trust in the Lord "always". Even when things go wrong, or especially in such situations, we are called to be calm but vigilant; seeking solutions but not begging remedies. Not looking for any solutions anxiously, but daring to remain patient with the issues of life is a clear sign of total trust in the Lord that the Lord alone is our hope! 

Amidst all our pressing concerns and pressurising opinions of the world, let us beware of selective hearing impairment, and hear, listen and trust in the Lord wholeheartedly. 

The Pot and the Store house

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 28, 2022: Celebrating St. Alphonsa 

Jeremiah 18: 1-6 ; Matthew 13: 47-53

Being a pot in the hands of the potter gives me the hope that I will never go waste. The potter knows me and knows the world that is around. God will make certain that I am relevant and needed in God's own time and design and use me as the store house of God's grace for others! Saints are such instances!

St Alphonsa was merely 36 when she died and half of that short life was spent in sicknesses of varied nature. But the Lord used her powerfully to bring out the best in her in keeping with the purposes the Lord had defined. She was a simple pot, weak and humble but holding the best of gifts as the store house of the grace of God. It is all about our docility to the mighty will of God.

In the parable that Jesus tells us today about the Reign of God, he brings out a fundamental element of either belonging to the Reign or not belonging to it. The angels will separate the good from the bad; the wicked from the righteous; the docile from the obstinate; the obedient from the rebellious; the discerning from the naive. It is said the hymn in heaven is, "I did it God's way"; while in hell it is, "I did it my way." The secret is here: doing it God's way! Living our life in God's way!

A clarity amidst all confusions

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 27, 2022: Jeremiah 15:10, 20-21; Matthew 13: 44-46

The first reading pictures to us Jeremiah as a person totally lost, confused, demoralised a bit and to an extent even at his wit's end. He speaks of how miserable he is and how he is surrounded by the evil doers and god haters. However, amidst all these confusions, there is a constant clarity that is visible: the clarity that God is for him. He was convinced, whoever be against him, God was for him. As St. Paul puts it, "if God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom 8:31). That clarity is the lesson today!

Once again falling back to the first reading we see that, Jeremiah endures all pain and suffering, all persecution and injustice for the sake of the mission entrusted to him, because he was confident that it was God who has entrusted it to him. Like the treasure hidden in the field and that exceptional pearl sighted among the rest, he had the promises of God well fixed in his mind. That was enough a reason for him to risk even his life.

We have had great saints in history who have lived this life of prophecy, who have lived their lives in the midst of utter confusions and endless tribulations. All of them were ready to give up anything in life, or even give up their life, because they had unearthed an unbelievable treasure in the midst of that barren land, because they had sighted the most precious stone in the midst of all the deceiving glitters. If we find the Lord, if we become aware of what the Lord has to offer us, we shall have that enviable clarity amidst confusion; and that alone is enough for a meaningful living.

The Elders, the grains and the darnels

THE WORD AND THE FEAST 

July 26, 2022: Remembering Sts. Joachim and Anne

Jeremiah 14:17-22; Matthew 13:36-43

The discussion is still on about the darnels among the grains in the field. Jesus speaks as a matter of fact and belittles the question who had sown those darnels. It is immaterial, according to him! The fact is that they were there and the grain stalks had grown even amidst those darnels! The merit has to be given to those and Jesus assures that it will be given.

Reflecting on personalities such as Sts. Joachim and Anne who stand as symbols of the elders who have kept the faith, we are challenged to emulate their lives, their commitment and their dedication to the Lord.

We are called to remain faithful inspite of and amidst the faithless crowd that looks at everything in terms of gains and benefits. Even the elders in the families are considered and valued according to their worth in terms of income and expenditure. People have no time for persons in this world, a world that absolutises productivity.

Can we take a moment today and look at our attitude towards elders? Are we grateful or are we calculative? Are we respectul or are we despising them? It is time to be grains among the abounding darnels.

Jesus' School of Servant-Leadership

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 25, 2022: Celebrating St. James, the Apostle.
2 Corinthians 4: 7-15; Matthew 20: 20-28

Feast of any Apostle reminds us of the wonderful words that St. Paul utters today: "we hold this treasure in earthen vessels". Every apostle has his own weakness, nevertheless the gift that they are and that they possess, surpasses everything as God's power and might are revealed in it.

Feast of St. James (with the Gospel that we are given to reflect today) reminds us of this more strongly and adds another specific teaching, a teaching from Jesus' School of Servant- Leadership. In Matthew's and Mark's versions of the Gospel, we find every time that Jesus foretells his passion, he follows it up with the discourse on servant leadership (as we see in Mt 16:24ff; 18:1ff; 20:20ff). James and John, just like the other apostles, took time to realise that the only thing we can inherit from Jesus is his identity as Suffering Servant!

