Seeing and Being Seen

WORD 2day: Thursday, 8th week in Ordinary Time

May 30, 2024 - 1 Peter 2: 2-5,9-12; Mark 10: 28-31

No one is an island. Much so, one cannot live a Christian in isolation... that is the crux of the message today! Because being a Christian involves a lot of seeing and being seen. 

As a Christian, as a disciple of Christ and a son or daughter of God, I need to see myself... that is, look at myself regularly, understand who I really am, and be attentive the inner movements that are taking place within me. Secondly, I need to see things around me, hear the helpless cries of people readily and be touched by it sincerely. I need to see who I am surrounded by and understand clearly why I am wherever I am. I need to see what really matters in a given situation - maintaining the decorum or causing a disorder towards a greater sense of life and love!

That would not suffice, because being a Christian involves being seen a lot too! Being seen as different, as honourable, as trust worthy, as reliable, as outgoing, as sensitive, as dedicated, as capable of true compassion, as persons with a definitive but a different set of priorities, as people who make a difference for the rest of the world around them. Without making a difference, what does it matter if I am follower of Christ or not, if I am a child of God or not?

Seeing and Being Seen - they are both equally important and intrisically interrelated. Our Christian call invites us to learn to see, and be prepared and worthy of being seen, as the One who called us wants from us!

Better check your seed!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 8th week in Ordinary Time

May 29, 2024 - 1 Peter 1: 18-25; Mark 10: 32-45

A tree is known from its fruits, it's true! But the tree depends on its seed. What the seed, so the tree - the Word reminds us today.

The Word today presents to us two crops of people: one an old crop and the other a new crop, a newly born community of persons, born anew in the blood of Christ. The seed of the latter crop is the very blood of Christ! The Question is: which crop do you belong to? Which is your seed?

We see Jesus presenting to us the contrasting mentalities: the popular mentality of dominance and control and the Jesus' mentality of service and collaboration. One will not fit in the other, for they two are contrasting mentalities and the Lord wants us to make a choice and make it known! We see Jesus preparing his disciples in the Gospel, to be a crop of the latter kind. Of course, he finds it tough but he does not mind it and he will never compromise on it.

The challenge is, Jesus expects the same from us - to grow into a community of love, fellowship and service, not a structure of power, authority and dominance. What is that which excites us - power, position and possession? Or compassion, empathy and solidarity? That would define what kind of a community we are, what kind of a tree we are: we better check our seed!

Holiness: constancy and consistency our of conviction

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 8th week in Ordinary Time

May 28, 2024 - 1 Peter 1:10-16; Mark 10: 28-31

From yesterday's call to prove our mettle fitting the Reign, follows today's call to remain holy! 

Holiness is not merely an act, but an attitude; it is not merely a behaviour but a life style; it is not doing a few things in a manner that is considered popularly to be holy, but living our life, every moment of it, in a manner that is Godly. It requires constancy and consistency which are born out of sheer conviction!

We are called to be holy because the one who has called us is Holy, reminds us St. Peter today, resounding in our hearts, the call given in the book of Leviticus (19:1). When we decide for ourselves and choose to embark upon a sincere journey of holiness, Jesus promises us beautiful things - things that make us secure, persons who love and admire us, protection of God almighty that would guide us - but along with this, persecution... and ofcourse at the end of it all, eternal life, of which we partake already here and now by virtue of our Baptism!

Hence, the choice is ours: to choose God, remain in God and persevere through all trials or to give up and choose the desires of ignorance, as explained in the first reading, and lose our original identity and the dignity of children of God! Let us remember, salvation is not some magical act that the Lord performs for us, but it is our 'growing into heaven'. It is our daily maturity, by our constant faith, persistent hope and unfailing love - it is our choice for holiness, expressed in our constance and consistency, born out of personal interior conviction!

The Test by Fire

WORD 2day: Monday, 8th week in Ordinary Time

May 27, 2024 - 1 Peter 1: 3-9; Mark 10: 17-27

We need to prove our mettle, to say literally, we need to prove our metal! We need to prove that we are gold, when it comes to our dedication to the Lord. The days are such that compromises are not only permitted, they are the order of the day. Having compromises that do not glare at the face, is cosidered to be a special competence to be developed in the current society. That is, one is encouraged to become an expert in compromising one's values, without making major breakages. We need to adapt to the context we live in, they say. 

But can this be ever true, with the Lord? Never! With the Lord, even a minor compromise is a major breakage. This is the challenging factor of living our faith and our call. Every faithfulness is a demand that we be tested in fire, the fire of daily struggles and unceasing temptations. What comes out is gold... the problem is many a times we do not come out, we fall and we get drowned! That is why we are warned today by the Word to be attentive

We are called to be careful, atttentive, conscious, aware and vigilant, because without our knowledge we would have slid into a situation of compromise. And by the time we realise it, we are far into it. We cannot lose our focus. Go, sell everything - that was a prerequisite that Jesus gave for following him. At times, we are ready to follow Jesus, but we wish to hold on to what we have - our ego, our self glory, our achievements, our titles, our so-called trophies - we refuse to sell them, nor give them away! We think we can follow the Lord even carrying these on our shoulders and our minds! What a folly, and we complain that people are losing their fascination with faith! May be our lives are not fascinating enough, for the others to see the gold shining!

Let us be vigilant, for the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion!

MOST HOLY TRINITY - THE EPITOME OF RELATIONALITY

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

May 26, 2024 - Deuteronomy 4:32-34,39-40; Romans 8:14-17; Matthew 28:16-20

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! Beginning everything in the name of the Triune God is a holy and happy tradition that we have been raised in, and it is something that should never be lost too, in order that we do not lose the very essence of our baptismal calling. Not only because we are made in the image and likeness of the Trinitarian God, nor merely because we are baptised in their Holy Names, but also because the very Christian experience of God's Self-revelation right from the very beginning and all that we believe in, draw their essence from the Most Holy Trinity. 

