PEACE-LENT 2023 - Peace is Genuinity

Tuesday, First week in Lent - February 28, 2023

The WORD in LENT: Isaiah 55: 10-11; Matthew 6: 7-15

Yesterday we reflected on how peace is integrity; today we have the Word which establishes a related fact: peace is genuinity! It is a fruit of genuineness of a person, of a community, and of a society at large. This is established by a classic two step argument - the Word of God is unfailingly genuine; we are the children of that God in and through the Word; therefore our words too have to be, by all means, genuine!

We cannot say something, and mean something other that what we said. When we do that, there is confusion, deception, reaction and therefore, violence - that is against peace! Peace is non violence. Though it is not merely non-violence, we cannot think of peace without non-violence. One of the fundamental aspects not to be violated is the factor of truth. This is where Mahatma Gandhi found the intimate connection between his Ahimsa and Satyagraha!

The first reading today speaks to us of the Word of God which is what it is and does exactly what it has to. The Word does not compromise; the Word is active and alive, genuine and straightforward. We see this explained also elsewhere (Hebrews 12) within the Word of God. This becomes a standard and a standing example for us to make our words as genuine as possible. 

Jesus teaches us how to pray - it is a way of telling us: mean what you say, even in your prayer or especially in your prayer! Your prayer (or your words of faith) should reflect the fact of your life. The words that you speak should become your daily life. This genuineness will certainly  bring peace within you and all around you!

PEACE-LENT 2023 - Peace is integrity

Monday, First week in Lent - February 27, 2023

The WORD in LENT: Leviticus 19: 1-2, 11-18; Matthew 25: 31-46

Two terms that dominate the Word today are - judgement and neighbour! In Christ-ian terminology, my judgement depends on how I deal with my neighbour. Whether I look at them in terms of assets and liabilities, in view of my profit or loss, from the point of view of gain or burden! When I do that, all my resultant actions and way of life will be so selfish, ungodly and absolutely unChristian! 

Peace is a question of integrity - where there is integrity there is true peace; where integrity lacks peace fails, or at the most it exists but is fake! It remains precarious. The more selfish I am the more fragile my internal peace gets. The more selfish a society grows the more challenged its peace is. The more selfish humanity becomes the more frail its peace becomes. The solution is integrity.

Integrity - personal and collective - ensures the absence of gap between what a person or a society is and what they wish to appear as. When a person tries to appear as he or she is within, the person may draw criticism but will certainly work on oneself and become a holistic person. When a society remains what it really is, without making appearances or fabrications about its identity, but ready to be challenged constantly and grow out of these experiences, the society becomes foundational to a holistic humanity. 

A person who is good from within, inspite of all the weaknesses and imperfections that may show up now and then, is an integral person and there is peace within him or her. A society that is just and virtuous in its very fabric, inspite of all the untoward and occasional failures, is a true seed of the Reign when it holds on to its integrity. Yes, integrity alone can pave way to peace, be it personally or socially, because peace is integrity. 

PEACE IS A CHOICE

PEACE-LENT 2023: First Sunday of Lent 

February 26, 2023: Genesis 2:7-9: 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

Why did God make the tree, if God wanted them never to eat of it?

Why should that fruit be there first of all, if God knew it would not help them, instead it would ruin them? 

Would not life have been more peaceful without this unfortunate event of the fall - and who created the opportunity for it, if not God?

These top the list of FAQs that arise from today's Word. And this lent we have chosen to look at this reality from the point of view of peace! Reflecting in the light of the questions above and similar others, what stands out in the Word today is the fact that peace is fundamentally a choice! Just yesterday lived through the day that marked one year of war in Ukraine - a folly of a war in the 21st century! Of course, it is not that this is the only war that is on... there are so many war situations and war-like situations all over the world, threatening the local and universal peace! Every individual societies, families and persons are not spared of this lack of peace. Against this background, the Word establishes today three facts:

Fact 1: God chose to gift us with the capacity to choose; yes, Choice is a gift! If we get to see, it is this capacity to choose that is the fundamental element of human dignity. It is freedom and autonomy that define a human person. When they are missing there is a breach of human rights, loss of human dignity and a crisis of very humanity. This is what is happening in many a place today where this freedom and autonomy is not given, or controlled or hunted out. Think about all the discussion on freedom of expression, threat to the whistle blowers, and the stifling of truth that is happening all around the world! 

God made us human persons; that involves primarily our capacity to choose! When every thing is prefixed and there is nothing to be done about it, where does the personal capacity of individuals come in? Would it not be merely luck and destiny that is at play? Though at times it may look like it is so, the fact is that we are given with the great gift of choosing, to make of ourselves what we are! When we become aware of it and responsible about it, we are laying the foundation for peace - be it personal or universal! 

Fact 2: We choose God because God chose us! God has made a choice to love us and has given us a sign of that love in Christ, in Christ who chose God absolutely! In choosing God, Christ chose to obey. In choosing to obey, Christ chose peace, oneness, serenity... he chose SHALOM! For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son that the world may have life: that is the source of our peace, the unfailing source of our eternal peace! 

God created us in a paradise and invites us to that paradise; what we make of our life in between these two is our choice! Can we make this a peaceful journey towards a peaceful eternity? That depends on whether we wish to choose God or not; that rests on whether we are ready to choose peace or not! Choosing peace is choosing God, and that is what Jesus has exemplified in his life! 

