Thank You O Lord for 2024!

WORD 2day: The last day of the year

December 31, 2024: 1 John 2: 18-21; John 1: 1-18

There is a repeated reference to the theme of the last days, in the Word today and indeed, it is the last day of this calendar year! As we begin this day, let our hearts be filled with thanksgiving! The light, the true light, and the Word, the Eternal word, is here amidst us! We shall dedicate this day to thank the Lord for all the experiences of the year that is just passing by, with all its ups and downs, with all its highs and lows.  

We are invited to pay attention to yet another interesting detail in the readings of the day. The first reading begins with the expression that 'these are the last days', while the Gospel reading begins with the affirmation that 'in the beginning there was Word.' The last days and the beginning, spoken of together: that is the norm of life - something ends and something begins. But in Christ-ian parlance, it is a matter of hope. Specially today as we have universally in the Church initiated the great Jubilee of Hope! In spite of the myriad of things that threated to make the situation gloomy and dark - we can never despair, because the Lord is constanly making everything new for us: behold I make all things new (Rev 21:5).

We would do well today to list to ourselves, everything that we have received from the Lord during this year that we are ending. It would do good also to list the moments of anxiety and pain, possible vulnerabilties and set backs that we have experienced through the year, and contemplate on what they have had to offer or teach us, for our lives. It would be opportune that we consecrate our lives once again today to the holy Will of God, reaffirming to ourselves the marks of the people of God; and the resolve to do away with those thiking that do not fit in to that definition of our identity. 

There is one message however, that the Word wants to leave strongly in our minds, as we end this year and get ready to start a new one, and that is: "The Word has become flesh; and dwells among us!" The Lord is with us and that is an undoubted note of hope with which we embark upon our journey as pilgrims of hope! Good bye 2024...!

Learning from the Holy Family

The Christmas of Hope - December 30, 2024

1 John 2: 12-17; Luke 2: 36-40

We are still in the Christmas Octave and we celebrated the Holy Family yesterday. The Word today continues to present to us the model of the Holy Family and invites us to reflect on our Christian Vocation, founded on the family. John points to a key learning that we can have from the Holy Family - the observance of the will of God.  John explains this, speaking to us of the two attitudes that should be our chararcteristic mark within the family - one of the parents and the other of the children; one of the elders and the other of the younger generation; one of those who consider themselves already experienced and the other of those who consider themselves still beginners; one that is of the ongoing formation (or in-service training) and the other of initial formation.

Knowledge and Wisdom marks the first category, and it has to be considered the grace of the experience, out of which one needs to find the necessary light to continue the life's journey. Passion and Enthusiasm marks the other category, which could be the fueling energy that can take, not just the individual person but the entire community around, forwards towards the horizons of new meaning and fresh dynamism. Both of these, which are necessary, should be mindful of one single objective that we have: doing the will of God forever. 

The Holy Family - with Mary and Joseph in the prior category and Jesus in the latter category - reminds us of this, in their encounter with Anna the prophetess - with that knowledge and wisdom, passion and enthusiasm, all fused together in one single project - that of doing the will of God. The message is to fix our eyes on the will of God, knowing and doing what the Lord wants from us. That is how we shall measure up to the identity given to us: as people of God. 

FAMILY - THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO GODLINESS

The Presence, the Plan & the Patron

The Solemnity of the Holy Family - December 29, 2024

1 Samuel 1: 20-22, 24-28; 1 John 3: 1-2, 21-24; Luke 2: 41-52

We celebrate today the feast of the Holy Family... a reminder to every Christian family about the universal call that we have towards Godliness. Yes, we are called to be people of God, in families.

The People of God were always called as families - the people of Judah, the people of Israel... are some ways in which the people are referred to. And when people referred to God they used titles such as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob...these were not just persons, but households, families! Hence, it is not only that we are families and in families we belong to God, but we have a God who identifies with these families. Christmas is a very special celebration that reminds us of this reality and helps us relate to this facet of our calling. Looking at the Holy Family, we are inspired to think about three prominent constituents of any family... parents, children and the Almighty!

Parents are the presence of God in the family! When the Lord wills to create a family, God chooses a man and a woman to form that family... and deigns to give them a new identity and form them into parents! This has three implications to pay attention to: being parents is a call, a God-given mission; being parents is a responsibility; and being parents is a course of maturity. The call is to participate in the salvific mission of God; the responsibility is to make God present and discern God's will in the daily events of the family; and it is a journey of growth and maturity that the parents are called to!

The parents have a very crucial role in introducing the children to God – just as we see Elkanah and Hannah do in the first reading, and Joseph and Mary do in the Gospel of today. How many parents today fail in this duty, and how many in the previous generation have failed that we have a generation today that is so faith-less! Where has this element of the presence of God gone in the family?

