The Tent(s) of Meeting!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 1, 2023: Remembering St. Alphonsus de Ligouri 

Exodus Exodus 33:7-11,34:5-9,28; Matthew 5: 13-19

Let your light Shine - is a constant invitation from the Saviour to all those who profess their faith in him. What do we do for the light to shine - ofcourse we have to do things right, just and loving! But more fundamental than that - before we do anything, we need to BE... right, just and loving!

Like Moses, we need to be in the presence of the Lord, in the Tent of Meeting - then our light will shine, as the face of Moses shone so much that the people of Israel were afraid of gazing at it (2 Cor 3:7). Just as we have in the saints, specially like those of Alphonsus de Ligouri we celebrate today, we have people who shine, shine and make the presence of God powerfully felt amidst us. "You are the light of the world" declares the Gospel, underlining the circumstances in which we will shine to the world! 

Infact, many of us are in search of this Tent of Meeting (Exo 33:7)... in places of pilgrimage, in events of miraculous nature, in our practices of strenuous personal piety and so on! All these are appreciable efforts and readings today give us two possibilities of spotting this tent: 

One, the Inner Sanctuary of personal integrity, that Jesus demands in the personal integrity and relationship with God. The Lord has blessed us with goodness within us, it depends on our use of personal freedom to retain that goodness or contaminate it with baser tendencies. When we preserve our inner goodness, we encounter the Lord deep within us! the tent of inner sactuary.

Second, is the Mobile Tents of the Other, where God encounters us at every moment of our day. Living as Moses did for the others and in total dedication to their well being, is an unfailing means to encounter the Lord. Alphonsus founded the Redemptorist Order to preach, to call everyone to conversion, for he knew to encounter the other is to encounter God - the mobile tents of the other.

Let our hearts be tuned to the Tent or the Tents of Meeting, that we may encounter the Lord, whenever, wherever and however that the Lord wills!

Faith, Tradition and Grandparents

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

July 26, 2023: Grandparents' Day: Celebrating Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary
Ecclesiasticus 44:1,10-15; Matthew 13: 16-17

The first setting in which faith enlightens humanity is the family, declares the first encyclical of Pope Francis, Lumen fidei (52). It further explains that passing of faith in the family happens in the process of shared expression of faith within the family, helping children to become aware of their faith and grow and mature in it. 

Christian faith is always communitarian and it is passed on primarily in families. Many researches on the level of faith being lived (or practiced) in Europe vis-a-vis India, say that one major reason for the degeneration in Europe is the weakening of the institution of the family. Those who hand on faith to us are really God-given. Most important among them, our parents and grandparents who not only give us life but show us also how to live it, from their own experience. 

Celebrating a day to remember the parents of Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, provides us an opportunity to remember with thanks these our fore-runners in faith, as the first reading suggests, 'let us praise famous persons, our parents in their generations. These were persons of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten' (Sir 44:1,10). Infact, thanks to them, we are in a position better than them due to their hard work, great example and their dreams for us! 

Jesus acknowledges that in his words (Mt 13:16-17) and exhorts us to live up to our blessedness, our giftedness, worthy of the faith and tradition that is transmitted to us, from our predecessors. A grateful remembrance of our grandparents if they are no more, or a bear hug to them if they are still with us, will be the right thing to do today!

Life and Death for an Apostle

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 25, 2023 - Celebrating St. James, the Apostle

2 Corinthians 4:7-15; Matthew 20: 20-28

We believe; so we speak! That was the watchword of the band of apostles, as St. Paul notes in the first reading today (2 Cor 4:13). Though there was a time when even the apostles did not understand what Jesus was upto... they looked at Jesus like any other leader, carrying forward his career! But in time, Jesus made them understand that they are called to follow, a leader who was 'crazy' in the terms of the world, a man who was full of contradictions. Whoever among you would be the great must be a servant, and who would be the first must be a slave. 

James and John today become the occasion for Jesus to reinstate his philosophy of life, indeed a tough one. St. Paul, though he came late into the fold, understood that philosophy perfectly and he expressed it lucidly when he said, we carry within our bodies the death of Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in us. He says, death was at work in the lives of Apostles, so that life can be experienced by those to whom they carried the message. 

When we would think it is important to abandon death and seek life, the apostles seemingly seek death, to give life! And they invite the others to believe and once they believe, the believers too seek to carry within themselves the death of Jesus, so that the world may receive life in Christ. That is the chain of apostleship that is passed on to us... to be apostles is to carry the death of Jesus within us, that we may ultimately manifest the eternal life in Jesus to the world. 

James, the first of the apostles to be put to death (Acts 12:2) bears a resounding witness to this way of life; a life of contradiction; the life of apostleship, a life that is all about giving one's entire life, that the others may have life in all its fullness.

Being Still and Knowing the Lord

WORD 2day - Monday, 16th week in Ordiary time

July 24, 2023: Exodus 14: 5-18; Matthew 12: 38-42

The people ask for a sign and on this count people have never changed or grown for the better in history. Asking for a sign or clamoring after magics, being obsessed with persons who claim to have the ability to perform extraordinary signs, predictions and healings... these are prevalent even today. The answer from the Lord is very simple and straightforward.

All that you need to do is, be still. The tendency to run after signs and frenetically looking for miracles should cease if we really keep growing in our faith maturity. Tear shedding statues and blood oozing artefacts cannot be the kindling factors of our faith; if only we could be still and see the works of God in our lives, if only we could be still and observe the way the Lord accompanies us on a daily basis, in the ordinariness of our daily life, we would be filled with messages and revelations enough to fill our thoughts and increase our faith.