Fact 3: Choosing peace is choosing God! God invites us to take up our call to choose peace, but that choice is a challenge. It is a challenge because it involves choosing God - choosing to abide by God's Word and not by the popular fads of the world; choosing to remain calm at difficulties and not trying and testing God and God's capacity; choosing to be humble and loving instruments in the hands of God and not trying to play God to the world! This is what we see happening in the event of temptation of Jesus, presented in the Gospel today. 

Jesus chose God, and thus he chose peace! The devil had to leave him and the Angels were around to comfort him. That is peace: keeping the devil far away and allowing the angels of the Lord to teach our way. The world does just the opposite today - it keeps anything that is angelic far away, claiming it is too childish and naive; but dares to play with the  wiles of the devil so oblivious that it will eventually lead to their damnation, a total loss of peace! The challenge of peace therefore is to make a choice to be authentic come what may, to forego of our ego and put the Other and the others much before me and mine.

Peace is a choice. Realising the gift of choice that we have received from God and choosing God above all, we choose peace! May this season of Lent, the Peace-Lent that we are journeying through, grant us and the whole world, true and lasting peace!

PEACE-LENT 2023 - Peace is Justice

Saturday after Ash Wednesday -  February 25, 2023

The WORD in LENT: Isaiah 58: 9-14; Luke 5: 27-32

Peace can never be inaction; it is never silence. Peace cannot be conformism; it is never playing by the book. Peace is Justice - we are called to be breach-menders, restorer of ruined houses, rebuilders of ruins - that requires that we act, that we change first from within and then all around us. Justice alone can guarantee true peace and justice has to begin from our interior change. 

The kind of change that we are called to effect is a change that is all-encompassing. It would not consist in accusing myself as a sinner and escaping my responsibility for the other, nor can it tolerate calling the other a sinner or judging the other out of bounds of salvation. Who are we to, when God wants to embrace everyone - however unworthy we are!

Peace consists in that act of justice  - removing the yoke from the shoulders of the oppressed, doing away with our clenched fist in authentic forgiveness and generous reaching out, not giving into wicked thoughts or resulting words! Peace consists of a relationship of compassion and justice, making the other matter invariable of our judgements regarding what they are or who they are! 

We cannot tink of peace, where there is no justice because peace is justice!

PEACE-LENT 2023: Peace is Compassion!

Friday after Ash Wednesday - February 24, 2023

The WORD in LENT: Isaiah 58: 1-9; Matthew 9: 14-15

Satyagraha! Peace marches! Marathon for peace! Fasting for peace! How do these really function? Have you ever given a thought to it? What does it matter if you and I fast or go for a march or take up some campaign for world peace? How does it work, that one in one end of the world is fasting or going on a march for peace in another end of the world? Does it work at all?

Fasting during the lent - how does it affect the Community of faith? Is it only the money that is saved that matters, that we can give it to someone in need? What does it really do to me and to the rest around me, when I fast? And why should we fast at all? These are some questions that arise, everytime we celebrate this all important season of lent. 

Fasting is a sign of compassion. It is a sign of utmost participation in the sufferings of others - be those sufferings caused by external reasons or internal. Fasting for the sake of itself, may help oneself in self-control and self-discipline, but that is not the principal motive of fasting! This is what Jesus brings out in his critical presentation of fasting, not to say about the prophetic voice of Isaiah.

Fasting will have done its real contribution to humanity - to persons and the community at large - only when it inspires compassion in the heart of persons. This compassion is feeling for the needy other, the suffering other, the weeping other, the languishing other... it is this compassion that will render our fast a real Christian act. This compassion alone can lead to peace - in our hearts, in our society, in the whole of humanity. 

There can be no peace until I begin to think of and to worry about the other and their needs: because peace is fundamentally, compassion!

PEACE-LENT 2023: Peace is a Choice!

Thursday after Ash Wednesday - February 23, 2023

The WORD in LENT: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20; Luke 9: 22-25

Very often we complain and lament on things that go wrong in our lives, blaming it on someone or something! Without uncompassionately brushing aside the pain that is involved in the experience of trouble or loss or difficulty, if we seek to find the real cause, the root cause, the ultimate cause... we shall find there, a choice! 

When situations of conflicts arise, when persons around create a crisis or events of life rake up problems... what matters is not actually what happens, but what we choose! We make choices that, may not be immediately, but eventually take us to where we find ourselves at the end. If everything is a choice, just so or more so, peace is a choice!

If I wish peace in my mind, in my heart and in my life - I have to choose it. If I choose ego, if I choose success, if I choose prosperity, if I choose profit or my own material growth, I choose them! Yes, I choose them, and not peace! Choosing peace sometimes, or most of the times in fact, costs! I have to be ready to pay the cost. That is what Jesus means by "taking up my cross" - it is choosing to pay the cost, for the divine peace that we can find only in the Lord and in the salvation that the Lord has planned for us. 

We may think we are choosing life, or  that we are choosing prosperity... but in actuality we might be choosing death and disaster! We need to pay attention. What matters is not immediate gratification but the ultimate good. At times it might require sacrifices and mortifications. If we need peace, we need to choose it, because peace is a choice!

PEACE-LENT 2023: Peace is Reconciliation

Ash Wednesday - February 22, 2023

The WORD in LENT: Joel 2:12-18; 2Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Be reconciled to God - that is the crux of the message given to us at lent. We begin today this year's lenten journey... this year we shall celebrate the Peace-Lent. 