The more our human search for meaning deepens itself and varied experiences of problems and possibilities widen our horizons, the more we are brought to understand the fundamentality of relationality, be it in our day to day living or in the overall universal consciousness. And what other model can we have better than the Most Holy Trinity whom we celebrate today, which can be considered the epitome of relationality. The solemnity we celebrate today and the liturgy of the Word this day, offer us a splendid insight to understand our identity and call, as Christians, as people united by the Spirit and as children of the One God who has come across to us all through history, as a God who relates!

The Relating Person of God - Revelation

The first reading brings to our attention a God who relates, a God who relates in the sense of revealing Godself to us. This is exactly what Moses brings to the mind of the people of God, telling them that they have been chosen! That is a privilege indeed to be chosen; but it is also an onus placed on us to remain worthy of it, because when we can be chosen to state, we could lose that state likewise too! God has chosen us, to reveal Godself to us: God relates Godself to us. That is the greatest of all gifts that we as spiritual beings can every receive - to know our source, our origins, our maker and the one who animates us. 

God does not do that in any sense of domination or monopoly, and that is the most holistic aspect of a lifegiving relationship. There is freedom, respect and mutual affirmation involved in such a relationship. God has chosen us, not in the sense of having us caged within a perspective or a world view. God has chosen us and chooses to await our free and personal response to that choice. In that God has made Godself a bit vulnerable too; we could reject the offer, as did the people in history, as do people even today, as do we sometimes in our choices!

The Relating Spirit of God - Regeneration

The God who thus reveals Godself, empowers us with God's own Spirit of relationship with God - as God's sons and daughters, a sense of being the children and not mere servants; "if we are children we are heirs as well," says St. Paul. With all the temptations and crises that surround us in responding to the call that we have from God, we are called and empowered to share the glory of God, the glory of being related to God, the glory of relating to God. God not only reaches out to us, but empowers and enables us to reach back to Godself. This is regeneration, that we are reinstated from whatever state we have reached, to the native state of being children, being heirs of God. 

The Spirit renews and regenerates, relates once again to the God from whom we have our being. It is the Spirit who speaks within us, sparks our minds and ignites our hearts to seek God, in an attempt to find the very meaning of our existence and the purpose of our everyday life. Our relatedness to God, and the rediscovery of it, is the regeneration that we all stand in need of in our personal, familial and ecclesial lives. That we grow to be that people of God, who are mindful of who we are and from whom we come and to whom we shall return. 

The Relating Son of God - Reaching-Out  

Jesus, the Son of God, the Christ, the Paschal Lamb is the utmost of God's revelation as a God who reaches out, and who does not stop with that, but impels us to reach out too! The Gospel presents to us the parting commission that Jesus gave to us, his disciples, apostles and beloved brothers and sisters - co-heirs with him! If we are to be co-heirs, we have to share in everything: as much in sufferings and commitments, as in the glory and the Reign. Being children of the relating God, we cannot close ourselves within, we cannot not reach out. Reaching out to the other, is an essential part of being a Christ-ian. 

Go therefore! You believe, go therefore. You relate to God, go therefore. You have been chosen, go therefore. You have experienced the Lord, go therefore. Our encounter and relationship with God, is not to remain with it and on the basis of it, sit on judgement on others or the rest of the world. It is a commission to go therefore! To go in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, with an assurance that we are given: the Relating God is always with us, relating to us, empowering us to relate to God and enjoing us to relate to our brothers and sisters - relating to them about our relationship with God, relating to them in the Spirit that unites us and relating to them the glories we have encountered in Christ the Son and our Saviour. 

May the Most Holy Trinity the epitome of Relationality, help us today to understand the profound call we have received to relate, to build our communities into a bond of loving relationships and this world into a heaven of relationships. 

All glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever! 

Reign of God - a child's play!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 7th week in Ordinary Time

May 25, 2024 - James 5:13-20; Mark 10:13-16

Referring to something as a 'child's play,' we intend to say it is an easy task, or a no taxing job, or an uncomplicated project! The underlying fact is that it can be done by the adults, with their eyes shut, or their hands down! It is the classical despise of humanity for children as dependent and immature. 

In contrary terms, today Jesus calls the Reign of God a child's play... but meaning to drive home to us how difficult it is for the grown ups to arrive at it! There is this insistent call of Jesus to become like children, to have the heart of the children, to grow to be children!

The qualities that are underlined here by the first reading and the Gospel are: innocence of heart, unsophisticated dependence on God and non judgmental relationships! These are the very things we lose as we grow up: we become hypocrites at heart, complicated and self righteous in our rapport with God, self centred and calculative in our relationships. The challenge to us is remaining a child in these counts, which will alone make us worthy of the Reign of God. And that is why it is a child's play, not a grown up's game!

Can we grow up to be children, to be children of the Reign?

Being Christians Today

CELEBRATING MARY, THE HELP OF CHRISTIANS

Feast of Mary Help of Christians: 24th May, 2024

Mary Help of Christians, is a title that has been attributed our Blessed Mother right from the second century, but got its prominence in the 16th century and made popular in the 19th century! Looking at the historical significance of the title directly connected to the 16th century battle of Lepanto and the exile of the Pope in the 19th century, we tend to think today, that this title comes alive as the battle against the Christians is thickening all over the globe.

The vandalisms reported in many places on churches, on the faithful, on the very texture of harmony of India and worldwide, are a direct challenge to those who wish to live their Christian faith today. Apart from that, there are forces from within and external to the Catholic Church which seem to wage a war against the faith that has always been tested through the times. Speaking particularly about India, we seem to be marching towards a future that holds for us more and more troubles and testing, hypothesizing with the present run of the course. Against this background, Mary Help of Christians, is a title that is apt today and it calls for three immediate actions on our part as Christians: 

UNITE as Christians under One Lord who has called you!

