Drooping hands and weak knees, or faith alive?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 4th week in Ordinary time

February 1, 2023: Hebrews 12:4-7,11-16; Mark 6:1-6

God is all powerful except before our free will... it is not that God is incapable but God has chosen to implant within us, that freedom which is God's own image and likeness. At times we may feel we are afflicted, but we are not without the means to withstand these afflictions. We have within us the necessary strength to stand up to these. At no time are we faced with a trial that is beyond our capacity. That is the promise of the Word: 1 Cor 10:13.

However, there is one thing that can drive us to despair... drooping hands and weak knees. Drooping hands symbolise my lack of faith in the capacity God has placed within me. Weak knees symbolise the lack of dependence on God, the pride that makes me ignore my need for God. When these happen, I find myself helpless, because I do not perceive the Lord, although God is so close to me and so concerned about me - just like those who were not able to see Christ, in Jesus!

It can happen easily to us - that we are guided by the drooping hands and carried by weak knees, that we give up easily and lament readily. We forget the fact that we have had moments of difficulties and have been carried across by the loving presence of God. We are so focused on the problems around us that we fail to see a presence that challenges all those problems! We would refrain from this, if only our faith remains active and alive every moment of our life!

What do I choose, specially in moments of difficulties and trials: drooping hands and weak knees? or a faith alive?

Arise, run and endure!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

January 31, 2023: Celebrating St. John Bosco, the Shepherd of the Young
Hebrews 12: 1-4; Mark 5: 21-43

Arise, run and endure is the call today! Situations of death and darkness, moments of drowning spirit and desperate feelings, struggle between right knowledge and raging temptations... these abound in our daily life. But we are called to Arise from these landslips and Run the race that is alloted to us, with an Endurance that is ready to put up with any difficulty, even upto shedding blood.

The endurance comes from the hope that Our God is an awesome God and can do anything for us. The strength to run the race comes from the faith that the Lord our God is running along and is ever present by our side. The capacity to arise comes from the love that God showers on us, out of which God keeps holding my hand inspite of all situations and keeps whispering into my ears, my son, my daughter, my child, my friend... arise! This is the experience of perpetual rejuvenation that faith offers to those who are in God. 

Don Bosco, was gifted with that perpetual youthfulness! He could arise, run and endure endlessly in life, because he was in God! That total attachment to God and to God's will, made him so youthful that he could identify with the young readily and the young found in him an extraordinary shepherd, a shepherd who knew and had the smell of his sheep. May his intercession help us to experience continuously this rejuvenation from the Lord and may it make us compassionate and empathetic to the youth around us. Let us pray for the grace to ceaselessly arise, run and endure.

Who is your hero?

WORD 2day: Monday, 4th week in Ordinary time

January 30, 2023: Hebrews 11:32-40; Mark 5:1-20

The Letter to the Hebrews lists today a set of heroes, heroes of valour and vigour, heroes in history on whom the people pinned their hopes! But they were all gone in the way of their fathers. Today we too have our own heroes - persons or role models or absolute values or needs or priorities - heroes of various kind. It is important to ask ourselves who is our real hero?

With what Jesus did to the people of Gerasenes, they should have made him their hero. Jesus solved their years of problem in a moment. He just sent the legion of demons away from their living quarters...but did Jesus become their hero? No! They asked Jesus to leave - may be because they felt their loss (that of the swines) was too much! And probably, they had some other considerations for their hero.

The world today has too many things to contend with, when it comes to the Lord being the hero! Even drawing people to God, there are many who propose material well being as a source of attraction. Come to the Lord, you will have all the prosperity you can think of. Come to the Lord and you will have your dreams so miraculously fulfilled. How many times we hear these jargons and can we get sillier than this?

Jesus taught them, that to have him meant losing a lot of other things. It was hard for them. Because the wellbeing that Jesus proposed had a different meaning altogether - it was being free from demonic possessions, slaveries and fears that do not let humans be humans, which prevent persons from living their lives to the full. It is all about what our choice is. The crucial question therefore is: who is my hero?

BEING HIS

Humble, Integral and Simple!

4th Sunday in Ordinary time: January 29, 2023
Zephania 2:3, 3:12-13; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12

Once again we have the beatitudes to reflect upon, a splendid description of a true people of God, the real people of the Reign, people who can belong to God and make present God here and now - in short, HIS people!

Seek the Lord, Seek humility, Seek Integrity... Zephaniah summarises the entire message of today in those words. Being poor in spirit, peace makers, humble of heart, vulnerable in spirit - those are the true characteristics of a person of the Reign... and today we can put them all into one single call - the call to be HIS people... to be HIS means, to be Humble, Integral and Sincere! That is how we become HIS.

Humble: Humility is to attribute praises to God from one's heart! We are today living in a context where people claim to be almost gods, or greater than even God. There are people living with us who are regular visitors to heaven (according to their claim) or even form part of the council of saints there! Funny! This is in contrast to the kind of picture that Jesus paints for persons who are of his kind. Jesus when he lived on earth, though he could have claimed credit for everything he did or said, he declared: 'All that I speak, I do not speak on my own; all that I do, I do not do it all on my own!' That was the Son of God. He attributed everything good to God! He was clear about where his own goodness came from! That is humility - to accept the reality, and to be efficacious instruments of God's powerful presence.