Eventually they wanted to bear the crown that Jesus mentioned and that is what they did. James led the community of Jerusalem... humble and service minded as the Master himself; and his blood shed like the Master's (Acts 12:2). Let us praise the Lord for the apostle St. James and be prepared to witness to the Lord till our last breath!

PRAYER IS RELATIONSHIP

July 24, 2022: 17th Sunday in Ordinary time

Prayer... A Christian Prayer... An authentic Christian Prayer... A Christ-like prayer is fundamentally one's Relationship with God. Out of the numerous attributes to God that were proper to the historical experience of the people of Israel, which was his own experience - Jesus picked that of 'Father'. That was the most scandalous of all, for the Jews. When Jesus called God, Abba, Father (Mk 14:36) as we see in Gospels, he was demonstrating an intimate relationship that existed, not only between him and the One who sent him, but also between everyone who believes in him and God...as John says, to all who believed in him, he gave the right to become the children of God (Jn 1:12). Radically for Jesus, faith was a process of acknowledging a God who reveals Godself as a father, a mother, one who created us, one who cares for us! Consequently, Prayer for him was a relationship that one shares with God; a relationship that is built on a personal sharing - on DIALOGUE.

Prayer is a Dialogue... a dialogue where there is a sharing of minds and oneness of heart. Abraham, today is presented in the reading as dialoguing with God... he does not only speak his mind but listens to God and gets to know God's mind. A beautiful picture of a person in conversation with God - trying to raise his preoccupations, with the limited knowledge that he has, but with the concern he has for the life of the others. And an amazing depiction of God who knows very well that there will not be even 10 righteous people as Abraham claims, but listens patiently to his pleas, allows him to talk and permits him to share his concerns. At times when we begin to furnish a list to God and ask that to be granted on order; or when we make programmes and suggest God to follow; or when we find problems with God's designs and suggest improvements - we need to remind ourselves of this dimension of prayer - prayer as a dialogue! It consists not only in speaking but also in listening, waiting for and accepting God's will. Prayer is a dialogue, a dialogue that is initiated by the overwhelming RECOGNITION OF GOD'S GOODNESS.

The overwhelming recognition of God's goodness and majesty is what initiates the process of dialogue! The Psalm beautifully presents the human heart opening itself up to God, in praise and thanksgiving! A true Christian prayer begins there! St. Paul formulates this so well in his letter instructing, "do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Phil 4:6). When we recognise the loving presence, the helping hand, the protecting wings, the sheltering solace of God on a daily basis, we cannot help singing the praise of God inspite of the endless needs and preoccupations we can possibly have in life! That recognition of God's goodness and majesty and our readiness to acknowledge and submit to it, bestows on us the greatest of all gifts, the TOTAL ACCEPTANCE BY GOD.

Prayer is the relationship that is born out of the realisation that God accepts me totally, unconditionally, inspite of all my iniquities. The second reading today affirms that God has forgiven me, buried all my sins and nailed them to the Cross on which my saviour Jesus died for me! And with the same Jesus, God has raised me to the status of God's child, in my baptism! God loves me so much that God accepts me with all my limitations, with all my childishness, with all my idiosyncrasies. Comparing this relationship to friendship in the parable that Jesus narrates today, he subtly communicates a point that we can be sometimes foolish, simplistic and thoughtless in the things that we ask from God or in the way we ask for them. Still, we need not hesitate, we can go right on and do it, because God accepts us as we are. It is that affirmation that gives us the right to stand in the presence of the Lord and be ourselves, as Abraham dared to be!

Let us treasure this great relationship we have with God, yearn to be in God's presence and live in God's presence as authentically as possible, as innocent and dependent as children, as grateful and obedient as sons and daughters, as rightful and loving as Jesus himself was towards God, whom he revealed to us our Our Father and Mother!

In love with the Lord!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 22, 2022: Remembering St. Mary of Magdala

Micah 7: 14-15, 18-20; John 20: 1-2, 11-18

Mary of Magdala, is one character in the life of Jesus, that many are very curious about. The conspiracy theorists and apocryphal experts find in themselves a great interest to study this person more and more and find details that are there and even those that are not there! However they all begin with one question, which the Gospel today answers.

They ask, why is it that the Lord appeared to her first and not to the apostles? The Gospel answers it so simply: because she was there! As we read in the Gospel today, she was there at the tomb early morning. Then, she ran to the apostles and brought them; the apostles saw, they believe and they left, but she was there, she stayed at the tomb and kept weeping (cf v.11). She was there and she got to see her Master. She was like that widow about whom Jesus spoke of once (Lk 18), persistent and insistent! She wanted by all means to know what happened to her Master! She stayed on because she just could not go! She was so passionately in love with her Master.

The key is here: if we are passionately in love with the Lord, we will see the glory of the Lord right in front of our eyes.

