That which shall never pass!

WORD 2day: Friday, last week in Ordinary time

December 1, 2023 - Daniel 7: 2-14; Luke 21: 29-33

Where is your hope, your strength, your assurance? On Money, it shall liquidify. Power, it shall drift away. Things, they shall pass away. Persons, they shall abandon you someday. Today, it is used as a pain reliever statement: 'this too will pass'. But beware! That shall be your sad predicament too - everything shall pass away! 

That is why, the need for something, something that will never pass away. The recurring theme of today is a reference to something that is here to stay, never to pass away... the Lord's Word, the Lord's Reign, the Lord's sovereignty.

The final word will always be the Lord's! Calamities, Persecutions, Demoralisations these are what we see in the case of all those who had to pay with their blood, the price for their faith in Christ. The first reading foretells the same, finishing however with a note of hope on the eternal dominion of the Son of Man. 

The Gospel reaffirms the hope, from the mouth of the very object of that hope: the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Perseverance is a virtue in imitation of the faithfulness of God. 'Let us never grow tired of doing what is right' (2 Thes 3:13), as the Lord himself who never gets tired of loving us! 

Things may appear to be going totally out of sway, or nothing may seem to be under the control of anything spiritual... but never lose heart, God is in charge; God is in control. However bad the signs of the times are, your saviour knows you and to his Reign there is no end. 

Be firm in faith...and cast your hope on that which shall never pass away: the Holy Will of God!

Proclaim Good News from housetops and laptops!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 30, 2023: Remembering St. Andrew the Apostle

Romans 10: 9-18; Matthew 4: 18-22

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" St.Paul quotes this word from the scripture (from Is 52:7), to insist upon the blessedness of being an apostle of the Lord, being sent to bear forth the Word to others.

St. Andrew, the apostle whom we celebrate today, has played a special role during the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It is interesting to note in the Gospels, that Andrew as a disciple of Christ always had the role of bringing good news to persons... he brought the good news of having found Christ to Peter (Jn 1:41); along with Philip, he brought the Greeks to meet Jesus (Jn 12:22); and he brought that boy who gave the five loaves to feed the five thousand (Jn 6:9). Bringing people to Christ; and today bringing people to the Lord, is a special task of an apostle.

The corollary of the task is bringing the Lord to the people, bringing the goodnews to the people, bringing the Word to the people. And every apostle did that without any reserve. They, amidst all the opposition and threat, bore witness to their Master: they were the beautiful feet which brought the good news to the world, to the people, to persons and communities of persons. 

Be it bringing the people to the Lord or bringing the Word to the people, the aim is enabling an encounter! Today the possibilities are plentiful and voluminous - enough just to imagine all the possibilities the social network offers us! In fact, Andrew is proposed as the patron of social network... because he used every opportunity to make Christ known to people and to bring people to Christ. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had described social network as the modern day pulpit and invited us to proclaim Christ not merely from the housetops but also from the laptops... and in Andrew, we have a great role model for it.

May we dedicate today every effort of ours to proclaim the Reign of God, through the social network, a great gift of our times. May we dedicate the social network which offers us such a great promise, that it may forever be an instrument in the hands of God, to bring God's will to fulfillment - to spread good news, to spread happiness, beauty and truth.  

The Writing on your Wall?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 29, 2023 - Daniel 5: 1-6,13-14,16-17,23-28; Luke 21: 5-11

"The writing on the wall" - the familiar phrase in English, has its origin in the first reading today. The meaning is very clear and that is precisely the message of the Word today. It is clear to all of us even as we choose things on a daily basis, to what consequences they will lead us. None of us can claim a total ignorance, while most of us do not want to really accept the fact that we do know the consequences of our choices; unfortunately we feign ignorance and desperately look for someone or something to blame it on. In all sincerity we know that, what we sow, we reap.

Our choices, unfortunately, are conditioned by events and experiences that are momentary - the instant, the immediate, the current, the here and the now! Those are obviously not enough. There are perspectives of life which we do not respect at all - the ultimate, the eternal, the essential - these are considered despicable. The result, our choices and their consequences become so sad and dangerous in the long run.

Our choices of negative tendencies like manipulation, disrespect, abuse, violence and exploitation cannot but lead to situations of hopelessness, darkness and death - King Belshazzar is sadly made aware of it today by Daniel. But there is yet another writing on the wall that is presented: Jesus says, if you choose to belong to me, if you choose to be called my disciples, if you choose to respond to my call, you will be derided, persecuted and even killed, but do not fear; in your endurance you would have won life, life in all its fullness, life from the very author of life, life everlasting!

The key is to become aware of the writing on my wall... even as we make choices that are regular and usual. Look at all the universal phenomena we talk of today: the global warming, the rising totalitarianism, the threatening fanaticism, the crazy arms proliferation... where did all these arise from, if not from our active or passive choices? Yes, let us grow more and more conscientious and aware of the writing on our walls!