Integral: Integrity is to have no discrepancy whatsoever between one's words and one's life! We see today people who live in total divided selves. They seem to be crying bitterly, but rejoicing in their hearts; they seem to be slogging for the good of others, but actually plotting against everyone to make their own way up; they seem to speak with honey in their lips, but there resides treacherous poison in their hearts; they put up a front of service and generosity, while all that they think of is their own self promotion and self glory! How can we understand this, particularly when it comes from a so-called "Christ-ian"? This lack of integrity will not only question the meaningfulness of one's own faith, but even drive people away from anything that has to do with God or Godliness. 

Sincere: Sincerity is to accept what one is and putting on no appearances! Drawing from integrity, it is to be what one is and manifest just that to everyone around. There are people who live two or three lives simultaneously - one for the larger public, one for the immediate circle of friends, and another for the intimate circle. At times, persons do anything that they can to make people believe their false selves. But let us pose an extremely simple question: what do they gain by it - except that they end up never living their lives, leave alone living it to the full! It is sincerity alone that can help one live one's life - although it may cause a considerable cost!

We are called to be HIS people - people who are Humble, Integral and Sincere; people of the beatitudes, loving and forgiving people of the Reign!

Keep calm! Keep faith!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 28, 2023: Remembering St. Thomas Aquinas

Hebrews 11: 1-2,8-19; Mark 4: 34-41

One of the clearest signs of faith in a person is what we get to hear in the Word today: Keeping calm! It is not keeping calm when everything is going well and everything is under control.  While even that is getting into the list of rarities, the call today is specially and particularly, to keep calm under pressure situations and situations of trouble. That is the true test of faith.

The Saint we celebrate today was a great exponent of Christian faith and a person who loved the Lord and grew in that love without ceasing. St. Thomas Aquinas who was such a great proponent of theological truths, did not consider those truths as great as one simple and absolute truth: that immense love of God. 

Our growth in faith is marked by our unassailable trust in that love of God, and an unhindered growth in our relationship with God. Yes, we are called to grow in our faith, in our way of feeling connected to God, in our consciousness of the presence of God with us.

There are some qualities that can help us keep calm... as indicated in today's readings: I can keep calm, ...
     - if I consider God someone close to me;
     - if I am convinced that everything that is happening in my life is known to God;
     - if it doesn't matter to me what's happening, because I am forever convinced that God is in-charge, God is in control, and that God is in love with me!

Do not draw back

WORD 2day: Friday, 3rd week on Ordinary time

January 27, 2023: Hebrews 10: 32-39; Mark 4: 26-34

In a true struggle, in a sincere rethinking or in a serious growth process there sure is one rule that we need to take to heart: do not draw back. When we engage with a serious and a valid cause, there will certainly be difficulties and discouragements, owing to external factors or internal dispositions.  External factors could be those which lay a block or threaten our progress. Internal factors could be fear of failure or doubts of one's own capabilities. Whatever it may be, the rule for a Reign person is: do not draw back!

Jesus teaches us this hard way in his own life and mission. He was the Son of God... but chose to become a human to show humanity what its real identity and call were! He struggled and battled with his own people, with the rulers and with the powers of the evil world. One thing that was clear in his way of life and spirit of mission. 

Is this not a clear message that Jesus gives: Do not withdraw. Keep fighting even if you think you are buried... you will one day arise to shine!

Coversion: an absolute choice for God

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

January 25, 2023: Conversion - an absolute choice for God

The feast of Conversion of St. Paul invites us to reflect on our conversion. Unfortunately, in today's context, the word 'conversion' has more political connotation than spiritual! In fact today is a beautiful occasion for us to remind ourselves that conversion is not about numbers, nor about increasing the fold.

It is a personal decision to go towards God, an about-turn (as the Greek word 'metanoia' suggests); it is an absolute choice for God! Choice for God... because we begin to see the role that God has played in our life and choose to actively acknowledge it; Absolute... because nothing else matters as much as God and God's will do! 

We are called to conversion... may not be as dramatic as that of St. Paul's, as we read in the first reading today, but more demanding! Yes, we are called to daily conversion. To be aware, each day and each moment, of those things that take us away from our progress towards God. Nothing - no demonic powers, no distracting languages, no cunning serpents, no poisoning lifestyle - should lead us away from God... we are called to make an absolute choice every day, for God and for God's Word. Not merely in words but by my very life, I am obliged to proclaim God's message. "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel," reminds me St.Paul (1 Cor 9:16).

The one absolute: God's Will

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 24, 2023: Remembering St. Francis de Sales
Hebrews 10:1-10; Mark 3: 31-35

It is a familiar theme in Christian parlance to discuss the fact that each of us has a vocation and that he or she is called by name, each one, in a very specific manner. Each of us has a purpose and is called to achieve that purpose without fail, or atleast strive to. But one question always remains and stands out: how will we know what God wants of us?