Children are the plan of God in the family! Children are gifts and tasks; they are the dreams and the designs; they are the plans that God has for the future of a society. The children are gifts and tasks - as they are given as gifts to the family and as the family has the task of bringing them up as the fulcrums of sustenance of the family. The children are the dreams and designs - as every child born is a sign that God still loves the world and that God has a design for the salvation of the whole humankind. The children are the plans that God has for humanity, as God sends every child into this world with a purpose and a project - if the particular person does not accomplish it, it is left undone and it affects the entire humanity!

Not just the father and the mother in the particular unit of the family, but the entire society has a bounden responsibility to care for the education of the younger generation – cultivating them, protecting them and empowering them. How responsible has the society made itself for the younger generation and how many trap holes have been created to lure the future generation into ruin? It is indeed a point of great concern.!

God our Father and Mother, is the patron of every family on earth! God needs to be given the rightful place in our homes; the parents learn from the Lord and exercise the authority that God gives; the children see the Lord in the parents and love the Lord in return for all the good! God remains the patron of every family as the parents offer their children back to God and the children heed to their parents as the representatives of God! God has a loving plan for every family, from which the family shall flourish, in as much as it kneels together before the Lord in discernment and decision making. Raising a question as to who is important in the family - the husband or the wife, the father or the mother, the parents or the children - is an anomaly, as God Almighty is the most important axial point in the family. A family that prays together, stays together, grows together, and experiences God together.

While in the present conditions of the family, we find that there is no proper space given to each other – television sets, mobile phones and headsets have occupied such a large space in homes nowadays! If so, we can imagine the predicament of the space due to God! That is a pathetic situation and we find it as a real trouble that seeks our utmost attention!

Now let us turn to the Holy Family of Nazareth. Can we not observe these three qualities in the Holy Family: Mary and Joseph, the parents become the immediate presence of God for Jesus; Jesus, the child of the family, becomes the core plan of God for the salvation of humanity; and God remains undoubtedly the patron of that family, directing them, guiding them and animating them in every way! They did nothing, they took no step without a direction from God and they continued to contemplate on the ways of the Lord, as they were proceeding in their life’s journey. 

May our families take after this splendid model, and learn at the School of Nazareth, to become really the people of God in families, amidst the difficult world of today!

Christmas of Hope 2024

Lesson 3: Hope is never-dying, grow with it! 

28 December, 2024 – The Holy Innocents 

1 John 1:5 – 2:2; Matthew 2: 13-18

Hope is never-dying, grow with it! 

Hope cannot end, that would be a contradiction in terms! At times we give up, that is a sign of hopelessness. But where there is hope, there is no giving up, however it involves a lot of “letting go”! If the theme, day before yesterday was about witnessing through death and yesterday was witnessing through life, today it is witnessing through innocence! Innocence is an experience of letting go and we can learn it from the feast and the Word today. 

The Word teaches us three ways of growing in innocence: the first, living in the light – to allow the Lord to shine through and not hiding anything before the truth; the second, acknowledging our sins – our shortcomings and our limits are to be acknowledged and not to be swept under the carpet or secretly groomed; and third, obeying without a second thought – when we know that something is God’s will not having second thoughts or alternative proposals but going ahead with it, letting go of everything else. 

This innocence is not a simplistic ignorance, but a learned, well-informed, contemplated and discerned acknowledgement of the Lordship of the Lord and the Lord’s will. That acknowledgement, to the extent of not even looking back to lament on anything that has gone wrong, is knowing well that however bad things may get, the Lord has everything within his control. That hope is never-dying, never ending; it is an unceasing positive mindset, that is possible only for the innocents, only for children

Christmas of Hope 2024

Lesson 2: Hope is experience, share it! 

27 December, 2024 – St. John, the Apostle 

1 John 1:1-4; John 20: 2-8

The feast of St. John the Apostle comes today to assure us that the faithfulness to the Lord is to be manifested not necessarily in death, but more so in life, in daily life! While St. Stephen yesterday bore witness through death, John today teaches us how to bear witness in life. The lesson of Hope that the Word gives us today is this: Hope is experience, share it!  

The Word today abounds with terminologies of empirical nature – speaks about what has been heard, seen, watched, touched and to be shared. Hope is not imaginary, it cannot be a theory or a concept. It is empirical; it is experiential. It is all about concrete experiences of hearing, seeing, watching, touched and being touched. That is the reason Paul writes – hope does not disappoint us, it does not delude us! It does not take too much to have hope – it is enough to see, hear, perceive and hold on to what is happening around us. Even amidst the worst of experiences, there is a string of hope or a ray of hope that comes through and we would do well to single that out and hold on to it. That is a product of faith-seeing, faith-hearing and faith-perceiving. 

