Lord, if you wish...

WORD 2day: Friday after Epiphany

January 7, 2022: 1 John 5:5-13; Luke 5: 12-16

Whoever has the Son has life, a life that will never end, a life that will never fail, a life that will be always meaningful and inspiring. To have the Son, would mean to look at the revelation, behold it and experience it in daily life... which would mean being open to the Lord. 

In the Gospel today, we have a man with leprosy, who saw the revelation in Christ, beheld the truth that he was the Son of God and yearned to experience it in his life... and what did he do? He surrendered. 'Lord if you wish'... he said: if the Lord wished, the Lord could offer him that experience! This is surrender.

The Word invites us to understand what it means to accept that Jesus is the Son of God, what it means to accept the Son of God into our lives... it means surrender. It means to accept the Lordship of Christ, the Lordship of the Son, the absolute Mastery of God. It means not in anyway trying to manipulate God or trying to have our way by twisting and twirling things and experiences. Real faith is to accept the Lordship of God and say: Lord, if you wish!

We do have desires and yearnings, and prayer is all about taking these to God and leaving it in the hands of God. It is not about demanding it from God or pestering God like some children do - rolling on the floor crying out to be satisfied. Our maturity in faith consists of our capacity to see the hand of God in everything, to observe the Lordship of God in all circumstances, to see the Revelation that the Son offers us, in understanding God as the Master of all our life, surrendering to the Lord with trust. 

Let us learn to make this our consistent mode of praying: Lord, if you wish! 

The challenge of Revelation!

WORD 2day: Thursday after Epiphany

January 06, 2022: 1 John 4:19 - 5: 4; Luke 4: 14-22

This day is celebrated as Epiphany, the great solemnity of the Revelation of Christ to humanity - but in those places where Epiphany has been celebrated already on Sunday, the Word continues to challenge us, deepening the reflection on the nature of the Revelation of God to humanity!

The whole week that runs from the Epiphany Sunday to the Baptism Sunday, is a series of reflection on the revelation that Jesus Christ brings to humanity about God and the Reign of God. Every day the Gospel presents to us, during this week, a remarkable revelation handed over to us by Christ in his earthly sojourn - think of the calming of the storm, the multiplication of loaves etc... and today a clear and straightforward revelation: the Spirit of the Lord is upon me; and the Reign of God is at hand!

While the Gospel readings progressively present these marvellous deeds of revelation, the first reading from the first letter of St. John presents to us the treatise on true Christian Integral Love - the love of God and love of neighbour which are one and the same! There is a strong message that the Church wishes to present to us in this combination: the revelatory deeds in the Gospel and the treatise on love from St. John... and the message is, Love is the crux of all revelations!

The challenge of Revelation rests in understanding the love of God and deciding to respond to it in all earnestness. But our prejudices, suggestions of the society, the conventions of the culture, and the so-called trends of the times, may prevent us from really beholding the revelation of God, that comes at times in incredibly simple and concrete ways. The challenge is to keep our eyes open and to choose to love each other towards fullness of life for all, which is the Reign of God revealed in Christ.