Peace is a yearning that everyone has today world over. In fact the whole creation is thirsting for this peace! The ecological crisis, the economic crises, the political unrests, the human right violations... every one of this experience is a reminder of the lack of peace, the lack of shalom! The message of reconciliation that is central to the season of lent, is a key towards peace.

The varied terms in which the Word expresses the message of the whole of lent: come back, turn to the Lord, order a fast, assemble and gather, be reconciled, pray, fast... all these terms refer to the peace journey that we are invited to make. The peace journey is all about reconciliation, returning to the fullness that we are gifted with! 

Peace is reconciliation, a getting back to the holistic relationship with myself, with others, with the Ultimate Other, my God who loves me without measure.

Growing Up to be a child!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 7th week in Ordinary time

February 21, 2023: Sirach 2:1-11; Mark 9: 30-37

'Grow Up!' - people say, when they are upset with someone's attitudes found wanting, when someone behaves 'childish' and immature, as it is said. Grow up, yes... but, grow up to what, grow up to be what? Growing up would always means to go towards some state advanced or ahead...but here we have another perspective to reflect on.

The Word today invites us, to grow up... to grow up to be children. Cling on, trust, hold on, wait on the Lord... in short, grow up to be true children, true children of God! Is this rightly, 'growing up' - how do we understand?

Who can wait on the mercies of the elders but a child, for when we consider ourselves grown up we crave to be independent. Who can cling on to someone else and keep trusting in their goodness, hoping to be led in the right path? Who can abandon their cares into the hands of someone else and remain light and care-free, but a child! Who but a child can look up to others and understand that he or she is the least of all who are around and helpless of the lot?

Jesus invites us - grow up to be a child... let go of your ego, learn to depend on the goodness of the Lord, allow God to take hold of your hands and you will find the true peace, the peace of a child. And so, grow up constantly, to be a true child!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Faith and Wisdom - Gifts from God

WORD 2day: Monday, 7th week in Ordinary time

February 20, 2023: Ecclesiastes 1:1-10; Mark 9: 14-29

Knowledge can be obtained by effort and hardwork but wisdom comes from the Lord. We may read, listen, think and increase our knowledge, but putting various pieces of knowledge together to arrive at a decision is wisdom and that cannot be acquired by purely hardwork or merely human effort.

It is a gift from the Lord, because Wisdom as the first reading tells us today, belongs to God and whom God deigns to grant it, and the measure God wills to grant it.

Belief is born from what we learn and what we understand, while Faith is not merely our lonesome job. It is our personal response to a self revealing God. If so, it is the Lord who grants us this faith as a gift and helps us grow and mature in it too.

'Lord I believe, help my unbelief"... we come across that profound prayer today. It would do a great good to us to make this prayer a regular and daily prayer, everyday in the morning asking the Lord to help our unbelief and make us truly the Lord's faithful sons and daughters!

HOLINESS - THE IDENTITY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD

From God, of God, and like God!

February 19, 2023: 7th Sunday in Ordinary time
Leveticus 19:1-2,17-18; 1 Corinthians 3: 16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48

What makes one a Christian? Take a pause and answer this question within your hearts!

Is it Baptism? Yes, ofcourse, but only if it were received with a personal choice and every promise given at the proper moment is lived to the full everyday of one's life.

Is it being enrolled in a parish? Yes, but only if the belonging to the parish makes one feel one with the Universal Body of Christ, the Church.

Is it some sort of symbols that you sport, like a cross or a rosary or a scapular? Yes, but that identification would be just temporary, and would last only till my first word, or first act!

That which makes Baptism efficacious, our belonging to a parish meaningful, and makes us truly Christians is our realisation of our identity as people of God - a realisation that has to be manifested in our personal holiness and in our holiness as a community of believers.

Holiness is not a super-human quality. It is definitely not alien to being human. Because it can be seen at our very origin. God made us in God's own image and likeness says Genesis (1:27). So, holiness is our original nature, not sinfulness; Holiness is the core of our being, not sinfulness. Sin and Sinfulness have come to mar and obstruct our original nature. This is why to the chosen people, God says through Moses, "Be holy, because I the Lord your God am Holy." Because I am holy you can be holy too. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we ought to be holy because we are FROM GOD.

Holiness is our choice, a choice made not once for all, but at every moment, at every circumstance, at every crisis. It is a choice made for God, because we realise and gratefully acknowlege choice that God has made for us. You did not choose me, I chose you, says the Lord (Jn 15:16). It is the Lord who had chosen us. It is not that we loved God but it is God who loved us first, reminds us St. John (1 Jn 4:9,19). God has chosen us and God has loved us abundantly! And our response is Holiness, because we belong to God, we are OF GOD.

Holiness is not an act, it is an attitude; it is not a set of actions but a habit; it is not merely an appearance but an internal becoming! Holiness is a daily effort to become more and more like God. It is returning to the image and likeness of God, the image in which we were formed, filled with love, by God. Holiness is certanly not an imaginary ideal proposed - it is a challenge that is life-long, however concrete. Right before our eyes we have the Lord as our model... in our words, thoughts, acts and choices of daily life, we are called to become LIKE GOD.

Our Blessed Mother and the Saints are our examples and Jesus is our Way. St. John traces that course for us when he says, 'we will be like him because we will see him as he is" (1Jn 3:2). We are called not to be merely good people but God's people. Every word and act of our's has to reflect God's presence to those around us.

