HOLY WEEK & EASTER

Wishing you a Wonderful Holy Week and a Hope filled Easter

Will be taking a break for two weeks with the reflections

catch up after the 2 weeks...

let us remain united in prayers!

A Return to hope... to Universal Solidarity

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Fifth week in Lent

April 12, 2025 - Ezekiel 37: 21-28; John 11: 45-56

We have readched the end of the lenten journey. Today is the last day, as tomorrow we begin the Holy Week already. We have been on a journey, a journey of return to hope and today the Word summarises the entire journey in terms of its ultimate purpose - the same purpose as for which Jesus came among us, lived among us and gave his life for us! 

The entire purpose of this journey is - move towards the universal solidarity. The experience of salvation that Jesus brought us was this, at gradual levels we move towards this solidarity. At the personal level we move towards becoming children of the One Father, sheep of the one Shepherd. At interpersonal level, that we recognise each other as brothers and sisters who have the same, One Father, and belong to the same flock of that One Shepherd. As communities, that we begin to realise our unity as a flock, not to divide ourselves from the others, but to extend that sense of relatedness across differences, towards that universal solidarity. 

Today with all the situations of war and violence, threats and competitions, mutual demands of tariffs and attempts of exploitation, what can resolve tensions is the sense of solidarity. In Fratelly tutti, Pope Francis underlining the way to hope in today's context makes a simple but a challenging statement: "no one is saved alone" (n. 54), bringing out the intrinsic rapport between hope and solidarity. Jesus is presented as one who, with his death, once again brought to real the Oneness that God wishes from God's children - to gather us into one. 

If we really are convinced of being on our pilgrimage of hope, we shall become day after day, apostles of solidarity, bringing God's people more and more together - in mind, spirit and action. 

A Return to hope... Assuring Presence

THE WORD IN LENT - Fifth Friday in Lent

April 11, 2025 - Jeremiah 20: 10-13; John 10:31-42

Terror, revenge, vengeance, fear... these are the sentiments that dominate the Word today. With Jesus being taken to task, almost stoned. These types of negativities and fears are no strange experiences to us, may be at different levels. But each of  us go through these, and specially in the world scenario today, these abound. 

Negativities at the level of persons, at the level of families, in the societies, at the international level; Vengeance and enmities, threats and deceptions, they create an anguish in persons and in the collective consciousness of people. What is the way out of these experiences of anguish? We see that suggested in the Responsorial psalm - I call to the Lord and the Lord shall hear my voice!

Hence the message - to call, to cry out to God. But the question is: what will God do then? With he make all these experiences disappear? Will he just turn everything upside down in the snap of a finger? Will he do magic that makes everything totally different and happy? Jesus and his situation in the Gospel clarifies this to us - in our anguish we call out to the Lord and the Lord hears.., and does what? He comes to be with us, to be on our side, to walk through whatever we are walking through, to assure us of his presence, his assuring presence - that is the foundation of hope! 

A return to hope is receiving that assurance of God's presence. When things go wrong, when situations around me are terrorising and frightening, I call out to the Lord and I shall experience the assuring presence of the Lord, the source of hope that will help us just walk amidst the situations, towards that presence that is within me, that presence that calls me to blessed peace! 

A Return to hope... to a divine outlook!

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Fifth week in Lent 

April 10, 2025 - Genesis 17: 3-9; John 8: 51-59

Abraham was considered the father of the generations by the people of Israel and Judah! Even within our Catholic faith tradition, he does occupy a very important role, as a father of our faith. Naturally for the Jews, to hear Jesus speak of Abraham as one who wanted to see his days, it was a scandal, and they could not bear it. Would it not happen even with us, if we heard someone speak in a manner less respectful about one of our favourite saints?

But the real problem was  little deeper - they could not see eye to eye with Jesus, not just in this, but in anything, because they did not share the outlook of Christ. They and Christ, were in two different outlooks, two different minds! 

While they had a material outlook in everything, Jesus proposes a determinedly Spiritual outlook. They looked for miracles, the multiplied bread and the miraculous wine; while Jesus spoke to them about the Word on which they need to live and they could not understand that.