To destroy and to build; to stop and to proceed!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 28, 2023 - Daniel 2: 31-45; Luke 21: 5-11

This week's readings have a bi-dimensional orientation - a preparation towards advent (a new beginning) and at the same time a reflection on the end times. This is the real Christian disposition: a bi-dimensional approach to life. 

A reflection on the end times has to be radically open to the new beginnings, lest it becomes a vain  curiosity or a damning fatalism. A focus on the new beginnings, the new earth and new heaven, on the definitive coming of the Reign should have a mature openness towards the end time perspective, lest it remains a simplistic dream of an all-bright future, without any personal commitment that amounts to it. 

There is no use raving about the last days, the end of the world, the Armageddon, the judgement and so on and so forth, as if talking about a football match or a cricket tournament. Dreams, visions and extra natural phenomenon have no value in themselves, unless they help a better living here and now, and a preparation for a more holistic future. 

The first reading and the Gospel today remind us of this need - the need to question ourselves on our life style, our criteria and choices in daily life - whether they are really worthy of the Reign, that which we are called to announce to the world as disciples of Christ! The call that today we are given is, to be daring enough to accept a break down in your life and an eventual restart; to effect a rupture from the old habits and to begin anew; to destroy the old and to build anew; to stop and to proceed. Are we ready?

Choosing God in little things

WORD 2day: Monday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 27, 2023 - Daniel 1: 1-6,8-20; Luke 21:1-4

The world has stereotypical criteria of what is good and what is better; social standards of what makes one good and what makes the other better! The temptation to conform to that social stereotypes is very high and dangerously subtle. Many a times we fall into the trap, though the Word very often warns us, "Do not be conformed to this world" (Rom 12:2), because, "the Lord does not see as the mortals see" (1 Sam 16:7).

That is why, the two tiny coins that the widow drops quietly into the treasury seems more valuable to Jesus than the bags and bags of wealth that the others dump there with such clatter. To be his disciples, "let the same mind be in you, as it was in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5) instructs St. Paul. 

We begin to read from today from the book of Daniel, every day increasingly reminding us of the imminent choice we have to make for the Lord and not for the convention of the world. Daniel was special because of the reason that God's mind was in him, the wisdom of the Lord was in him, that made him shine to the rest of the world. He knew what to choose and what to let go. He knew what really mattered and what did not. He knew what it meant to be faithful to his Master, the Lord, the Almighty.

Maybe, we need to ask the Lord today, to give us that wisdom to see things as the Lord does, with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus and choose the right things and let go of those that are immaterial. 

Choosing the little that truly matter, will win me all that I need - the all that is God!

THE KING - IN HIM WE HAVE THE VICTORY

Through him, with him and in him

November 26, 2023: Solemnity of Christ the King

Ezekiel 34:11-12,15-17; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26,28; Matthew 25: 31-46

To proclaim Christ as King today, is not an easy task - while nations wrestle with each other for supremacy and individuals do anything to keep the crown to themselves! It is a challenge to a true Christian flock today to identify its shepherd as the King, and not just that, King of all kings! The Solemnity of Christ the King reminds of the fact that it is in this King we have the victory.  

The King, in Him we have the victory! That is the song on our lips today, but can that be truly meant? This could very well be our reflection today: can we truly and fully mean it, when we say, In Him we have the Victory? If we truly have to, then we need to understand fully what we say by that proclamation.

The King = The Thorns + The Crown.

When we call him the King, we know that he is a king of a different kind; but are we conscious of it? Are we conscious of whom we are proclaiming as king and the consequences of it. He is not a merely a king with a crown and a throne, but a king with a crown of thorns! Yes, it is only through his thorns did he finally win over the kingdom. 

If we call him our king, we need to look at the priorities of our life - success, dominance, honour and power: can they be my priorities? They are,... for most of us. Shouldn't we become a little more conscious of it? Let us not think of some distant political leader or a disdained pastoral minister. Think of you and me - our little successes, our dominance in our own small relationships, our seeking of honour and recognition, our secret lust for power... these are all priorities against our type of the King! This king will ask us to look at not success but justice, not dominance but service, not honour but humility, not power but sacrifice as our priority! Can we? If we accept that we are of his flock, we have to! 

In Him = Through Him + With Him.

In Him we have the Victory, we say. But what does it mean - In Him. In Cristo, is a very specific term that we need to understand. We see its depth of meaning in the Paul's assertion: "There is no condemnation for those in Christ" (Rom 8:1). No condemnation is what we mean by victory! The term can be understood in the other two terms: through Him and with Him. 

First of all, we need to understand that we are, through Him. Everything is, through Him. When we declare Christ the King of the Universe, we are affirming the fact that Paul teaches: through him everything was created and for him they exist (see Col 1:15-17). When we feel we are doing everything by ourselves, when we begin to attribute all the good to ourselves and all the ills to God, we forget that fact that we are what we are, through Him. The world is full of that tendency today - anything they achieve they take the credit. A problem crops up, they start questioning God and everything that is related!

Secondly to say we are in Christ, we have to be basically with Him. With Christ, is to make the choices that Christ would make, to speak those words that Christ would speak, to do those actions that Christ would do, in short to have the mind of Christ in us. To be with Christ means to step into his shoes, to follow his footsteps, to step on to his feet and be carried in sync with it. 

