BEING SAINTS

Solemnity of All Saints - November 1, 2022

O when the saints,
go marching in,
I want to be in that number! -

... a simple but profound thought in those familiar lines of the song. To be saints: that is God's call to each of us. At times we think, becoming saints is reserved for a select few. May be the long and tedious process of canonisation of a person in the Church, makes us feel that way. But the fact is, each of us, all of us is called to be saints. St. Paul states that in clear and unequivocal terms in his letter to the Ephesians (1:4), Thessalonians (1 thes 4:3), and other places.

The question sometimes is, whether it is, being a saint or becoming a saint! We are created in the image and likeness of God (says Genesis 1:27) and this image and likeness of God is a "given", a nature that we have within us, as a gift. We are reminded of this image and likeness at our baptism. All the we need to do is to remain with that image in our lives. The beautiful symbol used in the rite of baptism, where the priest hands over a white cloth to the child and entrusts the task of bringing it, as it were, unsullied, intact in its purity to the end of days.That, dear friends, is the call - "to be saints"...and not merely to 'become' saints.

The readings today, develop the same thought in three wonderful dimensions:

Being Saints means... being aware of who we are! O Christian, realise your dignity! We are children of God, reminds St. John in his letter, in the second reading. God has chosen us from eternity, before the foundation of the world! This is an initiative from God our Father and Mother, who creates us and wishes that we share in God's love and ever remain in God's image and likeness, as children of the loving God.

Being Saints means... being washed by the blood of the Lamb! The Image of God within us, sometimes is disturbed, smudged, smeared or sullied by the choices we make misusing the human freedom that is granted to us. The evil one will be more than happy when we lose heart at such moments and give up. The Son of God, our Saviour Jesus Christ shed his blood that we may have victory over sin and death. In that blood we are saved, and in that blood we are made clean, each and every time we turn to the Lord in genuine repentance and willingness to regain our original image. Saints are those who have their garments washed in the blood of the Lamb, says the second reading.

Being Saints means... being 'blessed' in the eyes of the Lord! And the only way to be 'blessed', is to live by the promptings of the Spirit who dwells within us. Paying attention to the indwelling Spirit, we will know what it means to be blessed - to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be peace-loving - these are ways of being persons of the spirit. In the ordinariness of our daily life, we have to be persons of the Spirit, looking at the reality different from the way the self seeking world teaches us to.

God's initiative in the call that I have received; Christ's redeeming act of Salvation; the Spirit's indwelling presence that guides me on a daily basis - these are compelling reasons why I need to think seriously about, not merely becoming a saint one day, but being a saint everyday, in my own way!

The Logic of the Reign

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

October 31, 2022: Philippians 2: 1-4; Luke 14: 12-14

There is a principle that I am fond of repeating frequently: what we do is something very important, but it is more important why we do what we do! A person who used to be coming to me for a little spiritual help was once saying, sounding very dejected, "no matter how much efforts I make, such and such a person is not happy, the other one has only criticism...no one is satisfied with me! I know my behaviour is not right; but I am not able to change!" All that I thought of saying was this - "why do you want to change; why do you want to alter your behaviour? To please someone? To receive an affirmation from someone? To impress someone? If it is so, you are bound to fail!" 

Why do you have to please someone, by all means? Much worse it is when you begin to prove yourself right, or good, or meritorious before someone! Do nothing to prove yourself! We have nothing to prove to anyone! Anything we do, without a personal conviction and a purposeful decision, loses its value however well it is done. This is a golden principle to remember, if we wish to remain serene and calm.

Reflected from this point of view, the readings today offer us a clear picture of why we are unhappy at times or why it makes so little sense after having moved a mountain. If our ego, our selfish motivations and our childish calculations dominate, however big an action, it would matter nothing. Instead, even if what I do is something absolutely ordinary, when it is done out of genuine love, selfless concern and mercy, it becomes so remarkable in the eyes of the Lord. 

Jesus makes his point doubtlessly clear today: the logic of the Reign is completely different and it takes a different mindset to understand it. Give, offer generously and wish nothing in return, you will see how blessed you feel!

SALVATION... TODAY, HERE & NOW

Eagerness, Encounter and Enthusiasm

31st Sunday in Ordinary time: October 30, 2022
Wisdom 11:22 - 12:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:11 - 2:2; Luke 19:1-10

Salvation is the theme that dominates the liturgy today. The two special days that we have in the coming week would help us to get into this theme more profoundly. The first day of the month we are about to begin, would remind us of those who shine as stars having reached the due destination; and the second day, those who have completed their earthly lap and are bound towards the eternal abode; both these would make us reflect on our future, as something certain and glorious. And that is salvation. The word salvation, sometimes can be understood in terms of salvaging something that has gone wrong. Though this dimension is definitely present in the Salvation that Jesus wants to offer us, Salvation for a Christian should mean much more, much broader and more holisitic. It is wholeness, fullness, oneness, where nothing is lost, nothing is dissipated, everything is intact, everything is reconciled into One, whole cosmos reconciled in God, in and through one Saviour Jesus Christ. It is not merely an other-worldly phenomenon, but a concrete experience here and now, says the Gospel today through the example of Zacchaeus.

An essential eligibility for this salvation is an Eagerness towards it. This eagerness is present in every person, every being. As St.Paul says in his letter to the Romans, the whole creation longs for it, as in a labour pain (Rom 8:22). It is God's will that nothing should be lost (Jn 6:39), that everything should be reconciled in Him (Col 1:20). The first reading expresses it in simple terms, that the Lord loves all things that exist and wills that they be united in the Lord. This is the oneness that we long for with the eagerness that is exhibited in the whole creation, and we as sons and daughters of God, have this longing much more. This longing is manifested in Zacchaeus in a gradually intensifying degree... first as a mere curiosity to see Jesus, then as an openness to listen to him and then as a longing to have him under his roof! Our eagerness too has to grow in these degrees... from a willingness to know, through an openness to listen to the Lord, to a longing to belong to Him for ever.