What everyone longs for!!!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 21, 2022 - Jeremiah 2: 1-3, 7-8, 12-13; Matthew 13: 10-17

There is one thing that everyone longs for ultimately in life and beyond... peace and serenity! Every time God calls us to Godself, we are promised comfort, peace, tranquility, peace and well being. These are the lofty gifts that the Lord has in store for us. These we receive not by looking but seeing, not by hearing but listening, not by desiring for riches and luxuries but for the presence of God. When we abandon God, we find ourselves abandoned, not because God has abandoned but because we have abandoned God and moved away from God.

There are subtle ways of abandoning God - hearing but not understanding, looking but not perceiving, seeing but not taking to heart the presence and the majesty of God. We are after "useless idols" as Jeremiah says in the first reading. What everyone longs for, what the whole world is yearning for, is right near us for our taking. But we are too busy making our living, establishing our names and defining our own glories.

All that we need to do is open our eyes and see, open our ears and listen, open our hearts and perceive: we have so easily available what everyone longs for, right at our doorstep - the peace and joy that the Lord alone can give!

The Word that lives

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 16th week in Ordinary time
July 20, 2022: Jeremiah 1: 1-4, 10; Matthew 13: 1-9

"See, I put my word into your mouth and I set you over the nations!" It is the word of the Lord that is put into the mouth of a prophet that makes him or her the light to the nations, a reference point to the people. The Word comes to us daily, the Word lives in us, the Word which was made flesh in the person of Christ, dwells in us as the indwelling Spirit and enlightens every bit of our life. The question is, do we realise it?

If we do realise it, we would be like the good soil that gives a hundred, a sixty and thirty fold. Because we hardly realise it, the Word is pecked away by so many other attentions that we have, or it is scorched by the difficulties we have or choked by numerous other concerns that we have.

The Word alone can show us those tendencies that are to be rooted out and to be torn down, or those that are to be destroyed and be demolished within me. The Word alone will enable me to build and to plant, to grow within me the values of the Reign and thus establish around me the Reign of God.

Want to see signs? Here is a project of life!

WORD 2day: Monday, 16th week in Ordinary time 

July 18, 2022: Micah 6: 1-4, 6-8; Matthew 12: 38-42

"Only to do the right and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God" - Micah presents a project of life in these precise words (Mic 6:8). It is a project that he gives to the people to walk in the Lord's ways and not to weary the Lord with their unfaithfulness and stubbornness. How different are we from the people whom Micah addresses today in the first reading? Aren't we just like the pharisees and the others who were incessantly asking for signs from the Lord?

Crying statues, bleeding icons, moving crosses... aren't they a craze these days! Should they be? Ofcourse, for us miracles are a daily feature, because our God is an awesome God. But looking for some strange phenomenon and glamorous happenings, is not the "Christ"ian outlook of a miracle. For Christ the miracle is in the hope that we can give each other; miracle is in the love that we share for every one around us; miracle is the everyday faith in the Lord and the resultant serenity amidst all the din.

Let's resolve to do the right, love goodness and walk humbly with the Lord and we will see miracles all around us, on a daily basis!

GOD VISITS US

The capacity to receive, listen and to suffer

July 17, 2022: 16th Sunday in Ordinary time

Genesis 18: 1-10; Colossians 1: 24-28; Luke 10: 38-42

Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Rev. 3:20 summarises the liturgy of the Word today! The Lord visits us; everyday, in various ways, in ways ordinary or wondrous, the Lord visits us. What is our response and what should it be - that is the question we are invited to reflect on.

The first reading pictures God visiting Abraham. It is interesting to read the first three verses and a great lesson awaits us there. The first two verses say, that the Lord appeared and Abraham lifted his eyes and saw three men! Not in glorious light or in flaming clouds, but in three simple men, that the Lord visited Abraham. Reading further the second and the third verse together, gives us another detail, Abraham saw three men and he addressed them, "My Lord, do not pass by." Though Abraham saw the men, he was able to behold the presence of the Lord. The Message for today is established right there! 

Our God visits us... on a daily basis.. in one way or the other, in ways ordinary or in ways wondrous, the Lord visits us. Through extraordinary signs of awe-inspiring events or heart-breaking happenings; through a person whom we come across on a dreary daily routine, an extra smile or an overshadowing grief on the person's face; through a habitual joy that brightens the day or a repeated bad news on a newsprint; the Lord visits us! 'I fear the Lord passing by', said St. Augustine, in simple words expressing the grief of not being ready to behold the visit of the Lord, due to the hustle of the day or the ordinariness of the experience.

The Word today points to us the special capacity needed for someone not to allow the Lord to pass by...