When we are aware of the fact that we live through him and with that consciousness decide to be with him, we are in him and the victory is certainly ours!

Victory = Righteousness + Salvation

In Him we have the Victory, we say. But what is this Victory? Is it comfort and prosperity? Is it shining lives and glamorous future? Victory we speak of here is righteousness on our part and the gift of salvation that the Lord confers. Righteousness is our life of truth and love, without counting the cost. Yes, at times we think of being righteous as a means to winning something from the Lord - no, it is not! 

Being Righteous is our call and it is our very being, because we are created in the image and likeness of the Lord. Salvation comes as we get closer and closer to God and in that intimate oneness with the Lord, salvation happens. Salvation is not to be procured - as some keep asking that dumb question: 'are you saved'? Everybody is! But I need to make that salvation my lifestyle, my daily experience, my oneness with the Lord! That is the Victory that Christ makes so natural and easy for us, when we are IN HIM. 

Yes... we have a wonderful, majestic and compassionate King, in Him we have the Victory!

Behold the God who lives...

WORD 2day: Saturday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 25, 2023 -1 Maccabees 6: 1-13; Luke 20: 27-40

It is easy to glory in a God of the past, recount miracles and remember feats. It is also not difficult to think of a God of the future, dream dreams of prosperity and share stories of great tidings. The real challenge is to believe in the God of the present, the God of the moment, the Lord of my life, the God of the living.

The strength of my spiritual self is seen in my ability to relate to God on a daily basis, on a momentary basis. When Jesus today reminds us of the God of the living, and not a God of the dead, he is inviting us to experience God and live with God every day, every moment!

We are fond of living on a spiritual nostalgia of an experience 'once-upon-a-time' or we are fond of looking at a bright light some time, some day. Like the people we see in the Gospel who thought of their ancestors or thought of a future splendour, but missed the great and moving presence of the Lord amidst them, in their daily events and difficult moments.

Let us not end up making up stories and throwing questions at the Lord. Let us be still and experience the presence of the living God, the God of the living, living right next to us!

Purifying and rededicating ourselves - faith growth!

WORD 2day: Friday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 24, 2023 - 1 Maccabees 4: 36-37,52-57; Luke 19: 45-48

Zeal for his house will consume him - Ps 69:9 - that is what John refers to when he recounts the event that we hear in the Gospel today from Luke! Judas Mattathias in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel are presented as burning with zeal for God, for God's house. Both of them want to purify and rededicate the Temple to the Lord.

When we accept God as our king (the theme of this entire week) we should be burning with zeal for God, for things that belong to God, for values that stand for God, for persons and their dignity that directly springs from God, for life and love that signify God... we should burn with zeal to preserve, promote and uphold these!

Today there are forces that are bracing threats against the Church, persons who want to see the downfall of the Church, people who call names and insult the Church and all those who stand for the Church - now the question is, what is your response? Fear and withdrawal? Compromise and justification? Or stand up for what you believe and purify yourself and rededicate yourself unto the truth?

If we think of our faith in terms of king-subject relationship, it is our allegiance to our King. Let us be filled with zeal for our king, that is if we accept our Lord as our King! The call is to purify ourselves and rededicate ourselves to the King.

Who is your king?

WORD 2day: Thursday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 23, 2023 - 1 Maccabees 2: 15-29; Luke 19: 41-44

Who is your king? – that is the crucial question that is being repeatedly asked these days of the week running up to the Solemnity of Christ the King. 

The parable we heard yesterday of the return of the king who demands an account, the siege of Jerusalem that Jesus speaks of today in the Gospel and the call of Mattathias to gather in his leadership against the persecuting forces… all these present a crisis situation; a situation demanding a definitive choice. Choice - that is the crucial theme!

Sometimes external pressures like the work ambient and the political milieu, or the personal addictions or overpowering temptations, can present a crisis situation to us… a situation to make a radical choice for God or against God! Even a simple affair like the choice of words we use, or an ordinary decision we make on a daily basis, can determine the radical belonging to or rejection of God in our lives!

How many times we stand convicted by our choices which contradict the principles we claim to stand for! How many times we eat our own words to justify ourselves and save our face before others! How many times we compromise on true values and make convenience a criterion for our decisions! 

Our choices would demonstrate succintly to the the world who our king is! If my king is my Lord -my daily choices would reflect that. May our everyday choices be such that the Lord would never need to weep over us, as he did over Jerusalem!

My choice for God

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 22, 2023 - Remembering St. Cecilia

2 Maccabees 7: 1,20-31; Luke 19: 11-28

The urge to be faithful to God is never a question of maintaining the status quo. As spiritual masters always warn us, not to progress in spiritual life is to regress! Faithfulness to God is not lived or manifested in remaining where we are or merely in moments of legal fulfillment of rules and routine practices of piety. It takes fundamental radical choices at crucial moments to tell, not the Lord who knows our innermost thoughts but the world, that I belong to the Lord, to the One who has created me, the One who has called me and commissioned me.

