Death, defilement or deliberate choices?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spirituality - being true to Christ

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

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

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

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

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