UNTIE the knots that keep you locked from each other and establish seamless relations!

UNDERSTAND the true faith and its holistic meaning, beginning to live your faith everyday! 

May Mary Help of Christians, help us Christians today, to live true to our faith!

Haves and havenots - on a slippery ground!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 7th week in Ordinary Time

May 23, 2024 - James 5: 1-6; Mark 9: 41-50

Where your treasures are, there your heart will be, Jesus warned us well. The Word today insists that our treasures cannot be in our money bags or safety lockers! Wealth, of course is a blessing, the same can become a curse too, if it is not kept in its place! Much more radically thinking, the Word poses a fundamental question - who are truly "haves" and who are the "havenots"?

It is not only simplistic but even unwise to have an obvious answer to it in terms of wealth, possession and comforts hoarded. Someone who seems to have everything, might have really lost something basic that gives any meaning to life. Someone who has not, for the eyes of the world, might have something that no one can take note of - a solid sense of meaning in life. Is that not possible?

However, at times, unfortunately not merely at times but very often today, we see that persons with money are able to get what they want, without much ado! Even the judicial system lets them roam free despite their wrongdoings, merely because they have the money-power! Persons think they have everything when they have the money... but for how long? Would that money take us all the way? By the time one realises that he or she has over-depended on the wealth that is possessed, the person could be in a position from where he or she would not be able to undo the past mistakes! 

Isn't it high time, anytime in life, that we understand, placing our entire confidence on wealth and possession would make us tread on a slippery ground? The clarity on whom we depend is what will make us truly the people of God. 

Poor in Spirit, depend on God

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 7th week in Ordinary Time

May 22, 2024 - James 4: 13-17; Mark 9: 38-40

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:3). How do we understand the expression 'poor in spirit'? The Word today has a simple description: they depend on God. Two traits that are enlisted as opposition or rebellion to God are Pride and Jealousy! Pride claims illegitimate credits for things; Jealousy detests anyone being better in comparison to me.

James hits out against pride, which claims that we are in control of our entire life! I know of a person who has written down what he would be doing the next 25 years in succession! One thing is to have a plan, while it is totally another matter to be too sure about taking control of everything!

Jesus speaks of jealousy in subtle manner, without hurting the sentiments of his own apostles. He instructs them about not monopolising the role of being God's instruments! Anyone could be used by God, just as you could be! When you are used by God for God's purposes, rejoice and be glad. When someone else is used by God, give praise to God all the same! This comes from two important qualities we need to develop: stop comparing and place God at the centre, not yourself!

When we work out of these two temptations - of pride and jealousy, we would be well on our way to sanctity... for that is a sign that we depend on God, that we are poor in spirit, and the Reign of God belongs to us! 

The Battle Within

WORD 2day - Tuesday, 7th week in Ordinary Time

May 21, 2024: James 4:1-10; Mark 9:30-37 

We return to the Ordinary time after quite a while, and Word straightaway leads us to a reflection on the need to being faithful to our call on a normal basis, on a daily basis, without needing to have a special occasion to celebrate and manifest it. 

The discussion today is on a fundamental theme of our everyday life: the battle within. Both James and Jesus through the Word today, speak to us of the important battle that keeps waging within us, which determines much of the battles around us. The self seeking, self centered and self focused egoism, twists and twirls all our priorities and thus wrongly motivates our choices.

The worst of the conditions that we find today is the way the society prioritises. What is wrong if one thinks of one's own self fulfillment? The justification in terms of God-given capabilities and bringing them to their perfection is another rationalisation of this ego feeding. The Self or the Ego is being enshrined at the centre of human life as the most sacred thing that has to be preserved, promoted and pleased! Is this not idolatry? Some are so worried about use of images and icons as being idolatrous, while they make of themselves saviours, mouth pieces of God, indispensable dispensers of the god-element, the doorways to god and so on...

The question is clear today: have you compromised on the place given to God in your life? Is God the first priority in your life? Is God, God's plan and God's will the most important criterion in all the choices you make? If it is so, then you are on a winning streak in the battle within... Kudos! March on!

MARY, THE WOMAN, THE MOTHER!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May 20, 2024: Celebrating Mary the Mother of the Church

Genesis 3: 9-15,20; John 19: 25-34

Six years ago, in 2018, Pope Francis instituted this memorial, bringing to our attention a fact that has been celebrated right from the origins of the Church - naturally because Mary had a very special place in the hearts and homes of the disciples and the apostles as the Mother of their loving Master, Jesus Christ. It was a God-willed fact, because as we celebrated yesterday, the Father willed that she was among the Apostles when the Spirit came down upon them, as the Advocate sent by the Son. It is also a Christ-willed grace, as it was Jesus who gave her to us, the Church, as our Mother: behold your mother. 

One Word that can be easily seen repeated and seen as the link between the readings today is, Woman! There are three senses to that term in the Word today. The first sense is the human person that Eve was, the wife that she was. When Adam refers to her as his woman, and God-given woman, he speaks of her as his other half, his counterpart. Mary is that - a woman, a person like us, but God-given. 

The second sense is the Woman that God promises, whose seed shall strike the head of the enemy. That Woman is not anyone, but chosen by God and promised by God. Mary is not just one among us, but she was chosen by God, prepared by God and appointed by God to bear that One who would strike the enemy for the sake of our Salvation. Mary is that woman - a chosen instrument in our Salvation. 