We are People of God and our very identity is Holiness. If we miss out on holiness we lose everything. We are from God, We are of God and We are called to become like God - because we are the people of God, because we are the temple where God chooses to dwell, because we are the presence of God that the world so badly needs today!

We are the People of God - that is a mighty big mission that we have been entrusted with, a mission that flows from our very identity -that we become the presence of God! The ultimate challenge is that, in and through our daily life, we grow in our holiness, because that is our identity as people of God. 

Tranfiguration - a daily call

WORD 2day: Saturday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 18, 2023: Hebrews 11:1-7; Mark 9: 2-13

Faith is a call to be transfigured daily - amidst the troubles we have, amidst the things that occupy our minds on a daily basis, that moment when we raise our eyes and our hearts to the Lord offering ourselves up in total surrender becomes a moment of transfiguration, when we are able to feel a presence that is so real and so sustaining! 

If we are lost in the worries and concerns, digging deep into our sorrows, we are not to be considered bad people, but just that we are unfortunate! We become persons without that supernatural eye that the Lord graces us with, in faith. In faith, we learn to see what exists beyond, beyond our struggles, weaknesses and difficulties. 

If we possess Faith... we possess an ever present light, an unending light, an ever new light, for life. That light illumines the every corner that is dark and unexplored in our lives, driving out fear from our hearts.

If we possess Faith... we have a host of people with us who have gone before us and who stand by us today, we are never alone. In that communion, in those relationships we are granted a wisdom beyond measure, clearing off all confusions from our minds. 

If we possess Faith, we possess the Lord, who would communicate with us, constantly and clearly, by voice and by words, by affirmations and appreciation, doing away with any doubt in our spirits. 

Liberated from fears, confusions and doubts, with faith, we shall be transfigured every day!

Ego - the Antonym of Christian Love

WORD 2day: Friday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 17, 2023: Genesis 11:1-9; Mark 8:34 - 9:1

Christian definition of Love is 'wishing the good of the other' and if this is what love means, its opposite is not hate but Ego! 

When I begin to look at me, mine and myself, when I begin to do anything to achieve my end, when everything around me is only an object for me to use, for my good and even persons are means to my ends, that is Ego - and that is absolutely UNCHRISTIAN.

The Word enumerates what one loses when the ego in the person grows... the person loses God, the person loses peace, the person loses the other! Godlessness, Division and Hatred - these are the three dominant viles that the humanity faces today.

Godlessness, that has made the human person arrogant, thinking of oneself as the master of everything and claiming rights over everything, even life - one's own and other's too... leading to inhumanities and killings.

Division that makes humanity broken, leaving us so despicable among the creatures on the face of the earth - not living our life and not letting others live their life, creating a hell out of the earth that is entrusted to our care - killing each other and destroying everything.

Hatred that keeps tearing apart humanity on a daily basis; making us inhuman and cruel, wishing the death of the other and in the mean time promoting and perpetrating a culture of death and decline!

Jesus challenges us to throw this ego behind and walk towards genuine love, pick up the daily cross for others' sake and walk with the Lord. Ego mattered the least to him because he was filled with God; and that is why Ego is the antonym to love accoding to Christ. 

The Spirit and the satan!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 16, 2023: Genesis 9:1-13; Mark 8:27-33

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us... for the Lord has created us in God's own image. We bear the name of God. The first reading today reiterates the fact in many ways - saying God created everything for the human beings, God gave human beings an ascendancy over the rest of the creatures and explicitly stating once again God created human beings in God's image, infused with the Spirit of God!

In the Gospel, we come across Peter, who is seen to be filled with that Spirit of God and he rightly points out who Jesus was- the Son of God. Jesus observes that the right response from Peter, was because of the wisdom and illumination from the Spirit; Yes, we possess the Spirit of the Lord within us and we have the great possibility of illumination and wisdom.

That is not all! There is a danger we are warned about: the fact that we need to be aware of - that the Satan is all the time lurching around the corner waiting for a time to pounce on us and draw us as far away as it could, from the Spirit who resides within us. That is what happens to Peter - one moment he is filled with the Spirit and the very next moment he thinks and behaves under the influence o the satan. This is a constant struggle within us, and we need to beware of it. 

Is it not true that right from the first moment of the creation this enmity is on? But it all depends on me, it depends on where I belong, to whom I belong - the Spirit or the Satan: whose side am I on?

Noah's Ravens!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 15, 2023: Genesis 8: 6-13,20-22; Mark 8: 22-26

I was reminded, reflecting on today's first reading, of an expression a good friend of mine is fond of repeating. He would call some people, 'the Noah's ravens' - when they take up a task and set about it with all enthusiasm, but never return to report the progress or the lack of it. It is indeed an interesting perspective to think from, isn't it?

Anything good or healthy we take up to, has a gradual progress and we need to follow it through. And to do that, there could be three requirements...

Firstly, we should not be impatient as to expecting everything to happen in a jiffy. Noah was patiently waiting to get the right sign and the right time. In our personal lives and in our families, when we live through some trying times, how many impatient moments lead us to choices that are not truly divine?

Secondly, when we set off on the task we should be resolute enough to follow it through till its very end. Quitting and giving up are signs of lack of faith and trust and we are called to surrender into the hands of the Lord.

Thirdly, we should not forget those who are involved with us in the task... beginning with the Lord who initiates everything that is good. Unlike the ravens that were lost in their own amusement, forgetting the purpose behind the task taken up; we are called to be attentive to the Lord and wait on the Lord. The Lord will deign to offer us the right direction to renew our lives!

