Arise, run and endure!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

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

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

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

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

Who is your hero?

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

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

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

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

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

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