Salvation is not only something that happens at the end of time or at the end of my life... but it is the moment of truth that is occasioned every time the Lord encounters me - through daily events, through persons around, through a challenging situation, a needy person or a moment that demands a choice from me. As both the first and the second readings explain, the Lord strives to make the creation worthy of its original nature, the perfection which the Lord willed them. It is in this framework we understand every intervention of God, especially that in Jesus Christ, the Word made human. Once the Lord encounters me, I can never remain the same! That is why we keep dodging and avoiding the gaze of the Lord. But when it does happen, it is a moment of reckoning, the moment of Truth. It was so for Zacchaeus, he was encountered by Jesus at the Sychamore... an encounter that transformed him totally, initiated a salvific process in his life. He listened to Jesus' call, obeyed and came down from the tree, and his life was changed for ever. We are invited to listen to the call of the Saviour, come down from our obstinacy and our life too shall be changed for ever!

Salvation is not an imaginary state of life...it has to be seen in concrete living. It should be seen in our Enthusiasm for life. We see Zacchaeus enthusiastic about his new life...he is ready to return whatever he has unjustly extorted, not just that, but four times! This is what we call enthusiasm. The word enthusiasm, comes from the roots 'en' and 'theos', which combine to mean, 'being filled with God'...being enthusiastic in life means to be filled with God every moment of our life. Salvation has to be evidenced in this enthusiasm to live life to the full... not ever compromising with the unjust state of affairs, not giving into selfish considerations of me and mine, but looking at everything from the perspective of God, from the perspective of wholeness that consists of reconciling everything, the whole creation, in God.

We are people of Salvation; as St. Paul says, "God chose you from the beginning for salvation" (2 Thes 2:13); Let us live our life with a never ending eagerness for this wholeness in God, ever prepared to encounter the Lord and be corrected and made perfect by the Lord. Let our enthusiasm in our daily life proclaim to the world that we are people of salvation. Today, the Lord offers, as he did with Zacchaeus, to be our guest. If we receive the Lord with our whole heart, Today, here, and right now, we shall experience the power of God's Salvation.

Be gone with Christ!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 30th week in Ordinary time

October 29, 2022: Philippians 1:18-26; Luke 14: 1, 7-11

I wish to be gone and to be with Christ, says St. Paul today in the first reading. He is certainly not despising the present world or the present life, but longing for that life in Christ, that union with God, that life in eternity. The psalmist expresses the same in the words - my soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life. 

Jesus goes a step ahead and speaks of living this life, with the sense of eternity. The virtue does not lie only in longing for eternity, but in making that eternity come closer to our lives by the choices we make and the prioroties we take. Jesus' teaching today is one of those means to live with the sense of eternity.

Those who humble themselves will be exalted, and those who exalt themselves will be humbled. Humbling oneself is an experience of valuing eternity; it is to understand how limited and little we are, inspite of the celebrated titles and trophies we attach to ourselves. The more we are able to look at this perspective, the more we grow aware of the presence of the Almighty, the significance of Eternity and the meaning of life from the mind of Christ. 

Being gone with Christ... is that way of life, being taken up with Christ, thinking like Christ, living like Christ, and looking at everything, every person and every event from the perspective of Christ. When we do that, according to the world we would be misfits, strangers, we would be considered "gone"... but for us, we will be in union with Christ, closer to Christ, in the footsteps of Christ; we would be gone with Christ. 

The Family of the Apostles

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

October 28, 2022: Celebrating Apostles Simon and Jude
Ephesians 2:19-22; Luke 6:12-16

You are no longer alien, no longer strangers, you are part of the family that the Apostles belonged to, the family that was initiated as the starting point of the Reign of God. This familiarity is the greatest gift according to Paul, as he insists that we could have been no people, but God made us God's people through Christ. That is what we are, God's people!

Of Simon and Jude whom we celebrate today, Judas Thaddeus, is said to be close to Jesus in his family ties and in his appearance. However, Jesus would not have made a big issue of it - for him those who listen to God's word and put it into practice are more familiar than anyone else! There is a tendency everywhere, when we have the possibility of doing some favour to someone, we have a very narrow way how we pick and choose, as to whom to extend that favour to! May be it is important to evaluate that.

Simon was called the zealot... someone who belonged to the group which believed in getting things right through force and exertion, much more than conviction and coversion. Certainly Jesus would have had a tough time to get him change his mind, but he never gave up! And today we have Simon in the ranks of the Saintly Apostles. A point of evaluation here is to check how readily we give up on persons and judge them out of our minds!

Simon and Jude, as all other apostles, teach us the lesson that Jesus wants us so much to learn: it does not matter which nation, or tribe, or clan or caste I belong to - the only thing that matters is that I belong to God and I form part of the family of God, the family of the Apostles!

Being a Christian: is it simple?

WORD 2day: Thursday, 30th week in Ordinary time

October 27, 2022: Ephesians 6:10-20; Luke 13: 31-35

Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens (Eph 6:12). Yes, our life is a struggle! We know that very well... enough to look around - the wars, the economic crises, the political altercations, the subversive forces, the misleading claims of rights that obscure duties and values, the misplaced priorities that make life so complicated and some times even meaningless!

Yes, we are struggling to live an authentic life. That is why we are the Militant Church... the church that is fighting its way through, towards the eternal life, towards that crown that is promised and prepared for us. The Triumphant Church, who are the saints who have gone before us, is our shining model and an inspiring example... we will soon be celebrating them altogether. However, today let us just heed to the message that the triumphant Church gives us, in the clear tone of the Word today. As we heard from Luke a few days ago (12:4) - Do not fear those who can kill your body, but can do nothing to your soul! And Jesus lives that teaching in the Gospel today: 'Go tell that fox'...referring to Herod...'that I will be here today, tomorrow and the third day!'