This is why Paul wished: that the Lord may bring to completion the good work that God has begun in you!

FOR LOVE... of God and of God's people!

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

February 14, 2023: Remembering Saints Cyril, Methodius and Valentine
Genesis 6: 5-8, 7: 1-5, 10; Mark 8: 14-21

Today we celebrate the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius, brothers who evangelised the Eastern Europe. They translated the scriptures into the Slavic language and they are rightly called the apostles to the Slavs. They are called, along with Saint Benedict, the patrons of Europe, for the continent owes its Christian faith to saintly missionaries such as these.

Today, as part of a long standing tradition, people also remember st. Valentine, the bishop of a diocese called Terni in the vicinity of the present Rome - the patron of those in love!

In both these cases, what stands out is love, the love for the Lord and for the Good news that the Lord has for God's people. The saintly brothers, our of love for the Word, slogged to take it to the people and thus was born a whole community of faith who would become the light of the world and salt of the earth! Valentine seems to witness to the undying love of God which should animate human life, in order that one can become light and salt to those around!

The readings too invite us, as God's people to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth - a significant role the Lord assigns to us is to be the leaven of goodness, the yeast of the Reign. Today the Word warns us of the danger that we become the leaven of insincerity, compromises, mediocrity and hypocrisy. Even though we may not outwardly choose to be blatantly evil, we may live a life of double or multiple standards, a life of total discrepancy; that life would not only be unfit for Reign, it would be dangerously against the Reign.

May the life and example of the saints we remember today, make us leavens of love, light and salt to the earth, for the love of God and of God's people!

Holding our heads high!

WORD 2day:  Monday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 13, 2023: Genesis 4:1-15,25; Mark 8:1-13

If you do well, you can hold your head high, the Lord tells Cain. It is the same that Jesus demonstrates through himself and his disposition in the gospel. He lived his life, his convictions, his mission so well that he had his head always held high. Jesus invites us too to live with our heads held high - with our unwavering commitment to the Reign, our undaunted spirit of self giving and an inevitable readiness to put up with inconveniences!

The world is today witness to the extreme folly that is possible - the so-called leaders and powerful persons, in the name of politics and service to humanity are making a mockery of themselves. The war situations, the economic instablity, the politics-money alliance, the power-selfishness combo... these are making everything look so bleak and pointless. What does truth really mean today and where do honesty and integrity take us to?

Everyday choices and our life, have to be integral to live our daily life with our heads held high. Following Christ the Truth, being inspired by the Spirit of Truth, and forever enshrined in the palm of the One Whole Truth, let us live as Children of God, holding our heads high, in truth and love.

LOVE & ABIDE by the WORD

LAW: Our Choice!

6th Sunday in Ordinary time: February 12, 2023
Ecclesiasticus 15: 16-21; 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10; Matthew 5: 17-37

Choice is the central theme running through the readings today! And there is another dominant theme that qualifies this choice - that is LAW. Law for the people of Israel was the way ordained by the Lord. Law was for them the guarantee of remaining people of God; it was their part of executing the covenant that the Lord made with them: I shall be your God and you shall be my people! To speak or act against the law was for them a serious and punishable offence. There is a discussion on two other themes- "maturity" and "wisdom" in the second reading from St.Paul. Combining all these, Jesus in the Gospel presents to us a mature and wise attitude towards LAW. He invites us to Choose LAW... that is to choose to Live and Abide by the Word.

Faith is a Choice...

Faith is not a blind leap, it is a conscious Choice! As Lumen Fidei n.3 affirms, faith cannot be associated with darkness, instead faith is a light that enlightens one to choose, to choose believe in God, to choose to see God alive in one's life. The first reading presents to us the same perspective today, we have the choice between water and fire, between good and evil, between true joy and fleeting pleasures, between the right and the convenient, between conviction and compromise, between life and death! The choice is ours! We cannot ride on the shoulders of tradition and custom, and justify our acts and habits. We have to grow up! Our maturity has to be seen in the wisdom we possess. It is God who gives us this wisdom, as St.Paul reminds us. Jesus embodies that wisdom and presents the same to us in his words: I have come not to abolish the law, but bring it to its fulfillment.

A Choice beyond the Law...

Jesus declares that his disciples should make a choice not against the law but beyond the law! He gives a new meaning to law, and presents the way to go beyond, to transcend a mere slavish legalism and reach the heights of saintly perfection, through love and compassion. The words of Jesus, "You have heard that it was said,...but I say to you", heard repeatedly in the Gospel today presents Jesus as the New Moses, and describes the community of disciples as the New People of God! "See I am making all things new," declares Jesus by this (Rev. 21:5). The new law...today how do we understand that new law, the law beyond the law... L - to Love, A - to Abide, and W - the Word. To love the Word and Abide by it...is the new law that Jesus gives. The Word presents to us a guarantee to sanctity. To know the Word, to reflect on it and understand it, to love it and strive to abide by it, is the sure way to be real children of God, worthy people of God. Our life does not comprise merely of avoiding evil, it is much more profound and meaningful. It is to live, to love, to relate, to do good, to mature, to be happy, to make others happy and thus together as a community of God's children, to renew the world and fill it with joy.

To Obey the Law...