What do you think is the most important factor in life - knowing in advance what is going to happen, or knowing how to respond to a situation when it actually comes; trying to look for miracles here or there or learning to recongnise and acknowledge the miracle that is to be discovered in the daily events of our lives? 

All I need to do today, and everyday, is Be Still... and know that the Lord is with me.

The First Missionary of the Risen Lord

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 22, 2023: The Feast of Mary of Magdala
Song of Songs 3: 1-4; John 20:1-2,11-18

To we celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalene, the first Missionary of the Risen Lord! 

At times those who wish to show themselves as being faithful and pious have recourse to practices like spending time and energy to appease God, pilgrimage, fasting or other forms of self denial. The feast of Magdalene reminds us of the fact that the love of God is totally gratuitous and greatly challenging. 

The Lord teaches Mary Magdalene, that faith is not merely clinging on to him, but going ahead of him, announcing the Lord's presence to the world, bringing the great news of hope to all around and waiting for the command from the Lord for further action. A mere sentimental attachment to the Lord is an easy alternative while an integral living, a courageous announcement and a personal transformation, makes oneself the message to be shared with all! 

This is true faith: a personal transformation that leads to a convinced proclamation, through a compelling witness. Let us not look to cling to Jesus; let us take Jesus to others by becoming ourselves so filled with Jesus, just as Mary Magdalene was. Mary Magdalene is so special in the history of Faith - when we read the Gospel of St. John, chapter 20, we see, that the apostles Peter and John came to the tomb, they saw, they felt that something great is happening and went back to where they stayed. But Mary Magdalene, stood there, by the tomb; she remained still; she would not leave; her perseverance was great; her endurance was tremendous; her capacity to be still was praiseworthy and the Lord rewards her 'being still'. 

The Risen Lord appears to her as the first one among the disciples to see the Risen Lord and the one to carry the great message to the rest of them... the first missionary of the Risen Lord!

Relationship as True Worship

WORD 2day - Friday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 21, 2023: Exodus 11:10-12:14; Matthew 12: 1-8

The Liturgy of the Word today traces for us an eventful journey of the understanding of God and the self-understanding of the people in relation to their God! We see the historical transition from an understanding of sacrifice as a demand and requirement, to a liberating understanding of God. This is brought in by Jesus who presented a God who says, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice". 

The point is not that the Old Testament's understanding was faulty, neither is it to say that Jesus negates all the understanding of the Old Testament! As Jesus himself explained, he came not to abolish the law, he came to bring it to its fulfillment. That fulfillment is achieved when we understand, not just the letter but, the spirit of the law and try to live it to its details. 

The sacrifices, the sanctifications, the consecrations that were prescribed were all for one reason: to bring the people closer to the Lord! To make the people understand how good the Lord has been... in order that they may lift the cup of salvation, a thanksgiving sacrifice to the Lord, as the Psalm invites us today. 

Having moved a long way from the understanding of the people of the Old Testament, the challenge is much greater for us today - to prioritise our relationship with God, in all that we carry out in the name of our spirituality, in the name of practices of piety. It is not merely a fulfillment of a duty or a necessity, for God needs nothing from us; but a thanksgiving to the ever-present Lord, a grateful beholding of the loving presence of God with us.

Coming and Going...

WORD 2day - Thursday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 20, 2023: Exodus 3: 13-20; Matthew 11: 28-30 

The Word that dominates the first reading today is 'Go'... Yahweh sends Moses to the Pharaoh. The term that stands out in the short but sweet Gospel of today is, 'Come'... the Lord invites the burdened to rest. Come and Go... may look like two opposite words but the reason given for both the movements is the same: because I am with you, says the Lord.

Coming and going... refer to the docility of the chosen, the willingness and readiness with which a messenger of the Lord vows to act. Going anywhere mattered nothing to the prophets of old or for the apostles in the New Testament... they just went, where the Lord sent them to. Added to that, it did not sound a "sending" according to them; it meant an invitation, "come", "come, be mine!", "come, be me where I send you!". That remains the same even today, even with us.

Every day and in ways mysterious or means ordinary, the Lord keeps sending us these instructions: come, go, speak, share, remain, endure and so on... are we prepared to listen and eager to act upon it? When we do it, there is bound to be a myriad of struggles and endless strife... but the Lord will give us the strength, make the yoke easy and the burden light. Easy and light, because the Lord is with us!

Thank thee Lord our God!

WORD 2day - Wednesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 19, 2023: Exodus 3: 1-6,9-12; Matthew 11: 25-27 

God reveals Godself to Moses, and thus to the people of Israel, and thus to the whole world - the very first revelation of the God who intervenes in history is a revelation of a God who stands by the suffering, the poor, the oppressed! While the dominant, the oppressive and the powerful lot float on their cloud of pride and arrogance, creating petty gods of themselves and idols of their power and penny, the Lord rests with the weak, the suffering, the little ones who put their trust in the Lord. 

The interim picture of the situation may look favourable to the powerful and the dominant, but at the denouement it wont certainly be so! The last shall be first, the least shall be the greatest, the humble shall be exalted, the persecuted shall be consoled - these repeated paradoxes taught by Jesus are not asking one to wish misfortune for oneself or to negate the fullness of life that Jesus himself brought. 