Jesus feared no one, because he was certain that God was with him. St. Paul today gives us a whole armour to put on; every kind of protection against every kind of danger. The Lord is our stronghold, the Lord is our refuge; whom should we fear? All that we need to do is stand firm in faith. Let us not deceive ourselves saying, being a Christian today is simple or natural; it is not! Neither shall we lose hope saying, we cannot! 

Jesus teaches us by his example today the technique of a Christian fight: Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong! (1 Cor 16:13)

To be saved... any short cuts?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 30th week in Ordinary time

October 26, 2022: Ephesians 6: 1-9; Luke 13: 22-30

Will only few be saved? Who will be saved and who will not be? Will so and so be saved? These are questions we hear more often than not. Jesus when he was posed with the same question, not even once did he answer these questions direct. He always gave an explanation that made them think more and think of something else! Once he said the parable of the camel and the eye of the needle and another time he explained to them that it is possible with God and impossible with merely human effort, and so on.

However in today's Gospel, he says there are no categories of people who would enter by default, nor are there selected races who would enter with ease the Reign of God! Anyone can enter and in fact, everyone is invited to enter the Reign of God, provided they have the right disposition and the right life style!

St. Paul in the first reading explains what this particular disposition or life style has to be. It is nothing but living our life wherever we are, in a manner that is pleasing to God. It is easy to blame the others or the situation for a life lived below the standard that is expected of us and the Lord today challenges us to 'strive to go through the narrow door'... that is the only door that leads to the Reign! 

In Paul's words, we are called to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:!2); it is not about fretting and fidgeting but about being diligent and dedicated in whatever we are called to be, wherever we are. Striving, living with endurance our day to day life, working hard... these are the terms we hear in the Word today, because there are no shortcuts, to be saved!

Being in Christ is all that matters

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 30th week in Ordinary time

October 25, 2022: Ephesians 5:21-33; Luke 13: 18-21

Once I was addressing a group of young couples regarding the attitudes that they should have towards each other... when some tough statements came around, one of them jokingly remarked. 'these things coming from Paul, it's difficult to accept, given the fact that he was an unmarried man!' And immediately another one added looking straight at me, 'Paul writing it and you quoting it... both are difficult to accept'. There was a big roar of laughter. That aside, there can be heated debates on issues that Paul speaks of today- who has to be subordinate to whom! That need not be our focus! Whether husband or wife, whether leaders or followers, whether I am subordinate or head, I am called to be IN Christ - that's the focus.

Whether I am a subordinate or a head, an apostle or a servant, a renowned person or a so-called nobody... I am called to be in Christ. Being in Christ, even if I am just a mustard seed I can grow into a mighty tree. Being in Christ, even if I am just pinch of yeast I can make a difference for entire dough. Being in Christ, even if I am just a spark of glow, I will light up the world to its extremeties. 

At times it is a hard fact to digest... but it really does not matter what we do, what we gather, what we achieve and what titles we earn... but the whole world is after these, is it not? Even among spouses, there is a conflict as to who commands and who obeys; even within a family there are feuds as to who gains more and who has the benefits; even among so-called friends at times there are misgivings that feed the individual egos. Can I really say a definitive no? 

We will be able to say that no, if only we are convinced that being in Christ is all that matters!

Be compassionate because...

WORD 2day: Monday, 30th week in Ordinary time

October 24, 2022: Ephesians 4: 32- 5: 8; Luke 13: 10-17

'Children of Light', that is how St.Paul addresses us in the first reading today. The reading also paints a clear picture of what it means to be children of Light, or the children of God...it means to be kind, compassionate, forgiving, filled with love... in short, being like God, simply because we are children of God. 

Love and compassion have to be the defining characteristics of our personalities - be it individual personality or a collective identity, as disciples or followers of Christ. Nothing can stop us from being compassionate... no difficulty should hinder us from being compassionate, no rule or regulation, no tradition or custom, no practice or policy can stop us from being compassionate; because it needs to become our very nature,  as children of the Compassionate Father and Mother, God who has loved each of us into existence, who continues to loves us inspite of our unworthiness, and who promises us never to deny us of this love come what may. 

Is our love modelled on this love? Is our mode of life matching this way of being of God? Is our list of criteria and our set of priorities, in keeping with this perspective of life? Are we convinced that we need to be compassionate, because, and simply because, we are the children of that Compassion without limit?

EMPTINESS - WHERE GOD ENCOUNTERS

Lack, Lifestyle and Liminality

30th Sunday in the Ordinary time - October 23, 2022
Ecclesiasticus 35: 12-14,16-19; 2 Timothy 4: 6-8- 16-18; Luke 18: 9-14

You cannot fill a cup that is full ...

God is not partial, God knows no favourites says the first reading but all the while speaking of a God who takes his stand by the poor, the widow and the orphans, the oppressed and the lowly. There is no paradox here, neither is there a partiality. It is natural that water flows where it is low. Isn't it true that we can fill only that which is empty!

Today we are reminded of the Spirituality of Emptiness! Emptiness, is not merely an absence of things. Emptiness is not merely a state of something not being there. If it were so, it is so easy to reach that state - all that you need to do is remove what is there! Instead, emptiness is a positive reality. Emptiness is where God encounters us!

Emptiness can be due to a lack! The first reading speaks to us of the oppressed, the widows and the orphans...persons who lacked, who lacked their rights, who lacked some on to lean on, who lacked people who cared. God encounters us in that state...that is a condition! A condition in which one knows that one lacks, when one knows that he or she is not complete. In our inabilities, in our lacks when we turn to God, and accept God as the one who can fill me... God fills me!