Like the young lad, following his brothers and his mother, in the first reading chooses God over everything that the king promises and over even his very life; like Saint Cecilia whom we remember today who chose to give of her whole self - her body, soul, spirit and her very life for God, our choices need to speak for themselves.

Not just the choices of life and death, but the choices of what we want to do with the talents, the gifts that the Lord has given us, the choices of what we want to do with every moment of life that God has gifted us with. We can choose to enrich them and enhance them, or to just bury them and be inactive!

My choice for God has to be seen in my daily little choices - Cecilia is often celebrated as patroness of musicians (by the way, let us pray for all the singers and musicians and wish them well), and at times her heroic sacrifice and choice for God has been eclipsed. She decided to giver her whole self to God and she kept that choice till her death.

Just like the mother in the first reading today, Cecilia saw her husband and her brother in law die, but remained unmoved in her choice for God. In my daily events and ordinary tasks, I have to manifest this choice for God, if only I wish to inspire the world today. The choice today, is mine!

Primacy of God and the Quality of Faith

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

November 21, 2023: Remembering the Presentation of Mary in the Temple

2 Maccabees 6:18-31; Luke 19: 1-10

Zacchaeus' episode in the Gospel is an evergreen example of an encounter that transforms a person. As St. Paul would say, 'if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation' (2Cor 5:17). When we allow the Lord to really encounter us, the Lord transforms the whole person. Nothing remains the same. Everything is new because we begin to see everything from the perspective of the Lord. 

As Pope Francis said in his first encyclical Lumen Fidei, faith is not just to see Jesus, it is to see with the eyes of Jesus (LF 18). When our faith is authentic, the whole perspective changes. What seems to be important, what seems to be necessary for someone may seem totally secondary to me, because I see as the Lord does, because I think as the Lord does, I love as the Lord does. 

Eleazar in the first reading demonstrates the same to us - 'such pretense is not worthy of our time of life' (2 Mac 6:24), he says, caring the least to preserve his life, because he did not want to lead the others astray from God. His priorities were different from that of the rulers who were persecuting them, the officials who were executing orders or the society that stood around them, because he was a man of faith!

Today we remember the event of Mary being presented in the Temple - why does the Church remember this event though it is not part of the Biblical account. There is a very important reason - highly spiritual and simply logical. Mary, as far as we see in the Gospels, seems to be totally resigned to God's will and absolutely obedient to God's voice. Where does this begin from - the answer is the memory we celebrate today. The parents offered her to the Lord, thus inculcating within her mind and heart, that she belonged to God and God alone. That was reflected all her life. 

Even for us the message is same today: the primacy of God in our life, defines the quality of our faith. How absolute is God's place in our daily lives?

To see the Reign

WORD 2day: Monday,  33rd week in Ordinary Time 

November 20, 2023: 1 Maccabees 1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-64; Lk 18: 35-43

While it is important to stand for Interreligious dialogue and inculturation of faith, it is equally important to realise what is an integral process of dialogue and inculturation. If only 'all becoming one' is the objective, then today we should be comfortable with what is happening around... all, in every field, everyone is becoming one in their selfishness and self seeking tendencies! It is our call to become one, but which one? Not anyway one... but One in just one way! 

Becoming one as a humanity, bound by true and wholesome values, standing for real freedom, dignity and solidarity, that is our task. That is what the Reign is all about. At times it will look impossible and totally a dream, an utopia, a fable and a fairy tale. But in faith, it is not! We are going to hear of the end times beginning from now for the next two weeks - not about the end of the world or end of the times but it is the end of hopelessness and end of misery. Because we are convinced the Reign is at hand. 

That conviction requires an eye of faith; let us cry out for it and the Lord will grant us! Jesus Lord, have mercy on us, that we may see, that we may see the Reign!

GIVE; YOU ARE GIVEN

Seventh World Day of the Poor 

November 19, 2023: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary time 

Proverbs 31:10-13,19-20,30-31; 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6; Matthew 25: 14-30 

pc: St. Columbans Mission Society

Do not turn your face away from anyone who is poor (Tobit 4:7). This is the message that the Holy Father gives us on this seventh World day of the Poor. The  World day of the Poor, as we know, was instituted by the present Pope in 2017 as a follow up of the Year of Mercy, that we celebrated as a Church. Mercy is at the centre of what we remember today: not so much the mercy that we are called to have towards others, but the mercy that God has given us in abundance! We are given with that mercy in such measures, that we are bound to give, so much so, when we do not give we fail, we fall short of our call, we sin!

The Need to Give

Why do we need to give? Not only because there are needy; not only because the other deserves what I wish to give, but simply because I am given! Hence, the first requirement is that I recognise my "givenness", that is I recognise how much I am given with. Look at the parable today that Jesus narrates - the first two realised how much they are given with and in their recognisance they found a way to make it double; the third one did not feel he was given, he never owned what was given to him, he never realised it was his! What hinders us from not realising what we are given: first, ingratitude which makes us complain all the time; secondly, fixations that we have which looks for particulars that we lack inspite of so much that we are blessed with; thirdly, cravings which make us blind to the goodness and blessedness that already surrounds us. 

