Comparisons or Compassion?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 24th week in Ordinary time 

September 13, 2022: 1 Corinthians 12: 12-14, 27-31a; Luke 7: 7-11

Each of us is given special gifts from the Holy Spirit, special gifts according to the particular calling that we have. If we become aware of the call that we have received, we would also become aware of the gift that is given to us, to live up to that calling. To be prophets, or to be apostles, or to be teachers, or to be leaders, or to be interpreters... these are all different calls which are lived out by means of various tasks that we are called to carry out. But the fundamental purpose of all these, the call underlying all these calls is just one: to be holy and blameless, before God in love (Eph 1:4). And we are indeed given with all the gifts needed to live that call out in our daily life. 

The Word today, taken together, explains this all important Christian lesson: be compassionate and do not compare! Our call makes us all, children of One God our Father and Mother. The diversity of the call we have recieved does not divide us; it unites us, makes us one people, one people in one Word, one Body of Christ, one heart and one mind in the Lord who has called us. As St. Paul would instruct in the letter to the Romans, to rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15), that is the way we can realise, that we are One People! 

Comparisons lead to jealousy and infights and make us enemies, and we would lose our very identity of being God's people! While compassion makes us one, one in the Lord, one in his love. 

The Communion and the Coming of Jesus!

WORD 2day: Monday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 12, 2022: 1 Corinthians 11: 17-26,33; Luke 7: 1-10

The Word presents to us the two inseparable dimensions of every Eucharistic celebration we undertake.  The coming of Jesus Christ the Word made flesh and the communion in the Body of Christ, the people of God.These are not only two inseparable elements, but essential too. A lack of these is symptomatic of a serious decadence in the true meaning of a Eucharistic moment.

Hence the first real challenge today is to make our Eucharistic Celebrations, truly moments of communion of hearts rather than merely rituals or ceremonies. That challenge requires a bit of homework prior to the celebration itself - the Communion has to be built in the daily life situations and be celebrated at the Eucharist. If it had not been built already, how do we celebrate and what do we celebrate at all?

The second challenge is to recognise the coming of Christ, making the words of the Lord come true. Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a great boon given to our burdensome lives! The Lord is with us and that makes our life extremely beautiful, come what may. 

We may not be worthy but the Lord deigns to visit us. How blessed we are!