Emptiness can be a lifestyle! One can have, one can possess, but still can decide to live in a state of emptiness, not giving into attachments and bonds that can cripple one's existence. God encounters him or her there, in that emptiness. That is not a condition, but a choice! St. Paul, speaks in the second reading of how he had emptied himself for the sake of the Word, for the sake of the Lord, for the sake of the Lord's people. It is a lifestyle ... a mindset...the mindset of Christ... For he did not consider equality with God as something to be held on to,...but emptied himself (Phil 2: 5-7) - the lifestyle of Christ, the Son of God! Emptying yourself is a choice to allow God to fill you!

Emptiness is liminality! Liminality is a word that is used to mean, 'to stand at the threshold', a state of passage, a state where one is changed from what one was, but has not yet become what one is yet to become! One is not complete yet, but he or she is well on the way to being complete. We can be reminded of the words that St. John writes, 'We are children of God, what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is' (1 Jn 3:2). When we empty ourselves, we are moving towards being complete. When we are too conscious of being so complete and perfect, we actually are closing ourselves in and we become dead. The more we empty ourselves, the more God fills us!

O God, who alone is complete...

behold my emptiness, and make me ever conscious of it,
that I may be filled, filled by you,
to become complete, just as you are...
... so ready to empty myself for the others,
that I may be once again be filled by you, who alone is complete!

Let's grow up, folks!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 22, 2022: Ephesians 4: 7-16; Luke 13: 1-9

The first reading today will lend itself so well for an interdenominational war and a catholics-protestants feud, one blaming and accusing the other of human trickery and deceptive scheming. Let us grow up dear friends! St. Paul challenges us to grow into the full stature of Christ and that is nothing but love. Let us grow in love, love for God, love for each other, a patient acceptance of each other and loving fellowship of brothers and sisters.

How long would we go on calling each other names and breaking the Body of Christ into non negotiable bits and pieces? If we go on like this, Jesus says that twice in the Gospel today: 'you will all perish!' It's high time we realise our call to grow up and bear fruit. 

God has given us enough and more chances. Let us equip ourselves, not with offences and defences, but with arms of love and feet of generosity. Let us prune our ego and till our arid hearts. Let us sow seeds of love and reap the fruit of brotherhood and sisterhood. Love is our identity and nothing else is: by this they will know that you are my disciples, by the love that you have for one another (Jn 13:35). 

There can be no worse scandal than a divided Church and of course, there can be no better proclamation of the Gospel than a loving and united community of faithful, who live together as brothers and sisters, one in the Lord and in the Spirit!

Oneness of Vision - Integrity

WORD 2day: Friday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 21, 2022: Ephesians 4: 1-6; Luke 12: 54-59

A couple had come with a problem to be sorted out between them. Discussing their problem, even after a long while, we could see no way out of the problem no matter how much we tried making sense of what was happening. Finally I had to remind them of the sad fact: 'we can awaken a person who is sleeping, but not the one who pretends to be sleeping!' Is it not true? For most of the problems today, it is not that we do not have a solution, but we do not want to arrive at it.

Jesus gives a piece of his mind to the pharisees and scribes, because he finds in them the hypocrisy of not choosing things that were so obviously towards the right. Its like a group of people, in our own times, in spite of knowing that their leader is at fault, be it in the policies or in the individual decisions made, that affect not only their immediate context but also the world at large, they still hold on to the leader's stand and justify it tooth and nail. 

Simply speaking the problems in the world are due to the lack of oneness of vision that afflicts us... each one with a selfish agenda, or groups with unfounded prejudices, classes with insensitive urge for advancement, persons with inhuman tendencies of manipulation and exploitation... these are persons who could not care less about the golden rule. They have a set of rules for themselves and a completely different one for others. These are people filled with discrepancies and disparities, and will be the least likely to enter the Reign of God. 

Are we in any chance among those in that list? If we do not wish to be, we need to take the personal responsibility of finding all the possibilities and occasions of creating the oneness of vision - that alone will be truly personal and Christian integrity.

Reasons to Be Good

WORD 2day: Thursday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 20, 2022: Ephesians 3: 14-21; Luke 12: 49-53

People are afraid to be good these days! Fear of manipulation, exploitation and of being taken for granted, are so alive and real that persons hesitate to be good and to hold on to what is good. The Word today gives us three reasons why we cannot afford to be afraid of being good:

1. Because we take on our heredity from none less than the Almighty Lord: The Lord is our banner; the Lord is our identity, it is from the Lord we take our name, as a family of God. God is good, and all that time! Goodness is the very nature of God. And how can we be other than good?

2. Because the Love of God is poured into our hearts: A love whose measure, we can never comprehend to the full - the length and breadth and depth and height of it, are so immense that we cannot but be concerned about being worthy of that love; which entails that we grow always to be good in our very being!

3. Because we have a Vocation to be a Community of Counter Culture: Jesus commissions us to be the People of the Reign, which is to be a people of counter culture, proposing a culture that is opposed to the culture of social sin, against the culture of injustice and exploitation, challenging the culture of imbalanced growth and inhuman development, resisting the culture of total human insensitivity. When we intend to be such a community of counter culture, the rest of the world may turn against us. 

Jesus makes it clear today: if you choose me, choose me absolutely... and Be Good come what may!

Recognising the wells of Salvation

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 19, 2022: Ephesians 3: 2-12; Luke 12: 39-48

Jesus continues his instruction on how we need to be prepared for that hour of reckoning at any point of time in our life. In fact, Jesus is ridiculing all the funny discussions and calculations about when that hour will come - some self proclaimed eschatological quacks make much ado of the end and its timings and miss the entire point that Jesus is driving home here. Picking the cue from them, there are those who speak as if they know everything under the sun, or even above it!

Recently, I tumbled upon a video circulated, that of a saffron clad pantomath who shouts at the top of his voice: "they have been claiming for the past 2000 years that Christ will come today and tomorrow, but he has not come! Neither Christ or Mohammad or Jehovah will ever come!" I just had to smile at the simpleton who just did not realise, Christ is here, right here living amidst us and he need not come from elsewhere! 