Truly speaking, can we ever know for sure, what God wants of us? If we can stay tuned to God's voice and God's promptings, we would at any given moment make choices and decisions in keeping with God's will for us then and there. What is needed for this is a disposition that the readings outline today: Behold, I come to do your will. 

It is this readiness to do God's will that makes Mary the first disciple of Christ, more than being merely the biological mother that she actually was to Jesus the Christ! The fundamental disposition is, never to lose sight of that one absolute, in relation to which all our choices and decisions have to be made: God's Will, and a total surrender to it.

Francis de Sales was convinced of it, not only in his life but also in the lives of those whom he directed. In his Treatise on the Love of God, he dedicates two full chapters on finding the will of God for each of us - the crux of it according to him is the love we have for God. We obey God because we love God, he says. "Whoever truly takes pleasure in God desires faithfully to please God and, in order to please God, desires to conform to God." In that process of expressing our love, we become children of God - that is, brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. 

The Promise of the New Covenant

WORD 2day: Monday, 3rd week in Ordinary time

January 23, 2023: Hebrews 9:15, 24-28; Mark 3: 22-30

Jesus' promise of the New Covenant is a promise of eternal salvation. The Word affirms that this salvation is given to all, by that sacrifice once and for all, on Calvary. Every one is promised forgiveness and salvation, but every person has to claim that salvation for oneself. There can be three blocks that would prevent a person from personalising this salvation. 

The first is the social block - that the background and experience handed down through the generations, which does not allow one to experience this salvation. This can be overcome by a new experience that can change the entire life of a person. The person should however be open to that experience. 

The second is the personal block - that the weaknesses within one, the limitations that one personally experiences, keep us away from God. But this can be worked out of, allowing the grace of God to work within oneself. 

The third is a psuedo block - because of which I deliberately keep myself away from God. It is my lack of openness and an unspiritual bias, that takes me far from the promise of the New Covenant. 

Jesus has promised me the New Covenant, but I need to make myself worthy of receiving that covenant and being part of it. Am I worthy of inheriting the promise of the New Covenant?

REIGN - DO IT YOURSELF!

The Problem, the Cause and the Challenge

January 22, 2023: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 8:23 - 9:3; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23

Christians divided among themselves is a terrible scandal to the rest of the world. We are in the midst of the Unity Octave or the Prayer week for Unity among Christians,. These days the Word has been offering us ways in which our daily life and Christian creed come together in making us a new people. It is easier to brush aside the message saying it is impractical, than to take it seriously and examine our situation - personally, and in our immediate context.

The Readings this Sunday has a practical logic that they follow: they present a problem, they indicate the cause and then propose the challenge! The Problem: Darkness, gloom and hatred in the world. Cause: Divisions among persons, for whatever reason it be! Challenge: Repent and Accept the Reign of God. The readings taken together seem to present to us a "do-it-yourself " guidebook towards making the Reign of God present amidst us.

Step 1: Perceive the Problem: the darkness, the gloom and the hatred that surrounds today. Killings, wars, provocative political policies, inhuman oppressive practices, social unrest, economic exploitations, manipulation of the powerless and the suppression of the voiceless - today it looks like the world is a dangerous place to live in and it seems to get worse by the day! Isaiah speaks from such a context in the first reading, as explains Matthew in the Gospel: people who sit in darkness and land overshadowed by death! The world is such, yes; but how is it around you and me! The first step the readings suggest today is to take note of our situation: look around...it could be your family, or your parish, or your locality - identify the darkness, the shadow of death that hovers, anything that does not allow you and those around you to live your life to the full.

Step 2: Identify the Cause: self-centered vision and egocentric outlook on life. Divisions on the basis of various categories - be it economic, social, religious, traditional or whatever - are opposed to the Gospel message. How sad it is to see a Christian community divided on the basis of caste! How painful it is to see a Christian community where there are still people who have absolutely nothing to live on, while there are others who can spend lavishly on unreasonable luxuries! How scandalous to see a Christian community that comes together on the Sunday, celebrates together the sacraments and goes back unaffected by each other! How contradicting to see a Christian family divided within - for the sake of property or money, due to ego clashes or owing to years of hatred! The second reading pleads that we identify the cause of those situations that does not allow us to live our Christian life fully!

Step 3: Accept the Challenge of the Reign: to repent and be the change! We want the world to change, but we are not ready to be the change. We are scared to be taken advantage of, we do not want to take any risks. We preach peace and pray for prosperity in the world, but what do we do for it in practice? Are we ready to forgive without hesitation, love without calculation, help without expectation, contribute without remuneration? Are we ready to just leave everything and follow Christ as the disciples did? Follow Christ, to preach the Reign, by first of all living ourselves as the people of the Reign! If we are ready...then, the people who sit in darkness will see a light; those dwelling in the land overshadowed by death will see a light. Let us repent, be the change, and spread peace, love and life!

The Holy of Holies

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 21, 2023: Celebrating Agnes - a the Spouse of the Lord

Hebrews 9: 2-3,11-14; Mark 3: 20-21

Jesus is compared to the Jewish high priests who are the only ones allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, and that too, only once a year. Jesus has entered and has come from a place holier than the Holy of holies, infact he is the Sanctuary, the Altar, the Sacrifice and the High Priest. There is none who can be paralleled to him.