What to Give

We know there are various levels of giving - giving from our abundance; giving from what we have; giving inspite of the lack and so on... but what matters here is the attitude of giving. True giving is giving of oneself - from the very thoughts and inclinations, intending to give of oneself. One can be giving great treasures away, but when he or she has an attachment to what would the gain, the return of out of it - a profit, a name, a publicity and so on, there is not giving there! The attitude of giving is not there! Giving has to come from within, the inherent quality of reaching out... which is mindful of the fact that we have received. The best of all that we have received from the Lord is God's love and mercy, and that is what we are called to give. Love and Mercy... from that everything else will follow. 

How to Give

We shall take three lessons here from the Word today, not to turn away our face from the poor! The first reading presents to us the symbol of Wisdom - the woman who administers the household the way it should be. Wisdom should regulate our life and make us realise how much we are given and that the more we realise we are given, the the more we are required to give! The Holy Father's message from the book of Tobit (chapter 4) is in fact an advice that Tobit gives his son, Tobias where he says this with simplicity - when you have more you give more, when you have less you give what you have. That is it, what matters is the heart with which you give and the attitude of giving more than what you give.  

The second lesson is from St. Paul who tells us, not to operate on the logic of fear and justification, just as did the third person in the parable of the Gospel. I feared you, he said! That did not help him to give of his best, it made him dig and hide! Instead the right thinking, a wise realisation of the meaning of our life will make us give, give of ourselves, and give to the full. It is not that we fear the end times and therefore we wish to make good, but because we have the wisdom to know how best to live our here and now.  

The third lesson is the model of God and the Son of God - the way they give! God who gives everything in abundance and Son of God who gives himself totally to us and for our salvation. That is the model given to us. With the help of the Spirit we could learn too, to realise how much we are given with, how much we are called to give and how to give! 

The giving we are concerned here is not merely material giving, which us just a streak of the real outcome, but the giving that is an attitude of gratitude, realisation and a call. That attitude alone can inspire us not to turn our face from anyone who is poor. 

Praying, Trusting, and Living life with God

WORD 2day: Saturday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 18, 2023 - Wisdom 18: 14-16, 19:6-9; Luke 18: 1-8

Our help is in the name of the Lord, proclaims Psalm 124. The Lord alone is our refuge and our strength. The Lord knows when we sit and when we stand, even before a word is on our mouth, the Lord knows it all. This trust is called the attitude of prayer - a total abandonment into the hands of the Lord! 

At times when we pray, we sound like knocking at the door of the Lord as the last resort... 'I have tried everything Lord; and now I have nothing more to try and so I come to you!' Instead, it has to be from the first moment: "You are everything Lord and I surrender myself to you; guide me along and accompany me, that I may never stray from Your will and guard me from all those which plot to take me away from You and Your holy will." 

How many wonders we have seen, all worked by the Lord! If the Lord is so powerful, can he not look at the suffering we are going through. If in spite of that I am in the midst of an agony, can I not trust in the Lord and think of those splendid days I had experienced in the presence of the Lord! Will not the same presence guide me on! Why do I moan and why do I complain - is it not because I have given up trust? 

Let us live our life with the Lord - every bit of it - our duties, our desires, our trials, our preoccupations, our sufferings, our agonies, our temptations and even our failures; let us live them all with the Lord and be prepared always to say: Not mine, but Your will be done, O Lord! (Lk 22:42)

Faith - what does it mean to me!

WORD 2day: Friday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 17, 2023 - Wisdom 13: 1-9; Luke 17: 26-37

'Fools say in their heart, 'there is no God',' goes Psalm 14:1. Though it is not the spirit of the times to get into an argument with people with variant religious convictions, sometimes it is important to challenge the insincere ones regarding some opinions that are held and promoted with hidden motives and contrived plots. 

The readings today are quite strong against those who probably have religious choice of convenience, than conviction. Many manipulate their or other's religious sentiments to their own convenience and comfort, to achieve their ends and to exploit others. These are the worst kind of human beings one can imagine of - not true even to themselves! 

But leaving alone the tendency to point a finger at someone, it is important for me to evaluate my faith! Faith is not merely saying 'yes' to a set of truths, but it is a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, with that Merciful God that he revealed to us, with the Spirit who lives on with us and within us.

Is it not an ample opportunity for me today to raise this question in my heart: What does my faith mean to me? What are the SIGNS of real faith in my day to day life? Do I really relate to God in the core of my being?

At the core of the Reign is... Me!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 16, 2023 - Wisdom 7:22 - 8:1; Luke 17: 20-25

The Reign of God is within you! (Lk 17:21) - this was a statement, they say, that provoked, sustained and gave meaning to Liberation theology in the 70s. Not only that. This was also the teaching that took Jesus to the cross.

