One People of God - the Peace effect

WORD 2day - Tuesday, Fifth week in the Eastertide

April 30, 2024 - Acts 14: 19-28; John 14: 27-31

I am the vine and you are the branches - that is the wish that the Risen Lord has with respect to us. It is in being united in the Lord that we become one people, one people of God. This note that the Word gave us last Sunday, continues through this week, reminding us of the varied effects this "remaining" one with the Lord can create within us. Yesterday we spoke of the Spirit effect, and today we reflect on the Peace effect. 

When we are united with and united in the Lord, we experience what is called the peace effect, a peace that the Lord gives. The Lord himself clarifies it is not like the peace that the world gives - that peace which is precarious, fragile, to be handled with utmost care. Instead, the Lord declares: I give you peace, my peace I give you! What would the difference be, that is the point of today's reflection.

Peace that lasts - because it is not constructed on a delicate and bogus structure that looks fancy but lacks any internal substance, feared to collapse anytime, caused by just a word or even a gesture. Instead it is a peace that is built of hardships and sufferings, sweats of blood and interior determination. Everything may pass, this peace shall not!

Peace that spreads - because it is not a flimsily publicised and soon reproached set of principles and contracts. Instead it is built on a covenant, a fidelity that is infallible, the faithfulness of God that follows us forever. It is that steadfastness that guarantees this peace and it inspires people. If the early Christian community which was so much persecuted gained numbers, it was because of this quality of spreading!

Peace that prepares - because it is not just a feel-good experience or a make-shift arrangement for the moment. Instead it prepares us for a greater gift, a much profound mystery - that of the Reign. The peace that the Lord gives is a preparation for, a foretaste of the Reign, because it is founded on righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit. 

Peace be with you!

One People of God - the Spirit Effect

WORD 2day: Monday, Fifth week in the Eastertide

April 29, 2024: Acts 14: 5-18; John 14: 21--26

The Word this Sunday introduced us to a specific theme to be reflected upon this entire week - that we are called to be One People of God, one people united to the Lord, just as the branches are united to the one vine. Branches which thus remain with the vine, bear much fruit and the Word shall speak to us this week about these fruits. The first fruit that we are called to reflect upon today, is the Spirit of the Lord, the Advocate that the Father sends. 

Remain in me, invites our Lord and Saviour and thus remaining in the Lord we shall be blessed with, equipped with, empowered with the Spirit, the Divine Advocate who shall teach us all the truth that we need to know. We know things, we learn things, we discover things in life - but what is important and crucial is to understand how to put to use what we know - saying the right word, taking the right decision, and making the right choice at the right time;  that is a special gift of the Spirit. That is what the Risen Lord promises to the people formed out of the experience of Resurrection, the easter people.

We possess knowledge and capacity, we grow in them... but it is only the Spirit who inspires us to give the due place to the One who gives these as a gift to us. How many we do see around, who possess knowledge and capacity, but end up far away from God, totally fallen in their ways! The reason is that they do not allow the Spirit of the Lord to work in them. Today we see Paul and Barnabas in the first reading, who were deified as gods Zeus and Hermes because of the marvels! They could have conveniently basked in that glory and made a career out of it, as many a person we see in today's context do. But what did they do - they knew what to choose! They make people understand to whom all glory has to be given - not to them, but to that One Almighty God! 

The Spirit effect was there in them; they knew who really mattered and what Truth really is! One People of God, are One in the Spirit and they never clamour for the centre, the focus and the limelight. They give praise to God and offer everything to God, making everything refer to One God, as One People. 

ONE PEOPLE OF GOD

 

People of One Flock - the Rapport!

WORD 2day - Saturday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 27, 2024 - Acts 13: 44-52; John 14: 7-14

I am in the Father and the Father is in me - a powerful statement indeed by Jesus. Earlier in the same Gospel of St. John Jesus would have proclaimed: the Father and I are one! This is what set Jesus apart from the great prophets and the rabbi that they had; and made him so difficult for the Jews to understand. They were until then, unaware of a rapport so close with the Father. The utmost they could imagine was that of Moses: the Lord spoke to him face to face, as with a friend! Jesus takes that a step ahead and they were scandalised. 

There is nothing to be scandalised... Acts of the Apostles today presents to us another instance where the so-called traditional "chosen people" were scandalised - when God chose to reveal Godself to the so-called pagans! We must turn to the pagans, Paul and Barnabas proclaim boldly, because the Goodnews cannot be contained. It has to be announced, it has to be spread, it has to be shared, it has to be received, it has to be communicated... making everyone people of the One Flock, people who have heard the Goodnews and accepted it. 

God is love, God is relationship... God reaches out. That is why there has been revelation constantly. Through the ages God spoke to us through prophets and the leaders, and in the final times, God has spoken through God's only Son... the Word of God, Godself made human person, who lived among us and died for us, saving us for eternal life, making us people of the One Flock. We would therefore naturally be people who relate, who would reach out, who would go out to meet the other and bring everyone into that relationship of love and acceptance. Because, we have been made people, we have been made one people, we have been made people of the one flock, by that relationship, by that rapport that God has willed to share with us. 