The Capacity to Receive: 

Hospitality is not in things; it is a matter of the heart! It is not the fact that some one can afford, that makes him or her hospitable to other. It is the heart, the love that is there in the heart, the warmth that fills that heart, that makes a person go out of one's way to extend hospitality to another person. In the ancient Israel, a stranger to the land was treated as a guest of honour, and a guest became a messenger from God! In the ancient Indian culture too, we have the age old saying, 'Athithi devo bhava' (meaning -the Guest is God) and the great Tamil Classic, Tirukkural dedicates a whole chapter of 10 couplets on Hospitality, that is receiving guests and treating them with love and honour. The Capacity to receive the Lord, is seen in one's capacity to observe everything in life with a sense of gratitude and wonder, one's capacity to encounter a person every time with a new perspective and without judgments and prejudices. It is the capacity to see God in everything that is around and every person who is around. Abraham was able to encounter God in the three men that he saw; St. Paul was able to encounter Jesus in the light that threw him down from the horse and listen to his voice, calling out to him!

The Capacity to Listen: 

Encountering God, is basically listening to God! Every visit brings us a message. Every encounter has something to tell us for our daily life. It is a special gift to listen to the Lord, to discern what God wants of us, to hear the Lord's voice telling us 'do this' or 'be this' or 'become someone' or 'denounce something'. The Lord speaks in every encounter, through every person, through every event... we are expected to act, to respond and carry out the task entrusted to us. But the point of departure is always the feet of the Lord! To sit at the feet of the Master and drink in every bit of wisdom and knowledge, that when it is time for me to go forth, I am prepared to be God's presence to the others, that when they encounter me, they can feel the presence of the Lord!

The Capacity to Suffer: 

Encountering God is a challenge to make a choice, a fundamental choice for the Lord or otherwise! St. Paul made that choice, a 'U' Turn for the Lord - and the ultimate choice is to choose to suffer for the Lord. The Lord prepares us - Abraham was prepared to wait endlessly for the promises to be fulfilled; Martha was prepared to run about doing things for the love she had for Jesus, Mary was prepared to sit at the feet of the Lord mindless of the criticisms hurled at her, and St. Paul was prepared to say, "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake!" When God visits us, it is a dangerous event, a risky experience - because after that nothing can remain what it was before. There will be a drastic change and we have to be prepared for that.

The invitation is clear dear friends... to behold the Lord who visits us, to let the Lord speak to us and be prepared for an encounter with the Lord - on a daily basis. Doing this our daily life will become meaningful, challenging and TRULY CHRISTIAN.

Choice! the choice of God and for God!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 16, 2022: Micah 2: 1-5; Matthew 12: 14-21 

Jesus was living dangerously. But he chose to, for the sake of the Reign of God. He stuck his neck out for the poor, for the oppressed, the marginalised, the ostracised, the exploited, the forgotten in the society. He believed that the Reign of God belonged to them. His life was a hope to the least, the last and the lost. 

In this choice, Jesus was making present the God of the Old Testament who sided the oppressed, who stood by the just in their struggles and who kept watch over the persons who strove to live according to God's will. The first reading points out the choice of God, the choice for the poor and the suffering. This predilection on God's part distinguished Jesus and the choices he made. His choice was, the choice of God. There apparent and real dangers, and Jesus knew it well.

If this is what choice of God is all about... choice for us, for our well being, specially when we do not deserve it even a bit, then how do we respond to it? By making a choice for God, a choice for the Reign. Jesus has left us a hard lesson for usin and through his life.

Nothing could stop him from proclaiming the Reign of God for he knew he had come precisely for that, to establish the Reign of the God of Truth, the God of the suffering, the Lord of the least, the protector of the lost, the hope of the last. Understanding the choice of God, we are impelled to make our choice... our choice for God.

Our identity has to be our Choices, may they be forever in keeping with the choices of God!

Something greater is around!

WORD 2day: Friday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 15, 2022: Isaiah 38: 1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Matthew 12: 1-8

God deigns to do strange things for the love of the one who trusts in God! The first reading is one such episode. There are so many others, like the burning bush (Exo 3), the water from the rock (Exo 17), the sign of the fleece (Judg 6:36ff), and many more. These are merely to show that there is nothing or no one greater than the Lord and anything is possible with God!

When it comes to showing mercy to those who trusted, the Lord is lavish, prodigal and unreasonably generous, because God's love is unconditional and everlasting. That was a difficult message for Jesus to communicate to the law abiding, traditional and painfully legalistic Jews. Even today the Lord tries to impress upon us the same message, the message of how loving the Lord is, how unconditional God's love is and how far from judging the love of God is.