While they had a temporal outlook of the world, Jesus challenged them to an eternal outlook. Naturally they could not understand it when Jesus said he was, before Abraham was! It was blasphemous for them as they could not understand eternity, where there does not exist a past or future but just timelessness in the eyes of God. God knows what plans God has for us, because everything is before God's eyes.

While they had the outlook of singular events, Jesus had the vision of Salvation which the people could not understand. Finally the solution therefore is that we put on the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5). That alone can help us understand what the Lord really wants from us - that requires docility and humility, to listen to the Lord and learn from the Lord. The Lord alone can give us that divine outlook. 

A Return to hope... beholding Truth

THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, Fifth week in Lent

April 9, 2025 - Daniel 3: 14-20,24-25,28; John 8: 31-42

After the image of Susanna and the bronze serpent lifted up in the desert, today we have yet another great symbol - the symbol of the three young men in the furnace! They were there tried to the extreme levels imaginable. They were destined to die... they infact went into death and came out unscathed. That was Jesus' death and resurrection prefigured. As we say in the Creed: he went down to the dead and he rose again. That is what Jesus is introducing us to - when you have the Truth with you, you go down to death and you will rise to Eternal life. 

The Truth will set you free, the Truth with liberate you, the Truth shall give you Eternal life - says Jesus today! So the secret to Eternal life is beholding the Truth! How do we do it: holding on to the Lord, as he himself declares - I am the Truth! The Lord challenges us to clarify our sense of belonging - to whom do we belong? Or to put it more directly: Do I belong to God or not? If I belong to God, my life should manifest that. There could be downfalls, breakages and discontinuities, but ultimately, do I belong to God, that is what matters. 

Sometimes, as Jesus is warning, we may think or we may claim we belong to God, through intermediate ways... Jesus chides the people who were arguing with him, that they thought they were Abraham's children (and through that they wanted to be God's children), but they were actually children of the Satan, the evil one who wants to kill and destroy... just as Nebuchadnezzar and his squad who wanted to eliminate those young men! But those who belong to God, they love, they listen to the Truth and they behold Truth!

We long to live in joy and hope...that is possible only by beholding Truth... in our innermost beings, beholding Truth.

A Return to hope... looking up to Him!

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, Fifth week in Lent

April 8, 2025 - Numbers 21: 4-9; John 8: 21-30

These days the Word presents to us some symbols from the Old Testament that prefigures the culmination of the Salvation plan in the person of Jesus the Christ. Yesterday we came across Susanna, the innocent condemned by the wicked to death; today we come across the bronze serpent raised in the desert as the sign of restoration of life! 

Just as the bronze serpent in raised in the desert that gave life to those people, the Word tells us today - Jesus raised on the Cross is ready to give us life. The allusions of the image of the serpent to the evil one who deceived the first parents, and the tree from on which the serpert deceived them to the staff of the bronze serpent and later to the Tree of the Cross - it all amounts to one message: the Lord is out there to give you new life. But what have we to do?

We need to look up to Him - all who look up to him shall be radiant (Ps 34: 5), because we shall have new life. Looking up... and looking up to him, is the key here. To whom or to what do we look up to: our own capacity, to power, to possession, to happiness, to ease, to vain glory? At times we say we look up to Jesus, but which Jesus? The one who preaches eloquently, the one who has great things to say, the one who did miracles after miracles, the great hero? Or the Son of God, who gave up everything, gave up himself totally for the sake of the Will of his Father, and died for us there on that tree, lifted up and crucified? When we look up to him, we look up to problems, struggles, sacrifices but at the end of it all, life eternal. Are we prepared to look up to Him?

A Return to hope... Walk in the Light

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Fifth week in Lent

April 7, 2025 - Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62; John 8: 12-20

The Word today raises to our attention some crucial theological issues - the suffering of the innocent, the unjust judgement of the powerful, the effect of the sin of some on the other, the final judgement to which everyone of us will be subjected to and so on! Now these issues may have very many ways of being treated - the Word today gives us two pivotal perspectives to consider: integrity of the inner self and the centrality of God's perspective.