People of One Flock - acknowledging the Absolute

WORD 2day - Friday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 26, 2024 - Acts 13: 26-33; John 14: 1-6

Reflecting on being constituted as people of the One Flock by the One Saviour and Shepherd, the Word today tells us we can be worthy of that identity only in as much as we acknowledge the absoluteness of the One who has called us, chosen us and has made us into His own - today I have become your father, you are my beloved children.

We may have a myriad of dreams and multitude of projects, there is nothing wrong in it. In fact, that is the way we celebrate life, the greatest of gifts given to us. But beyond all the plans and projects, dreams and ambitions, there should be an unassailable conviction that the Lord alone is the absolute. It is the Lord who moves us, animates us and guides us. Without the Lord, we are nothing; it is in the Lord that we live, move and have our being. Can we really belong to God, if we do not ackowledge this fact?

The human pride and our bloated ego do not permit this acknowledgement - they smudge our clarity of thought and make our vision distorted, making us unduly reliant on our own capacity and blindly addict to our personal glory. This not only mars our relationship with God the true Absolute, but also with our brothers and sisters, pitching them unnecessarily against us and our self-image.

If we have to really become the One flock that we are, we need to accept that Jesus is our way, the truth and the life - that God is the Absolute, revealed to us in Christ our One Shepherd. It is not about giving God what is due to God, for we are nobody to give God anything for that matter. Everything belongs to God and no one gives or adds anything to God. It is about knowing and being convinced about whom we follow and whose flock we belong to. We are people of the One flock, because God has chosen us: you are my children, my people!

Did Mark ever see Jesus?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

April 25, 2024: Celebrating St. Mark the Evangelist

1 Peter 5: 5-14; Mark 16: 15-20

Did Mark ever see Jesus? That's possible. But most probably, only as a young lad. They say, it is probable that Mark is referring to himself in "the young man" who left behind his garment and ran when Jesus was being taken prisoner (Mk 14:51,52). These are only probabilities. 

The documented information of him that we have is that he had been one of the prominent among the second generation apostles. He was taught by Peter, he accompanied Paul and Barnabas and he wrote the Gospel - these are facts we have!

Today celebrating the feast of this great apostle Mark, we are given with three lessons to reflect on.

1. Let us be enthusiastic about the proclamation of the Good news by facilitating or helping or supporting or encouraging those who are involved in this task. We see in the Acts of the Apostles that John Mark and his mother Mary, were regularly hosting groups of Christians who gathered to pray... they were promoters of faith.

2. Let us be diligent in our dedication and simple in our disposition when we are required by others, to accompany them. Peter took Mark with him, Paul asks John Mark to be brought along, Barnabas decided to take Mark along on an important journey... Mark was a promising servant of the Lord... a person who was unassumingly ready to accompany.

3. Let us write the Gospel today. We are called to be Gospel writers just as Mark was called to be. The fifth Gospel that we are called to write is our life itself and as it if often remarked: who knows, that could be the only Gospel read by some people! We are called not only to be proclaimers, but also to be the proclamation!

May young St. Mark inspire us today to be enthusiastic Evangelisers wherever we are.

People of One Flock - listening to the Word

WORD 2day: Thursday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 24, 2024 - Acts 12:24- 13:5; John 12: 44-50

The word itself that I have spoken will be the judge on the last day, declares Jesus in the Gospel today underlining the importance of the Word in the making of the people of his flock. He insists on that even figuratively in the parable he gave us about the flock: my own know my voice and they follow me! Hearing the Word, listening to It and making It the light to the path of one's life - is a way of life proposed for the flock of the One Lord. 

What does listening to the Word mean, concretely? The Word clarifies that to us in the Word today. The first reading reports to us about the call from the Word - to set apart Paul and Barnabas. The Word said the apostles did. That is true listening. Jesus teaches us that in the Gospel: he says, what my Fathers says, I do; so you are called to do what I say. It is thus we become the One flock after the heart of the Shepherd. 

There are two elements to note here: that God's call continuously keeps appealing to us and that we are called to act accordingly or respond to it appropriately. First is an element of faith and the second is an element of mission. They go together - believing and doing, believing and living, believing and following! That is the sign of the flock of the Lord - to listen and to believe; to believe and to follow; to follow and to live. 

People of One Flock - being Christians

WORD 2day - Tuesday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 23, 2024 - Acts 11: 19-26; John 10: 22-30

Those who followed Christ were called Christians for the first time in Antioch - we are given to reflect on this occasion in the first reading today. This event and the Christian experience at Antioch offer us some very fundamental lessons to behold. 

Firstly, it is not only that we are one people because we are called by the one Lord, in one faith but more importantly, we cease to be people called by the Lord when we are not one people! The moment we find reasons to divide and to discriminate, we cease to be the people of the one flock. 