No rule can be too big and no custom too important, than the love that the Lord has for you and me and the longing that Lord has for our total well being. When we feel the tendency to be legalistic, when we find ourselves prone to judge, when tasks at hand draw our utmost attention, let us realise: something greater is around us, something greater envelopes us, something greater sustains us - and it is, God's love, the love which became man and gave his life for our salvation

Come to me all you who are away from me!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 14, 2022: Isaiah 26: 7-9, 12, 16-19; Matthew 11: 28-30

The yearning of a Godless soul, the struggle of a people who have gone far away from God is intensely presented in the first reading today. The world today is treading that path indeed... trying its best to define life sans God; trying to convince everyone around that it is possible to live without having anything to do with anything called god! Worse still, the trend today advocates creating our own gods and creating gods of ourselves! 

We think we have solutions for every problem and even for those that we do not have the solutions, we create shortcuts that can keep the pain and the struggle away for the time being. Hardly do we realise that the problem persists and it keeps brewing under cover, only to explode one day beyond control. And at that point we would find no return!

The Lord invites us today to the true consolation, the real solution, the authentic peace that can give meaning to our daily life and all its strife. He does not promise an absence of yoke, nor does he lure us with a negation of burden...he promises a yoke that fits us perfectly and a burden that proves really bearable: because we live it in the Lord's company. 'Come to me' says the Lord, because all the struggle is since you have moved away from me. 

Come to me and learn of me; come to me and find meaning, come to me and  find peace, consolation and serenity! Come to me all you who are away from me!

All things belong to God...even you and me!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 13, 2022: Isaiah 10: 5-7, 13b-16; Matthew 11: 25-27

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, says Jesus today in the Gospel. It implies first of all that everything belongs to God - every person, every creature, every thing. The whole creation is God's own making. Not merely the creation, even history is made by God. 'God as the author of history', has been a concept so strongly evinced by the narratives of the Old Testament. 

Even the super powers like Assyria and Babylonia were considered to be commissioned by the Lord to make certain twists and turns happen in history. This is the background against which Isaiah chides Assyria saying, they cannot think they are the masters of their own destiny and the authors of their success. They fail to understand that there is someone far beyond and above them, who "sits in the heavens and laughs"(Ps 2:4) at the folly of the proud.

The Lord scatters the proud hearted and raises the lowly (cf Lk 1:51); God reveals things to mere children and sends the haughty empty! All things are God's and from God everything draws its life and its sense. If I approach life with this sense, my worries find a way out, my concerns cringe to my feet and bearing my burdens become a child's play! 

What a saving wisdom it would be to recognise that all things belong to God, yes even you and me, and all that we dream; everything belongs to God, and in God we live, move and have our being!

Right faith and Right living

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 12, 2022: Isaiah 7: 1-9; Matthew 11: 20-24

Unless your faith is firm, you shall not be firm. What is that which differentiates a Christian in this world - it is not the name or the external signs or identities by belonging to a group or the other; instead, it is a matter of faith, an internal disposition towards the Lord who has called and commissioned him or her. 

Right faith has to create right living; right belief and right action are after all essentially dependent on each other in so many of the religious traditions, as we know. The Integrity that Jesus demands of us is basically one of right belief and right living. Sometimes circumstances and situations can force us to take decisions or make choices that are not proper to the life that we have been called to. It is not so strange to commit such a mistake. But it is not only strange, even highly unbecoming of a child of God when he or she has received all possible warnings and all possible signs of God's directions but still makes a choice that is not worthy of a child of God. Worse still, if the person justifies that choice. And worst of all, nothing can help the one who decides to remain with that choice in spite of all this.

Faith which is not translated into right living and a living that is not guided by right faith, are totally alien to a true child of God. Even if the simplest of signs is given, a child of God will acknowledge it, make sense of it, hold on to the light that the Lord provides and and shape his or her life according to God's will. Where do I stand in this regard?

LIVE LIFE CHRIST-LIKE

Listen, look and live

July 10, 2022: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 30: 10-14; Colossians 1: 15-20; Luke 10: 25-37

The statutory call that all of us Christians have is to live our life Christ-like. And that call is repeated today in the Word, with a step by step guide towards making it a reality.

LISTEN TO GOD, to God's life giving Words

Moses invites us to listen to the Word of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, the life-giving principles that the Lord holds out to us. Not that we do not know them, not that they are impossible, not that they are beyond our strength. They are well within our daily decision making; they are totally possible and practically inevitable. If we are serious about living our life Christ-like, we have to begin from there: listening to the Lord, listening to the Word of the Lord. But when we listen to the Lord and the Word of the Lord, many a thing seems so difficult to follow! But we have some one who showed us that they are not impossible: Jesus, the Son of God. The Model here is Jesus; and the message here is, it is not impossible though it is difficult.