It is to remind us that the fullness of life is not in the power, possession and prosperity that we hold so dear - it is in right priorities! It is understanding one's origins, one's duties, one's giftedness, one's call, one's mission, one's relatedness to the other, one's responsibility for those around oneself and to the humanity as a whole. 

When I understand all this and live my everyday life in all earnestness, it would be a reason to thank and praise God, as Jesus does today - "I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth!"

Warned - to be on the right side!

WORD 2day - Tuesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 18, 2023: Exodus 2: 1-15; Matthew 11: 20-24

Yesterday we spoke of the situations of injustice in the world and the readings drove us to a reflection on it. Today, the readings issue a warning to us! The Lord is patient and merciful, but at the same time just and righteous. 

The Lord has a predilection for the poor, the oppressed, those who are sinned against, those who are denied of their rights, those who are constrained to live in conditions that they actually do not deserve to suffer. The warning is this: that we take care to see where we actually belong! We are not called merely to judge who is right and who is wrong and give a verdict on persons. We are called to remain on the side of the right, the truth and justice. It is not that we may be oppressors, but even if indirectly by our inaction and silence we allow the oppression of a person or a people go scot-free, we are on the wrong side, on the side of injustice! 

As the famous holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel says, "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." Our help is in the name of the Lord, affirms the Responsorial Psalm today. When we are a help to the oppressed, we are acting in the name of the Lord. The Lord raises Lord's judgement, Lord's Hero from where and when, we know not. But surely our help is in the name of the Lord, and let us strive to be always on the side of the Lord. If we fail, the Lord warns us today, "I tell you that it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgement for the land of Sodom than for you."

Standing for the Reign of God

WORD 2day - Monday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 17, 2023: Exodus 1: 8-14,22; Matthew 10:34 - 11:1

One statement that we often hear in the context of varied problems in the society today, be it the ongoing ukraine issue, or the burning manipur issue or issues similar to those, is the following: "its unfortunate that these problems are prevailing and it can never be justified on whatever ground that people are denied their fundamental right to live in peace, specially the extent to which the inhuman selfishness of a small group of people can cause havoc in the world!" One cannot but think of the prevailing situations of inhumanity, cruel hegemony, political manipulation, socio economic oppression and human right violations all over the world, when we read the first reading today! 

When we find ourselves in front of these suffering brothers and sisters, we cannot close our eyes or switch off our minds. No one can be neutral, in our own way, we have to take our stand - that is what Jesus says in the words - "I have come to bring not peace but sword!" Swords are never sweet... neither for the other nor for the self - because swords come back too! That is the challenge. When we wish to set fire, we need to be prepared to face that fire ourselves. We need to keep our house clean and our attitudes well grounded. 

Our solidarity, our affirmation of justice and peace, our simple gestures of care and concern for the oppressed brothers and sisters, though it may appear to be like a mere glass of water, will be much rewarded in the Reign of God, because however simple, those gestures show that we stand for truth, liberty, peace and justice - in short - for the Reign of God!

THE WORD-HEART ENCOUNTER

Show off, Show in and Show down?

July 16, 2023: 15th Sunday in Ordinary time

Isaiah 55: 10-11; Romans 8: 18-23; Matthew 13: 1-23

The Word as seed and our hearts as the ground - this is an imagery very close to the heart of Christ and it was picked up by the apostles rightly - be it James, or Paul, or Peter, in their apostolic letters. The Word-heart encounters are crucial to determine the quality of our faith - if faith is rightly understood as right living and not only right believing. Of what use is right believing if it does not lead to right living? Is it not like having a full bottle of water in hand, and dying out of thirst?

Isaiah declares the absolute potency of the Word - there is no doubt about it, it yields fruits. The variance of this fact is due to the openness or otherwise of the one whom the Word encounters. Certainly, a logical statutory warning has to be indicated when it comes to interpreting the parable that Jesus narrates today. The warning is to see that the seed has to do with the ground, while the Word has to do with persons, persons with choices, personal freedom and will, desires and dislikes, weaknesses and strengths. Hence the primary responsibility here rests with the person who is in a position to receive the encountering Word, or not. 

Secondly, everything of what is said to happen in a Word-heart encounter happens in the core of silence and interiority - no one can monitor its progress except the person himself or herself and the Word! But there is an expectation, an expectation such as a child birth - as the whole creation that yearns in pangs of child birth, every persons whole hearted positive response to the Word is salvific, not only to the person but to an extent, to the entire creation, the whole humanity! That is why every time a person's sanctity is recognised universally, it adds to the salvific experience of the whole human community. 

Returning to the conditions of encounter between the heart and the Word, we can understand the three unfavourable conditions that Jesus points out in the present human tendencies:

The first is Show Off or Exhibitionist syndrome - all that we wish to make of the encounter is only a make believe show, a manifestation of self where true or false, a putting up of an appearance. It goes well today with the media crazy world - where people are ready anytime to strike a good pose for a selfie or a instagram post, and return to their real, wrecked selves the moment later. There are always available more than one facades for the sake of the display requirements in the culture today. The reaction to the Word or the related experiences too - be it emotional, so-called spiritual, transformational or anything - remains only at the level of displays. Enough to imagine the hundreds of evangelical and charismatic conventions that ends up as any other show biz! What salvific value can it have, other than a psychological assuage?