John today teaches us additionally that as apostles we are called not merely to have that hope, but share it, in order to complete the joy that we can experience! We are called to evince hope in our lives, as persons of God – it is in fact writing a Gospel for the world to hear, see and read! Not from the pigment of our imaginations or the skill of our creativity, but from the concrete reality of our daily experiences, we are called to manifest and share hope that comes from the unceasing presence of the Lord. As we learn to see hope presented to us, we perceive them in concrete experiences of daily life and share it with everyone around – that is being apostles of the Reign.

Christmas of Hope 2024

Lesson 1: Hope comes from above, learn to see it!

26 December, 2024: St. Stephen the proto-martyr

Acts 6: 8-10, 7: 54-59; Matthew 10: 17-22

They speak of White Christmas in quite a few countries, referring mostly to a Christmas marked by snowfall. Christmas this year I feel should be called, the Green Christmas, understanding green as the colour of hope! Yes, it is a Christmas of hope, not only for the reason that there is so much of hopelessness experienced and expressed, world around – that has been the case for a few years now. But for another important reason, because it has marked the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Hope!

Beginning today, I wish to involve you in reflecting together on this Christmas of Hope, for this entire week of Christmas. Some lessons for today, that the Christmas of Hope gives us, invites us to offer to the rest of the world around us, beginning today.

The very first lesson is this: Hope comes from above, learn to see it. Today we have Stephen, who is killed! To our eyes, to the eyes of those who did that to him, he was killed. But for him, he was not killed – he was taken to paradise, he graduated, he rose from this world to the next! That was because, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles today: he saw the heaven thrown open, he saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God… and he said to the Son of Man: Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit.

Those standing around him could not understand what he was doing, they could not believe the way he was behaving, because they did not see what he saw! People may not understand you, people may not accept you, people may wish to destroy you – but fix your eyes on the One above, on the heaven open, and learn to see what can give you hope… the Lord says, you who stand firm to the end, will be saved

THE FEET, THE LIGHT AND THE WORD

Hope that Shines for Us - Christmas 2024

A Happy and a Holy Christmas! This day naturally fills us with immense joy, for it is a birth that we celebrate, and not just any birth of any person, it is the birth of the Saviour who is born to give new meaning to every one of our birth, and our life. Yesterday, in that moving ceremony, the Holy Father opened for us the Holy Year, the Jubilee Year, the Year of Hope – and what a beautiful moment to initiate a pilgrimage of hope, on the day when the hope of the universe was born in the form of a human being! Hope is without any mediation translated here into life, with the Divine incarnating into human person, amidst us and alike us! It is indeed a moment of thanksgiving and a moment of reembarking on our journey, the journey of finding meaning and experiencing salvation, the journey of hope.

The Liturgy of the Word on the day of Christmas presents us with three images to contemplate – the feet, the light and the Word!

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who heralds peace, brings happiness, proclaims salvation, promises hope and calls us to eternal joy! The feet here are certainly referring to those tender feet jetting out of that manger, those tender feet that would soon traverse the streets and gullies of Galilee, symbolically thus traversing the length and the breadth of the globe, taking God to humanity and bringing humanity to God. They are referring also to those feet that are today challenged to cover the distance that could divide persons some from the others, the distance that could divide the Divine and the human, the distance that could keep joy and peace away from our daily experiences. It is about reducing the distances that create discord, promote dissonance, preserve animosity, increase misunderstanding, and celebrate unforgiveness. The Christ, who comes today, comes to join the heaven and the earth, just to put us to shame for thinking that the distances we find here amidst us are insuperable. May the world today witness more and more pairs of feet that go all the distance, to bridge gaps, demolish walls and unite hearts. That is the ministry of hope that we are called to offer the world today, as people of God and as people of the Reign.

The second imagery is that of Light, the radiant light of God’s glory, that enables the world to see the salvation of our God. The world seems to prefer darkness sometimes, because it is cozy and convenient. It shirks responsibility of having to change and renew, finding comfort in repeating over and over again the same meaningless exercises in the name of customs, traditions and conventions, without really understanding the call to come into light, and look for the true meaning that can come only from the ultimate source of all wisdom. The Saviour today comes as a light, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower. The Lord is that ultimate light, that we have with us. How senseless it would be for us to choose darkness over light, ignorance over wisdom, slavery over true freedom and death over eternal life! The Lord has chosen us, that we could be enabled to chose the Lord. The Light has chosen us that we have the light to see the right things at the right time, to make the right decisions in the right direction. I am the Light, the Lord declared, and has invited us to be lights, after His Light!