Secondly, it is no merit of ours to call ourselves "Christians" and others as not, it has to be the others to call us so, and give us that title - Christians, because we live up to that name. Antioch, we read today, was the first place also where the message was taken to the Greeks - beyond the confines of the Jews. No wonder, the people were found worthy of the name 'Christians'.

Thirdly, 'Christian' is not a name, it is a description, an attribute, a qualification. We need to earn that title, that attribute, that qualification, by our lifestyle, by our perspectives, and by our priorities. People around us need to notice and be struck by our "being" Christians and "becoming" Christians more and more every day. 

We are a people of the one flock, called by the one Lord and schooled by the one Lord - is it not right that we grow up in that one lifestyle presented to us: being Christians! 

People of One Flock - through one Gate

WORD 2day - Monday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 22, 2023 - Acts 11: 1-18; John 10: 1-10

Jews and pagans - this week the Word will present to us how this distinction was overcome gradually after the Resurrection experience. It was not neither natural nor an easy process - it had its moments of terrible resistance and inacceptance. However, there was no other way because the Spirit of the Risen Lord was categorical - it has to be one flock of the one shepherd. 

Jesus declared that even while he was with his followers - I am the gate of the sheepfold and all the people of God have to enter through this gate. The single name given to us for our salvation as the Word reminded us yesterday - that is what Jesus meant by the metaphor of the gate of the sheepfold. I am the way to the Father, in other words, is what Jesus taught them. Children of the One Father, flock of the One Shepherd, the people of the One flock!

Today, at times when we still speak like the pre-Resurrection people: we and they, we and the others... it is so indicative of what we need to till learn, and of where we need to still grow in our maturity. Our faith is not something that differentiates or divides us from the other, but it urges us to move towards them, to embrace them, the reach out to them. This is what it means to become the Church that goes forth... and this can happen if and only if we realise we have all come to know the Father, through that one Saviour; and we are made one people, through that one Gate, the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.  

PEOPLE OF ONE FLOCK

People of the Light - the choice!

WORD 2day: Saturday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 20, 2024 - Acts 9: 1-20; John 6: 52-59

People of the light are drawn by God and they are transformed - the Word highlighted this to us, the past two days. If they are drawn and transformed, they should show some sign of it. And the sign is their choice, their absolute, unswerving choice, for God and for a life in God. If it were Paul yesterday, it is Peter today, presented to us by the Liturgy of the Word, soliciting our attention on the aspect of choosing God to truly belong to God.

Peter's statement in the Gospel today: "Lord, who shall we go to?", is an expression of such a choice, a choice of absolute nature. Even if everyone else leaves you, we shall not, because you mean much more than anything or anyone else. This absolute choice is highly demanding. It can destroy everything else that one could think of as a source of meaning or basis of sense in life. Peter, Paul, and every other messenger chosen by God, drawn by God and transformed by the Message, is a living illustration of this choice.

What happens when that choice is concretised? Aeneas and Tabitha stand witnesses to the effect that can be  seen. Just as Jesus said - the one who believes in me shall accomplish all I do, and even more than that. We see a stark resemblance in the narration of these signs accomplished by Peter, to those that we can see in the Gospel where Jesus said to the crippled: pick up your mat and walk (Jn 5:8), and to the little girl: talitha koum (Mk 5:41). 

The key is the choice! The people of the Light are those who have chosen God, God's Son, God's Message above everything else in life. If we are among those, we shall certainly see the signs of it in our life. Let our words today, from our hearts be: Lord to whom shall we go, you have the Words of eternal life, and we believe in you. You have chosen us; and we wish to choose you above all.  

People of the Light - transformed

WORD 2day - Friday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 19, 2024 - Acts 9: 1-20; John 6: 52-59

The Light infact blinds us, only to make us see everything more clear and more resplendent. That is what we see in the experience of Paul, or any other apostle or disciple. When they encountered the Risen Lord, they were blinded, they could not really get what they were seeing, but very soon, they began to see everything in a new light... because they were transformed; people of the Light are transformed, they begin to see everything new, clear and renewed. 

Transformation here could mean three important internal experiences of a person: conversion, renewal and proaction.

We see Saul who turns away from his past, with an absolute detachment to the old ways of life. Jesus' call to his followers was a break from the past too - they had to unlearn what the old bread meant and behold the new bread that was being offered. That required accepting the challenge of transformation. Conversion, as a definitive break from a tendency that keeps us away from our way to perfection is an essential first step towards transformation.

Paul becomes a new man, all new that he was able to proclaim, "I live, but not I, it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). Is it not what Jesus promised too: he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him? Transformation is not about touching up some corners of our life, but being born anew, becoming a new person, a total Renewal into Christ every time we encounter the Risen Lord in intimacy.