However, even Jesus himself could not reveal this without struggles - he was mocked at, he was criticised, he was called even a lunatic by his own people. Nothing stopped him, absolutely nothing hinder him in carrying out the mission given to him: to reveal the holiness and love of God. His dedication and consecration to the mission entrusted to him, stands out in every way and all the time.

The same dedication and consecration we see in the young girl whom we celebrate today. St. Agnes, lived not more than 13 years, but she consecrated herself to the Lord and considered her life, her entire self, as totally belonging to the Lord. She stood against anything that could deviate her from the Lord and gave up even her life for the simple but strong belief that "the Lord is my Spouse." An extraordinary faithfulness and consecration to the Lord. 

Struggles, criticism, insults, misunderstandings, persecution, desertion, nothing should move us from belonging to the Lord. If they do, we would lose not merely our opportunity to enter the holy of holies, but the grace of living there forever!

People of the New Covenant

WORD 2day: Friday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 20, 2023: Hebrews 8:6-13; Mark 3: 13-19

New covenant, new people, new faith, new community, new life: for behold I make all things new - this theme dominated the life of the early Christians. And that was what made them so attractive. They were new, fresh and promising for the onlookers. That is why in the Acts we see, that constantòy people were added to their numbers. 

Where did all those newness come from? From that one fundamental experience: their new found relationship with Christ, and their relationship with each other in Christ. They were people of the covenant... the people of the Old Testament. And in Jesus they were transformed into people of the New Covenant... new people of the new covenant. 

The challenge was, how do they express this newness in their day to day life? The disciples and the apostles felt this call - an encouraging call and at the same time a demanding call. It remains so even with us. If a relationship with someone is taken to some newer joyful levels, that joy manifests itself not only in jubilant moments, but all the more in the test of one's life's conditions. If a relationship that is on, finds a rough patch sometime, it is bound to affect a person's entire life - thinking, speaking, acting and every aspect of it.

The question that matters here is: how much do I value that relationship with the Lord who calls me? How do I sense myself as part of new people of the new covenant!

Obedience and Power from above

WORD 2day: Thursday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 19, 2023: Hebrews 7: 25 - 8: 6; Mark 3: 7-12

The letter to the Hebrews gives a distinguished importance to the quality of obedience of Jesus! In fact it speaks of obedience as special ministry of the Son of God. St. Paul's letters too have the same dimension (eg: Phil 2). At times holiness does not consist in doing great things to a great effect, but in simple and humble submission to the Lord.

Hence, Christian obedience is not merely doing something that is commanded, but being conscious of the overwhelming Grace that surrounds us all the time and leads us by hand every moment of our lives. 

It is humble acknowledgement and submission to the Power from above! When we submit ourselves in our entirety, we begin to possess not only the consciousness of this power of God but the very power itself, as true and trusted children of God. Jesus possessed this consciousness of the proximate presence of the power from above and that was sensed by all, specially the evil spirits that he often encountered. It is by this power from above that he became the high priest who can save all of us - the power invested in him by the Father.

Each of us has received our share of this power to grow and nurture ourselves into true people of God. What if we are mindful of this power and start using this power - of course the opposition from the enemy camp will be more, but will we not set up ourselves as great signs of God's presence to this world that needs it so badly? 

Another question that is more crucially relevant is: to what end am I willing to use this power - our own selfish ends or the greater glory of God?

How ready are we to give?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 18, 2023: Hebrews 7: 1-3,15-17; Mark 3: 1-6

The readings today speak of two religious disciplines that mattered much to the Old Testament people of God: the practice of tithing and the observance of the Sabbath. Both of them taken in their legalistic sense, would be practices very simple but of less significance. A tenth of your possession given grudgingly, or as in the example of Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5) trying to make it as affecting as possible, will bear no spiritual fruit. 

Keeping Sabbath as a day of dead and insensitive inactivity instead of holy and active worship to God, will be of no spiritual value. The key to right understanding here is, not giving of what we have, but giving of what we are: a true self giving. Making everything - things, time, oneself - a giving; a giving from the core of our beings. In a world that is torn between compromises and mixed allegiances, the call today shines forth as a splendid beacon, beckoning us towards concrete and daily sanctity.

We are created children of God; we are chosen as people of God; we are sent in the name of the Lord; how ready are we to give of ourselves, fully and whole heartedly? Will our giving anyday equal the boundless love that God has given us, and continues to give us?

Faithfulness versus faithfulness

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 17, 2023: Hebrews 6: 10-20; Mark 2: 23-28

The crux of the the first reading today, or for that matter even of the whole Gospels, is the fact that 'God is faithful forever.' God's faithfulness never ceases and the question is, how and where do we find our faithfulness vis-a-vis the Faithfulness of God!

In demonstration of God's faithfulness, God gives! God gives without count, without any limit, without restraint, without conditions, without anything expected in return. Even in the goodness that God shows there are no conditions attached - as the Gospels say, God shines and showers graces on everyone regardless of whether they are good or bad. When God decided to send God's only Son, God did not adjudicate our worthiness! 