The third imagery, the overarching image and theme for the rest of this season is, the Word. We come across at least three typologies of this word – the spoken Word, announced and heard; the transformed Word that is seen and beheld; the Living Word that comes to stay with us. The spoken word announced for centuries and heard by us in varied ways even today signifies the religious experience that we are called to take to heart and follow in our ways. But that would not be sufficient, and hence the transformed Word that outlines a new way of life that we are taught by our faith journey, our baptismal promises and the vocation that we have received from the Lord for our daily living. The third is the Living Word who has come down to make His home amidst us, who continuously keeps speaking to us in events and persons, experiences and life-events, calling us to fidelity and prophecy on a daily basis. We are called and challenged to live in the presence of this Word, encounter this Word and live in communion with this Word, so that we can become the children of God, announcers of this Word, persons transformed by this Word and persons who make this Word come alive in many others in turn… that is the ongoing incarnation, the progressive revelation, the coming of the Lord into this world, the establishment of the Reign, the reconciliation of the entire creation in Christ, the living Word.

Celebrating Incarnation today, we celebrate the feet that take this goodnews to the world, the light that challenges that world to see the Lord who is present amidst us and the Word that is the Lord who takes our form and comes to live within us. Our pilgrimage of hope is summarized in this – that we get in touch with this Word and take this Word to the entire world. May our celebration of Christmas enable us to become the signs, witnesses and representations of the Word made flesh.

Christmas Novena 2024 - Day 9

24th December: O Morning Star...

The 7 O-Antiphons are over with yesterday...

but the Novena ends today...with the rising of the Morning Star!

O Morning Star, Radiance of eternal light

Sun of Justice, come and enlighten those who live in darkness

and in the Shadow of death.

Morning Star, actually is the star that is seen in the east shining bright just before the dawn! It is considered the imminent sign of the morning that is already rising.

The Lord is not just near... but the Lord is here!!!

We celebrate the Rising Star, the Morning Star that announces the break of day!

The Lord comes to rule in our hearts, not just in the world...

Let us prepare ourselves... for the Lord is here. 

Living in Faith - See the Lord at work and Sing of God's love!

Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope towards Peace with Joy, in Faith – the Fulfillment of the Journey!

Fourth Tuesday in Advent - December 24, 2024

2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8-12, 14, 16; Luke 1: 67-79

Living in Faith – is certainly acting on behalf of the Lord, but before all that, it is acknowledging the work of the Lord. The essential difference today among the two kinds of homo faber in the world is precisely this – the one which think he or she is the sole cause all that one makes, and the other kind which knows well that all that one is able to do, comes from the Ultimate Doer, the cause of everything – the Almighty Creator. The sad fact is that the former kind keeps outnumbering the latter.

David, in spite of all the weaknesses and shortfalls and the eventual mercies received from the Lord, still forgets this fact and thinks he has to do something for God! How erroneous of us too – many a time, we think we have to defend God, protect God, debate for God, win arguments for God and prove God to the world! Who are we? The Lord’s glories speak for themselves. The mighty works of God sing out the glories of the Lord.

Living our faith, on our part, would only mean that we acknowledge these works of the Lord, in our daily life, and sing of the love of God, forever. The Lord has made us His promises and those promises would always stand! And in fact, we stand on those promises. We would do good, not to pretend that we are accomplishing great things for God, but indeed the Lord is accomplishing mighty things for us and through us. That is what Zechariah sings of today – the Lord remembers his holy covenant and shows mercy through the ages!

The Morning Star, the Rising Sun of justice, makes us see this fact! Let us resolve to see the Lord at work and sing of God’s love forever! For his is the power, the glory and honour forever! Amen.

Christmas Novena 2024 - Day 8

23rd December: O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,

the hope of the nations and their Saviour:

Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Based on the famous prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, the title Emmanuel is the key to the mystery of incarnation. The presence of God with the people was the greatest of the promises that they could experience. Be it with Abraham or with Moses or with Joshua or with the people who were walking in the desert, one of the prominent promises that God gave was to be with them! Christ comes as the fulfilment and the most complete expression as that promise: as God among us.

The symbol is the virgin with the child in the manger. It is not just any child, but the promised salvation of the God of the universe, the king who has come to meet his subjects to make them co-heirs to his throne. The manger is a lovely symbol that unites the heaven and the earth, the Divine and the human!

The presence of the Lord is salvific; one who has experienced it cannot remain silent - he or she has to go out and share it, make every one else experience that presence! This is the crux of evangelisation: it is not proselytisation, not sheep stealing and increasing the numbers within a fold. It is sharing that salvific presence that one has experienced, from the Lord. The first call is to experience the God-with-us, the presence of the Lord with us, and the call that follows is to share that presence with those around - that is salvation.

The prayer is to the Lord our God to save us by God's saving PRESENCE... in simple words it is a beseeching to stay with us, to live with us, to sanctify us, to make us worthy of God and of God's great big family.