Integrity of the inner self refers to our consciousness of ourselves. Reflecting on the Gospel yesterday, when Jesus said - let the one among you who has not sinned throw the first stone, the scribes and the pharisess left one by one, beginning with the eldest. There is ony point to be noted here, that they recognised that they were sinners, at least when they were reminded. The problem with the present times, there would have been persons to throw that stone today, because there are those who think they have no sin, that they are righteous and that all that they do is totally justifiable. This is why the late Pope Benedict XVI warned, that the worst of the problems of our times, is the loss of sense of sin! What matters most is becoming aware of the sin that resides within us and to accept it with humility and entrust ourselves to the mercy of God. 

The second perspective is looking at ourselves from the point of view of God. The story of Susanna today comes as an unssailable assurance that God knows you, if you find yourself helpless and sinned against! The centrality of God's perspective, in our self understanding and in the understanding of our mission, is what we are called to observe in the words of Jesus: You judge by human standards, but God's perspectives are God's own.

This might fill us with an anxiety, but the Lord assures us: do not worry, I am the Light; and following me, you shall always walk in the light.  

A RETURN TO HOPE - TOWARDS PARADISE

Persevere, Prioritise & Progress 

Fifth Sunday in Lent: April 6, 2025 

Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11

A Return to hope... Celebrating Mercy

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Fourth week in Lent

April 5, 2025 - Jeremiah 11: 18-20; John 7: 40-52

The Mercy of God is immense and immeasurable, and we cannot celebrate it enough ever. The Lent and the following events of the Pasch, are the peak of that celebration. We celebrate the love of God, the gratuitous love of God. We celebrate the mercy of the Lord, the prodigal mercy of God which is lavished upon us without any reason or justification, because the Lord has promised us to be our God - that is the covenant after all. 

But there is the other part of the covenant - that we will be God's people; are we? How many ways in which we have been unfaithful to that promise we have made in response to God's unfailing love? God never tires, however to continue to love us. For God loves us so much as to give God's Son as the sacrifice of our salvation. God's mercy never ceases, God continues to shower it upon us - as St. Paul words it: God "pours" that love into our hearts. But the story does not end there...

In our obstinacy, we insist to reject that love, that gratuitous love, that mercy, that mercy which we do not deserve in any way. How do we reject it? When we refuse to be merciful, when we refrain from forgiving, when we choose not to love some one, when we hate or ignore a brother or sister - leave alone harming them. The worse scenario is that we have no reason to do that sometimes - I can't even look at someone, I cannot work with him or her, I cannot even listen to his or her voice... "I don't know why!" This is what is happening in the Gospel today - they reject Christ, just for one reason - that he was from Galilee! What an absurd thinking we sometimes sport and we pride it around!

If we really want to be children of God, we need to celebrate the mercy of God - that means, we need to acknowledge our unworthiness witn humility, we need to promise to love everyone without partiality, we need to forgive and embrace each other with sincerity! Are we really prepared to celebrate mercy?

A Return to hope... to the right celebration!

THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, Fourth week in Lent

April 4, 2025 - Wisdom 2:1, 12-22; John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30

There is no dearth for celebrations within our Christian tradition, enough to consider this whole year, called the Jubilee Year. But the question is, are our celebrations truly Christian Celebrations? This is a crucial point to reflect on, be it as families, or as entire community of faith. In what does a true Christian celebration consist in? The true celebration is when there is new life for the broken hearted, says the Word today. 

Most of the times a celebrations belong to the mighty, the powerful, the victorious, the successful, the greats of all times... they are unfortunately a show of pride and arrogance, regardless of whether they of religious or otherwise! We celebrate on the fall of the other, the destruction of someone, the defeat of another, the inability of someone - how can it get more cruel? The Word presents to us these cruel mentalities what awaited and even complotted the death of righteous, because they thought they were weak and despicable! How much the world today sports this attitude, we know it well.

The Word today teaches us that the Christian sense of Celebration consists in the revival of the dead, the renewal of the spirits, the enlivening of the broken hearted. We began the week with the Word reminding us of that beautiful parable - that of the prodigal. The son comes back with such a broken heart that a real celebration awaited him. There was the other son with such an arrogant and self righteous heart, that he totally missed that celebration. 

Christian celebrations belong to the broken, the fatigued, the low-spirited - the Lord is by their side to lift them up! Let us grow in our spirit of humility and we shall see what true celebration in the eyes of the Lord is. 