LOOK AT GOD made manifest in Jesus our Lord

Jesus' life is one showcase of how the Lord wants us all to live our life. Talking to the young about the Christ-like love that we need to practice, invariably everytime there is an inescapable feeling of helplessness at the end of each session, where the youngsters would look at me and ask: 'is it really possible?' Every time my reaction is the same: Look at that man on the Cross - If it were possible for him, it should be possible for us. Looking at Christ is looking at God! He is the image of the unseen God as St. Paul says. "Consider Jesus," instructs us the letter to the Hebrews(3:1). Looking at Christ is also looking at ourselves! We cannot forget both these dimensions which is presented to us so well merged in the person of Jesus. When we look at Jesus and learn from his life, we are faced with the challenge: to imitate Christ, to live our life Christ-like. 

LIVE GODLY - that is the challenge

Do not be conformed to the standards of the world, but conform yourselves to Christ, to his life so godly! The parable of the Samaritan we meditate on today is a clarion call that tells us, being like Christ, living like Christ is the only way of living our life to the full.

I wish to narrate these two stories that always fill my mind when I think of this call to live like Christ, be like Christ. First, is about this blind girl who was walking out of a crowded railway station with a basket on her head filled with oranges. The train was whistling away alerting all of its imminent departure. There was a man who had to board that train and was running with his eyes fixed only on the train and in his hurry he never realised as he elbowed this girl and ran past her. The basket fell and the oranges ran helter skelter. Blind as she was, she was helplessly sitting and groping for the rolling oranges. Every one was busy with their business and she had hardly any empathisers. Suddenly she felt some one sit beside her and pick up every orange that was scattered and collect them all back into the basket. Once done, he bent down to the girl and whispered, 'take care'. The girl held his hand and with tears trickling down asked him: by the way, are you Jesus Christ?

The second is about this group of people in a tribal village where an evangelist entered. He asked them, do you all know of a man who lived on earth going about doing good, he loved everyone, he cured the blind and gave sight to them, healed the sick and brought the dead back to life and gave his entire life for others? He was meaning Christ all the while but the villagers said, "yes, we know him. A few years ago he passed by our village and stayed with us for a few months." Then the evangelist understood they meant a Christian Doctor who had made a medical tour of those villages. How beautiful that the people saw Jesus in him!

That is what we are called to: to live our life Christ-like. How we wish that the world may see in us the person of Jesus, that we may be truly CHRIST-IANS.

It is the Master who sends!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 9, 2022: Isaiah 6: 1-8; Matthew 10: 24-33

It is the Lord who sends; it is the Master who calls; it is the Teacher who commissions! It is not because I am worthy to be sent, or qualified to be called or skilled to be commissioned... but it is because it is the Lord who calls! As St. Paul says it in such simple terms: "those whom he called, he justified" (cf. Rom 8:29). However unworthy I am, when the Lord has appointed me for a mission, he makes sure that mission goes on through me.

On my part the challenge is to be mindful of the fact that it is the Lord who has sent me and commissioned me and to be convinced that the Lord takes care of everything around me, provided I live my life faithful to the call. A thousand may fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand, but nothing will come near me, for I have made God my refuge, prays the Psalmist (in Ps 91:7). I may not be worthy for the call, but I need to be mindful all the time - be it of the call or of my unworthiness!

It is the Lord who has called me and it is Lord who has commissioned me: I am accountable to the Lord and only to the Lord. In this world and to those around me, I have nothing to prove! So all the craze about success and accomplishment, is a horrendous mistake, is it not? 

All that I need to do, is stand in awe at the majesty of the Lord, believe in the Lord's sovereignty and submit myself in total faith into the hands of God, saying "Here am I Lord, send me!" When the Lord does, we will see the glory of God revealed in marvelous ways! All praise to the Lord and the Lord alone!

God is with us!

WORD 2day: Friday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 8, 2022: Hosea 14: 2-10; Matthew 10: 16-23

"For the ways of the Lord are straight," declares prophet Hosea today(Hos 14:10). Straight, and therefore tough. Straight and therefore no compromises. Straight and therefore no confusions! Everyone knows the ways of the Lord; everyone knows what is acceptable to the Lord and what is not; it is made known by the Lord to every human person in their innermost self. No one can say, at any point of time, 'I did not know this is not acceptable in the eyes of the Lord!' Our heart seems to know it, so innately!

The words of Jesus in the Gospel are quite frightening as we find Jesus trying to warn us, in circumstances that we choose to be good, when we choose the ways of the Lord and choose to be God's disciples or apostles of the Word. Jesus does not promise any prospects, instead persecutions aplenty. He does not announce any offers, instead oppressions. He says it very clearly that we will have to suffer for his sake, for the sake of the Word and for the sake of the Reign of God.

But there is one thing that he assures: the consolation of the Lord, the consoling and affirming presence of the Lord with us. Because what we have chosen is the way of the Lord, we are certain to find the Lord present with us all the way. The way might be filled with pitfalls and climbs, and hurdles, thorns and thistles... but we are sure amidst all these, that the Lord walks with us, speaks on our behalf and acts in and through us. What a mighty consolation we have: God is with us!