The third sense is the Woman presented to John, as Mother. That Woman is not just woman, but mother; one who loves us, protects us, cares for us and nurtures and educates us. That is a Mother. When John took her home, she brought her to us, into our lives and into our daily struggles, that we may strive to remain faithful to the gift of salvation we are given as a Church, as children of God and as People of God. 

Mary, the Woman, the Mother, is our pioneer, our model and our guardian and she shall inspire and lead us to be forever, the Church, the People of God. 

PEOPLE OF THE SPIRIT

Solemnity of Pentecost: 19th May 2024

A day when we have to wish the Church, happy birthday!...and as every birthday is a day of reminder to grow up, to mature.. also for the Church today is a day of reminder to grow up and mature as the Reign of God, the ultimate purpose of the Community of faith on earth. The Church does not exist for herself, taught Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on 19th Feb 2012. The Vatican Council II instructed us the same truth, while saying the Church exists to proclaim and plant the seeds of the Reign of God. The reminder comes from the first instances of the birth of the Church... the event of the coming of the Spirit. Today for the Church and for every Christian to grow up and mature, the presence of the Spirit is indispensable.

How do we recognise the presence of the Spirit? There are three signs suggested by the Feast today, to ascertain the presence of the Spirit.

1st Sign: COMMUNION 

The first sign of the presence of the Spirit is Communion. When they spoke in various tongues, every one understood in their own language. The first gift of the Spirit is the 'oneness of heart and mind' that is achieved by the gift of UNDERSTANDING. Where there is division for the sake of ego and personal opinion, where there is manipulation for the sake of having one's ways, the Spirit is absent! Any division of the hearts of the children of God is created by the evil spirit! Communion, the fruit of Understanding, does not in anyway mean a homogeneous uniformity. It is a divine blending of differences. Yes, the Communion offered by the Spirit is born out of a RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCES which are appreciated as the richness that is so natural in the very creation of God, the differences that are brought in a harmonious symphony by the Spirit.

One who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, uses the gift of UNDERSTANDING that arises from an authentic RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCES, to bring the people of God together, as community of people with one heart and one spirit.

2nd Sign: COMMISSION 

The second sign of the Spirit's presence is Commission. A commissioning which begins with a CALLING... as we are called into one community in the Risen Lord, called to be children of God who call out, 'Abba Father'. This calling does not end with a domestic understanding of being children cuddling at home, but a call that fills us with the FIRE OF MISSION, for we are not filled with the Spirit of cowardice to fall into fear, but the Spirit of adoption that urges us on to go forward and live a life of witness, that is bold and befitting the one who called us.

One who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, is aware of the CALLING that one has received and is courageous to bear witness to that calling with the FIRE OF THE MISSION, that burns from within as Jeremiah says.(Jer 20:9)

3rd Sign: COMPASSION 

The third and the most fundamental sign of the presence of the Spirit is COMPASSION, without which the very name 'Christian' has no meaning absolutely. Compassion is an active form of LOVE, the only expectation that the Lord has from us - to love each other as the Lord loves us. Love, is not a mere feeling but a feeling with, it is feeling with the other, what the other feels. While speaking of the Early Christians it was said they were of one mind and one heart - that was love. While St. Paul instructs, 'Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn' (Rom 12:15). That is true Christian love, that is the way that the Lord loved us. To love is to LIVE LIKE JESUS. Fundamentally, this is what the Spirit enables us to be - to be like Jesus, to live like Jesus. 

Hence, one who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, is filled with LOVE and vows to LIVE LIKE JESUS.

The coming of the Spirit was a radical change of lifestyle for the disciples and all who believed in Christ. Today, if we are to celebrate this feast with real meaning, there has to be a radical evaluation of our life style - whether we promote communion, accept our commission and burn with compassion! If we do, we are the people of the Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit, Fill us with your Fire!

People of the Spirit - witnesses all our life

WORD 2day - Saturday, Last week in the Eastertide

May 18, 2024 - Acts 28: 16-20,30-31; John 21: 20-25

We are at the fag end of the Eastertide, and specially of this week which was continuously preparing us to be reborn as people of the Spirit. The last three days we have been instructed about the importance of witnessing to the Lord and the call that each of us have to that effect. It is by the Spirit that we are raised to be testimonies. If it is the Spirit who raises us to be witnesses, the Spirit will make way - it does not matter how much darkness and delusion surrounds us!

In the first reading we have St. Paul who is witnessing to the Lord against all odds... arrests, persecutions, turtures, attacks, trials, and what not...but he sticks on to his call: to witness, be it in Jerusalem or Judea or in Rome! Today, some of us find ourselves amidst odds, but that cannot exempt us from witnessing to the Lord. 

In the Gospel we have another great example of witnessing - St. John the Evangelist who writes about his testimony - what we have seen, what we have touched and what we have experienced, we share with you. In our day to day life, witness is the way we live, the way we conduct ourselves in our daily duties, the way we confront situations in life and the priorities with which we discern and decide in life. This is an experience shared with the others. What matters therefore here is an interior conviction of having experienced the Lord and having a close rapport with him. It is from there that true witness is born. 

Hence, whether we find ourselves in difficulty or challenge, or we find our daily life in peaceful situation, it does not matter. Our fundamental call is to be witnesses, testimonies to the love and mercy of the Lord - that we can never forget or neglect. As people of the Spirit, we are called to be witnesses all our life. Let us prepare ourselves to seek this grace as we celebrate the coming of the Spirit tomorrow!

 

People of the Spirit - Raised as Witnesses

WORD 2day - Friday, Last week in the Eastertide

May 17, 2024 - Acts 25: 13-21; John 21: 15-19

The Word this week has been continuously inspiring us to reflect on how to be people of the Spirit and yesterday we were called to look at our mission of witnessing to the Lord, as a sign of being the people of the Spirit. Today, the Word rests still on the same point and focuses on explaining to us, witnessing is not merely our merit or our skill, but we are raised to be witnesses! When we are disposed, when we allow the Spirit to work within us and with us, we shall be raised to be marvellous witnesses to the Lord! And we have two examples presented to us: Paul and Peter. 