The second is a Show In or a Receptionist Syndrome - we wish the encounter has its limits, the limits of the drawing rooms of our  lives. Imagine receiving a guest at home, what do we do, we show them in, we make them feel at home in the drawing room, seated warm and cosy with a drink and a snack - beyond that we do not invite them, nor does a decent guest venture beyond that. At times we treat the Word too that way - we allow the Word to encounter our hearts, but just for the moment and once we have had an initial 'good' feeling, we get back to our 'normal' lives. Most of us remain at this stage, we are very enthusiastic about the encounter - the Sunday Masses, the daily Masses, the Bible reading, the Spiritual TV time etc. - at the end of it all, we return without much ado to our so-called daily routine and the encounter with the Word has its parallel existence without crossing roads with the rest of the life. 

The third is a Show down or a Victim Syndrome - we are enthusiastic about the encounter, we allow the Word to enter our lives, but we have our lives already filled with so much cares and worries, so much threats and temptations, so many wants and desires, that the Word is choked, there is no place to enter, there is no space to breathe, there is no scope to settle down. The Word has to very quickly bow out, because we are persons, persons with our own freedom and dignity, will and discernment, that the Word respects and can only wait for us to understand the folly we are into. The worst of it is, after all this, we picture ourselves a victims. The thistles and weeds were permitted, if not planted and nurtured, by us at varied moments of our lives. Whom can we balme for it? We have a show down with the Word... arguing the pros and cons and finally the Word has to leave - not because it cannot bear fruit, but because we do not want it to.

If the encounter with the Word has to be fruitful, first of all we need to treat these experiences as an Encounter - an encounter and not merely some momentary meets or hit-and-runs. An encounter where we spend time, we dialogue and we allow the other to make a difference in our own world. Word wishes to encounter us, and not just swish past us. Every day is an opportunity for us to encounter the Word, how prepared are we to set up that encounter and get a make over of our own selves? 

The Commission, the Challenge and the Assurance

WORD 2day - Saturday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 15, 2023: Genesis 49:29-33,50:15-26; Matthew 10:24-33

The Lord calls us, commissions us and that involves a Challenge and an Assurance! 

The challenge is to belong to God, come what may. It is not an easy task considering the prevailing atmosphere today. I know of so many youngsters who are so inspiring by the absolute choice that they have made for God and the will of God. People who have had great ambitions and plans, but have just thrown them into the air for the sake of a vision that God inspired. Persons who have had prospects so promising, but have ignored those just because they felt they have been called for a specific mission, a mission in the footsteps of the Master-saviour. Daring individuals who have made choices for which they are being derided, called names and have suffered worst experiences of want and willful deprivation. A challenge! 

When this challenge is taken up, one could find oneself on a tossing sea or a troubled sky, but nothing would disturb the person for he or she has found a ground so firm, a base so strong, a root so deep - the Lord who calls, commissions and walks one through. At the end of all the tribulations, pervades a serenity, a sense of accomplishment, the same sense with which Jesus gasped on the cross, "It is accomplished." That is the tone in which Jacob aka Israel speaks today of his end and what should come after. 

The Lord does not leave us merely with the challenge, he attaches an assurance! The assurance of God's caring presence with us! Pope Francis in the encyclical Lumen Fidei calls this 'the accompanying presence of God' (LF 57). An assurance that arises from the fact that God loves us, that God values us, that God cares for us, and above all, that God counts on us!

Sent forth to Endure...

WORD 2day - Friday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 14, 2023: Genesis 46:1-7,28-30; Matthew 10:16-23

Enduring till the end is the test of the strength of one's faith. Israel(Jacob) today expresses that great satisfaction in having endured till the end, on seeing Joseph alive..."Now let me die!" - a sense of fulfillment! As later we would hear Simeon exclaiming in the Temple of Jerusalem on seeing the child Jesus, "At last all powerful Master, let your servant go in peace. For, my eyes have seen the salvation you have prepared for the nations!" 

Jesus teaches the same to us, his followers, "the one who endures till the end shall be saved" (Mt 10:22). Endurance that Jesus demands is for two reasons - first, because all the troubles that a follower of Christ faces is for such a noble purpose, a cause so great, that anything can be given up for its sake - the Reign of God on earth. 

Seek first the Reign of God... even if you have to give up your home, your dear ones, your belongings or even your life, for you will be rewarded hundred percent, says the Lord, here on earth and in the eternal life! Secondly, because the mission entrusted to us is so vast and so immense that these troubles can measure no where in comparison to it. He says with a tinge of humour, even if you have to run from one town to the other due to persecutions, "you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel, before the Son of man comes." Such was the determination of the early Christians and the Apostles who led them from the fore. 

To proclaim through our daily lives the Reign of God and if we have to face hard consequences for it, to be prepared to endure it all the way - that is the call for me today.

Sent forth with a Mission

WORD 2day - Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 13, 2023: Genesis 44:18-21,23-29,45:1-5; Matthew 10:7-15

The theme of yesterday continues today - being sent, and sent to go forth on a mission! Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob (or Israel) is considered the closest 'prefigurement' of Jesus in the Old Testament. Notice in his life the situations that change - from a predilected son to a slave, from a slave to a prisoner, but from a prisoner to the highest of the officials and there, established as the one who would save his own kith and kin from famine! 

Is it not the same with Jesus, as St. Paul describes in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 2): from Son of God to a human being and a slave; from a slave to death and that on the Cross; but from the Cross raised to be the highest of all names to which every one on earth and heaven shall bend their knees; and there, established as Lord he saved us his brothers and sisters and reconciles us to God our Father and Mother.