Christ is a mystery and no one can understand that mystery; one can only experience or live that mystery! So too, one does not look at the Second Coming as a day or as a moment when everything will come to a stand still and there will be an UFO coming down from the sky... just give up on that crap! And thinking of the time and the hour and predicting it with such precisions... let us grow up, please!

No matter when and where, you know what to do and why to do it. Take care how you do it - not seeking human attention but going by merely God's approval. The wells of Salvation are within you! The Lord has placed God's word and God's law within you. You know it when it is right and you see it when it is wrong. You don't need an external apparatus for this recognition. The internal system of convictions and criteria that makes me draw inspiration and direction from within me... doing nothing but good, speaking nothing but good, thinking nothing but good, no matter how unlikely the returns are, or what the consequences would be. 

These are the wells of salvation - we better begin to recognise them within us and live our life in grace!

But for Luke...

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 18, 2022: Remembering the Evangelist St. Luke
2 Timothy 4: 10-17b; Luke 10: 1-9

Today we celebrate St. Luke, an evangelist par excellence who has made an irreplaceable contribution to the Christian Scriptures. If it were not for Luke, we would have no Magnificat -the song of praise sung by our Blessed Mother, no Benedictus -the song of praise by Zecharaiah, no song of Anna, no account of John's birth or no account of the Ascension!

But for St. Luke we would not have met Zachaeus in Jericho, the ten leprosy patients on the way, or the Women disciples who followed Jesus, or the good thief on the Cross or Jesus on the way to Emmaus. But for St. Luke we would have missed the greatest of stories ever told -the Prodigal Son and other inspiring stories of the Good Samaritan, the Rich man and Lazarus and Jesus' walk to Emmaus after resurrection.

There is yet another speciality of Luke, which is his way of making sense of the Reign of God. Though even the other Gospels, be it the synoptics or that of John, they speak of the Reign of God, Luke in his turn speaks of the Reign of God as being amidst us. "Reign of God is amidst you", says Lk 17:21. The same is recorded in Lk 10:9, which we hear today: "the Reign of God has come near to you". This specific message of Luke invites us to recognise in action our call to be agents of the Reign of God. It is a call to live our life as the people of the Reign thus ushering in the Reign of God here on earth and right now amidst us. 

May St. Luke inspire us to get in touch with the Word of God more and more and help us towards making the Reign of God be felt, be present and flourish wherever we are.

Living the tomorrows at the cost of todays

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 17, 2022: Remebering Ignatius of Antioch
Ephesians 2:1-10; Luke 12: 13-21

The message from the Word today follows from that of yesterday. We belong to God, who has made us God's people in spite of our human tendencies and wordly inclinations. We are raised up to the status of sharing the new life that the Risen Lord offers, sheerly because of the boundless mercy of God. The life that we have is a gift, a gratuitous gift that the Lord gives us to live! Yes, life is to be lived, lived to the full knowing well that it has been given free, absolutely free.

The tendency today is to fend so much for the tomorrow that today is totally sacrificed. People are so busy photographing the present moment for memory, that they fail to live the present in its entirety. There is so much of worries about the future that we infact are all the time living our tomorrows at the cost of today. Life is given to us to live, and not to worry. If only we are convinced that we belong to God, our worries about tomorrow will be mellowed down, allowing us to live our present to the full. If today we are called to render an account of our life, would we be able to say we have lived it fully? 

Ignatius of Antioch whom we remember today belongs to the earliest of the Christian communities, right during the Apostolic times. He is said to have been a student of St. John the Apostle. This Bishop of Antioch is a representative icon of the first Christians who were persecuted and killed... people who did not did not look living long and having to fend for their tomorrow! They lived every moment as people of God, and lived it so fully, that they were ready even to give up their life, in order to fill that live with meaning and significance. 

HANDS RAISED

With HANDS RAISED unto the Lord!

October 16, 2022: 29th Sunday in Ordinary time
Exodus 17: 8-13; 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:2; Luke 18: 1-8

Work as if everything depended on you; Pray as if nothing depended on you, goes the popular saying. Today we have a wonderful image placed before us, as we go about our daily life. Moses on the hill overlooking the battle, with hands raised unto the Lord! The Battle belongs to the Lord... all that we need to do is keep still, the Lord will fight for us says the book of Exodus (14:14).

We are called to live our life with our hands raised unto the Lord!

Living with hands raised unto the Lord is a gesture that means to abandon everything into the hands of God. It is a total personal abandonment to the Lord, that the Lord may guide us and that the Lord may fight the battle for us! Many grow weary of struggles and temptations in life... when Moses' hands were raised, Israel won! The book of Proverbs tells us, 'the horse is made ready for the battle; but the victory belongs to the Lord!'(Prov. 21:31). When we learn to abandon ourselves in the hands of God, we will see the wonders that can happen.

Living with hands raised unto the Lord is to reach out to the Lord with all our heart. It is like the antenna that stretches to connect, to receive and to communicate. That is in short, 'prayer' - to connect, to receive and to communicate. Let us pay attention to the term that seems common in today's readings: pray without ceasing tells Jesus presenting to us the image of the widow; proclaim in season and out of season instructs St. Paul; and the first reading presents to us Moses unwilling to grow weary of having his hands raised unto to the Lord. A two fold call here: first, not to grow weary... like the widow to go on in trust, with our hands raised unto the Lord; second, when a brother or sister seems to grow weary, to rush to their side like Aaron and Hur and to be with them and to raise our hands in unison unto the Lord. A praying person builds a praying community of brothers and sisters, genuinely concerned about each other!

Living with the hands raised unto the Lord is to be filled with hope in the Lord. Like it happened to the widow, it may look like you might never get justice. Like it happened to the Israelites, it might look like you are losing the battle. Things may continuously go wrong, people might endlessly misunderstand you, nothing might seem to be going the way you wished it would..."But as for you, continue, in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it"...from Jesus himself who hoped in the One who sent him, from our Blessed mother who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken by the Lord! "Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of our hope" reminds Pope Francis.