God's instruments of Love

WORD 2day: Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 7, 2022: Hosea 11: 1-4, 8,9; Matthew 10: 7-15

The readings today present to us yet another intimate dimension of God's love: the love of a loving parent, the love of a father or that of a mother. The very same compassion that Yahweh had towards the people of Israel, Jesus exhibits towards all. The longing of the Lord to hold us close to Godself, the yearning to be close to God's children and assist them in every bit of their difficulties, the readiness to understand their uneasiness and provide them with solutions of true and eternal joy and give them an experience of wholeness... the heart of God goes out to God's people in compassion and love.

There is an added dimension presented in the Gospel, when Jesus tells his disciples whom he wishes to send among the people ahead of him... to go to heal, to listen to, to empathise with and to be there for the people, specially those who are suffering. Jesus seems to say, God wants to endlessly show God's love to the people and we are the instruments through which God will accomplish that desire! 

It is here that the wonderful prayer of Francis of Assisi becomes so meaningful and precious: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace! To sow love, mercy, forgiveness...that is the mission of a person of God. Let us realise today that we have a specific mission wherever we are: let us not look for love, let us give it; let us not look for understanding, let us live it; let us not look for mercy, let us be merciful. 

Let us be God's instruments of love.

Compromises and Christian Focus

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 6, 2022: Celebrating Maria Goretti
Hosea 10: 1-3,7-8,12; Matthew 10: 1-7

The Word continues from where we left yesterday... the discussion on a commitment devoid of all compromises. There is an added illustration today with Maria Goretti proposed as a model for it. Her's was one life of determined focus on the Lord and the ways of the Lord. There is yet another saint whose shadow passes us by as we discuss this -Dominic Savio whose feast we celebrated precisely two months back - one who decided he would die rather than sin. 

The compromises of Israel were way too high but still the Lord stood by them because the Lord is in no way a person who would compromise. The Lord is the Lord of promises! It is on this faithfulness we are called to build our life. 

Maria Goretti was firm in her focus and today that firmness is dubbed as conservatism or dominant moralism. It is enough to look at the kind of rights that are claimed today and the way that the Church is always looked at as and accused to be an enemy of these so called personal rights!  But are personal rights absolute? Then what happens to the social wellbeing and common good; what happens to the solidarity; what happens to integrity? 

One thing we realise: the world stands in need of liberation, true liberation, a liberation that arises from truth and integrity

Being Compassionate come what may!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 5, 2022: Hosea 8: 4-7, 11-13; Matthew 9: 32-38 

The readings today present to us two contrasting realities: the obstinate sinfulness of the people and the absolute compassion of the Lord. In the first reading, Hosea points out how despicable the people were getting. The dwindling faith, the blatant compromises, deliberate choices for what is ungodly, absolutisation of human autonomy, justification of a lawless economy - these are experiences that the society is grappling with also today!

Is there a way out of these? Surely no, as long as the idolising tendency of the human person does not disappear. Today we make idols out of money, possessions, our own ego, power and position, status and social image. How many values, persons and principles we sacrifice in the bargain! As if that is not enough, the society is ever ready to demonise those who stand for justice and truth, those who speak up for God, those who stand for God's people. The so-called mainstream society ostracises those persons as anti-socials, conservatives and anti-progress individuals.

Jesus presents himself to us as a motivating role model, inspiring us to stand for God and for the values of the Reign, inspite of the world that threatens us. Jesus is absolutely compassionate even when he finds that the people were not ready to understand him totally, some of them infact were calumniating against him. It was so because it was Jesus' passion to make people feel the compassion of God. God has been compassionate with us even when most of the times we were not worthy of it and therefore the question is: can we be still compassionate, though we find those around not really worthy of it!

To be the compassion of God...

WORD 2day: Monday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 4, 2022: Hosea 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22; Matthew 9: 18-26

We begin to hear from Hosea from today... and Hosea brings out an intense dimension of God's love towards us. He offers the analogy of a spousal love to the relationship between God and God's people. A reminder to us, of the how compassionate God is towards God's children.

Jesus brings out the same compassion in his own way, his heart goes out to the woman with the suffering and his tender love reaches out to the girl on the death bed. The readings present to us Jesus, as the compassion of God and in doing so has an underlying commission to us. We are called and challenged to be the compassion of God in our own way, wherever we are and in whatever we do.

In these times when the very meaning and implications of love is misunderstood, misinterpretted or insensitively neglected, when faithfulness and mutual commitment in family living is more and more under crisis, when possessions and positions mean much more than persons... the message is truly challenging - to be the compasion of God to others. 

A prerequisite would be that we first open ourselves to that compassion of God... like that lady who sought to touch at least the elm of the garment of Christ! She knew touching Christ or Christ touching her would change the entire life for her and she believed so firmly in that. The world today needs to have this openness to God, to open ourselves to the touch of God! We too, with all our pious practices and devotions, may forget to really open the core of our hearts to the Lord. If only we allow the Lord to touch us, we shall be transformed into the Lord's compassion for everyone around us.