As Joseph notes in the last verse of the first reading today, "it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you", it was with a mission that Jesus was sent to us and it is with a mission that Jesus sends us today - he says to each of us: "As the father sent me, so I send you"(Jn 20:21). Each of us is sent! 

The mission as we said yesterday, we have to discover in our personal lives and when we do discover we will understand that it is at one and the same time, a privilege and a responsibility, an honour and a challenge. But if we do not manage to discover it, we would have wasted our life, its significance and its purpose!

Sent to go forth

WORD 2day - Wednedsay, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 12, 2023: Genesis 41: 55-57, 42:5-7, 17-24; Matthew 10:1-7

The naming of the Apostles - with a function given to them: to chase the evil spirits and to heal the sick! Apostles are those who are 'sent' (literally too, 'apostolos' in Greek means that); sent in the name of God with a specific mission. 

Joseph of the Old Testament, was an apostle too - sent ahead by God to Egypt in order to provide for God's people at a later time! Providing was yet another important mission of God. So, providing for God's people, liberating them from the ungodly forces and giving them a life in all its fullness - those are the duties of an apostle, on behalf of the Lord who sends him or her. And all these carried out for one purpose to make present the Reign of God amidst the people here and now! 

Jesus had a big following - his disciples; and from them he sends these 'Apostles.' We are among his disciples already by our Baptism and he wants to send each of us with a specific mission. And each of us sent, exactly to where we are - to our homes, to our neighbourhoods, to our parishes, to our societies... to establish the Reign of God, that is, to assure the needs of all, to stand by the neglected and guarantee them their rights, to stand against the ungodly forces, the unjust systems, the corrupt and inhuman dominations, to empower the people towards a peaceful, serene and human existence. 

When Pope Francis calls the Church to "take to the streets of the world" and to "reach the very outskirts of existence", in short to be "the Church that goes forth", he is reminding us our call as 'apostles', and our mission as heralds of the Reign of God. 

Have we made real efforts to understand our call and our mission as apostles, right here and right now?

Encounters

WORD 2day - Monday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 10, 2023: Genesis 28: 10-22; Matthew 9: 18-26

Encounters with God - the Word presents three of them today; Jacob's encounter with God, the ailing lady and the little child encountering Jesus. Two messages that stand out in the totality of today's events. 

Firstly, any encounter with God rejuvenates. Jacob was given a new vision of life; the lady with the hemorrhage was given a new life; and the little child was given back her life! One cannot remain the same after having encountered God. 

The second message, which is carried specially by the Gospel account, is about the special encounter through TOUCH - It is interesting to note the two accounts of Luke which seem to point to a fact: whether you touch God or God touches you, the fruits are the same! The lady sad and suffering touched Jesus, and Jesus touched the little child dead and gone... the effect was the same - a new lease of life. Touching God or God touching us, they are the same - for they are fundamentally an encounter and "Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love" (Lumen Fidei, 4). 

May be another important feature can be underlined too - that God met Jacob on a ground and while he slept; Jesus encountered the diseased lady on a road and amidst a jostling crowd; Jesus touched the little girl in a room and while she lay dead! It does not matter where we are, or what we are upto, the living God can encounter us anywhere and anytime, provided we are ready and willing to accept and behold the encounter. Behold I stand knocking at the door, says the Lord!

Struggles - aren't they salvific?

WORD 2day - Tuesday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 11, 2023: Genesis 32: 23-33; Matthew 9: 32-37

It's puzzling! Among a few puzzling details of the Old Testament is the likes of today's account from Jacob's life. The Lord (!?!) wrestled with Jacob, says the reading today - and elsewhere we see a similar account of God trying to kill Moses (Exo 4:24). Whatever may be the exegesis, the first disclaimer here is not to take these lines literally. There is a symbolic or a interpretative meaning to these happenings! 

One thing we can guess here is that these men had something really to struggle with, a struggle of life and death! But they stood firm on the side of the Lord who had called them and after that struggle of life and death, there is something remarkable, a change that is radical, a happening that defines history forever. For, Jacob after that struggle comes to be called Israel, a name that would define the People of God forever. Incidentally, Moses after that struggle comes to establish a new covenant with the Lord in the sign of circumcision - again something that would define the People of the Covenant, ever since. 

Jesus had a similar struggle, constantly there were people who followed him as there were the others who tried their best to demonise him (Mt 9:34). The struggle went on right till the cross - the struggle of life and death, but he stood by the Father who had sent him. And after that struggle, he was not anymore merely Jesus, but Jesus the Christ; there came the event that changed the World for ever, it changed the history not only of the world but of you and me! 

Today we are saved, in his struggle, in his death, in his wounds, in his blood and in his Resurrection! The question to me is - how ready and willing am I for a struggle?

KNOWING GOD

As God reveals...

July 9, 2023: 14th Sunday in Ordinary time

Zechariah 9: 9-10; Romans 8: 9,11-13; Matthew 11: 25-30

Do we know God? That is a very complicated question, isn't it? Anyone, needless to be humble, enough to be realistic, would say, knowing God is not a human task. It is almost impossible. That is why God comes to our aid, with God's grace! It is sheer grace that we get to know God. Yes, it is always a "given"! Only by God's grace, and God's self revelation do we get to know God, despite our inability and our limitedness. This is a grandiose gift, but at the same time a risky terrain. What is the risk?

Being a grace and a supernatural gift, in the process of knowing God, we might sometimes settle for what is a limited understanding of God, if not an erroneous understanding. Attributed to the philosopher Xenophanes is the saying which goes: "if cattle or horses had hands and could draw, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle." The danger pointed out here is, if we are not sincerely attentive to God, we might paint God the way we are, the way we think and the way we wish - instead of getting to know who God really is, and what God reveals Godself as. 

