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)!