Living in Faith – Looking ahead with heads held high!

Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope towards Peace with Joy, in Faith – the Fulfillment of the Journey!

Fourth Monday in Advent - December 23, 2024

Malachi 3: 1-4, 23-24; Luke 1: 57-66

Living in Faith – amidst all the cry for war and bloodshed, amid all the threat of the post human world on the horizon, amid the hue and cry of the so-called progressivists to relativise everything in the name of personal rights and human autonomy, living in faith would mean living a life that is frightening. That is what is presented in the Word today.

The theme of the end of days, or the Lord’s day, sometimes can be a fiction-friendly leitmotif with all its elements of suspense and secrets. But it cannot be so for a person of faith. That is what St. Paul advised his people when he wrote, “but you, brothers and sisters, you are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.” (1 Thess  5:4) This is so because the Lord has sent us enough messengers and messages, to understand, analyse and come to make our informed choices about everything. We cannot blame anyone for our choices, nor can we feign ignorance about the purpose of our beings, if we are truly persons, children, or people of faith.

When the people saw what was happening with regard to John, the new child born in the neighbourhood, they experienced fear… for us, that should not be, because we are girded with faith. Where there is faith, there is not place for fear, for fear is a by-product of darkness. We are people of the Light, and darkness cannot overcome us, because Emmanuel, God with us, is here, very close to us. And that shall enable us, empower us to walk with our heads held high! Looking up to the Lord with faith, we can face any situation with courage and confidence, with hope, peace and joy – that is what it means to live in faith.  

Christmas Novena 2024 - Day 7

22nd December: O King of Nations

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

Based on Isaiah 9:6, 2:4 and 28:16, the King of the nations is a yearning of the people of Israel. They wanted Yahweh to be their king always, even when they had a human king ruling them. That is why they did not give in to the Emperor worship that was so widespread in the dominant cultures of their times. God is the king, forever and over all!

The Symbol is the crown, and some times even the sceptre, that signifies the central place that God has in our personal and universal history; and the authority that rests solely with God. Remember the feast we celebrate just before beginning the advent, that is on the last Sunday of the Ordinary time - that is the adaptation of the same theology of Israel, into the Christian way of life.

Today power is misused for manipulation and arriving at hidden agenda; power which is given to certain persons for the sake of furthering the care of humanity is used to destroy the very humanity. Who is to be blamed? Those who manipulate it? Yes, of course. But what about those who let them do it? those who keep silent when it is done? If it is true that we have accepted God as our King, Christ as our King, it means we have accepted Truth, Justice, Love and Peace. Anything that, or anyone who goes against these, just cannot be sided with - it would be a wrong allegiance, a slavery!

The prayer is to SAVE the human kind, from slaveries of sin and death to the freedom of the children of God, for that is what we are, children created in the image and likeness of God. It is to grow in this identity and dignity that the coming of the Lord invites us.

A PILGRIMAGE OF HOPE TOWARDS PEACE, WITH JOY, IN FAITH

The Fulfilment of the Journey 

Fourth Sunday in Advent: December 22, 2024

Micah 5: 1-4; Hebrew 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-44

We began a journey three weeks ago, a journey preparing ourselves towards that Pilgrimage of Hope we wish to make in the coming Jubilee Year! And here we are at the close of the journey, reflecting on the fulfilment of this life journey, the journey of hope, towards peace, with joy, in faith! This Sunday, the Sunday of faith, speaks to us of faith as that experience of fulfilment that we are called to, as people of God. Apart from the theme of faith that is proposed for our reflection, there is the figure of Mary presented to us as the icon to be contemplated upon this Sunday, so close to the celebration of the profound mystery of Incarnation. We see this reflection shared in three modes, answering three pertinent queries regarding faith.

The first of the points of clarity we have: what is the meaning of Faith – it is the confidence we have in the Lord, arising out of the fulfilment of the promises that the Lord has given us. Mary is presented as the model of that person of faith, as we see Elisabeth declaring, “blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled. Yes, the model presented to us by Mary in this regard is a reminder of hope, that we always remain disposed to behold the fulfilment of the promises of the Lord, despite the darkness or the confusion that may surround at a given moment. Just as Mary trusted in the Lord, in spite of her inability to grasp entirety of the plan of God that was unfolding around her, we are challenged to grow in confidence of hope that the promise of the Reign will certainly be fulfilled in God’s own time.

That is the meaning of faith, that this Sunday teaches us, as it prepares our minds to look forward to the imminence of the great mystery of salvation that we are about to celebrate in a couple of days. Our lives are an unfolding of these fulfilments, if only we are attentive to many an experience that our lives consist of. It is a special quality to recognize that and proclaim – the Mighty one has done great things for me.