What is so provocative about it? To answer that question from the Gospel, we need to listen to the first reading and the psalm. They speak of the Wisdom of the Lord, the Word of God, that abides with us and within us, the Lord who has come to live amidst us, the greatest grace of incarnation. Look at those attributes given to that indwelling Lord: in the form of Wisdom, the Word, the Spirit who is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, active, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, sharp, irresistible, beneficent, loving, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-knowing, penetrating, all-intelligent, pure and most subtle! The Indwelling Spirit, the Lord who dwells within me, making me the core of God's Reign.

Jesus' proclamation of the arrival of the Reign, or "the year of the Lord" or the fulfillment of the Word (Lk 4:19,21) was looked at as an offence, a scandal, because Jesus underlined the proximity, the closeness of God to human beings. Jesus declared every common person the beholder of the Reign; you and me as the core of the Reign!

Even today, if I choose to, I can see God as some one far, distant, removed and isolated. But if I am sincerely observant, I can feel the presence of the Word, the Wisdom, the Incarnate Son walking beside me and I can feel God close and intimate to me because, "God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom" (Wis 7:28). We need to look at the Reign of God residing within us, at the core of our being. We are indeed the core of the Reign, we need to evolve into it, by our daily choices and lofty ideals.

Faith is, to respond!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 15, 2023 - Wisdom 6: 1-11; Luke 17: 11-19

The readings seem to converge on one thought today... that the Lord wishes, expects, and demands a response from us! Our God is a self revealing God... through signs and wonders and prophets and wise persons and finally through God's only Son, and continuously even today in and through God's Spirit, God continues to reveal Godself to us in various ways.

The more we are given, the more we are expected to respond! It is not that God gives, so that we would repay! No! But it is that, we are given so much, we are filled with such goodness, we receive "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16), that we realise it is right and just to give God thanks and praise!

To know the right thing, to be done at the right time, and choosing to do it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit... we would be blessed to possess it. And the Lord says today, "set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed!" (Wis 6:11). Doing the right thing, at the right time, is a response that we give to the Lord and that response is what is expected from me! When I don't respond, I waste what was entrusted to me, as a gift, a treasure!

Our response to the self revealing God - that is our faith. Growing in faith is learning to respond more and more adequately. Failing to respond is dwindling in faith. Let us grow in faith everyday - let us be attentive to respond to the Lord in every way!

Remaining true to our Salvific core

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 14, 2023 - Wisdom 2:23 - 3:9; Luke 17: 7-10

The first reading today states a tremendous truth - we are made for eternity, incorruptible by nature, because we carry the image of God within us! That is the fundamental truth of salvation. We are all saved in the core of our being, none of us is destined to destruction, none of us is rushing towards perdition! But we have a responsibility to keep that truth alive, because it all depends on the choices we make. 

By nature we are God's own children, but if we by our daily decisions and life choices, resolve to break away from God and from the gifts that God has placed within us, we are ruining our own salvific core. We are called every day, every moment to go on living in faith founded on hope and guided by love, to live a life of love and mercy; and at the end of it say, 'we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty!' 

God who loves us will never desert us, unless we decide to break away from God. It is so important for us to repeat to ourselves - God is with us, that is what God has so clearly promised. The real question is, are we with God? By our choices and priorities, are we really with God? We are all saved in the core of our being, because our core is God. Our responsibility is to remain true to that salvific core!

Holiness: Faith lived at the core

WORD 2day: Monday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 13, 2023 - Wisdom 1:1-7; Luke 17: 1-6

Holiness is a matter of our innermost beings. It does not consist merely of the external signs and shows. Words not said, thoughts not expressed, acts merely contemplated, reactions withheld... these determine my holiness more than what the world around perceives me to be. That is why the strange link between faith and forgiveness in the Gospel today. 

While Jesus teaches the disciples to forgive brothers and sisters, they respond saying - 'increase our faith!' Can sound strange, but only apparently so! One cannot consider oneself to be a person of faith, holy and spiritual, if one's relationships with others is not right. If faith is relationship with God, forgiveness is relationship with my fellow beings! If the latter fails, the former is meaningless. If we want really to be spiritual, we have to forgive, accept, and love our brothers and sisters, as God does with us! 

Lets ask the Lord to "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5); increase in faith means what the first reading tells us: honesty, simplicity of heart, shunning deceit, being truthful, in short: being godly at the core of our being, not merely in the external show! Yes, holiness is faith lived at the core of our beings. Faith is our daily life lived in the presence of the Lord. The more we grow conscious of the continuous presence of the Lord the more holy we shall grow!

Authentic Faith and Right Relationships

WORD 2day: Saturday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 11, 2023 - Romans 16: 3-9,16,22-27; Luke 16: 9-15

Note the following words used in the first reading today - friend, fellow workers, fellow prisoners, compatriots, brothers and sisters - it is all full of relationships! Faith without relationships is empty. In fact, faith in itself is a relationship, a relationship with God that defines every other relationship in life. Yes, it is all about relationships, but the right ones. 