Paul, would have never even imagined about going to Rome to bear testimony, but the Spirit of the Lord makes him aware of that call: you shall bear witness to the Lord in Rome, just as in Jerusalem. But how he would get there, and how he would be enabled to bear witness, all that is worked out by the Spirit of the Lord. Paul need not have appealed to Ceasar, Festus needs not have consented to it or need not have taken the efforts to reach Paul to Rome, but it all happens and the rest is history. We know, though in house arrest, Paul preached and bore witness to the Risen Lord, in a powerful manner and wrote such inspiring letters from the custodial stay. 

Peter, never would have imagined that he would be reinstated as "the Rock" that he was meant to be! He knew what a treacherous defaulter he had been. But Jesus seems to pay no attention to that bitter past; he seems to be looking elsewhere, at the future, at the path ahead! Jesus asks Peter, if he really loved him, not because Jesus wanted to know, but because Jesus wanted Peter to know that what really mattered was the real love that he had in the depth of his heart for Jesus! And with that love, he wanted Peter to get over his self remorse and self pity, and walk towards caring for the others and strengthening his brothers. To us too, this is what Jesus asks: that we become mindful of the love we have for Christ and show that in action by loving others. Thus we shall be raised into witnesses, powerful witnesses.

Let us remember, we are raised as witnesses and when we place ourselves in the wings of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit shall raise us, raise us as witnesses, as powerful witnesses!

People of the Spirit - a Witnessing community

WORD 2day - Thursday, Last week in the Eastertide

May 16, 2024 - Acts 22: 30,23:6-11; John 17: 20-26

Courage! You have borne witness for me in Jerusalem, now you must do the same in Rome - these are the key words today from the Liturgy. That was the message given to St. Paul and that is the message given to each of us who wishes to become,  or be called as, the people of God, as the people of the Spirit. This is what Jesus prays for his apostles too, that they be one and thus become witnesses. The greatest of witness that a Christian or a Christian community can give is its unity; the worst of scandal it can give is it state of being divided!

We are called to Witness to the Good News - the Good News is God, the Good News is the Son of God, the Good News is the presence of the Spirit... the Good News is that we are people, children of God. Each of us is chosen, called and commissioned to become people of God, to grow into children of God...thus witnessing and calling out to the rest of the humanity, to receive that same call and respond to it. How can we, if we do no live up to that call and identity?

The Spirit gives us the courage, the strength and the audacity to bear witness. That is why we see today, St. Paul is being prepared to go to Rome. It was not his plan, nor did he ever dream of it. But there was a plan brewing in the design of God, and we know what great effect it has created in the history of the people of God. But when God's design unfolded itself, be it Paul or Peter or other apostles, they were all there, carry it on, moving along and living it up in their every day life. That is witness, testimony. That is the grace that the Spirit will bring us: to be witnessing communities. 

People of the Spirit - United in Prayer

WORD 2day - Wednesday, Last week in the Eastertide

May 15, 2024 - Acts 20: 28-38; John 17: 11-19

Being people of the Spirit means being people united in prayer! Today we have wonderful examples of St. Paul and Jesus himself - who pray with the people, pray for their people and inspire and unite people in prayer. 

We have reflected many a time, prayer is not merely asking for favours - it is a practice, a life style; it is a way of living. It is basically a relationship, a relationship with the Lord that conditions and characterises our relationship with our brothers and sisters. This is what is evidenced in the types of prayers that we see today in the Word.

St. Paul prays with the people - they were all in tears. We see a prayer that made them feel their love for each other, their sense of missing each other and their sense of having to part with a loved one. We see the bond that exists here and prayer is just a reflection of that bond. 

Jesus prays for his apostles and disciples, and all of us - asking the Father to strengthen them as people would be facing with troubles, temptations and trials. This comes from a sense of responsibility for the other. Prayer is not merely a recommendation to God, that shirks off the responsibility from my shoulders... it makes me responsible for my brother, for my sister!

These, sense of belonging to each other and the sense of responsibility, unite us in the Lord and we are built up into people of the Spirit, united in prayer!

He remained; and he was chosen!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

May 14, 2024: Remembering St. Mathias, the Apostle

Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26; John 15: 9-17

The place of apostle Judas was empty and they consulted the Lord as to who should fill that place! They were inspired to have the criterion that Jesus always insisted upon: Remain in me, as I remain in the One who sent me. It had to be one who had remained right from the beginning till the end! Mathias (for that matter even Justus and so many others) had never aspired for anything. They could have had no clue about this twist in the tale. But they had remained with Jesus and after Jesus had gone, they had remained with the rest of the band of followers. 

Mathias looked up to nothing except that of being with Christ and he was rewarded for it with a responsibility. He never chose, nor claimed, nor aspired to be an apostle... he was chosen to be, because he remained in His love. This is the call that we are reminded of today, that the Lord invites us to remain in his love and to love each other with the same love as a sign of our discipleship. 

The Lord chooses us... just as we see, that Mathias was chosen! It is important to understand, realise and insist on the fact that it is the Lord who chooses us. When we think that we have chosen the Lord we have expectations and agenda, making of our life a career! But the more we become aware and convinced that it is the Lord who chooses, we become more and more faithful, obedient, humble and true disciples. 

People of the Spirit - Knowing the Spirit

WORD 2day - Monday, Last week in the Eastertide

May 13, 2024 -  Acts 19: 1-8; John 16: 29-33

We celebrated an important solemnity yesterday - the Ascension of the Lord. It is important because it marked a definitive change of a phase! The Salvation plan had reached its climax with the death and resurrection of the Son of God, and Ascension is an epilogue bringing that phase to its fulfillment and announcing a all fresh new phase! We could be reminded of a regular experience for some of us: that of making an annual retreat, at the end of which they usual wish - "happy life after retreat"! That is what Jesus seems to tell us: happy life after my life.