The second point of reflection is the obedience of faith – the source of our peace, the true, internal peace that the Lord alone can give. Here I come to do your will – that phrase that we hear today is so explicative of Christ as that Son of God who submitted himself in obedience of faith, as St. Paul would explain to us (Rom 1:5 & 16:26). Mary is presented as one who manifested the same obedience to the Will of God – thus becoming the eminent of the first fruits of Christ’s salvation to human kind. Apart from salvation that sounds so transcendent, we could understand the obedience of faith as the source of peace even in our days.

If only each of us and all of creation vows this obedience of faith to the eternal will of the Creator, everything would be in peace! It applies to our individual hearts too – when we submit ourselves in this obedience of Faith to the One who calls us, we shall experience a peace that shall fill our lives and that no one can take away from us.

A third challenge that is posed to us is a commitment of faith – faith that requires us to become bearers of joy to the world, to others, to everyone whom we meet. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord, exclaims Elisabeth in the Gospel, for the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Some Gospel exegetes want us to note here the resemblance to an Old Testament incident – when King David leapt and danced for joy (2 Sam 6) – because he saw the Ark of the Covenant enter Jerusalem. John the Baptist in the womb of his mother leaps for joy, just as Elisabeth herself, when Mary entered the house! Mary is paralleled here to the Ark of the covenant, that is the bearer of the presence of God. That is the commitment of faith that we are given with today: to become the bearers of this joy of the presence of the Lord to whomever we encounter. That is evangelization today, to be bearers of the joy of the presence of the Lord to the world.

The feast of the incarnation is at hand! The journey of advent we began is fast ending… and we are called today to gear up, to hold our heads high and receive the call of the Lord to be persons of faith, beholding the fulfilment of the promises of the Lord in hope, to find the source of peace in our obedience of faith and commit ourselves in faith to be bearers of the joy of the presences of the Lord to the world. May the forthcoming feast strengthen our dedication and enable us to grow in our vocation to be pilgrims of hope

The Joy of Obedience: the Lifestyle of the Reign

December 20, 2024 - Third Friday in Advent

 

Christmas Novena 2024 - Day 6

21st December: O Rising dawn! Morning Star!

O Morning Star,
Splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:

Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Based on Isaiah 9:2 and Isaiah 60:1-2, the title in Latin O Oriens, actually means literally O Rising Sun or Dawn, but for poetic sense translated as Morning Star, refers to the power of God's light to lead us from ignorance to knowledge and from mere knowledge to enlightenment.

The Symbol is the Rising Sun, which dispels the darkness of the night and wakes the light of the morning, inviting all to life and activity. The coming of the Lord for us is a wake up call, an invitation to live as people of the light and not of darkness!

Today we see people disputing with each other, clamouring to be right in contrast to another, remain divided among themselves because of their allegiance to someone or some ideology - are they really certain where lies the real truth? Even within the Church today we see people polarising themselves, unnecessarily for the sake of some ideologies and philosophies - Apostle Paul warned us long back - do not be deceived by all these ideologies and philosophies, cling on to Christ and Christ alone is the enlightenment of God, who can clarify the real truths of our life.

The prayer is for enlightenment, that in these times of confusion and crisis, confounding choices and staggering philosophies, we might remain always in the light of faith, that not only helps us see the Lord, but see with the eyes of the Lord (Lumen Fidei).

Christmas Novena 2024 - Day 5

20th December: O Key of David

O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;

you open and no one can shut;

you shut and no one can open:

Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Based on Isaiah 22:22, Isaiah 9:7 and Isaiah 42:7, the reference is to the sovereignty of God's Reign. That the throne shall have no end is a Messianic prophecy that, God will be established the Lord of history! Liberation of the oppressed and the fullness of life of all, is the sign of the Reign.

The symbol is the key to signify the authority that the Lord has, in creating, changing and structuring the whole history. It also signifies the perfect control that God has over time and space, life and being, but all these understood not in terms of domination but a love that creates and sustains.

Evil is real! Let us not deceive ourselves thinking it is imaginary; no, it is real and the evil one is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat. This is not a matter to be worried about, as long as we commit ourselves to the One Key, which alone can open or close time, space or history - the Lord! We would be mistaken to think, that liberation has to come from afar. It is already given to us by the Lord, we just need to choose it, claim it for ourselves! When we choose the key to liberation, we choose liberation!

The prayer today is for LIBERATION... to be led towards fullness of life that is the experience of the Reign on earth. It is also a commitment to work towards, to contribute one's might and mite, to choose with all our heart and our strength, the Lord, the key to fullness, towards establishing the Reign, and beholding it here and now!

Leaping for Joy - a sign of Beholding the Reign!

Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope towards Peace with Joy - the Nature of the Journey!