We see a sense of urgency in the transformed Paul. He is emphatically dedicated towards preaching Christ without lamenting or crying over the forgettable past. Whoever eats me will draw life from me, says Jesus - a new life, a new way of life, a new meaning to life. Transformation is all about this Proaction - it is not explaining to all what has happened to me, but letting my actions speak, letting my life manifest the new lease of life in me. 

People of the Light are transformed people, with an enviable experience of conversion, renewal and proaction. Are we?

People of the Light - drawn

WORD 2day - Thursday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 18, 2024 - Acts 8: 26-40; John 6: 44-51

No one can come to me unless he oe she is drawn by the Father who sent me - this teaching of Christ explains to us who could become people of the Light:  those who are drawn by the Lord. This experience of "being drawn" is what we exactly mean by the conviction, faith is a gift; not everyone gets to have it. 

First of all the persons should feel drawn: those who have a disposition from within, feel drawn by the Lord. Just as the Ethiopian minister who we meet in the first reading today, who was eager to know something, who was reading to get to know. The Lord uses that disposition, to draw the person to Godself. This is the stage of realisation. The Minister felt drawn. The people were fed with the bread from heaven, and here they see, in the Gospel, the Bread from heaven feeding them!

Secondly, persons should wish to draw closer: this is the part of the personal response to what the Lord wishes to do to us. The Minister asking Philip to get in and sit by his side, and imploring him to explain the Word, is a response, a clear and definitive respose of a yes to draw near to the Lord who is drawing the person to himself. Difficulty in understanding things beyond our minds, not really getting to see the spiritual sense of the things happening in our life, could be reasons enough to turn us away from God, but not so with those who are drawn by God!

Thirdly, persons stay close to God and draw others to God: this is the part of resolve, to taste the Lord and share that with the world around. Anyone who eats of this bread will live forever and there is a net difference seen in the life of these persons drawn by God and those who let themselves be drawn. They become ambassadors of this eternal life that resides in God. They are already taught by God to hear the teaching, feel drawn, actively draw closer and stay close to God drawing others to God and to God's Reign. 

People of the Light - finding the Way

WORD 2day - Wednesday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 17, 2024 - Acts 8:1-8; John 6: 35-40

It is the Father's will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, declares Jesus today and that is what the people of the Light are. They are in the Light and they see the Light; seeing the Light, they find the Way. The people of the Light shall find the way, even where there seems to be none, because they have the Way with them - the Way, the Light and the Truth, the Risen Lord. 

The acts of the apostles reports that people where dispersed, but wherever they where scattered they announced the Word; they were not a group of desolate persons lost in diaspora but were like seeds that were scattered...giving rise to life wherever they found themselves. This is finding the way...they found it without problem, because they were people of the light. 

Jesus' call to eat of him and receive eternal life is a call to find this Light, that is himself. To find our existence in him, to find our life in him, that our life and our existence will discover the gift of eternity that we have in God and from God. Faith, therefore, is not merely knowing and understanding what it means to be  people of God, instead it is finding the Light that sustains our lives every moment - that even in moments of "being scattered" we could be persons who could offer light to the world around us.

People of the Light - heavenward

WORD 2day - Tuesday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 16, 2024 - Acts 7:51-8:1; John 6:30-35

The characteristic trait of people of the Light, presented for our reflection by the Word today, is being heavenward! 

Being heavenward is not a negation of the present, nor is it belittling of the gift of life that we possess here and now. It is a recognizance of the fact that we are meant for an experience and a destination that is beyond, beyond everything that we can think of or imagine. That is why we are reminded by the Word elsewhere that we have our true home in heaven! 

The people of the Light are heavenward, in as much as it matters nothing to them who and what can destroy their life here below. Stephen today with his courage and valour, testifies to the convicting Spirit with no fear of anything. After all his Master had taught them, do not be afraid of those who can destroy only your body but submit to Him who can give you eternal life. 

The people of the Light are heavenward, in as much as they are able to see through the various events of life the miraculous hand of heaven. They are not curtailed by the apparent, they see beyond and observe the ultimate truth that can be revealed only by the Light - just as Jesus teaches the people in the Gospel, that they need to look beyond Moses, to see the real Love that was burning for them.

The people of the Light are heavenward, in as much as they are able to trace their way to heaven through every ordinary step in their daily life. That is the type of faith that the Lord invites us to. To walk consciously every day, and to take every step with mindfulness that God is with us and God is directing us in ways known only to God. Not to fret in anxiety and at the same time not to drag on in lethargy, but to remain open and attentive to the Word and the voice of the Lord, that is being heavenward. 

People of the Light - in Wisdom

WORD 2day - Monday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 15, 2024 - Acts 6: 8-15; John 6: 22-29

The Liturgy yesterday presented to us the importance of the light from the face of the Lord to shine upon us: it is lumen fidei, the light of faith that the Risen Lord makes shine on us, that we become children of the God. When the light of faith shines on us, we the people of resurrection, we turn into people of the Light - and that is what we are, the people of the Light. 