What do we do to demonstrate our faithfulness to God? A weekly appointment and a few fragmented moments every day and some special days' activities? All of them so legalistically followed sometimes with such insensitivity towards expressing our true love and gratitude; sometimes carried out with an external force, or an internal fear, all of these so undeserving and unworthy of the boundless love that God has towards us! 

Today, let's give this dimension a serious thought: God's Faithfulness versus our faithfulness - how much do we strive to measure up to God our loving father and mother. 

New people for new times

WORD 2day: Monday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 16, 2023: Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 2: 18-22

When the Lord announces in the book of revelation, 'Behold I make all things new'...its not merely about some things to be made again or be re-created; it's primarily about a new mentality, a new perspective that God wants to instill and inspire in us. The source and the spring of this new perspective is Christ himself. He is at the same time the high priest and the sacrifice; the prophet and the Lord of the prophets!

In fact with a new way of relating with us, with the unique way of sharing our very nature with us, Christ makes us a new people! And that is what the Lord wants to see in us: our new selves - free from the shackles of the past and the prejudices of the ages - to relate with each other anew and to live each other without any conditions or preconceived notions.

The times are new... everyday the world is changing. There are things good that come our way and there are things that get from good to bad and from bad to worse. There are newer experiences for ourselves and for others around us: are we sensitive to all these and open to the persons around, or are we lost in our own small little world? The homeless migrants, the innocent persecuted, the ordinary exploited, the voiceless tortured... the experience is so painful all around.

Jesus becomes one among us and one like us, ready to make of himself the very offering and the high priest to offer it: it is an invitation to remain sensitive to others, in spite of our own problems. To be compassionate with the suffering, our own troubles notwithstanding. This is what it means to be new people, for the new times! Let our Christian-ness be shown in our compassion and love, not in our pride and arrogance, or in our legalism and ritualism! Let us become new people for the new times!

GET YOUR BASICS RIGHT

Oh Christian!!!

2nd Sunday in Ordinary time - January 15, 2023

Isaiah 49:3,5-6; 1 Corinthians 1: 1-3; John 1: 29-34

We have been busy celebrating feasts one after the other! It's time to return to the Ordinary Sundays and probably, the right beginning is to get our basics right, as sons and daughters of God. Today the readings speak to us about living our Christian life on an everyday basis...in our ordinariness of life! Festive occasions make it easier to feel the joy of the moment; but the demanding call is to live our life on a daily basis, to live it fully, faithfully and meaningfully. 

Jesus is about to begin his public ministry, and like an MC in a performance, John the Baptist announces his entry into the scene! With Jesus' entry and his public life, our life as Christians, our call as sons and daughters of God and our identity as disciples of Christ are clearly defined. And that is what the liturgy today intends to do... to clarify the basics to us, so that we may live our Christian calling everyday of our life. The readings seem to answer the basic Question Words... 

WHO? WHAT? 

The first question is about who we are and what we are? Isaiah gives a direct response to it: We are the light of the nations! We are called, we know that. But, as what? To do the will of God, yes; to be ever at the disposal of the will of God and say, "Here am I Lord, I come to do your will" (Heb 10:7) But doing the Will not merely as sevants but as 'the light of the nations!' We are called not merely as workers but as witnesses. "Called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God" ...that is the answer to the Who and the What, of our Christian life. We are called to live our life as witnesses...witness is our first mode of proclaiming Christ and His gospel.

WHY? WHERE?

Why should we be doing God's will and where are we bound to? In simple terms, what is our goal? What are we called for? The Word of God is vociferous on this point, be it in the Old Testament or in the New Testament: We are called to Holiness... We are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy - says the second reading today. Holiness consists of a clarity of one's own identity as Isaiah, Paul and John the Baptist demonstrate in the readings today: to know who we are and what we are, and thus realising why we are doing all that we do and where we are going towards! If all that we do in our daily life, does not ultimately lead us to sanctification and holiness, we are on a mistaken journey. It might seem colourful at the moment, but will soon end up gloomy and grey. A clairty on the why and the where, will determine our daily choices, will define every aspect of our Christian living - our family life, our career, our spiritual life, our personal life and so on.

WHICH? HOW?

The next question is, which way? and how do we reach that holiness? Christian life cannot be just a me-and-God type of a life. It has to be lived in a Community! From the very beginning, Christ-experience and the message of Christ has been lived and passed on by a community. The readings underline this community aspect with the terms like, light of the 'nations', 'to all those everywhere who call upon the name of the Lord', and 'Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'... We are in the Unity Octave and it reminds us of the fact that Christ cannot be Divided (1 Cor 1:13). Unity and peace that stems from a genuine love, which comes from God - that is the true sign of Christian life.

The only question that is left is, When? But that is established right in the beginning... Now, Today, Here, in the Ordinariness of our daily life... every day of our ordinary life... we are called to live mindful of our identity as children of God, called and sanctified by Christ towards holiness, living to spread God's love to the entire world... as light of the nations, in footsteps of the Lamb of God who calls us as a community of faith and love!