Jesus teaches the people today not to go against the law but to understand what it really means to obey the law. For Him, to obey the law was not to obey the word of the law but to obey the Lord of the law! It was so for the people of Israel; they obeyed the law as an act of obedience to YHWH. But when the Lord of the law was with them, and they did not realise it. The Word lived and moved among them, but they did not comprehend it. The danger for us too is the same: that we may be by definition the best of Christians - missing no Sunday Mass, regular with reading the Bible and reciting the prayers, strict with our fasting and abstinence, visiting as many pilgrim shrines as possible - but let us beware, we may be missing the point. These are good but not good enough - the Word instructs us: Love and Abide by the Word... to love the Word, and to live by it; not being merely hearers of the Word but doers(Jam 1:22); to say YES to the Word and mean it, to face all the consequences of that Yes and live through it.

Our YES to the Word has to be our choice, our choice to go beyond the Law and obey the Lord of the law, to live and fill the earth with love and compassion; to challenge the present standards of the world towards a new world, new heaven and new earth!

The Promise and the Fulfilment

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

February 11, 2023: Celebrating the Miracle of Lourdes
Genesis 3: 9-24; Mark 8: 1-10

The Compassion of the Lord does not leave a mistake with merely a punishment caused by the choice of the act itself, but accompanies humanity with a promise. The Lord promises a sinless one, who would bear the Saviour and the promise is personified in our Blessed Mother. The Fulfillment of this promise has been manifested in manifold ways - one such in the recent times (from 1858 - 165 years) is the Miracle of Lourdes!

Lourdes, came as a fulfillment. It was in just 4 years before, that is in 1854, that the Church had consolidated its centuries of experience regarding Mary and defined the truth: that Mary was conceived immaculate! Soon there was a confirmation of that proclaimed truth - Mary appears to a peasant girl in 1858, who knew no ABC literally, and knew not the ABC of the dogmatic teachings - but the message that the peasant girl gave surprised everyone, not just then but even today. Bernadette said, 'The Mother said, I am the Immaculate Conception!' That was a verification, a confirmation of the faith experiences just consolidated. 

The Immaculate Conception - the one whom the Almighty willed from eternity! The Sinless One whose offspring shall smite the head of the eternal enemy of Truth. Today, the promise remains, it stands! The Lord shall smite all evil and lies! Mary is one of the greatest signs of hope given to us - our Blessed Mother who holds out to us Truth, the Truth of the Word who lives with us, the Truth of the shepherd who feeds us, the Truth of the One who loves us to the extent of giving up everything. 

May our Blessed Mother keep us ever mindful that we are children of Promise!

To open or not to!

WORD 2day: Friday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 10, 2023: Genesis 3: 1-8; Mark 7:31-37

Strangely today, we hear almost the same thing from the Satan and from the Lord! Just pay attention, from whom we hear and what it really means!

If you eat of this fruit your eyes will be opened, said the Satan and they ate... their eyes were open and they lost the paradise! The Satan deceived the couple to believe that they were blind and ignorant and were 'nothing.' The Satan deceived them saying they were yet to become like God, while they actually bore the image of God right from their creation. After they ate the fruit they realised their folly, because they were not blind; they just had to open their eyes to the fact, that has alway been there.

Jesus orders, 'be opened'... and the ear opens and the tongue gets loosened. With that opening, the person was able to hear well and speak better! The ears were there, the speech was there, but it had to be 'opened'; the person had to be empowered!

Now comes the question: which of these opening takes me closer to God? To open or not to... is not merely the question. It is to open to whom? To the Lord who leads us to life to the full or to the evil one who is waiting to snatch me away from my Creator?

To be open or not to be open... that is plainly the concern. Be open to all the words and signs from the Lord; be open to the reality around; be open enough to observe the folly that goes around so that you are not deceived yourself. Let the Word open our eyes and our hearts!

One God! One Humanity!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 9, 2023: Genesis 2: 18-25; Mark 7: 24-30

Man - woman, we-they, rich-poor, high-low... these categories of daily consideration of people, things and events is something to be transcended. This binomial thinking is no thinking in terms of the mind of Christ. A true Christian mentality cannot operate on such discriminatory notes. But it is an interesting detail to note that Jesus himself received a little lesson from that Syro-phoenecian woman! Let us not say something like, 'Jesus was doing it just to test her' and so on. If Jesus had the humility to learn from the syro-phoenician, why should we lack that to admit it? Jesus, being fully human, knew and understood his need to learn and never hesistated to do it - even if it is from persons who were considered or called "different".  

Speaking about difference and dialogue, we see persons who are apprehensive about inter religious dialogue or multi religious initiatives. They prefer to look at the other as different, separate or even contrary. Some times in that fear they wish to do away with everything that is different and make everything one! This is not the Oneness that God wants of us... the oneness that God wishes from us is that oneness that validates and appreciates every difference, all the diveristy and every uniqueness that defines a person. This is so because each of us is uniquely the image and likeness of God. 

If we truly mean what we say and what we pray: I believe in One God - then we need to become more and more proactive and look at the reality as One Humanity! One humanity that is created by the One God, One humanity which is so rich in its diversity and difference. 

Death, defilement or deliberate choices?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 8, 2023: Genesis 2: 4-9,15-17; Mark 7: 14-23

Religious practices and principles abound in our contexts defining what is right and what is wrong; determining what is acceptable and what is inacceptable in the sight of God. The Word today has one such clarification as to what would make a person inacceptable in the eyes of God from a Christian perspective - it is neither death nor defilement.