Third Saturday in Advent - December 21, 2024

Song of Songs 2: 8-14; Luke 1: 39-45

Leaping for joy – that is the symbol that dominates the Word presented to us, bringing to the peak the theme of this week. Joy, leaping for joy, and sensing and expressing the joy within, are signs of having experienced something. Today what the Word wishes to challenge from us, is that we behold the Reign, here and now, and thus leap for joy.

This leaping for joy is compared to the joy of a beloved on beholding the one of his or her love, in the first reading! The past experiences and the relationship already established come into play here and the it is the memory that brings joy to the person in this case!

In the Gospel we come across Elisabeth who leaps for joy on encountering not just her cousin, but the mother-to-be of God; and the baby in her womb leaping for joy to encounter the would-be Mother of God and the Divine Son to be born. This is hope, faith and trust in the promises of the Lord – the insight, the future that brings joy to the persons involved!

Be they memory or insight, they abound for us too, despite the scenes of darkness and despair that surround us. How much are we prepared to behold the Reign – that competence shall bring joy to us, the joy that the Lord brings. The imagery of the Rising Dawn, the Morning Star, is a leap for joy in the new beginning. The new beginning is always on the basis of the memory of the past day's accomplishments - great things that God accomplishes with his loved ones like David; it is also about the promises that the new day holds - the promise that God has made in the lineage of David. It takes a special capacity to behold the Reign in our day today, here and now. And it is that capacity that can generate true divine joy!

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Christmas Novena 2024 - Day 4

19th December: O Root of Jesse

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

Based on Isaiah 11:1, Isaiah 11:10, the title Root of Jesse, refers to the promise of the Lord to raise the Messiah from the line of David (the son of Jesse). It is a promise of deliverance that the Lord gives the people of Israel, and to everyone who believes in the Lord.

The Symbol is that of the shoot flowering... signalling the hope that the Lord offers in times when everything seems dark and dead. Look at the exodus event, the miracles in the desert, the water from the rock, the guidance by day and night - everyone of these was a sign of God's promises being fulfilled. The final fulfillment and the pinnacle of everything was - Incarnation, that which we are preparing to celebrate.

Promises of the Lord will never fail... it may look like it, but things will change. There may be enemies plotting around, there may be situations that go out of control and there may be evil all around me - I will give up and compromise when I think there is no hope. But when here is hope, when I stand on the promises of the Lord, I will never give up!

The prayer today is to reinforce that HOPE... that we may always look forward to the deliverance that the Lord can offer! Note that the readings of the liturgy too relate to the same sense of hope in the Lord who accomplishes marvels for us! Let us never let anyone rob us of our hope, reminds us often, our Holy Father.

The Joy of Being Chosen for the Reign!

Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope towards Peace with Joy - the Nature of the Journey!

Third Thursday in Advent - December 19, 2024

Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25; Luke 1: 5-25

None of us is here by chance, we are here by choice; not our choice but that of the Lord - the Lord’s choice for the Reign to come! The Lord, as St. Paul would affirm in his letter to the Ephesians, has chosen us before the foundation of the world. The Lord’s care for the human race, is best manifested with the amount of thought that has gone before events of salvation and the quality of those thoughts right from eternity.

The first reading recounts to us the announcement of the birth of Samson; and the Gospel reports the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. The pre-announced choices are signs given to us to highlight two important facts: that we are loved and the Lord knows what is happening in our world.

One of the clear signs of love that one has for another is in the care that one shows. This care is exhibited in the form of forethought, a typical trait of a mother or father, or anyone who cares. Samson, John the Baptist, and many other similar persons of God, stand witness to this fact, and thanks to their faithfulness, God’s salvific plan has unfolded itself in phases although the times.

Secondly, the Lord is aware of what we are going through. At times people, or nations, or the powerful ones think that they are dictating everything in the world. But not too late, they do come to realise that they could be gone as a whiff in the wind. The Lord of history is forever in control and no one can gainsay that.  

The Saviour to come, referred to as the root of Jesse, is an affirmation of this exact truth: that our God is the Lord of History.

Christmas Novena 2024 - Day 3

18th December: O Adonai... 

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Based on Isaiah 11:45 and Isaiah 33:22, the title Adonai, refers to the Lordship of Yahweh, that the people of Israel always stressed on. From a generic universal history that yesterday's "Wisdom" reminded us of, today's "Adonai" comes down to the particular experience of Exodus, the watershed of the Spirituality of the people of Israel.

The Symbols are burning bush, to remind the experience when Moses surrendered to Yahweh and the stone tablets of the commandments, the symbol of Israel's surrender to Yahweh. What is stressed is the Lordship of Yahweh, which is the key to the God-experience of the Israel and our faith-experience today.