All-knowing and/but Loving Saviour!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 14, 2023: Hebrews 4: 12-16; Mark 2: 13-17 

God is all knowing and we all know it and we know all about it! In spite of knowing all about us, our weaknesses and our faults, our limitations and our failures, God loves us! That is something that we can never understand to the full... God's love is bountiful and God's mercies never cease!

God loves us not because we deserve that love but because we need that love. God's mercy is given us not because we are worthy of it but because it is God's nature to be merciful. The Word is the epitome of God's merciful love, a love without conditions, a love beyond criteria, a love that fills a person and challenges him or her to total conversion!

With absolutely no demands this love leads one to transformation. All that we need to do is dispose ourselves favorably towards this love and surrender ourselves to it. It is like the medical check up that we go to these days, called the Master check-up! You go, and you say nothing: they do the entire analysis, a comprehensive one and let you know, what is alright and what isn't. They give you the possibility of consulting a specialist and even a prescription of medicine - it all depends on you to take it or not!

That is what happens to our Spiritual self too when we dispose ourselves and surrender to the Word - the Word does a quick comprehensive analysis and reveals to us what is good and what is not, prescribing to us the changes we need to make. It is left to us to work on ourselves! The unbelievable fact that underlies all this is the Saviour, the Lord, the High priest whom we have: all knowing, but at the same time ever-loving Saviour

Doing all that we can!

WORD 2day: Friday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 13, 2023: Hebrews 4:1-5,11; Mark 2: 1-12

Doing all that one can is not a strange mindset or life style these days. There are people who do all that they can for a lot of things that they wish to achieve. And there are so many things today for which the people are ready to do all that they can. The Word today invites us too, to do all that we can - but for what and for whom?

Do all you can to reach that place of rest, invites the letter to the Hebrews. And the Gospel presents to us those persons who did all that they can to reach that paralytic man to Jesus, so that Jesus could heal him. Doing all you can... that is the call today! 

As we alrady said, people are ready today to do all that they can for themselves and for their own goals... they manipulate, they compromise, they adjust, they give up, they give in, they cheat, they plot, they even kill in order to achieve their ends - regardless of whether they are religious or irreligious, whether they are lay or consecrated, whether already living a comfortable life or not! This is the sense of 'do-all-you-can' that the world today upholds!

The Word gives us a different picture instead: do all you can to receive the rest that God has prepared for you - that alone is eternal, everything else is passing. The gospel challenges us: do all you can for others, for your neighbours, for those in need and those who are suffering, for those who are miserable and desperate to find the Lord - that is the unfailing way to the peace, that the Word of God indicates to us. Yes, for that eternal rest and for those who are in need around you, do all you can!

Today - that's the key

WORD 2day: Thursday, Week 1 in Ordinary time

January 12, 2023: Hebrew 3: 7-14; Mark 1: 40-45

By the time we end the Liturgy of the Word today, we would have heard the word 'today' atleast 9 times (from the first reading and the psalm)! In fact, that is the key to the message from the Word today. Any good that we wish to do, any change that we would wish to make in our life, any new beginning we would love to make in our ways - the day to do it is, today; and the time to do it is now! 

There is no virtue in glorying in the past that is far gone and no use in waiting for an opportune future! It would either end in ego trips or in idealistic inaction. Instead we are challenged to act now and act today. When that person with leprosy approached Jesus, he cured him then and there! Jesus was not thinking of a justification as from the past experience whether he should do it or not; whether he should seriously consider the situation of so many who were affected in the society at that time and how he would reach out to all of them... those were questions that never mattered to him. What mattered was the person in front of him, who stood in need of a healing touch, a compassionate caress, a loving embrace - and Jesus gave it right then and right there. 

Interestingly Don Bosco would often say, do all the good you can, when you still have the time! If we wish you wish to do something good, let's do it TODAY!

Casting out the demons - within and amidst!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 11, 2023: Hebrews 2: 14-18; Mark 1: 29-39

Casting out demons, has right from the Old Testament times been cited as one of the signs of ushering in the Reign of God, one of the key processes of establishing the Reign. The Gospel tells us too, that Jesus stayed on and cured the people and cast demons away from their midst. 

The primary tool of the devil to control human beings has always been fear! It is through fear that the devil has its way into the minds, hearts and lives of human persons. Fear makes one falter, fear induces needless anxieties, fear takes away the capacity to think and fear makes one slave to the moment! That is when we do something out of fear, it normally goes wrong and later or in the long run, we look back and exclaim, 'how foolish we have been!'

Fear, which is the tool of the devil, cannot be a criterion in faith, that is our relationship with God! The Fear of God that has always been praised as the greatest gift of the Spirit, is not the fear that we speak of here! Fear of God is the due reverence to God and not a fright that compels us to do things or perform duties or obey commands. If I do anything out of fear, it insults a God who is so loving, merciful and concerned about my well being! 

Instead, one of the signs that we can mature in our relationship with God is to cast out our fear, and place all our hope and trust in the goodness of God. Yes, that is our way to the Reign... casting our fears is actually casting out the demons from within us and from amidst us!

