The Right thing to do...

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 24, 2024 - Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13; Luke 8: 19-21

Doing the right thing, is better than doing great things says the first reading today! At times we are ready to do great and demanding things, but we fail to see the ordinary things that we are called to do, the right things to do! And the right thing is actually imprinted in our hearts. 

The Word of God, comes to us through various ways: direct proclamation is just one among them. There are situations and persons whom we come across who bring us a challenge to face and respond to. The Word of God comes along, instructing us what is right and what is to be avoided. There is the inner voice within us, that "sound of sheer silence" (1 Kgs 19:12), which tells us at the right moment the right thing to do.

All that we need to do is first of all, be attentive: attentive to the Word that comes across to us. Secondly, be sincere: sincere to admit that we have received the word and to recognise the demands that it places. At times because of the demands that the Word places on us, we pretend not to have heard, or not to have understood the real meaning of the Word. It would serve no purpose and we in fact deceive ourselves by doing it. Thirdly, our task is to be diligent, in carrying out amidst all struggles, what the Word tells us.

The Gospel today assures us that when we do all the three we would be considered not merely disciples, but mother, brother, sister, in short, coheirs with Christ to the Reign of God. But when we stop short of them, we would be deceiving ourselves warns the letter of James (1:22). It is a grace from the Spirit to do the right thing... let us beseech the Lord to grant us this wisdom and grace. 

Think good; Do good; Be good!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 23, 2024 - Remembering St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Proverbs 3:27-34; Luke 8:16-18

Yesterday we reflected on our call to be good and the difficulties involved! The first reading today has a wonderful set of practical tips for a happy living. Those tips can altogether be summarised in the phrase: think well of all; speak well of all; do good to all. This is the runway to happiness, but rarely taken by people today!

We prefer to complicate our lives, make it distrustful, enigmatic and suspicious. Neither are we happy nor do we allow others to be happy. While it is so simple to be happy and make others happy, we prefer to complicate lives. We fear that people would take us for granted, and make a fool of us, and so we choose to be unhappy!

At times, that is the fact! We choose to be unhappy and we are experts at making ourselves unhappy over anything at all. Jesus today seems to tell us, "you want to be happy? choose it! manifest it! Let it be seen in your lives, in your choices!" Lighting the lamp and putting it on the stand, is the metaphor to living a life that is God-worthy and making it known to others that they may be challenged. The simple formula to begin with is what is said in the first reading; in other words: think good! do good! be good!

St. Pio of Pietrelcina, or simply said, Padre Pio... taught this in other terms. He said: to fail in charity is like wounding God in the pupil of his eye. What is more delicate than the pupil of the eye? To fail in charity is like failing against nature. What defines our nature is charity, in thoughts, deeds and our very being.