Faith and Right Relationships are connected to each other. Faith creates right relationships and right relationships mark authentic faith. How do we understand right relationships - they are relationships that are centered on God. They are not relationships that turn out to be possessive, selfish, self centered, self seeking, materialistic and mundane. They are relationships that center on God, that promote true selfless love, that respect the mutual dignity and freedom and that edify each other towards the spiritual maturity. These are Right Relationships, nurtured by Authentic Faith. 

When Jesus speaks of choosing one master and letting go of the other, this is what he means. By "money" he means all that is mundane, all that is materialistic and all that is merely utilitarian. By "God" he meant, all that is spiritual, faith centered and truly Divine. Relationships, if they are right, will surely lead us to this Spiritual Edification!

How long yet that they taste the Lord!

WORD 2day: Friday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 10, 2023 - Romans 15: 14-21; Luke 16: 1-8

"Faith is a lie", "the church is finished", "it will no longer stand", "the church is living in the name of god"... these are some of the insults hurled at the Church today. Not just insults and curses but it is wish that many have today - that the Church be a bygone reality! We could only look with pity on these hapless persons and groups, and their bitterness that is so vividly portrayed in their expressions! 

How long yet that the bitter people of the world turn around and taste the love of God, especially through the community of faith that the Lord wished on earth? Just like the pagans that Paul speaks of and the steward in the Gospel who suddenly discovered his insecurity, the proud and the arrogant, the resentful and godless of today need to come back to the Lord. 

The role that you and I are called to play here is, to be reminders, signs, pointers, of that love and meaning that God alone can offer. For that we need to first take in that love as much as we can and hold it out to the world. As a community of faith, we are called to be reservoirs of this love of God, taste it and be filled with it, sharing it with others for them to taste it and be filled with it themselves. For as St Paul affirms, 'those who have never been told about him will see him, and those who have never heard about him will understand.'

The Temple that we are!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

November 9, 2023: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12; John 2:13-22

Today we commemorate the dedication of the Basilica of St. John at the Lateran. This basilica is special because it is one of the four major basilicas of the Church in Rome. It becomes more special because it is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, which is the Holy Father himself.

Moving around in Rome, one can see churches, one mightier than the other, in every other lane of the city. An unofficial statistics says that the city of Rome alone has more than 2500 churches. Though at an apparent observation it might look to be an exaggeration of a period in time, still there is an insight that it can offer. Why did the people go on building churches after churches?

Churches meant for them, not just a place of gathering for worship; if it were merely that, they would surely not have needed so many. Churches, were temples, buildings from where the glory of God shone forth! That is why they built more and more of them, that the glory can shine forth more and more!

The Word today, and any feast of dedication of a Church, reminds us of this important vocation that we have. From the temple of the Lord, goes forth the glory of the Lord, "and that temple you are!" (says 1 Cor 3:17). From the temple of the Lord flows the water which gives life, which brings healing, we read from Ezekiel today! From our lives, from our words, from our acts, from our very being, should flow the grace of God towards others!

Jesus sets us the example, by being so conscious of being the Temple of the Lord. If we are his brothers and sisters, if we are to be known as his disciples, we need to be conscious too, that we are God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in us (1 Cor 3:16)!

Love is a battle... ready for it?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 8, 2023 - Romans 13: 8-10; Luke 14: 25-33

Love... it's a term that is by far the most spoken of, not merely from a Christian perspective but that of the whole reality today. But that is no statement that guarantees the right usage of the term, because more often than not it is misused and abused. A great percentage use it to mean a kind of feeling, a sentiment, an emotion that warms up one's heart.

But, is love all that? Yes, but not just that, isn't it? Love is very much, a decision, a choice, a commitment that would demand so much from me that, I would find myself in a battle. Yes, responding to the call to love, is like undertaking a whole expedition, against evil and hatred, for goodness and genuine fellowship. In a world torn my hatred and violence today, we are called to take sides? Whose side are we going to take? As followers of Christ, as child of the Loving God, the choice is categorical - we take the side of love! Love and love alone!

To accept to genuinely love, means being ready for any cost I would have to pay. After having launched myself into this battle, if I turn back and find myself wanting, I will be considered unfit for the Reign. On a daily basis let us hearken to this call to love...which insists that we take a commitment every day which could be dangerously demanding. Are we truly ready for it?

Belonging to each other

WORD 2day : Tuesday, 31st week in Ordinary time

7 November, 2023 - Romans 12: 5-12; Luke 14: 15-24

The Church is a reality in continuous evolution, it needs to grow into the Reign of God. What do we mean by "the Church evolving"... where is the Church or who is the Church? The key is there - Church evolving is we growing up into truly what God wants us to be. And in this evolution every one of the members who make up the Church, are expected to grow and evolve.

The desired and expected growth or evolution is from the state of being children to being the children of God; from being individuals who are worried only about oneself to persons who strive for communion with others; towards being persons who readily wish to identify themselves with the Reign, that Reign that that Lord invites them to be, to become and to evolve into.