Being subject to God

WORD 2day: Tuesday, Week 1 in Ordinary time

January 10, 2023: Hebrew 2: 5-12; Mark 1: 21-28

Everything is subject to God, for God is the creator. From God do everything come to exist and in God do they have their being. God is the centre, the source and animating Spirit of all that lives and exists. When this truth is accepted, every being gets to know that it is forever subject to God! When this state of being subject is acknowledged, appreciated and accepted, everything in life proceeds with ease and peace. Instead, when that subjection is resisted or resented, problems begin. 

This is true not merely about things and the nature! It is about every being created on earth, and very much so for human persons, who are the foremost in resisting it and resenting it. This is natural because we are given some faculties which differentiate us from the other forms of beings, which take us to the level of being considered, "little lower than the angels" as says the Psalmist (8:5). We have been given an added gift of freewill and the capacity to subject ourselves to God, vis-à-vis  the other beings which are naturally subject to the creator. 

This is both a grace and a challenge - naturally a grace that we have to willfully submit ourselves and draw merits and blessing from it; interestingly a challenge, that we are responsible for everything that we bring on ourselves when we choose not to subject ourselves to the all powerful and ever loving God. 

We make a difference when we decide on our own to subject ourselves to God... a difference not only to ourselves, but to our own around us and to the entire humanity and the universe! 

BEHOLD JESUS - THE GREATEST GIFT OF GOD

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord 

January 9, 2023: Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7; Matthew 3: 13-17

Christmas season draws to its close with the Baptism of the Lord, because the manifestation is made as clear as possible at this point when the voice from heaven thunders, "this is my beloved Son!" The moment definitively seals the greatest of the gifts that God has ever given humanity: God's only Son...Jesus the Christ, the Word made flesh! The gift that came down to us on that Christmas night, in the lowliness of the manger, has been gradually unwrapped these days, with manifestations - first to the shepherds, then to the wise men and slowly but strongly to Mary and Joseph, as they beheld that Son of God, in their humble hands.

Today is the culmination of the unwrapping...Jesus the gift of God is unwrapped so magnificently in the Liturgy today. We are called to behold that gift, so that the warning that John gives in his Gospel: he came unto his own and his own did not recognise him, may not happen in our case.

We are called to behold Jesus, the LOVE OF GOD. Jesus is the love of God personified. God's love takes flesh and pitches the tent amidst us... in the person of Jesus! Wherever Jesus went there was healing, life, happiness, forgiveness, in short he was the presence of God, the presence of love, love which lived among people. That is what we are called to perceive, as perceived Peter in the second reading today! To perceive Love living amidst us, manifest today by the very voice of God. Perceiving the presence we are called to transform ourselves into presences of love...for the same voice cries out to us today, in the suffering world, in the marginalised persons and in the exploited brothers and sisters!

We are called to behold Jesus, the COVENANT OF GOD. Isaiah proclaims those beautiful words, : I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations. A covenant is more than a contract; a covenant is more than an agreement. It is something that is etched into the lives of those who are involved. It is taking responsibility for each other, that is why the Church defines marriage as a covenant! Jesus is the sign of the responsibility God took for his children; God did not spare even God's only Son, writes the Apostle. Perceiving Jesus as the covenant of God, we are called to take responsibility for our brothers and sisters, we are called to concern ourselves with the blind and the deaf of our society, the poor and the needy of our locality, the marginalised and the oppressed in our contexts.

We are called to behold Jesus, the BELOVED OF GOD. The voice declares it in all clarity, as wrote Isaiah of old. "This is my beloved, in whom i am well pleased!" In declaring God's love for Jesus, the voice today declares to each of us: you and I... we are the beloved of God...in whom God takes delight! In our Baptism, God made us God's own, and we belong to God and our God takes delight in us (Ps 149:4).

In baptism we are made sons and daughters of God...that is brothers and sisters of Jesus, the greatest gift of God, Jesus the Love of God, the covenant of God and the beloved of God...and in Jesus our brother, we are called to be in our contexts, the presence of the love of God; in Jesus our covenant, we are called to be the signs of the covenant of God with the suffering humanity today; in Jesus the beloved of God, we are called to live our lives, every day and every moment pleasing to the Lord, who longs to declare, regarding each of us, "This is my beloved son, my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased!"

CELEBRATING THE SELF REVEALING GOD

Seek, See & Shine

Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord - January 8, 2023

Isaiah 60: 1-6; Ephesians 3: 2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2: 1-2

The only possibility of knowing about God is through God's own self revelation! God is no simple object to be discovered or invented; God is a person whom we should get to know. Knowing God is possible only through the self revelation of God in history, in the Word, in our day to day experiences and in ways known only to God. Today we celebrate that one event, that one life, that one person - JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, in whom God revealed Godself fully, completely, definitively and super abundantly! The revelation has been going on even before Christ, through prophets and judges (Heb 1:1), through chosen men and women . The revelation goes on even today in our everyday life, through the Word and the traditions, through day to day experiences, through holy men and women who have gone before us and those of our times. These revelations find their fullness in the Paschal Mystery, that is: the birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God.