This is one challenge that Jesus had during his life time - and God continues to have even now - to make people understand who God really is. People who thought that they knew everything about God, that they were very close to God and closer than anybody else, that they were true authorities on God-talk, actually did not know God. Instead, those who were, and who are, simple and innocent, unsophisticated and humble, find God much closer and much clearer to themselves. That is the way of the Lord and that is why Jesus glorifies the Father today: I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of earth!

It is imperative to know God, but know God as God reveals, not in the way we wish to imagine God. At times we create our own god, which could be far away from what God truly is, and what God reveals Godself as. Jesus' primay aim within the incarnational design was to reveal God to us and to receive that revelation fully, the Word traces us a way, a passage, an itinerary that Jesus intended to teach us. This itinerary, to know God, can be presented in these three terms:

From power to peace:

I bless you Father, God of heaven and earth... the words of Jesus in the Gospel portrays a fundamental understanding of God - the God of heaven and earth, the God Almighty! But look at this God almighty... God renounced that mightiness, made Godself so vulnerable in the event of incarnation and came to live amidst us - to show us how much God loved us. That is why the Prophet Zechariah, in the first reading speaks of a God who is victorious and triumphant, but humble and riding on a donkey, a God who banishes chariots, horses and bows of war, a God who proclaims peace for the nations! 

God prefers peace to power! God chooses compassion instead of glory, as the psalm says. That is the God we are introduced to, by Jesus the Christ - a God who is compassionate, loving, caring and peace-giving, and not power mongering, competitive, egocentred, self promoting, exploitative and arrogant. If we have to truly know God, we need to move from a power-oriented thinking to a peace-centred mentality. Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God. 

From death to life:

There is a constant struggle between the unspiritual and the Spiritual, not just out there in the world, but within us every day. When we feel tempted, angered, tired or anxious, there is this conflict within us - what to choose the easy way of the unspiritual or the long-winded way of the Spiritual. That is a choice between death and life - death, not in the sense of the end of life, but in the sense of it absence. Many choose to die, way long before they are buried, a culture of death that keeps threatening the humanity. 

There is a tendency and a propaganda in the world today, to make everything easy. Why should we think of a consequence that might come after a few decades? Why should we think of remote effects on persons whom we may or may not know? Why worry about a so-called unknown future, while we have the concrete presence right in our hands? These are the modes of thinking propagated by the culture of death. Are we going to give into these? If we wish really to know God, we would dare choose life; we would choose to move from death to life! But that is not as easily done as said. With all the mindblowing campaigns around, it could be absolutely tiresome. And that is why the next passage that Jesus suggests...

From fatigue to freedom:

When we find it tiresome to choose life, when we find it hard to choose peace, when we find it exhausting to know and understand God, Jesus says: come to me, and I shall give you rest! learn from me, for I am meek and humble. It is in this meekness and humility, that you will find God and Godliness, for God has chosen the meek and the humble! Those who pride in power and authoritarianism, those who gloat in glory and pomp, those who crave for luxury and splendour, unfortunately are far from God, far from knowing God. And that is a very serious warning that Jesus gives us!

What we need to have is the rest, the calm, the serenity, the peace, the freedom that the Lord alone can give! Not in a frenetic search or an anxious scampering that we would know or discover God, because it is God who reveals... it is in the calmness and stillness that we can know God. Isn't that the meaning of what the psalm 46 tells us - be still and know that I am God! Come to me, I will give you rest, and learn from my meekness who God is - that is the invitation of Christ today. To know God not though our fatigue, but in freedom. It might sound logical to say, as soon as I know God, I will surrender myself to God. But the truth is other way around, when we surrender ourselves in freedom to God, we begin to know God. 

It is only in our choice for a life giving lifestyle, our preference for peace and our free submission to God, we shall know God, know God as God reveals. 

Privileged! Loved!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 8, 2023 - Genesis 23: 1-4,19, 24: 1-8, 62-67; Matthew 9: 9-13

Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you! To be God's "predilected" child (if we can use that term) is an incredible honour; and that is what we are. How beautifully John expresses this in his letter (1 Jn 3:1-3)! In the corrupt culture of the day, it is pretty easy to understand this predilection... a VIP's son or daughter, or a person who has the backing of a key personality in the society gets above anybody and everybody else to win favours in the society! 

Jacob was the chosen one, he was the one picked to bring forth the 'predilected' people of God. And because he was chosen, everything works in his favour. Unjust! Unfair! Undeserved! - we might say all that and all that is true! God's love that is 'poured' into us (Rom 5:5: not just given but poured into our hearts); it is unjustly given, unfairly lavished, undeservedly heaped on us. What a way to communicate that truth via the story of Jacob - a cheater yes, but who becomes an identity for God on earth - God refers to Godself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and God of Jacob! 

This logic, however, is totally different! This logic will not fit into the usual logic of the give-and-take, the cause-and-effect; this is a totally different logic of God's love, God's prodigal love for each of us. And if we try to fit this into the normal logic we will be frustrated, like pouring new wine in old skin, or old wine in new skin or stitching a new cloth to an old shrunken one! 

The call is to be drenched in this entirely unconditional love of God, and to understand how privileged we are to receive this love; and the most important of all, to exhibit that awareness in concrete, day to day actions and attitudes. One basic truth has to rule our lives, we are privileged, we are loved! 