The Lord of Israel, our God is Supreme over all beings of the earth or the heavens, the Lord of history and the Lord of the future. This is nothing that God would insist on holding on to, because God stands to gain nothing whether we accept or reject God's losrdship; it is we who stand to gain or lose! When we accept the Lordship of the Creator, we find meaning, significance and purpose in everything that happens in our life; when we do not surrender, every bit of what happens can become a concern and a cause for sadness and dissatisfaction. Hence the call is to Surrender, to the lordship of the Lord.

The prayer today is that of a SURRENDER to the redeeming power of God, to be led by the Lord's hands always - from darkness to light, from folly to wisdom, from death to life! 

The Joy of Integrity of the Reign!

Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope towards Peace with Joy - the Nature of the Journey!

Third Wednesday in Advent - December 18, 2024

Jeremiah 23: 5-8; Matthew 1: 18-24

 

The Lord-our-Integrity is a profound title we see given to the Lord in the experience of the Old Testament people; it is today correlated to another title – Emmanuel, God-with-us. The first reading and the Gospel together present to us a great grace that God offers us and a challenge that accompanies that.

The grace is that the Lord-our-integrity is with us! When we see the times that are so treacherous and unpredictable, value stripped and sometimes even malicious, if we still live with out faith and hope, we thank the Lord, the Lord of integrity, who is with us and who strengthens us. With that grace alone can we go ahead and remain sane and grow saintly.

The challenge is that the Lord-our-integrity is with us, and we are challenged to live up to the presence of the Lord, in righteousness and justice, nobility and integrity. The presence of the Lord-with-us is not conditioned by the Lord in anyway, because it is an unconditional presence, by the very fact of the covenant and the choice of the Lord to come amidst us. It is conditioned by our choices – like Joseph, are we ready to do what the Lord wants us to do? If not, we create a condition where the Lord cannot be with us, because we choose to be away from the Lord and the Lord’s ways.

O Adonai, Ruler of Israel, we call out to the Lord in the O Antiphon of the Novena, declaring the Lordship of our Saviour who wishes to come and be with us. Do we mean that declaration?

Christmas Novena 2024 - Day 2

17th December : O Sapientia...

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High

reaching from one end to the other,

mightily and sweetly ordering all things:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

Based on Isaiah 11:2-3 and Isaiah 28:29... the antiphon recalls the most popular attribute given to the Spirit of the Lord and the Word of God which is seen active in creation and order of the universe. It is this Word, who becomes flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14).

The Symbol used is often... the eye within the triangle, which symbolises the Omniscient God... the Wisdom of God. The Jewish or the Davidic lampstand (with 7 sticks) is used to refer to the Wisdom of God which has accompanied the people of God right from the origins of history!

Wisdom, we know is slightly different from knowledge and could be even considered a level higher, because even a person who lacks the so-called knowledge may possess the finest wisdom, while a person with all possible knowledge may prove miserably unwise! Wisdom would be that capacity to not just know, but to use what we know at the right moment in the apt manner. In our daily decision-making it amounts to actually, prudence!

The Prayer today is for PRUDENCE... to be guided always by the Lord, the Lord who dwells among us, that the Lord may accompany and illumine our pilgrimage of hope, all our life.

The Joy of Gathering in the Reign!

Advent 2024: A Pilgrimage of Hope towards Peace with Joy - the Nature of the Journey!

Third Tuesday in Advent - December 17, 2024

Genesis 49: 2, 8-10; Matthew 1:1-17

One of the pronounced purposes of the coming of the Son of God, in history, is to “gather the people of God”, especially the scattered people of God into communion with the Lord. The name that Jesus gave to this experience was, the Reign! This is not just a phenomenon post-Christ-event… the Old Testament too has the resonances of this in the words of many a prophet. For a quick instance, we can think of Jeremiah who speaks of God who gathers the people (cf. chap 23) or of Jesus who speaks of God who wants to gather Israel as a hen would like to her chicks (cf. Mtt 23)!

In the first reading we find Jacob gathering his sons around his death bed… a sign of gathering them into one communion… that they do not fight and part ways after the death of the father who united them, who shone as the point of gathering. The Gospel gives us an account of how these gathered, stayed on, until the promised coming of the Messiah actually took place. It is an assuring account of theological history, in terms of the promise and the fulfilment, the generations and the communion, the plan of God and its nature of eternity (in the sense of timelessness).

The important highlight for us, is the rallying point, the locus of gathering – Christ, the Lord who is to come, who will gather us in the Reign. It is an ongoing experience, not just an experience to be awaited. Hence, the meaning of waiting of the Saviour who would gather us, is to start working towards that communion; it is getting together as people of God, as people of the Reign. That is the call of the Wisdom, the Wisdom of the Most High.