The Word this week shall speak to us about the characteristics of the people of the Light of the Risen Lord, that is the tenstimonies of the Risen Lord who are filled with the light of faith. The first characteristic that the Word today points us to is: Wisdom. Stephen, the first known martyr for the Gospel, is presented to us as a person filled with wisdom: they found they could not get better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said. 

Our minds now turn to this great gift of Wisdom: how do we understand that? The easiest way to comprehend wisdom would be through another great gift that is closely related to it: knowledge. How do we differentiate these two: knowledge and wisdom? Knowledge is possessing the required data... knowing, being informed and having the necessary data is an important aspect of faith. But more crucial is the gift of wisdom, which is the capacity to use the data in the right manner, the capability to draw the right inspiration from the information that I possess, the competence to convert the data that I have to right principles for life. Wisdom is manifested in the right choices that one makes. 

This is what Jesus exhorts from those who followed him allover. Do not work for food that cannot last, work for food that endures to eternal life - he said. Knowing what is eternal and making a choice for it, makes me relativise everything else in life. Food and necessities, identity and achievements, status and positions... they are all good motives that can take one's life forward, but not sufficient to take one upto salvation. It is wisdom to know what truly matters, and choose the Lord above all.

THE PEOPLE OF THE LIGHT

The Light of the Risen Lord

Third Sunday in the Eastertide

The Easter Community - centred on the Word

WORD 2day: Saturday, Second week in the Eastertide

April 13, 2024 - Acts 6: 1-7; John 6: 16-21

The Easter community was born of the Word made flesh, who died and  rose again, bringing the new community into existence. In this new birth of the community there were new meanings, new significations, new implications and new world view initiated. There was no dearth of crises, but the new born community had a new vision, that empowered them to approach the crises with calmness. It was the Risen Lord who taught them that. 

The event narrated in the Gospel is one instance where the Lord had taught them these precious lessons: there is nothing to fear about the crises that come your way, they can become means to recognise the Lord; as long as we remain with the Lord, we could be battered by the winds of time, but we will never be blown away; if we remain with the Lord we will hear the Word right amidst the confusion - Do not be afraid, it's I! 

Having learnt these from the Lord, the Easter community puts it into practice, when they are faced with one of the earliest problems that arise in the community. The lament of neglect and deprivation from one section of the community, in comparison to another section... how much such laments exist even today. What matters is, that the community responds immediately, adding to its ministries. But what is more important is the fact that they were particular not to lose there foundation...the ministry of the Word.

The centre of the Easter community was the Word, made flesh, who died and rose...they refused to lose sight of it, at any moment of their life and experience. The challenge to today's community is exactly this - how many things, how many interests, how many priorities, how many principles take us to a point where we begin unfortunately to compromise the centre of our faith and identity, the centrality of the Word! 

The Easter Community - Ready to Give

WORD 2day - Friday, Second week in Eastertide

April 12, 2024 - Acts 5: 34-42; John 6: 1-15

One of the characteristic marks of the Easter community highlighted by the Word today, is their capacity and their insistence on giving - giving not just to others and giving not just what they have, but giving to the Lord and giving themselves totally. Nothing did they want to keep to themselves - they sold everything and gave, we heard these days in the Word; but more than that, they did not keep even themselves to themselves! They were ready even to give their lives to the Lord, that is why they were glad and grateful when they could suffer bodily for Christ's sake. 

The Word begins with highlighting the 5 loaves that the boy was ready to give, out of which came an abundance of Grace - giving what one has. It continues with presenting Jesus as the model who was ready to give himself - he is infact setting up the prelude to a long, profound and crucial discourse on the bread that comes down from heaven! The allusion then is to the apostles who were ready to give of themselves totally to the project of their Master and Guide, Jesus the Lord. And finally, becoming the Easter Community, they realise this call, in their readiness to suffer for Christ's name and even give praise to the Lord for the sufferings they endure. A Giving that begins with giving from what one has and grows into giving of oneself to the Lord!

Today, we all over the world, have received the Christian faith and live and express it, thanks to this Easter Community which was ready to give, not just the news that they had received from the Son of God, but their very selves, their lives and all that they were, for the sake of the Reign that was announced by their beloved Rabbuni. Giving - giving to God all that we are, and anything that is expected of us, for the sake of the project that God has - the Reign of God, the fullness of life for all - that is the sign that we are growing into true Easter communities. 

The Easter Community - Filled with the Spirit

WORD 2day - Thursday, Second week in Easter

April 11, 2024 - Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36

We and the Holy Spirit - this phrase that we hear from the apostles today is as intriguing as the fact that these apostles were unstoppable in their proclamation of the Risen Lord. They were no more the ignorant and afraid lot that they were - what made the difference? The Spirit. They were broken in their heart, but God filled them with the Spirit! To those who earnestly ask, "God gives the Spirit without reserve"! That was what had happened with the new community, beginning with the apostles; God had filled them with the Spirit and all that they did, they chose in the Spirit. 