The feast of epiphany is a celebration and a thanksgiving to the Self revealing God who deigned to reveal Godself in the person of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. This feast of revelation reminds of three realities of our faith:

SEEK... to know God: One has to seek, to know God; there should be a yearning within, in order to encounter God. The wise men from the east got wind of something special that was in store and they sought to know what it is. They were wise men, but they wanted to know more and more! Faith has to be deepened; there should be a yearning within us to grow more and more in our relationship with God. It is true that the fullness of revelation dwells in Christ, the Son of God...but I have to seek to personalise it, to encounter that revelation and relate to it in first person.

SEE... to find God: One has to see, to find God; God is always present with us, all that we need to do is see! 'Lift up your eyes round about, and see' says the first reading. We need to see the face of God: in our brothers and sisters; in those who are suffering and toiling; in those who are exploited and crushed; in those who are treated with disdain and burdened with pain; in those who wake up every morning not certain of the next; in those who have so many worries and concerns in life that they can never think of living the present moment! We need to see God, in the innocent love of a Child; in the tender touch of a mother; in the brimming eyes of a caring person; in the everyday miracles of life. Once we see God in these, we will surely find God concretely present in the Church, in the celebration of the sacraments and in our prayer moments.

SHINE... to show God: One has to shine, to show God; we are called to become instruments of revelation ourselves. 'Arise! Shine!' calls the first reading. St. Paul speaks of how the Lord made him an instrument of revelation to the people! When we seek God and manage to see God, we begin to shine. That is why Isaiah says, "then you shall see and be radiant"...the very seeing makes us radiant, makes us shine! Our Faith is not merely to be understood and believed, but to be lived and be shared. Revelation is at one and the same time a grace and a challenge. A Grace, because it is gratuitous and comes from God. A challenge because, once we get to see God, we have to shine; shine and announce God; shine and share God; shine and show God to the world, to all who are in darkness, sadness and gloom!

The Self revealing God invites us to SEEK, SEE and SHINE. To accept the invitation is the act of FAITH; a beginning of a journey, a journey that lasts the whole life time- every day of which we are called to Seek the Lord, See the Lord and Shine for the Lord!

The power to know the True God

WORD 2day: Saturday after Christmas Octave

January 7, 2023: 1 John 5: 14-21; John 2: 1-11

The Son of God has come to give us the power to know the True God. However, although this knowledge and revelations is open to all, we will get to know only when we ourselves are open to the revelation given to us. Only when we are open and receptive can that revelation make any difference in our lives. What does it matter knowing, if it does not make a difference in my life?

There is yet another dimension to this knowing! Only because the wine ran out, they were able to taste the best of wine ever made. Only because there were six empty jars they were able fill them in order to get new wine made from mere water. Only because they stood helpless the wedding party had the privilege to witness the first of miracles that Jesus performed. Only because Jesus heeded in obedience to the request of his beloved mother, the disciples found the true messiah in him. In every one of these instances, we see the readiness to receive the revelation consists of self-emptying, humility and openness.

The Son of God has come to give us the power to know God, but only if we are open and receptive, we can truly behold the revelation. If not, we will miss the entire message as did the majority of Jews in Jesus' time. Our openness, our receptivity and our humility, in reality give us the power to know the True God.

Water, Blood and the Spirit

WORD 2day: Friday after Christmas Octave

January 6, 2023: 1 John 5: 5-6, 8-13; Mark 1: 7-11

The Liturgy today and tomorrow prepares us towards the beautiful event we are moving towards...the Baptism of the Lord. The celebration of the Baptism of the Lord is a stark reminder of our baptism and the call and challenges that come with it. Baptism itself is a great gift that we have received... and that gift makes us persons of faith, children of one great big family, the family of God. 

The reflection begins with the sanctifying elements of Baptism. First, the waters of baptism that cleanse. Secondly, the Blood of Jesus shed on the Cross once and for all, which saves us from eternal damnation and promises us eternal life. Thirdly, the Spirit of the Lord that is given to us, poured into our hearts as a seal of God's love for us, that which makes us children of God! 

We have the Son, always for us and with us, and so we have the eternal life that God promises in and through the Son. The Lord has made us His own, at baptism, in the cleansing water, in the saving blood and in the sanctifying Spirit and we joyfully belong to the Lord!

Love and witness great things!

WORD 2day: Thursday after Christmas Octave

January 5, 2023: 1 John 3:11-21; John 1:43-51

Belonging to love or belonging to evil... that is the contrast brought out in the Word today. The opposite of love, is cited as evil. Anything opposed to love, not merely a literal hatred, but anything opposed to love is evil. Whatever we choose, against love, or sidelining love, or pushing love to a secondary plane, is evil and will not truly be humanising. That is the insight today from the Word.

There are any number of opportunities and circumstances that will beckon us to belong to evil - with jealousy, treachery, obsession about wealth, craving for power, limitless greed and so on. If we have to choose to belong to love, we have to wrestle with an entire system, the social bias, the culture of death, the urge to dominate and so on. These days we are paying tribute to a great person who himself engaged is such a wrestling and the invited the entire people of God, in this will to wrestle for the Good. 

Belonging to love is to belong to God, because God is love. Belonging to love is a choice we make categorically for love. Belonging to love is refraining from choosing anything that is against love! The Lord says today: you will see great things happen, you will witness extraordinary things if only you belong to the Lord, if only you belong to love!