Every day of our life, every moment of our day, let us resolve to live with our hands raised unto to the Lord in a holy abandonment, in a loving union and in an unfailing hope... so that when Our Lord and Saviour comes he will still find faith here amidst us!

The Head, the Body and the Uniter

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 15, 2022: Celebrating St. Teresa of Avila

Ephesians 1: 15-23; Luke 12: 8-12

We have a head, none less than the Son of God; We are a body nothing less than the very body of Christ; what a reminder from Paul! Let us not be lost in petty problems and needless anxieties - ofcourse someone will respond saying, 'only when you go through it, you will know which is petty and which is needless'! But in Paul's parlance and in Christ's thinking every problem is petty and every anxiety is needless. Because we have an existence, a body, a being so deeply significant! Teresa of Avila whom we celebrate today, witnesses to an experience as such!

The Head: Let us be worthy of the Head we possess. As the head directs so the body goes, atleast such is the understanding in the mechanical world. But for us as people who have Christ as our head, we have the freedom with which we can decide to act out of our personal choice - let those choices be worthy of our Head.

The Body: Let us be one body in Christ.The Church being a body of Christ is not in the hands of the Head...it is in the way the Church and its every member identify themselves to the One body, instead of claiming differences of origin, status and of everyday operations!

The Uniter: The Head-body rapport is not automatic, it is an act of the Spirit, the Uniter, the one who unites the two! It is the Spirit who relates us to the Lord and it is the Spirit who sustains us in that relationship. 

St. Teresa was someone who felt this Spirit so strong. close and active! We see in her life that she had a relationship with the Lord that was so intimate, meaningful and a matter of day-to-day experience. Her mystical writings came from a source so divine, that they disturbed and they still disturb many, challenge them and invite us to a style of life that is intimately connected to our relationship with the Lord. 

May we be ever open to the Spirit who conjoins us to the Head, that we may feel alive. 

God's mark of ownership: the Spirit

WORD 2day: Friday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 14, 2022: Ephesians 1: 11-14; Luke 12: 1-7

At times it remains a valid question to ask, whether people really wish to be happy or not? A person is one moment happy and the very next moment he or she is down in spirits, with concerns that they alone know. It seems like, people choose to be unhappy and choose to make others unhappy! While there are a thousand reasons to thank God for, we choose those few things that can make us feel miserable. While there are myriads of ways to create joy around us, we choose to make life so despicable for ourselves and all others around! If I need to grow into a real child of God, I need to beware of this tendency within me and of people around me with such a tendency!

A child of God does not allow worries to overpower him or her, a child of God is not anxious, a child of God is fearless. Do not fear, do not be afraid... Jesus repeatedly assures us not to be guided by fear. When we are filled with true convictions and not convenient compromises, when we are taken up with absolute commitment to the life task entrusted to us, we will be truthful to God who has created us, who has chosen us in Christ, and sealed us in the Spirit. That truth will indeed set us free (cf. Jn 8:32), and we shall be fearless.

When we live by truth, we will not fear anyone or anything. Whereas when we have teachings of our own making or forces that operate us from the dark, then we will be struggling and striving to prove ourselves and dominate others: it may look like we possess some extraordinary power and capability, but it is actually slavery that seeks the promotion of the self and not the glory of God!

We can arrive at this clarity and conviction only by the power of the Spirit, the Spirit of Ownership that God has poured into our hearts, that which we need to hold on to as the mark of our belonging to God. I need to desire and wish that God owns me completely, directs me, controls me, uses me and leads me! For that I need to become aware of the Spirit in me, the mark of God's ownership!

Before God and God alone...

WORD 2day: Thursday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 13, 2022: Ephesians 1:1-10; Luke 11:47-54

It is not an impossible task to make people think that I am good, virtuous and honourable. That actually is the predominant concern for many and that has proved the root cause for many wrong decisions made and later regretted. The problem is, it matters not so much to be good and virtuous, as to be seen and ajudged so. We are not called to create images around us and bask in the opinions we construct among others. We are called to be, to be good and to be Godly.

The crux of the problem is that we have the responsibility to account for every special blessing that the Lord has showered on us. It is God who has created us and it is God who has called us, filling us with all that we need to respond to that call. The only person that we need to respond to, give account to, and answer to, is God and God alone. 

As St.Paul points it out today, it is between God and me, and public opinions and image creation will not suffice. "To be holy and blameless before God in love"... that is the task given to us and can there be make-believes when it comes to the fact that God Himself is the judge. We are called to be holy, to be blameless, to be good, to be virtuous, all before God and God alone!

Deep inside of me

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 12, 2022: Galatians 5: 18-25; Luke 11: 42-46

Can one be justified by faith apart from the works of law - this was, is and will ever be a point of contention. In the Old Testament times it was a contention between the 'conservative' and the 'progressive' rabbinic schools; in Jesus' times between him and the Jewish religious heads; in the times of the early Christians it was a contention between those who followed the Pauline theology and those who believed the theology of James; today it continues between the Catholics and the non Catholics!

Needless to say our point of reference is always Jesus. 'Don't put your trust in your capacity to achieve things and to gain control or dominance,' warns Jesus. 'Become like children!' That is primacy of faith! He also declared, 'when you did this to one of these little ones, you did it to me!' That is the necessity of works! Faith without works is fruitless; while works without faith can easily turn into an ego trip.

What Jesus taught against was, empty ritualism, legalistic spirituality and hypocritical religiosity! Unless we are aided by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we would never learn the meaning of what Jesus teaches us today - to have works of faith without ego and to live faith in works without losing the primacy of the relationship with God. These - the works of faith and faith in works - cannot be merely an external act or a mere religious sentiment. They have to be signs, fruits, indications and the fragrance of what is deep inside of me! 