In the Gospel, we see Jesus differentiating between those who are born of the earth and those who are born of the Spirit. The difference lies here: that when we become persons born of the Spirit, we become persons who can challenge anything, persons who can face any crises, persons who would be frightened by nothing or no one! The Sanhedrin had a tough time with the apostles and the new community that was born - because they were not acting alone. They were acting: they and the Holy Spirit. 

This is what they had learnt from their Master and Lord, the Risen Christ. Christ when he lived among this community yet in formation, insisted perennially that all that he did, he did not by himself but in the One who sent  him, through the finger of God, the Spirit who enables everything to be done according to the will of God. It was this teaching and example that the new formed community realised in their own experience: they were doing everything in the Spirit. They were being told what to do, what to say, where to go and where to remain - they did everything; they and the Spirit. 

Today, at times, we have ideas and interests and we go ahead with enthusiasm,  only to soon face with a block and remain stuck. But when we go by what the Spirit wants of us, come what may, we would see the way ahead. Let us therefore resolve to say or to do, everything, we and the Holy Spirit. 

The Easter Community: United to the Lord

WORD 2day: Wednesday, Second week in Eastertide

April 10, 2024 - Acts 5: 17-26; John 3: 16-21

Presenting to us the characteristic marks of the community born out of the Resurrection experience, the Word spoke to us of a community that is united in love. It is not because they are better persons than those that do not form part of this community, but because they have found their new identity in a very special focal point - the Risen Lord. Today the Word insists on this mark, defining the Easter community as that which is united to the Lord and thus in union with each other. 

The apostles are arrested for teaching and preaching about Christ. They are miraculously liberated, only to go back to the people and announce the Risen Lord, once again. They would have been certain that they will be arrested again, but that does not impede them from carrying out the task entrusted to them - to announce and testify to the Risen Lord. They were so united to the Lord that nothing mattered to them more than what the Lord wanted of them. 

No amount of threats and punishments, no measure of harships and persecutions, no extremes of oppression or abandonment, could stop them from speaking out and proclaiming the Risen Lord, because they were a community who "looked towards him and were radiant!" The Angel of the Lord was encamped around them; they had tasted the Lord and nothing could separate them from the Lord. They had to proclaim and bear witness to the Lord!

An easter community is that which is united to the Lord in its core, that nothing else matters other than proclaiming the Lord in word and deed, in life and death, in joy or in pain. The light has come into the world - the sentence is already pronounced: we stay with the Light or not, we choose the Light or not, we are united with the Light or not - it is our choice to decide to be united to the Lord. 

The Easter Community: United in love

WORD 2day: Tuesday, Second week in Eastertide

April 9, 2024 - Acts 4: 32-37; John 3: 7-15

Entire last week, the Word spoke to us about the aftereffects of the Resurrection of Christ - defining to us the people of Resurrection. That aftereffect has to last, and it leads to the formation of a Community. This Community was the Easter Community - this week the Word invites us to reflect on this Community that is born. 

First of all Jesus defines this quality of being born, in fact, being born again. At times there are those non catholic bretheren of our's who speak of this being "born again" as one even or one ritual after which one is born again. It is actually a life style, a new life, being born in the Spirit - explains Jesus through his conversation with Nicodemus. We are called to be born anew, made new persons, formed into a new community, into the Easter Community! What would characterise this community?

The first reading answers that question: what characterises this community is "love", which unites them into one heart and one soul. What was the sign of this: "there was no one among them who was ever in want!" This is one heart and soul; not just words and slogans and utopian jargon! It meant a concrete life style which was built on sensitivity, generosity, reaching out, selflessness, in short, on love, a love that unites. 

A love that is concrete - selling what one has and placing it in common - a love which acts, which changes lives, which means a concrete set of priorities, which places the other before oneself, because all that matters is the call that one has received from the Lord, from the Spirit. The Easter community is marked by their being united in one heart and one soul, in the Spirit. 

THE WILL, THE YES & THE SON

The Solemnity of  Annunciation of the Lord

April 8, 2024 - Isaiah 7: 10-14, 8:10; Hebrews 10: 4-10; Luke 1: 26-38

The Solemnity of Annunciation mostly falls within the season of Lent and the liturgy would invite us to break the lenten journey and celebrate the feast, recognising its importance and significance. This time around, it was Holy Week and owing to the surpassing importance and specificity of the week, we could not celebrate the feast. However, the irreplaceable importance of the feast is brought to our attention, as the Church postpones it to the nearest of the dates available, that is today. 

The feast takes a very special meaning being observed in the Easter Season, as it is the definitive beginning of a series of events which reaches it climax with the Easter... the Christ-event which is the ultimate salvific act of the Creator, reclaiming the entire creation in Christ, the Supreme and the only mediator. We could rest on three key elements that are highlighted in the celebration today: the Will, the Yes and the Son.