Today, let us be conscious of every moment when the Lord gives us an opportunity to be God's compassion to others in our own way. Though little deeds, they might go a long way in making the day blessed for us and for the others.

HE CAME... HE DIED!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 3, 2022: Celebrating St. Thomas the Apostle to India

Isaiah 52: 7-10; Ephesians 2: 19-22; John 20: 24-29

The one who said, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (Jn 11:16)...
went all the way in his life for his Saviour...
and upto India, he came, and he died!!!

The Apostles are the foundations of our faith says the reading and the liturgy proclaims the same truth too! Celebrating St. Thomas today, the diverse legends notwithstanding, we thank God for this great Apostle, specially for having brought Christian faith to the South of India. 

"Bringing Faith", "Passing on Faith", "Transmitting or Communicating Faith" - these terms puzzle me. Faith is a gift from God, a grace, an inspired response given by a person to the Self-revealing God! If so, can faith be 'brought', 'passed on' or 'transmitted or communicated'? The question does not in anyway negate the process that is referred to here with gratitude and recognition of history; instead it offers an opportunity to bring forth a nuance that dazzles within it.

Transmitting faith or Communicating faith, means primarily testimony of one's faith, that inspires faith in others! The testimony of one's personal response to God, that inspires the others to respond likewise! The Apostles' way of transmitting faith was that, they responded to the God who revealed God's self and in that response they challenged all who were around to respond to the same Lord!

The story told of St. Thomas and his evangelising activity in the southern part of India, is basically a testimony lived and held out as a challenge. The Challenge is not merely to accept the testimony, but to become a testimony ourselves and continue being the salt and the light of the earth! 

Feast of St. Thomas leaves us with three lessons...

1. We are One Church built on the Apostles.

The feasts of the apostles, any apostle for that matter, is a reminder of the essential unity that has to exist within the Church. As Paul so vehemently opposes (cf. I Cor 1:10-13), right from the earliest times division has always been a dreaded scandal within the Church. In spite of this reality, the divided body of Christ today drains the Church of its witnessing power and evangelical authority. 

2. The Church in India has a special responsibility. 

The Church in India, boasting a direct handing over of faith by an apostle, has a special responsibility towards establishing the Reign of God on earth. It is unfair to claim privileges but refrain from the duties that come with it. Every person who has received the gift of faith in this country of ancient heritage and culture, has to stand firm in witness to the Gospel thus received challenging the society towards a holistic transformation, ushering in the Reign of God here and now. 

3. Doubts don't matter as long as the Lord remains close to us.

Thomas was not only the one who wanted to touch the wounds that nails made and put his hand into the hole on Jesus' side, but he was also the one who said, "let us also go, that we may die with him" (Jn 11:16). His personal attachment to Jesus covered up for his obstinacy not to believe when the rest of the apostles reported Jesus' resurrection. In our lives too, when doubts assail, when clouds gather over our heads and we tend to be overwhelmed by them, the only thing that can sustain us is our personal relationship with Jesus! 

May St. Thomas show us Christians in India, the most fitting way of living out the Gospel in our context, so that we may be ambassadors of the Reign of God, here and now.

The Reign Perspective

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

July 2, 2022: Amos 9: 11-15; Matthew 9: 14-17

The times are dull and dreary, the situation is grim and gloomy, the future seems bleak... this is how the situation was explained by the readings all this week and these are not feelings totally strange to us... with the pandemic still lurking round the corner and the ongoing war situation and all the socio-political turmoil that is created out of nothing! But can we be so negative and hopeless?

Christian hope is that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. The last word is always the Lord's. Amos, who has been pronouncing such vehement warning all this while, comes out with a hopeful projection of the future today. In fact some scholars say, that this part of the text could be actually an interpellation into Amos' text...it does not sound Amos they say!. However, the readings today point to the fact that things can and will change for the better. There will be plenty, there will be justice flowing like river and righteousness like an overflowing stream, in short, there will be the Reign of God established for sure!

But, we should be prepared for it. We should be prepared to have a new mindset, a totally new perspective, an absolutely different value system! Cosmetic changes will not work...patchworks will not be sufficient...little additions here and there, simple deletions at places will not suffice... these adjustments will only make the situation worse, more confused and totally disoriented. What will help is only a radical transformation in Christ. It is what St. Paul would say, 'do not be conformed to this world, instead be transformed in Christ Jesus' (cf.;Rom 12:2); 'those who are in Christ are a new creation' (2 Cor 5:17). 

And for this we have put on the mind of the Christ (cf. Phil 2:5) and that is a radically new mindset, a totally new perspective, an absolutely different value system: namely, the Reign perspective!