Faith, Love and Christ

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 11, 2022: Celebrating Pope St. John XXIII
Galatians 5: 1-6; Luke 11: 37-41

When the Pharisee invited Jesus to come home, Jesus did not mind at all going over and dining with him. In spite of feeling honoured by his invitation having been accepted, the Pharisee was more worried about Jesus washing or not washing his hands, rituals followed or not, circumcision or no circumcision, laws and fulfillment of laws...Jesus gets upset over it. The happiness of having a guest is lost in the judgements that the host was passing on the guest.

The joy of togetherness is lost in the the insistence of legality. The true sense of love is lost when one picks and chooses whom to show his or her love. Paul redifines faith in Jesus' terms - it is to acknowledge that Christ has set us free! We are not under any yoke anymore. Nothing can bind us except the love of the Father made manifest in the Son and poured into our hearts through the Spirit. Why do we want to give into that yoke again by equating our faith to 'doing' something, 'performing rituals' instead of relating to God with a free heart. That freedom is born only out of love.

Pope St. John XXIII brought this very strongly into the Church. In celebrating him we celebrate a great experience of the Church in the recent times. 

- He was the one who convoked the Vatican Council II to ensure that the Church lives upto what Jesus said: what I want is mercy and not sacrifice. And today we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Commencement of the great Council.

- He was a loving person, known as a loved bishop and a smiling Pope! He was mercy personified and in his personality he upheld faith and love, and thus upheld Christ. And that is what Pope Francis is insisting upon in this era, that the Church should become the mercy incarnate in the world.

- John XXIII was someone who showed in his life what Church is called to do...he stood by the poor, the marginalised and the working class, as a Bishop and later as a Pope and called the Church to go to the periphery and to the margins of the human society.

Pope St. John XXIII has for long been an inspiration to Pope Francis, right from the time he was a seminarian Mario Bergoglio. And ofcourse today we could pray for the present Pope as we thank God for the historical Saint-Pope. 

Freedom is not free!

WORD 2day: Monday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 10, 2022: Galatians 4: 22-24, 26-27, 31 -5:1; Luke 11: 29-32

Freedom, is not an all sweet gift. It was Jean Paul Sartre who made that provocative but profound statement, "we are condemned to be free". Freedom comes with the duty attached. We are free, free to choose and the responsibility of the choice is laid entirely upon us. It would be childish to clamour for freedom but shy away from the responsibility that entails. 

We are free children of God, declares Paul. With that freedom comes the condition that we are to be held responsible for all the choices we make. Let us raise a question to ourselves: who decides whether I should be happy or not? Yes, it is our choice, or rather our choices. We could decide to be happy or not; we could make that choice despite the conditions that surround us, whether favourable or not. 

Secondly, the free choices we make amount to the consequence we face. The Lord grants us the greatest gift of freedom, and leaves us with the responsibility for our choices. That is why, when we choose not to see the presence of God, when we choose not to find the moments of grace, when we choose not to realise the opportunities to do good, when we choose not to identify our brother or sister in the person next to us, we are choosing to rush towards a state that is so sad and so inhuman. 

We are free children of the promise (cf. Gal 4:22-24); yes we are given the great gift of freedom. But Freedom is not free; we have to pay for it with our personal responsibility!

GREAT ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

The touchstone of an authentic spiritual person

28th Sunday in Ordinary time: October 9, 2022
2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

Spiritual life is made of a set of attitudes that make up who we are! The touchstone of an authentically spiritual person lies in the virtue that the Word of God speaks to us of today: the great attitude of Gratitude... gratitude for every goodness that one experiences, gratitude to the Source of all that one has and one is: God! "What do you have that you did not receive?" asks St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:7).

Gratitude is born of a Humble Recognition of God! Namaan was asked to dip in river Jordan and he felt offended because his pride ruled his will. But when he listens to that word from the Man of God, humbling himself for that moment, he recognised the presence of the Mighty God. It is only when I am humble, I recognise God and that recognition of God makes me more humble!

Gratitude is expressed in Grateful Submission to God! An authentic outcome of immense gratitude is total submission to God for the marvels that God has done to us. We see the man in the Gospel, just one out of the ten of them - "he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks" (v.16). What happened to the rest? Either they did not realise they were healed or they did not realise that the healing was a gift! This Samaritan heart realised the gratuitous miracle and recognised the hand of God - and the result was, a grateful submission at the feet of Jesus.

Gratitude leads to a Faithful Perseverance in God's ways! "Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well" (v.19) says Jesus, commissioning him to be an apostle to the World. That is the commission we receive every time we experience the grace of God in our personal lives - to go into the world and share the word of God, 'that the word of God may not be fettered' (cf. 2 Tim 2:9). It is the gratitude for the goodness that we have experienced in the Lord that makes us persevere, amidst all troubles and trials we might face. Our perseverance is not so much because we are faithful to the Lord, as because the Lord is faithful to us, reminds St. Paul in the second reading (2 Tim 2:13).

A grateful heart is a humble heart and a humble person will ever be a faithful person and faithfulness gives one the courage and strength to persevere. Learning to look at our daily life and recognise the miracles that happen in abundance; putting up with daily crosses with the image of the Crucified Saviour in our hearts; placing ourselves each day at the feet of Jesus to be sent into the world as messengers of his loving Word - that is growing into Spiritual Persons. Let us heed the call of the Word today, to increase our sense of gratitude and grow into authentic spiritual persons!

Belonging to Christ

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

October 8, 2022: Galatians 3: 22-29; Luke 11: 27-28

'We are Christians for the past 4 generations'; 'I belong to such and such a Church or denomination'; 'oh! I am a born again' or I am born thrice!!!... nothing of these will make us automatically acceptable or blessed in the eyes of God. Whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free...it does not matter, says St. Paul in the first reading today - neither circumcision nor non-circumcision matters, when it comes to belong to Christ. What matters is, that we clothe ourselves in Christ, that we become one in Christ, that we truly BELONG TO CHRIST (cf. Gal 3:29) in all the sense of that term.