Jesus, as he promised his disciples before ascension when he prepared them, does not leave us 'abandoned' but had promised and has sent the Divine Counselor, the Paraclete - the Holy Spirit. This week the Word prepares us towards yet another grand solemnity, the coming of the Spirit. And today, the question is: do you know the Spirit? 

We may immediately say, 'yes, we know', unlike the people who say in the first reading today: we do know if anything as such exists! But there is a danger. When Jesus spoke plainly to the apostles they said, 'now we understand'...and Jesus asks them: do you understand, or do you think you understand? It is one thing to know, or not to know, but it is more important a need, to know truly whether we know or not. At times, not knowing is much lighter than not knowing that we do not know!

The call is to strive to know, yearn to get to know the Spirit. It is not a set of data or information to be gathered and stored, but a personal relationship to be developed with the person of the Holy Spirit - that is to what the Lord who ascends introduces us. To know the Holy Spirit and to grow a special relationship with the Holy Spirit.   

LOOKING UP TO THE LORD

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord 

May 12, 2024

People formed by the Lord - on the move

WORD 2day - Saturday, Sixth week in the Eastertide

May 11, 2024 - Acts 18: 23-28; John 16: 23-28

Jesus is moving on; he has been preparing his disciples and apostles for it. We see that sense of movement in the Word today - Paul comes to Antioch and moves to Phyrgia, Apollos comes to Ephesus and moves on to Achaia, and Jesus is saying he is moving on... there is so much of movement noticed and reported here. That is it was; that is how it should be in the Christian community. That is why Pope Francis all the time underlines the importance of "a community that goes forth." 

But why all these movements? Just for the sake of it? Because we want to show everyone that we are alive and that we are around? No! Jesus describes the rationale of this movement: I came from the Father and have come nito the world, and now I leave he world and go to the Father. This is how it has to be; we come from the Father and to the Father we need to go. All that we are and all that we do, should take us to the Father; including our relationship with Jesus, it has to take us to the Father. That is the reason, Jesus explicates it today: I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you, because the Father himself  loves you! 

Our itinerary is well defined - we came from the Father and we need to move on to the Father! We cannot get settled here or there - at times, we are eager to settle down, get buried and get established... but that is not being people formed by the Lord. The Lord is on the move! And calls us to move on, to be on the move! We are called to move, move constantly towards the Father, move towards realising our call to be people of God. 

On this last day before the Ascension of the Lord, where the Lord moves to his Father, we are called to renew our understanding and conviction as people on the move, people who are constantly moving closer towards being with the Father, being one with the Father.  

People formed by the Lord - beyond fear of suffering!

WORD 2day - Friday, Sixth week in the Eastertide

May 10, 2024 - Acts 18: 9-18; John 16: 20-23

The discourse on sorrow turning to joy continues from yesterday! While yesterday we reflected on the lesson of changing our minds, our lives and our disposition in order to see that change happens, from sorrow to joy, today there is yet another angle added to it. This suffering or the sorrow is compared to the suffering of the expectant mother and the birth pangs! In fact, haven't we heard the preoccupation on the part of experienced persons, that an expectant mother has still not begun to feel the pain, when the time due foreseen by the medics has been crossed?

Yes, at times pain is expected, even wished for - because in the larger picture it has its rightful place. And that pain will one day, on the right day, turn into blessing, into joy, into a cause for celebration. This is absolutely true with regard to the suffering for the sake of the Reign - do not be afraid to speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced: I am with you - what a wonderful promise this is! Truly, a departing promise. I shall be with you... the Lord shall be with us... provided we realise what the responsorial psalm teaches us: you Lord God are the king of all the earth, of all that is.

Truth sets us free, it liberates us from fear, from the fear of what doesn't exist, from the fear of the unreal, from the fear of death, and therefore from any fear of suffering. The Spirit whom  the Lord promised, the Spirit of Truth who is said to teach us all that is true, will certainly liberate us from all fears. With that formation from the Lord, we are bound to grow into people beyond any fear of suffering or sorrow.

People formed by the Lord - as people of change!

WORD 2day - Thursday, Sixth week in the Eastertide

May 09, 2024: Acts 18: 1-8; John 16: 16-20

The says it directly today in the Word - I am going away. But he immediately adds, that it should not be a motive for sorrow, but a reason for joy because, having gone, he promises, that he would send us the Spirit. When the Spirit comes you shall see that your sorrow shall change into joy, your tears shall change into smiles... yes, they will change, but how? 

Let us consider that question: how will it change? You sorrow shall turn into joy - this is one of the themes preached far and wide... but no one wants to discuss in detail or in depth, how it will happen? How will the sorrow change into joy? Does that mean we will have nothing for which there will be a tear in our eyes? Does that mean a kind of "prosperity" and "sufficiency" that we consider so naively as the "blessing" from above?

Yes, the sorrow will change into joy, the tears will change into laughter, hardships will change into launchpads for success... but when? When our hearts and our selves change! No one wants to hear that. We do not want to change an inch, but we wish everything around us to change and become a paradise on earth; we do not want to convert ourselves, but whine and wimper that the situation around us should radically change and become good and pleasant! How mean of us!

We see in the first reading, the tough situations that the apostles faced with the hardhearted people. How they themselves gave a tough time to Jesus who was trying to impress some things in their hearts, is an important fact to consider here. But however, they changed... who was the cause of that change - the Spirit. It is the same Spirit who would make those people gradually, although slowly, change and convert.

