Being people of peace - a sign of hope!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 26th week in Ordinary time

October 3, 2024 - Job 19:21-27; Luke 10: 1-12

I am sure I shall see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living, we say in the responsorial today! This is the hope that marks the people of God. This is what Job feels when he says, this I know: my Avenger or my Redeemer lives... in all his pain and sorrow, he never loses sight of his Redeemer and hopes that he shall take his side, in the right time!

This sense of hope, is a sign of being the people of God. Jesus teaches us that it is from this hope that true peace shall be born, a peace that is to be seen not merely in times of wellbeing but primarily in times of adversities. When sufferings and hardships strike us, what is our attitude? Where do our eyes rest? On the Redeemer who lives or on the enemy who strikes? Being people of peace, means those who are convinced of their call to be people of God, people belonging to the Lord.

Jesus teaches this to the apostles: On the persons of peace, peace shall rest! It is not the other way around - that peace rests on us and we become persons of peace, no. Only if we are persons of peace, peace shall rest upon us. This is the sign of hope that comes from the faith in the presence of my Redeemer with me. When I can say amidst all the struggle that I am through, "I shall see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living," then I am a person of peace; I seek peace, I wish peace, and I behold the peace that my Saviour gives. Then it is that peace shall dawn on me. 

There are those who think, speak and act against peace! Can peace stay upon them or around them? We are challenged to grow in this identity: to be persons of peace, that is the sign of hope we can offer the world of today. 

Presence, Protection and Providence

THE WORD AND THE FEAST 

October 2, 2024 - The feast of the Guardian Angels

Exodus 23: 20-23; Matthew 18: 1-5, 10

The feast of the Guardian Angels has three spontaneous references, to which our mind invariably turns to - be it because of the core of this feast or guided by the Word presented today. 

The first reference is the Presence of God. The words in the first reading reaminds us of that... when we listen to the words, my angels will go before you, we are reminded of another promise that the Lord gives in the same book: "My Presence shall go before you" (Exo 33:14). This is exactly what the Lord meant about the angels, as God's presence itself that accompanies us. 

The second reference is to Protection that is assured us, on the way that is chalked out by the Lord. Guarding, protecting, guiding, leading, keeping us safe... these are the terminologies that abound in the Word today, and in the very concept of the feast today. Angels are presented as protectors and Guardian Angels are obviously the proper representations of this. The Lord protects, but there is a prerequisite attached to it, as we hear from the first reading - that we listen to the voice and heed to it and not defy it. Needless to say, many a life gone astray, is a result of this defiance at varied levels gone wrong.  

The third reference is to Providence that God is. Our God is a God who provides, foresees, has a definitive plan, thinks about us and wishes us nothing but well. Angels, specially guardian angels are signs of this foreseeing care of the Lord who looks at us as children, nurtures us and guides us along provided we are ready to walk in the way shown us. Guarding Angels show us the way; they are that voice that we can here exactly when we need a direction to take, or we have a decision to make. 

May we grow to be truly children, allowing ourselves to be enlightened and guided, directed and governed by the Guardian Angel to whom we are entrusted, that we may experience the loving presence, guiding protection and the caring providence of God.