Death is considered the peak of negative experiences by many religious traditions but not the Christian. Death is merely another milestone considering the totality of human experiences. It shouldn't perturb us or preoccupy us. Death in fact is an experience that one should prepare oneself towards. 

Defilement laws are seen as important religious factors in a society. What makes one socially acceptable or not, what renders someone pure or impure, or what makes one holy and another defiled, has been a crucial religious parlance for ages. But Jesus is categorical in stating that nothing as such, that is nothing that separates us from God, exists as such in God's mind. God our Father and Mother,  is all Mercy and compassion!

So, neither death nor defilement can separate me from the Lord, but a deliberate choice does. I cannot live my Christian faith merely on customary practices and accepted mores. I need to make deliberate choices on a daily basis and at every moment of my life... choices that would determine whether I belong to God or no

Spirituality - being true to Christ

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 7, 2023: Genesis 1:20 - 2:4a; Mark 7: 1-13

The Word today invites us to understand the true Christ-ian spirituality. Spirituality itself is a sense of being connected to everything and everybody... and further still, Christ's or Christ-like or Christian Spirituality is a sense of feeling an obligation to love people, fend for their good, be interested in their well being and spend oneself for the happiness and well being of the other. It cannot be merely a dry or rigid performance of rituals or lifeless obedience to rules and commandments.

Christ's spirituality consists predominantly of love: which is to go out of one's way to make the other happy; it is to wish the good of the other always in spite of the troubles and inconveniences for oneself. Just imagine if today anyone, even those who claim to love each other, would fit into this definition of love. If you think, you would fit in, you are very well on your way towards mastering Christ's spirituality.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God, an image presented to us to understand how we need to Grow. Jesus lived his image to the full and invites us today to live our image to the full too! When we grow to be true to the image that Christ presents, we shall grow truly Spiritually.  

Touched... and Healed!

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS 

February 6, 2023: Paul Miki and companions, Gonsalo Garcia
Genesis 1: 1-19; Mark 6: 53-56

It did not matter whether they touched the Lord or the Lord touched them, they were healed. Both ways it is an act of faith: to touch the Lord and to allow the Lord to touch us! 'Speak Lord, but a word and my soul shall be healed,' we pray! A word, a touch, a glimpse or a gaze, a whisper... that is all that it takes for us to receive the fullness, from the hands of the Lord who has made us and continues to guard and protect us.

All that we need to know is to understand that we are handiworks of the Master Creator and live our lives according to the mind of the One who has loved us into existence with a well defined purpose and an eternal plan. The question is, how prepared are we to allow the Lord to touch us, and how eager are we to touch the Lord with all sincerity of heart! 

This question is pertinent because, when the Lord touches, nothing remains the same; they change, they transform, they are recreated! And we need to be ready for that change. We would have to let go of a lot of things, finally at times even our very lives! This is what we see in the group of Japanese martyrs we celebrate today - Paul Miki and companions, part of which was also an Indian lay catechist belonging to the third order Franciscans, Gonsalo Garcia. 

Send forth you Spirit, O Lord and the World shall be recreated!

THE LIGHT OF FAITH

Be illumined! Illumine!

5th Sunday in Ordinary time - February 5, 2023

Isaiah 58: 7-10; 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5; Matthew 5: 13-16

"The Light of Faith: this is how the Church's tradition speaks of the great gift brought by Jesus": so begins the encyclical Lumen Fidei, one of the first orientations offers to the Church by Pope Francis. The Light, is an image very often presented in relation to faith, the faithful and the life of a faithful. It is an explicit call by the Lord right from the Old Testament times that the people of God have to be light to the nations (Is 42:6). With Christ's call today, to be the light of the world, it becomes an inevitable criterion to be identified as Christ's disciple, or not!

Faith as Light: The first reading reminds me of a Zen story, that of the Master who asked his disciples: When do you think it is dawn? The disciples attempted various responses, like - when we see the difference between a tree and a pillar; when we can identify a black thread from a white, and so on. The Master, discontent with everything, finally said: it is dawn, when you look into the eyes of the one next to you and see your brother or your sister! The first reading tells us exactly that... when you accept the gift of faith from the Lord, your eyes are opened that you can see into the eyes of those around you and see your brothers and sisters; in their suffering and in their pains, you can feel your heart weeping and your eyes welling. We are reflecting today on the theme of LIGHT... the light that illumines us, the light that makes us see the real meaning of life and the true sense of being human. What else can do that task better than our faith - Faith is the Light we are offered by the Lord, as a gift!

The Faithful as Light: Once we accept that gift, the gift of faith, from the Lord, we as faithful, become the Light! Receiving the light, we become the Light. The Lord sets us as the light to the nations, the light to the world, the light on the lampstand, the city on the hilltop! Our faith does not rest on human wisdom, or logical reason, or scientific thinking, or systematic and mindblowing theologies! Our faith is primarily founded on the power of God, reminds St. Paul in the second reading today. Illumined by the Light, we become the light! Jesus declared, "I am the light of the World" (Jn 8:12); but did not stop with that. He challenges us today in the Gospel, "You are the light of the World." Every person of faith is called to be a light that is set on the lampstand, to spread the light to the entire house, to illumine those around him or her. But it is important that we remember always, that the source of our light is the Light which illumines us all, the Light eternal of which we are rays, the eternal fire of which we are sparks.