Belonging to Christ would mean 3 things according to the readings today: 

One, having faith in God, inspite of anything that happens or does not happen, like Abraham. It requires patience and endurance, to stay put in the presence of God, with humility and submission.

Second, hearing the Word attentively, like St. Paul. He heard it, he listened to it, he understood it and he converted himself according to what the Word wanted him to do. And precisely because of this fact, he was able to speak with ascendancy to the Jews and the non Jews, to the followers and the apostles.

Thirdly, observing the directions given by the Lord, like our blessed mother. She is blessed not merely because she bore and suckled the Son of God, but because she heard the Word, bore it in her mind and heart and conducted her entire life on the basis of the directions given to her. She was a perfect handmaid of the Word. 

Can I today really claim that I belong to Christ? 

Daily Faithfulness and Constant Commitment

THE WORD AND THE FEAST 

October 7, 2022: Celebrating our Blessed Mother of Holy Rosary
Galatians 3:7-14; Luke 11:15-26

One who is righteous, by faith shall he or she live, says the first reading! Being God's or belonging to God means a life full of daily choices. It is not a change that happens once and remains for ever, but it is a daily faithfulness on our part to remain in the same state of grace. Faith, therefore, is not a set of truths that are proposed or discussed; but it is a personal commitment lived, a relationship that is established, a rapport that is built between me and my God!

Because God loved me so much, Christ stoops down to such an extent to initiate that relationship between me and God... Christ became a curse for my sake, reminds St.Paul. It is not enough that such a relationship is initiated by God, a gratuitous gift given to me. It is essential that I keep that relationship going, on a daily basis, filling my life with God and all that pertains to God. If not, there are myriads of other things that are waiting to take possession of my heart. As St. Peter warns, 'your enemy the devil, is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour' (cf. 1 Pet 5:8). The key is: daily faithfulness and constant commitment. 

The Holy Rosary is a great treasure we have to live this daily faithfulness and constant commitment - for two reasons. First, our Blessed Mother who is the exemplification of faithfulness and commitment. She has lived her call to the full and challenges us to the same commitment and faithfulness. Secondly, the daily devotion of Rosary, in its content and its spirit, reminds us of our call. May this spiritual practice of the devotion to Rosary make us more and more disciples of Christ, the faithful One. 

Supplying the Spirit

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

October 6, 2022: Galatians 3: 1-5; Luke 11: 5-13

One who supplies the Spirit to you: that is an identity that the Word reveals of God, in both the readings today (Gal 3:5; Lk 11:13). 'To supply the Spirit'...what would that mean? It would mean that we are given the assurance of the continued presence of the Lord perennially. 'The Spirit is the mark of God's ownership on us' (cf Eph 1:13), St. Paul would declare elsewhere. It is God's definition of our identity, our call and the meaning of our life. We are called to be sons and daughters of the Spirit and the Spirit does not leave us even a moment. We are accompanied all through.

But when doubts assail us, when we fall into temptations, when we lax into lower standards of human living, give into the vile pressures of the evil one and the vices of the distraught world, we are shunning the Spirit of the Lord. Asking, knocking, seeking are acts of faith, they are not acts of some desperate effort to get something by all means. They are acts of faith by which we live our convictions that, even before asking the Lord knows my needs; to knock is to surrender oneself totally, come what may; and to seek is not a call to seek in vain or in all-emptiness but to seek the person who lives within us, who dwell within us, who makes us the dwelling places of God (cf 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19).Once we possess the Spirit, we would need nothing: Seek ye first the Reign of God, and everything will be given unto you.

To be Reign persons

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

October 5, 2022: Galatians 2: 1-2, 7-14; Luke 11:1-4

We continue to hear from Paul, the beginnings of his ministry in the Church. Both his narration today and the teaching that Jesus offers in the Gospel today, speak to us of a set of qualities that can be called the Reign mentality. 

Let's highlight just three of them:

Personal integrity that gives Paul an extraordinary power when he presents his case to the people or to the other apostles. Unless I am an integral person, I cannot speak of the Reign with authority.

Fearlessness that comes from the absolute dedication that a person has. Nothing matters more than the Reign and hence there is nothing that can stop me from holding on to it, not even a threat to my life.

Forgiving Confrontations which help one to avoid self-righteousness and compromise at the same time. At times our very idea of standing for truth and siding with the right, though an absolute reign-requirement, can drive people far from us. I need mercy not sacrifice, says the Lord.

Our call is not to be just some one in our context, but to be Reign persons, and that is what will make us truly disciples and apostles of Christ. 

Listening; not just hearing!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 4, 2022: Celebrating St Francis 
Galatians 1: 13-24; Luke 10: 38-42

What strikes us in Paul's narration of his Christ experience is his readiness to perceive Christ inspite of his totally opposed prior experience. That was possible because of his capacity to Listen. 

Mary of Bethany was considered wiser than her sister Martha in her choice because she chose to listen to the Lord inspite of all the excitement involved. She preferred to sit there listening to go around minding a hundred tasks.

Listening forms an indelible and fundamental part of a true spiritual existence. Listening is not merely an act, but an attitude; hearing could be an act, but listening in a disposition. It is a way of being, that we manifest from within. We can hear but still not listen - the indication that I have listened to something, not merely heard it, is the change that it would bring about in my concrete life - in thought, word and deed. How prepared are we to listen to the Lord, to the Word from the Lord. 

Today we have another great example of someone who listened, who listened with his entire heart... and transformed his life so radically that he became an inspiration for multitudes to transform themselves. St. Francis of Assisi underwent an experience of Christ that was no less than that which Paul had. Francis opened his ears, his heart and his mind so willingly, readily and sincerely that he became a light burning so bright already in his life time. Today he continues to be a challenge to the consumeristic and materialistic world... standing for a life of love and simplicity.

May St. Francis inspire us to listen with all our heart to the Lord and to each other!