The Will that is represented by the Angel Gabriel - the initiation of the Christ-event which happens by the Will of God. It was God's will that the entire universe has to be saved, has to be reconciled to God the Creator, and has to be brought to its fullness. There are so many things that we experience that block and obstruct the fullness of our life, and wholeness of our existence. But there is always hope and the hope rests in the Will of God - that all should arrive at their fullness. God's Will is that we arrive at that wholeness, that fullness, that sanctity, that holiness.

The Yes that is represented by Mary the handmaid - the cooperation of Mary with God's initiative can never be overlooked, it is a pitiful ignorance, if not arrogance, to deny the importance of the "yes" that Mary gave to the Lord. In fact, that yes - brought us peace, brought us salvation and brought  us the wholeness that came with Christ. Mary however, identifies herself as a handmaid, and that is what she remained all her life and that is what she wishes to remain even now! Never did she, nor does she, take the focus away from God and God's Son! The challenge to us is to say that "yes" in our lives too becoming in our own way instuments of God's will here and now. There is a greater challenge that Mary poses - to say that yes in humility and to remain forever servants of the Lord, not seeking the limelight. 

The Son who is represented in the moment of encounter of the Will and the Yes. This is the most powerful message that this feast gives us: the Son becomes alive where the Will of the Father and a yes to that Will meet each other. When God proposes and we dispose ourselves to that initiative, the Son comes alive, the Christ-event come alive, the Reign gets established. Is that not the splendid call that we are reminded of in this Solemnity?

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - LISTENERS OF THE VOICE

Saturday of the Easter week

April 6, 2024 - Acts 4: 13-21; Mark 16: 9-15

We are almost ending this Easter week which continues to give the characteristics of the Easter People - today we have a typical trait: people who listen and obey the voice of God. My own know my voice and they listen to me; those who listen to my father and do what he wants are my mother, my brothers and my sisters - these were clear teachings of Christ. Understanding well what Jesus meant by these words, St. James in simple terms put it: we shall be deceiving ourselves if we only listen to the Word and do not live by it. 

There is a symbiotic relation between the people of Resurrection and the listening to the voice of the Lord. The Apostles realised that only after the Resurrection experience - they would not have said what we hear them say in the first reading today, before the event of Christ's resurrection. We cannot ignore what God tells us for the sake of what you tell us, they declare with courage that they cannot just stop speaking of what they have seen about the Lord and heard from the Lord.  

Here we see three levels of listening to the Voice of the Lord - first is the level of hearing: to read the Scriptures, to listen to teachings and preachings etc.; second is the level of understanding: to not stop with reading and listening but to meditate and reflect and to contemplate the Word through various means; third is the level of living: to put into practice what one has heard, listened to and meditated upon, creating a change from within and in the context around. This is evangelisation in its essence. Go out to the whold world and proclaim the good news says the Lord - if that is what the Lord has told us, can we remain without doing it?

What is important is to discern how we shall do it, how we shall become true listeners of the Voice, how we can become people who listen, understand and live the Word, spreading it thus wherever we are and where we are sent to be people of Resurrection.  

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - SPIRITUAL COURAGE

Friday of the Easter week

April 5, 2024 - Acts 4: 1-12; John 21: 1-14

The Word these days is continuously speaking to us about the characteristics of the people of Resurrection - today we have an undeniable trait to reflect on: Courage. It should not be understood merely as a human valour or a daring spirit. This has to be concevied a bit more profoundly than that - as Spiritual Courage, that we see evidenced in the readings today. 

We come across the disciples, who stand up and speak up, for their mission as announcers, proclaimers of the message left behind by their master and only Saviour, Jesus Christ. They were not always so, we know that very well. They were transformed after the Resurrection and specially after the coming of the Holy Spirit. That is why we can call this Spiritual Courage, not in the sense of contrasting it with a material courage, but to indicate the origin, that this courage came from the Spirit. 

Symbolically, we could find a representaton of the levels of this courage in the Gospel: the first level which can be seen in the act of throwing the net out to starboard even though they did not know who it was that was directing them to do it; the second level is knowing who it is, the fact of knowing the Lord - "it is the Lord" said the beloved disciple; the third level is that which establishes that it is not enough to know, one has to throw oneself into faith, in total enchantment for the Lord, as Peter did - throwing himself and going towards the Lord. 

That  can happen only from the courage that the Spirit gives a spiritual, a Spiritual courage that consists of listening to the Lord even in the most diffilcult of times, of recognising the Lord close and standing in the midst of our lives, and of choosing to reach out and respond to the call of the Risen, thus becoming ourselves the most intimate proclamation of the Lord. 

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - PROCLAMATION

Thursday of the Easter week

April 4, 2024 : Acts 3: 11-26; Luke 24: 35-48

The Word today continues from where it left us yesterday: to think of our identity as people of Resurrection as people who give, who give above all the Lord to the world. This is the identity that is deepened today with the Word - to be the Proclamation. 