A Return to hope... to the Right Assurances

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Fourth week in Lent

April 3, 2025 - Exodus 32: 7-14; John 5: 31-47

"You place your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be your accuser," warns the Lord today in the Gospel. Jesus comes to us as the ultimate mediator between us and our God, the God of Jesus (Eph 1:17), and our God, the Father of Jesus (Rom 15:6; Eph 1:17 etc.) and our Father! At times in our pride and presumption, we tend to think that we can get away with some of our terrible choices in life, because we do something, or we have some one who will cover for us. Just a simple second thought on such a proposition, will tell us how wrong we are. And that is what Jesus is telling us today.

Our penitential measures during the Lent, or our pilgrimages and charities on occasions, or our devotions and litanies to the Saints, should not become sources of assurance of our salvific hope. Intellectual study of scriptures, legal fulfilment of religious routines, diligent adherence to rules and regulations cannot claim the place of being the right assurances of belonging to God. Seeking each other's approval, looking for human respect, creating fake images of oneself to be presenting to the rest of the world, can never be assurances of our justification in the eyes of the Lord, for the Lord knows us through and through. 

The Voice of the Lord, the Will of God and the Works of our Saviour calling us to act and to surrender ourselves to the Lord - that is our only and absolute assurance! The world tends to lose itself to the false hopes built by appearances and baseless constatations, while the Word and the Lent challenges us to return to the right assurances, that we find only in the Lord. 

A Return to hope... towards Eternal Life

THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, Fourth week in Lent

April 2, 2025 - Isaiah 49: 8-15; John 5: 17-30

On our pilgrimage of hope, we are reflecting these days about the reasons that make us celebrate, even amidst this lent; the causes that makes us rejoice even amidst the hardships of life. First we said the Lord gives us new life, yesterday we said the Lord takes us towards wholeness and today we have the culmination of it... eternal life, the experience of salvation which is eternal life. From new life, to wholeness, being born to eternal life: all those who believe in me will have life eternal - that's the promise of the Lord and that is a cause of rejoicing, certainly. 

The Gospel today presents to us the tussle between the Jews and Jesus - Jesus who claims that he has the power to raise people from death, just as his Father does. That raising people from the dead, is what we call the perspective of eternal life, that which destroys death and defeats hell. Life eternal is not just a state of not dying, it is a perspective. It is the whole way of living that is spoken of here, not merely about dying. 

We can draw from today's Word, at least three indications of eternal life. The first indication is that we come from the Lord and the Lord never abandons us; we belong to the Lord: the first reading outlines this. We have nothing to fear, not even death, because the Lord never forgets us, not even if our own mothers do forget us.

Secondly, God has given us God's only Son, that we have eternal life. What else can come against us , or who? Apart from the very fact that we share the image and likeness of God, we have been "saved" by God - that experience of salvation is the promise of God's eternal existence, an offer that God makes us. However, it depends on us to take it or not, after all it is an offer, and never a compulsion. 

Thirdly, the way to behold the offer of eternal life, Jesus teaches us - is to listen to the Word, believe in the one who has sent the Word to us, and do the will of the One who has sent us! All the lenten practices are pointed to this ultimate growth expected of us. Jesus identified himself with the Father and that was why he never feared anyone who stood against him - for us too, that is the indication: that we identify ourselves with our source, that is God! That is the true perspective of eternal life! 

A Return to hope... towards wholeness!

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, Fourth week in LEnt

April 1, 2025 - Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12; John 5: 1-3, 5-16

When we are in the Lord we have a thousand reasons to thank God for, a million reasons to glorify the Lord, because the continues to give us countless opportunities towards wholeness. The first question here is whether it is true. The next question would be, in what way? And a third question is, how ready and prompt are we to recognise it?

Healing, wholeness ... comes not merely as a corrective to a problem, as if completing a lack. Of course it is so, but not just that. The fact is that, all of us need healing - in varied forms and levels. The promises this healing, as the life giving waters that flow towards us, as the Son of God who comes in search of us, to offer us that healing, just as we see in the Word today. The Lord wishes to give us the experience of wholeness and that is true - the whole of salvation history tells us that, the experience of faith lived and passed on to us vouches for that and on a daily basis the Lord expresses this intention of his, through the Eucharist and other sacraments and sacramentals. 