The prayer that we need to make today is that we be docile to the Spirit, who has been given unto us, who lives within us, and realise the facets we need to change in our lives. The Lord wishes to form us, through the Spirit, as people of change - let us repent and believe in the Gospel!

People formed by the Lord - with an indwelling Spirit

WORD 2day - Wednesday, Sixth week in the Eastertide

May 08, 2024 - Acts 16, 22-34; John 16: 5-11

The Lord bidding farewell to his disciples and apostles, tells them how he would wish to say many more things but they were really not prepared to take any more! He knew them, he knew their inability, he knew their difficulty, he knew their capacity. The Lord knows our capacity too! And that is why the Lord has promised us the Indwelling Spirit - the Spirit who dwells within us, who resides in our hearts and waits to guide us from within. It is a pity that most of the time we do not ever become aware of this presence. 

We are all the time on the search, going out in search, search every where for answers and solutions and a light to clarify our questions of life. We fail to understand that the light resides within, the light is shining in there... all that we need to do is, take a minute and become aware; take a moment and surrender to the Light. Lead kindly light...amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on - those are truly inspired words by Newman. The Lord promised to send the Spirit from the Father and each of us is given that gift, right at our baptism. We possess! Do we realise?

The People of Athens were practically intelligent. They who worshipped a pantheon of gods, had an altar for the unknown God! Because they did not want to take chances... in fact they were afraid to take the risk of facing the wrath of a god who could be accidently neglected! That was a fear ridden religiosity, that Paul is addressing in the first reading today. That is not our case, thanks be to the merciful love that Jesus has revealed to us. But the danger is that we have gone to the other extreme, we dare to neglect God who empties Godself to give us life, to give us fullness of life! 

Father who gives away everything including God's only Son; the Son who gives away everything including his own body and blood; the Spirit who gives away everything including the majesty of divinity and deigns to live within us mere humans... how conscious are we of this? Do we really come to grips with the intimacy that the Spirit offers us with God? The Lord wishes to form us for this consciousness, to realise and relate to the indwelling Spirit. 

People Formed by the Lord - towards truth and testimony

WORD 2day - Tuesday, Sixth week in the Eastertide

May 7, 2024 - Acts 16:22-34; John 16: 5-11

The discourse continues as yesterday, the Lord instructs the disciples that he has to go, in order that the Advocate could come. One of the changes or renewals that the Advocate, the Spirit, would make is outlined today: as the Gospel acclamation hints - it is leading us to the complete truth. The Spirit leads us to understand all incomplete, wrong and imperfect understanding and make us see the absolute truth that rests in the Lord. 

This teaching is corroborated with a miraculous happening, in the first reading from the Acts. Paul and Silas, in the guarded prison, have their binding chains broken in a miraculous manner, but they do not escape, leaving the jailer totally dreadfully confused. He is not able to understand what makes these persons so passionate about what they are involved in, that is the announcing of the Word. When he realises it, he asks a radical question: what do I have to do to be saved? He knew they had within them something that could save him, his family, the whole humanity. That was the convicting Spirit.

The convicting Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord who throws light into our souls to see what is wrong, to understand what lacks within us, to realise what is holding us prisonners to imperfection and sadness in life: sin, unrighteousness, stubborness of heart. The moment we realise these and open our hearts to the Spirit, we are saved. And we are invited to share the same experience with the others and that is testimony!

In the school of the Risen Lord we are formed by the Spirit to understand the complete truth and become spledid testimonies to the saving Lord. 

People formed by the Lord - with Open Hearts

WORD 2day - Monday, Sixth week in the Eastertide

May 6, 2024 - Acts 16:11-15; john 15:26 - 16:4

We begin a special week today. At the end of this week we would be celebrating the Ascension of the Lord. And the Lord seems to be preparing this disciples and apostles for his departure, it seems an extended farewell, the whole of this week. We would do well to listen and reflect on the Word this week because it is going to point to us the criteria that the Lord has to judge if we are formed enough or not, to live our lives, as the Lord wants us to, as the Lord witnesses to the ends of the earth.  

The first criterion the Word presents today, is that we be persons with Open hearts. Unless we open our hearts, the Word cannot reach out to us, the Lord cannot work within us and the Spirit cannot dwell within us! The reading from the Acts of the Apostles presents to us the case of a lady called Lydia, who listened to Paul and the Lord opened her heart. She became a disciple and a great benefactor as we see. The Lord opened her heart... do we allow the Lord to open our heart?

The Gospel speaks to us of the Advocate who would come, the Advocate who comes from the Lord... the Spirit who speaks in our hearts, through various ways, making known to us what the Lord wants of us. This coming, requires that we are welcoming! That is, we receive the Lord with Open hearts. Yes the Lord can open our hearts, but only when we open our hearts to the Lord! What do we mean by this opening our hearts?

Jesus explains that to us as the capacity to see, accept and understand the Truth. The advocate who comes from the Father, is the Spirit of truth, who opens our hearts, our will, our entire being to observe the truth, understand the truth and accept it whole heartedly. Only then we shall understand all that we see and hear, "when the time comes". Let us prepare ourselves to be people formed by the Lord, ready to grow up, see the truth and receive the truth, with Open Hearts.  

One People of God - the difference with a difference

WORD 2day: Saturday, Fifth week in the Eastertide

May 04, 2024 - Acts 16: 1-10; John 15: 18-21 

Jesus would have found it an Heculean task to make his disciples and apostles understand that they are different and different in a particular way. That they were different, they knew immediately. Because they were chosen and they were going around with Christ, seeing him do things that they have never witnessed before. But this was a dangerous feeling of being different - it was like the Hebrews, who felt they were a chosen people and therefore different from others and as a result they despised the others in a way! Jesus' teaching was not the same.