Proclamation can be announcing, sharing and becoming what we have to give to the other! It is announcing in as much as we let others know what we possess - the Lord. It becomes sharing when we get closer to persons and share our experience with the Lord that it becomes their experience too. At a deeper level, we become what we possess, that is we become more and more like the Lord whom we wish to proclaim, thus becoming a proclamation ourselves. This is the progressive identity of the People of Resurrection. However, there are some inevitable requirements, if these roles need to be fulfilled. 

First, we cannot announce if we do not know! To know the Lord, to recognise the Lord and to acknowledge the Lord in one's life is the primary requirement for an efficient proclamation of the Lord. The Emmaus disciples are equipped with that recognition to go back and announce!

Secondly, we cannot share, if we do not have! To share the experience of the Lord, one needs to have had that experience. One cannot fake that experience, it will be seen through and it would be a total farce. Real experiences are not described, they are shared. That is why, the experience with the Lord cannot be spoken about, but it has to be shared, that the other begins to as well feel the same experience. The disciples after the Resurrection, possessed the Lord that everytime they shared their experience, people were struck by it... they shared the experience that was being shared - that is true proclamation. 

Thirdly, the proclamation is not complete until we become what we proclaim. Jesus invites his disciples to that... to become his witnesses, not in words and not even in works, but in their lives. He wishes them to become witnesses of the Reign, that can spread the goodnews of God's salvation to the ends of the earth. 

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - GIVING

Wednesday of the Easter Week

April 3, 2024 - Acts 3: 1-10; Luke 24: 13-25

A sign of the people of Resurrection, pointed out by the Word today: Giving. They shall be "giving" people! They give because they have been given; they give because they believe in a God who gives, gives without measure or conditions. Giving is an essential quality of God. God, we know, has always been giving - the whole creation, the gift of our life and everything is a gift from God, right up the only Son of God given up for our salvation. That is why the people of God are identified by their capacity to give! Here we can reflect on this "giving" at three levels:

Firstly, the readiness to give. The act of giving has to be necessarily preceded by the readiness to give. If not, it is obviously a forced giving and it shall bear none of its merits. The people of God are distinguished more by their readiness to give, than by what they give. 

Secondly, the choice of what to give. One significant question that emerges when we think about the readiness to give is, whether the person who is ready to give would have anything to give. Not all who are ready to give, have something to give and on the contrary, not everyone who has something to give, has the readiness to give. Therefore the question is, if the people of the Resurrection are those who give, what do they give - not so much from what they have as from what they are. Self-giving is the characteristic giving of the people of Resurrection - if we have died with him, we shall rise with him too. They are people who are ready to give as the Lord gave, that is, of oneself. And that way, they rise, they are born to new life, in giving of oneself. They recognised the Lord, the Gospel says today, in the breaking of the bread, which was an essential symbol of Christ's self-giving. They immediately recognised it. 

Thirdly, the highest form of giving that the people of Resurrection can practice, is giving the Risen Lord to the other, to the others, to the world. Gold and silver, is not what they are actually called to give, but Christ and the power of Christ. What we have we give, said the apostles at the Beautiful Gate: this is a key to undersand. We can give only what we have - it is an obvious lesson. So, if we are called to give Christ, then we would require to possess Christ; that is, we need to be constantly in touch with the Risen Lord, in order to have the Lord within us and only if we have the Lord, we can give the Lord. People of Resurrection, give, they give of themselves, they give the Risen Lord to the world around. 

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - RECOGNISING AND REALISING

The Tuesday of the Easter Week

April 2, 2024: Acts 2: 36-41; John 20: 11-18

Among the indications of the People of Resurrection, today we have the characteristic trait of recognising the Lord and realising His presence! "I have seen the Lord and he has spoken to me," affirms Mary of Magdala today, in terms so clear and sound. But it took time and effort for her to arrive at that statement, because it was not a statement from history books or from memorised formulae; it was an experience of recognition of the Risen Lord and a realisation of the Lord's presence. 

We see those phases of her recognition of the Lord - when her preoccupation of what "she wanted to do" was so high she was not even clear as to whom she was speaking to: she was all lost in searching for the Lord who was not there according to her; when her accusation, complaint and anger of the other about what they had done to them was so high, she was taking every one around her for someone who had wronged her: even the Lord looked like a stranger and a threat; finally when she listened to the Lord, her eyes were opened to recognise finally the Lord whom she had been seeing all this while - Rabbuni, she exclaimed! She recognised and realised that the Lord has all the time been with her.

The same is expressed by the people in the first reading. They were all the time given the grace of beholding what the Lord was and what the Lord wanted to reveal to them. But their eyes, their hearts and their lives were so filled with what they were occupied with, that they never managed to listen to what they were hearing. Finally, after all that took place with Jesus and then with the disciples, they open their ears and their minds, they listen and they Recognise the Word coming over to them. 

This Recognition is not just a matter of fact or a passing event... it leads to a realisation, a realisation that leads in turn to transformation. People of Resurrection, just as the women, the disciples and the apostles were, are people who recognise and realise, recognise the presence of the Lord and realise what the Lord is doing for them!