Mercy not Sacrifice

WORD 2day: Friday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 7, 2023 - Genesis 22: 1-19; Matthew 9: 1-8

Mercy and Sacrifice actually stood for two paradigms that were in confrontation as a result of Jesus' life and teaching. God and one's relationship to God was explained purely in terms of sacrifice, sacrifice which stood for fulfillment of the requirements based on regulations and customs. The challenge is alive even today - that we do not make our spirituality a sacrifice-based spirituality. Fulfillment of the precepts, keeping the commandments, making vows and carrying out the same, offering suffrages and being faithful to our prayers to be 'said'. 

Mercy, instead, is fundamentally a relationship. The Scripture scholars attribute the meaning from the Hebrew word for mercy - rahamim (or rachamim) which comes from the root, rehem (or rechem) which means "womb". Biblically, as Jesus uses, mercy refers to a compassion that one feels to a child in the womb or a bond very intimate that arouses a warm feeling towards the other! 

Far from doing something to help the other or giving something to someone in need, Mercy is to feel one with the other, specially someone who is in real need. That is why the statement of Jesus: I have come not to call the righteous but the sinners - a feeling one with the needy! When we really feel one with someone in trouble, or difficulty, or temptation, or a struggle, much before branding that person a 'sinner' or a 'weakling' or a 'traitor' or a 'infidel', we would stay close to him or her, find out what actually is going on and share moments of solidarity that would walk that person right out of that situation. 

That is what Jesus did and that is what he expects of you and me - to go and learn what it means... Mercy not Sarifice!

Faith amidst perplexities

WORD 2day: Thursday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 6, 2023 - Genesis 22: 1-19; Matthew 9: 1-8

Abraham and his story has reached its climax today! An episode that escapes all rational discourse on God, God's will, God's mercy and Faith. If it is so difficult for us today as we read and reflect, it is not difficult to imagine the perplexity of a man who could possibly in Abraham's shoes. He would have been battling in his mind as to what really God wants from him, why does God give and why does God want to take it away so prematurely! 

Perplexities are more for one who believes more and one who believes more is prepared for more perplexities. Abraham personifies this fact - but in all his perplexities - he gives us a definition of what means Obedience of Faith (that later becomes a key word for St.Paul in his letters). 

Obedience of Faith, in simple terms is putting God first. Placing God's will before anything else, before my will, my desire, my plans and projects, my dreams and my treasures! It is perfect submission to God's will, even when I really do not understand what that actually is. Abraham never understood what God's will was, just as the pharisees and the Scribes never understood who Jesus was. But the difference was, Abraham was ready to submit but the latter did not want to. They held on to their judgments and prejudices, which did not allow them to see God's presence and action unfold right in front of their eyes.

The Word today invites us to make this loving leap of faith in God as did Abraham, without doubting the presence of the Lord at any point of time. Faith is a total, loving and unquestioning submission to the Divine Will, not when everything is well, but particularly amidst perplexities.

With open eyes...

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 5, 2023: Genesis 21: 5, 8-20a; Matthew 8: 28-34

Hagar had almost given up. For her it was all over. She found no scope of living on and no chance of surviving that desertedness. She had cried enough, she thought. All of a sudden she finds a well, the source of her life. All that while the well was just round the corner. She was so filled with self pity that she was not able to see the ample opportunity just there for hers to take. All that God did was open her eyes that she may see the well. 

However, finally she does see unlike the people of Gerasene who never saw till the end, who it was that had entered their village. Their self pity of having lost their swine in thousands blinded their eyes from perceiving the great and wonderful blessings that Jesus had in store for them. What a great miss it was, they asked Jesus to leave! 

At times, for the sake of our self pity, due to our self indulgence, and for the fear of losing something so insignificant, we lose God, or rather we reject God. Just like the persons we meet in the Word today, if only we saw who we are rejecting; if only we beheld the blessings that choosing God would bring into our lives, if only we lived our lives with our eyes open... we shall be truly blessed. 

Be still... and know that God is!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 4, 2023 - Genesis 19: 15-29; Matthew 8: 23-27

Fire and brimstone all over, but Lot and his family in perfect safety... all because of, the scripture says, one man who walked in the presence of the Lord - Abraham! It was on Abraham's account, due to his faithfulness to God and his unswerving decision to live in the presence of the Lord, that Lot is saved! But even there, nothing could prevent the perishing of his wife, a typical representation of the category of persons who have lost their heart and soul to overly attachments. 

How closely parallel the scene is, in the Gospel today - storms and waves all over, but disciples in perfect safety... all because of one person who was the presence of the Lord - Jesus the Son of God! They had nothing to fear, for the Lord was with them. But there was panic and desperation, for their heart and soul was not focused on the Lord who was with them... they were focused on themselves and their problems and their dying prospects. When Jesus rose, he first rebuked the disciples; only then the storm and the sea.

Today, don't we find ourselves in a similar situation too? Problems and Weariness all over, but we are in perfect safety... all because the Lord's presence is with us! The Lord journeys with us, lives with us, and acts on our behalf... all that we need to do is like Abraham, "Be Still and Know" that God is!

The Apostle, the Church and the doubts

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 3, 2023: Celebrating St. Thomas, the apostle to India

Ephesians 2: 19-22; John 20: 24-29

Feast of St. Thomas leaves us with three lessons...