We may have oxens to tend to, land to till or the new found family to cater to... they are not wrong! But the Reign has to come before them all. My private concerns cannot overrule the concerns of the Reign. My life, my choices, my priorities have to be those of the Reign... this will happen only when I manage to grow up to set myself aside and give the needy other a prominent place in my list of concerns because within the Reign, we belong to each other (Rom 12: 5).

What God wants of me!

WORD 2day: Monday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 6, 2023 - Romans 11: 29-36; Luke 14: 12-14

Calculations of gain and loss, returns and rewards make an action limited to these considerations. This is the order of the day. Jesus, not only teaches us a consideration different from these, but lived it himself and challenges us to live by it, today. 

The consideration that he proposes is -'what God wants of me here and now'! 

Adopting that as my decisive criterion in life, requires of me two important attitudes: the first reading speaks of the first of the two attitudes - it is, an immeasurable awe and absolute entrustment to the Wisdom of God - acknowledging that that there can be no one more informed than the Wisdom of God and God who is Wisdom itself; secondly - placing others, especially the weak, the poor, the needy, the least and the last, as the center of my perspective on life, not looking at my own selfish and egoistic ends. 

When these two become my decisive attitudes, I can worthily say as St. Paul says in the reading today: 'From God and through God and for God are all things. To God be glory for ever. Amen.'

Being forsaken and Moving ahead!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 30th week in Ordinary rime

November 4, 2023: Romans 11: 1-2,11-12, 25-29; Luke 14: 1,7-11

At times we dare ask that question: has God forsaken me? All the expression of an endless love on God's part notwithstanding, I ask that question and wait for an answer - how cheeky! 

Forsaking, is not within the precincts of God. Being Forsaken -is an absolutely human parlance! God never forsakes, not even if it is the worst of beings that God is faced with. Because when God creates someone, God does so out of love! That love never changes, as does God's righteousness never change. 

God's righteous love, accepts me whatever state I might be in. But what truly happens is that I reject God, I keep myself away from God, I remain indifferent towards God and finally blame it all on God! I look for other things - human respect, worldly success, material affluence, social status and mundane glory more that what God matters to me! God is sidelined and forsaken. 

Jesus challenges us today: move ahead my friend! Grow up and realise that it is not God who forsakes you; you forsake God! Realise it... and then you will be truly able to move ahead and get on with God.

What stops me from doing good?

WORD 2day: Friday, 30th week in Ordinary time

November 3, 2023 - Romans 9: 1-5; Luke 14: 1-6

I would willingly be condemned if it helped my brother or sister, dares Paul. What if you criticise me for curing on the sabbath, I dont mind, as long as it liberates a son or a daughter of God, says Jesus in the Gospel. The message is loud and clear: doing good to the other cannot wait, much less, be stopped!

In fact, the passage of the first reading and the episode of the Gospel today, can lead us to reflect on one important question in our Christian living: what does stop me from doing good to my brother or sister? Let us reflect on top-three blocks that could be: 

The first is mindless self-centredness - because of which I fail to think beyond myself, my whims and fancies, my petty comforts and my comfort zones. I am unable to look around, look out or look up to anyone, unable to learn anew or change my perspectives in order to reach out to the other. This is what St. Paul points out in the first reading today. 

The second is infantile fearfulness - because of which, though I know what is right to be done, I fail to do it out of fear of criticism or fear of being ridiculed for the good I do. It may look too flimsy a reason, that is why it is infantile. But this is a very wide spread reason. Just imagine how many of us have this question before we do anything at all in our daily life: what will others think of me! Jesus challenges such a thinking in the episode we see in the Gospel today. 

The third is obstinate wickedness - because of which, I choose deliberately what is against good; I choose to do harm, hurt, destroy, exploit, use or abuse, the other for reasons known only to me! What a wicked way of life it can be! Sadly, there are many in this mode of thinking and living, which causes so much evil in the world. Here is where a true Christian has to make a real difference today in the world. 

Yes, the crucial question to me today is: what stops me from doing good to my brother or sister?

Hope - that makes us Christian!

All souls day - November 2, 2023

What is the difference between a Christian and an unchristian outlook on anything?

Hope! The difference is hope. It is hope that makes us see a possibility even in the worst of our daily problems. Hope gives one the serenity and tranquility to approach every day problems with grace. One big unsolved question for the whole humanity is how to understand the end of life and beyond.

For a Christian, life is changed, not ended; it is transformed not terminated, explains the preface of the Mass for the dead. Jesus' resurrection fills us with hope and that hope does not disappoint us. The hope is towards eternal life, it is the eternal destination that characterises the culmination of this journey on earth.

Death is just the horizon beyond which we are not able to see what really exists; for if we see, there is no more place for hope (Rom 8:24). All that we see is the Risen Lord, who lives with us and lights our path. And in the Risen Lord is our hope. We hope, to see every one of our brothers and sisters gone before us, united in the Risen Lord, as do the saints we celebrated yesterday. Our prayer today is that these brothers and sisters of ours join their ranks and that we, at the end of our journey, join that wonderful family, the family that is founded on faith, united in love and kept alive in hope! 

It is this hope that makes us truly Christian, everyday!