That they were different - not in comparison to the others, but in their choices and their priorities. Jesus taught them that they did not belong to the world, that is, they did not belong to the mainstream that justified sins, glorified craftiness, longed for first places and died for power! He taught them to lookout for the lost, be with the least and be treated as the last. He told them to be ready to be hated, while everyone longed to be loved. 

That they were different, in a specific way - not trying to prove themselves to be better than the rest, but in having a mindset of total obedience and allegiance to the One who has made them, called them and love them. They were to listen to the Lord - they were expected to go where they are told and not to go where they are forbidden... because they are totally guided by that Voice, that Spirit, that Lord who has redeemed them. 

Today, we are called to be different from the others. This is not what every one goes crazy about - being different, doing something different and being different. This difference is a difference with a difference, a difference that says - I don't mind to lose, I don't mind being hated, I don't mind even being killed - for the sake of my call and the One who has called. 

Called, Loved and Trusted!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May 3, 2024 - Celebrating the Apostles Philip and James

1 Corinthians 15: 1-8; John 14: 6-14

Today we celebrate the Apostles Philip and James - the Word today reminds them of these great personalities, and these two can give us an inspiration to live by today. 

First let us consider James - we can outline three details ascertained in the Gospels and other New Testament writings: that James was the son of Zebedee along with John, that James was called and referred to as the brother of Jesus, and that James was one among the close three apostles of Jesus who had the grace of witnessing to many things that the other apostles did not. Hence he was a privileged apostle. However he was notorious too: did he aspire for a seat on the right or left of Jesus when he would return in glory; did he not want to call fire down from heaven to destroy the people who did not accept Jesus?

The other apostle, Philip - he too has some specific merits attached to him: that he was the one who brought Nathanael to Jesus thus occasioning one the most profound discourses of Jesus, that he was the one who was approached by the Greeks and later he would bring in the Ethiopian minister into the Christian fold, that as the Gospel narrates today, he asked to see the Father and thus made Jesus reveal another profound truth - if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. He seemed to have been an enterprising apostle, although Jesus finds him very often wanting in fuller understand of the mysteries revealed - be it in the episode we hear in the Gospel today or in that of the multiplication of the loaves and so on. 

What are these aposltes inspiring us to: first, that we are specially called and each of us is in some way a privileged disciple of Christ; secondly, we do have our share of incompleteness and lack, but that can never take away anything from the love that the Master has for us; and thirdly, our responsibility is to do all we can to remain totally faithful to our call, like Philip whom we come across in the Acts of the apostles as a tireless messenger of the Word and James who laid down his life as first of the apostles to give his life for the Word. 

We are called, we are loved, and we are trusted by the Lord as God's messengers. 

One People of God - the love effect

WORD 2day: Thursday, Fifth week in the Eastertide

May 2, 2024 - Acts 15: 7-21; John 15: 9-11

"God arranged to enlist a people for God's name out of the pagans"... and the apostles had identified the right priority when they decided "not to make things more difficult for people who turn to God." That is the wisdom that the Spirit gave them to choose that one criteria - the wellbeing, the utltimate wellbeing of the other - that which makes us One people of God.

Wishing the well being of the other, wishing the good of the other, that is, to love is the way traced for us to truly become people called and chosen by God.  To choose love and to remain in that love the way to our joy, complete and God given joy. But where do we learn this from? From the Lord himself. 

This is what makes us people of God and makes us one people of God. Only those who love can be called the people of God, for those who love are born of God says the Word. Unless we love we do not have yet what it takes to be identified as people of God. It cannot be feigned, it is a way of life - a way of life that is against selfishness, ego, competitions that prioritise oneself. Only love can save us from all these and unite us as one. 

It is obviously love that makes us one people of God. Anything else that brings us together, it could be circumstances, challenges, fear of opposition, calculations of gain and loss, scheming in order to arrive at a hidden agenda...these may bring us together but they will never make us "one" and much less "one people of God". Love alone can, because love is the sap that flows into us from the vine, making us live branches united into one. 

Work - likening to God!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May 01, 2024: Celebrating St. Joseph, the Worker
Genesis 1:26 - 2:3; Matthew 13: 54-58

The Word on this memoria, highlights two decisive moves of God... one, making the human person liken to Godself (first reading); and the other, making the Son of God liken to the human person (Gospel) - both defined by the work of one's hands. 

Firstly, we are called to be like God, in what we do, in our works... that is, to be Co-creators with God in what we are able to positively contribute to our existential environment. And in being human beings, we are identified very often with what we 'do'... and that is justified to a certain extent. After all, Jesus never resented being called the 'son of the carpenter.' 

In Jesus, we see that God became like us; never hesistated in becoming like us! But the point here is, a tender warning from God: 'mind what you do' and 'be mindful of what you do'! This is an invitation to look at whatever we do, by way of occupation or by way of a choice of interest, as a participation in the continual process of Divine Creation of the Universe. That is a question as to how constructive, how creative, how generative our work is!

With that thought about what we do and how we do it, the occasion today warrants an additional thought... a thought about those who labour! All those who labour, need our appreciation and affirmation today. But especially those whose labour goes unnoticed, unrecognised, unrewarded, under-rewarded, taken for granted, manipulated and exploited... they deserve our attention, they demand our solidarity and we owe our commitment to their cause. 

The more the world pays attention to the outcome and not the persons behind that result, the more the world celebrates the goods and comforts created and not the persons who are behind those entities, the more the world loses itself in consuming things and objectifying persons and their skills, we are promoting injustice and sinking in sin. 

St. Joseph the breadwinner of the Holy Family, the carpenter of Nazareth teaches us the dignity and importance of every little contribution we make towards making this world a better place. The more we join hands with God and collaborate in God's design, we make this world a place where the Son of God can make himself present, and thus make the Reign of God present.