1. We are One Church built on the Apostles.

The feast of every apostle is a reminder of the essential unity that is not only a characteristic but a mandate given to the Church, the mystical body of Christ. As Paul so vehemently opposes (cf. I Cor 1:10-13), right from the earliest times division has always been a dreaded scandal within the Church. This reality notwithstanding, even today the divided body of Christ drains the Church of its witnessing power and evangelical authority. That is indeed a motive for concern and prayer for us always. 

2. The Church in India has a special responsibility.

The Church in India, boasting a direct handing over of faith by an apostle, has a special responsibility towards establishing the Reign of God on earth. It is unfair to claim privileges but refrain from the duties that come with it. Every person who has received the gift of faith in this country of ancient heritage and culture, has to stand firm in witness to the Gospel thus received, challenging the society towards a holistic transformation, ushering in the Reign of God here and now. 

3. Doubts don't matter as long as the Lord remains close to us.

Thomas was not only the one who wanted to touch the wounds that nails made and put his hand into the hole on Jesus' side, but he was also the one who said, "let us also go, that we may die with him" (Jn 11:16). His personal attachment to Jesus covered up for his obstinacy not to believe when the rest of the apostles reported Jesus' resurrection. In our lives too, when doubts assail, when clouds gather over our heads and we tend to be overwhelmed by them, the only thing that can sustain us is our personal relationship with Jesus!

May St. Thomas show us Christians in India, the most fitting way of living out the Gospel in our context, so that we may be ambassadors of the Reign of God, here and now.

THE CHALLENGE OF RECEIVING GOD

God, God's message and God's messenger

July 2, 2023 - 13th Sunday in Ordinary time

2 Kings 4: 8-11, 13-16; Romans 6: 3-4,8-11; Matthew 10: 37-42

Are we ready to receive God? We would say immediately an enthusaistic "yes"! But before saying that let us just take a moment to reflect on what it would actually cost us. 

Just yesterday we reflected on 'the Lord who passes by' - with the example of Abraham who received God who was passing by and the centurion who went to encounter the Lord who was passing by. The imagery today is not the Lord who is passing by, the Lord who wishes to accost us. The Lord comes to meet us and what would our response be? Get busy in what we are upto and lose God; or dare to Receive God? Yes, we have to dare to receive the Lord, because it is indeed a challenge... not just one, but atleast threefold. 

First of all when we intend to receive the Lord, we shall be challenged by God, by the very presence of God... because anyone who prefers a person or a thing or an ideology or a ritual or a sacrifice to God, we shall be deemed unworthy of the Lord. When we let God enter our lives, we cannot remain the same. 

We can think of any number of examples... for instance the personality that we have been thinking all through the week - Abraham. He was an unknown man of  Ur living with his people and Yahweh enters his life. From the moment Abraham received the Lord into his life, he had undergo many sacrifices... to give up his place, give up his people, give up his private life, give up so many things because he received the Lord. But his faithfulness paid. He is today the Father of our faith and held high in the eyes of faith. 

Instead the people of Gerasene, refused to receive the Lord - we see that episode in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. They refused to receive the Lord because they were not prepared to face the challenges the Lord would bring to them - challenges that would change their life style, their life priorities and their values in life. Just like they missed their swines, we may be attached to some of our own typical attachments and fixations. We may be willing to receive the Lord, but are we ready to be challenged by the Lord. Our life style, our priorities and our value system are they compatible with the Lord whom we wish to receive? That is a challenge. 

Secondly, when we are are ready to receive the Lord, we shall be challenged by God's Message, and that message shall be the cross on which we shall die, to be born anew, to be born to eternal life! God's Message is not always a soothing balm, it can be fire and brimstone at times, calling into question a number of factors in our life.  

When Paul speaks of 'cosidering ourselves dead to sin,' he indicates a radical choice for God - a choice between life and death. Just as Paul himself, and all the other apostles, who were almost all of them, destined to lay down their lives for the Message of Christ. They were ready for it. They received the Lord and they received along with that the challenge too. Peter who tried to deny Jesus, all other apostles who ran for their lives, Paul who was against Jesus...every one of them, laid his life down for the believing in and proclaiming the message.

Unlike Herod whom we see was happy to listen to John, but did not want to change himself, we are called to accept the challenge of God's Message if we are truly ready to receive the Lord. It may cost our simple pleasures, or our convenience, or our acceptability in the eyes of the world, but we would have to take up the challenge, if we are sincere about receiving the Lord. 

Thirdly, one who is ready to receive the Lord, shall be challenged by God's Messengers - be it blessings or curse, be it difficulties or graces, be it troubles or miracles, we have to endure it for the sake of the Lord. The question here is who are God's Messengers.

As long as someone does good to us, does things that please us, fulfils our curiosity and feeds our necessities, we are happy to accept them as Messengers of God. The moment someone begins to challenge our ways, criticise our so-called customs and traditions that are not in anyway 'godly', we begin to reject the person, critique the person and even plan to get rid of the person as far as it is within our capacity. Just as Jesus says, if we give even a single cup of water to the persons who are sent to us, we shall be blessed,  so shall we be despicable in the presence of the Lord if we despise persons who are in need and who come to us for help.

Assisting those who come to us for help, reaching out to those who are in need even without their asking for it, wishing the good of the other in so much as being crushed in the heart to see someone somewhere suffer, doing whatever is within my power to counter hatred and injustice in the world, making way for peace, harmony and justice - these are various levels at which we receive the Lord. When we receive persons in the name of the Lord, we receive God, and only by that we become persons of the Reign of God.