The life of the faithful as Light: Being the light... what does that mean? It involves two important elements: One, that everyone sees you; and two, that one is able to see because of you! There can be no doubt about the fact that the best and the most apt mode of proclaiming the Good News to those who have not heard it, is by living my everyday life! One may ask, but where is the proclamation here - it is in the very living! Our life cannot have two shades - personal and public, sacred and profane, spiritual and secular... If I am a Christian - it should be seen and I should be seen! That is the first dimension of being light - my life has to be lived in its integrity. When the light can be seen, then one can see because of the light. When my life can be seen by the other as a open book, the other can draw an inspiration to live by, and that is proclamation; that is evangelisation; that is illumining! It is through my life, my words, my actions and everyday choices that I become a light to the other; "if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness!" and thus one will become the light in darkness to the upright.

Let us keep this light burning in our hearts every single day of our lives, that it may help us to evaluate our life and see, if we really possess the Light of Faith, if we really live our life in a manner as to become light to those around me! 

Let the Eternal Light of Lord fill our hearts to be illumined and to illumine!

Belonging to the Shepherd Divine

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

February 4, 2023: Hebrews 13: 15-17, 20-21; Mark 6: 30- 34

What do we have to worry about, when the Lord is our Shepherd! We need only to become the sheep of the flock that belongs to the Lord. Becoming the sheep of the flock of Christ can happen only through one way: to endlessly do good. Do good without any reason, without any hesitation, without any expectation, without any discouragement, without ceasing.

There are three qualities needed that one may be capable of such way of life! First of all, faith with which one accepts this challenge from the Lord. How can one think of doing good, when there are concerns and laments about one's own life? Only the one who has an enormous faith placed on the Lord, can think of doing good, without minding what is happening in one's own life. 

Secondly, endurance with which one withstands all disheartening factors. Faith does not promise that there would be no blows to suffer or no strikes to take. But it requires endurance that can strengthen the person to bear all troubles, but go on with hope in the heart and dreams in the eyes. 

Thirdly, a sensitivity with which one knows what the other needs, before the other even expresses it. That is an empathy, an acceptance of the other as one's own brother or sister, looking at the joys and sorrows of the other as one's own. This is what Jesus was all about: he was the empathy of God with us, he was the manifestation of the relationship that God offered to us inspite of our unworthiness, merely becaue God loved us as our Divine Shepherd. 

Jesus, the Shepherd was an epitome of these qualities -  he accepted the challenge of being good, endured all that worked against it and treated everyone around him with utmost sensitivity! Do we really belong to his flock?

Moral code or Spiritual Integrity?

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

February 3, 2023: Hebrews 13: 1-8; Mark 6:14-29

Is following a moral code an enough condition to be called a Christian? Moral codes are temporal and spatial - that is, what is wrong at one time may not be so another time; what is right in a place may not be so elsewhere! If all of us are formed by and are moving towards the same Divine Being, then can our life style be so subjective, temporal and spatial? That is why Jesus stood firm by Spiritual Integrity rather than a set of mere moral precepts.

Jesus is same, yesterday, today and tomorrow! No time can change what Jesus stood for. The letter to the Hebrews presents to us a set of values which are not merely moral codes but are frameworks for spiritual integrity. Spiritual Integrity is knowing what is right to be done, being convinced of it and living by it, come what may. Even if we have to face extinction from this life, our stand shall not change. Just as John the Baptist who was ready to give up even his life. 

The question now is, how do we know that we are holding on to what is right? Here is where we need to be divinely informed, where we need the grace and the help of the Holy Spirit to hold on to life giving perspectives that are absolute and never changing! Spiritual Integrity is the capacity to live righteous in spite of whatever happens, with no necessity for any reasons or justifications. Spiritual Integrity is being a Christian from the essence of one's being! 

The Light to Enlighten the Nations

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

February 2, 2023: The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Malacchi 3: 1-4; Luke 2: 22-40

The feast today is also traditionally called the Candlemas (like the Christmas), because candles were blessed, lighted and taken in procession, to signify the entry of the Lord into his temple for the first time as a 40 day old child - proclaimed by Simeon as 'the light to enlighten the nations'! The celebration of this feast has three indications to offer for our inspiration - the memory, the meaning, and the mission.

THE MEMORY: The memory that we celebrate today is that of the Lord who comes, who comes into His temple! A beautiful moment so picturesquely presented by Luke. The expectations, the entry, the enchantment and the extravaganza that was witnessed in the Temple, as Mary and Joseph bring the child into the temple premises. We celebrate this memory, the memory of the Lord coming to us, the Lord of the world entering our world.

THE MEANING: The memory has a specific meaning; it is, 'the Lord comes to be like us'! The Lord chose to share this world with us in His incarnation and became like us, like us in everything, except sin, says the letter to the Hebrews (4:15). The Lord chose to suffer, the Lord chose to be tempted, the Lord chose to undergo the same struggle as each of us do - and that was the crux of the meaning that he had for his life, and offers the same to you and to me!

THE MISSION: The meaning of this memory, leads us to a deeper understanding of the Mission, of the Lord who comes. The Lord comes to be like us, that we may become like Him. When John proclaims in his Gospel, "to those who believed in him, he gave the power to become children of God" (Jn 1:12), he underlined this specific mission of the Messiah - to make us like him! 

It is of course a fitting day to pray for those who have chosen Consecrated Life as a way of living their call to belong to God (it is the 26th year!), for they are called to be the memories of God's faithfulness, the meaning of our faithfulness to God and the mission of being 'the light to the 'nations'!