The real issue lies in our disposition to recognise this presence, this offer of the Lord, this salvific experience that the Lord is willing and eager to offer us - as children of God, as brothers and sisters of the Son, as dwelling places of the Spirit of the Lord. Just as that man who was longing to go the waters, did not realise the fact that the Life giving Water had in fact come to him, we too search for, look for God experience everywhere around! All that we need to do is, as the Psalmist teaches us: be still and know, be still and realise, be still and recognise the life give water that surges within us, because we are God's own.

A Return to hope... Celebrating New Life

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Fourth week in Lent

March 31, 2025 - Isaiah 65: 17-21; John 4: 43-54

Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth...be glad and rejoice, says the first reading today. What more hopeful message can we get? Be it as individuals or as a community, we do have regrets in life and history, and what a wonderful experience it is to hear that they will all be forgotter, erased from memory and that we could start everything anew! That is exactly what the Lord promises us. 

But we will not believe it, we will not take it for that the Lord says; we will try to find figurative meanings and compatible interpretations to the already existing mindset of negativity and hopelessness. What else can the Lord do? We are so familiar with the promises of the Lord that many a time, they do not really mean anything to us - take for example the promises like, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you', 'where there are two are three gathered in my name, I am there,'... how much do we really believe them? However, the Lord will not be surprised about it - we see that in the Gospel. Nor will the Lord give up on us. 

The Lord goes on doing more and more good...and hopes that one day we would come to realise and behold the new things that God has created, the new things that God is continuously doing for us! When we learn to behold them, we shall see ample reasons to celebrate. The Lord calls us to that celebration, to celebrate the new life that the Lord has prepared, and is preparing, for us every day. That would be truely the dawn of hope when we form ourselves and grow enough to behold, realise and celebrate new life from the hands of God. 

A RETURN TO HOPE -TOWARDS CELEBRATION

Celebrating Reconciliation, Return & Renewal

March 30, 2025 - Laetare (Fourth) Sunday in Lent

Joshua 5: 9-12; 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21; Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

The Return to hope, the pilgrimage of this Lent has reached the landmark Fourth Sunday - the Sunday of Celebration, Laetare Sunday. The call today, for this entire week, is to celebrate! Our Christian life is a life of Celebration - in spite of whatever difficulty or trouble, we can find a thousand reasons to thank the Lord, to celebrate the gifts that the Lord keeps filling us with. 

The Word today explains the call we have to celebrate, that we are called, 

to celebrate Reconciliation:

That the Lord calls us to Reconciliation, to get back to that relationship which alone can give us meaning! The Lord has made a covenant with us, a covenant that would never change, on the part of the Lord. The call is to us, to get back to that relationship, it does not matter how far we have gone away.

to celebrate Return:

It is a return that we celebrate today, a return that is made possible by the Lord. On our own it is not possible for us to return, but the Lord makes it possible to us. An important detail is, if it has to be a return, I need to realise where my original identity is. The parable of the prodigal son is a classic representation of "return" which forms one of the core themes of this whole pilgrimage that we have undertaken. One of the peak experiences of return that we can celebrate is the sacrament of Reconciliation!

to celebrate Renewal:

The celebration is truly due and impelling, because what we celebrate is a renewal. Lent, is a time when we celebrate what the Lord has done for us - through his life, death and resurrection. We celebrate New Life, Renewed Life, Eternal Life. What we see in the first reading is that lease of new life that the people of God experienced... from manna to a new crop of grains, it was a new beginning for them. That is what we are challenged to be: renewed beings in Christ. 

One who is in Christ is a new person...and we need to celebrate that renewal, through returning to that relationship!       

A Return to hope... ultimately to love!

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Third week in Lent

March 29, 2025 - Hosea 6:1-6; Luca 18: 9-14

The discourse on Obeying the Lord, that we have been having in past few days, is brought to its climax today, as the Word declares - what God wants is love and not sacrifice! That is the secret: a return to hope actually is ultimately, a return to love! We are called to love and everything in life has to be an expression of that love - the two tier love that is presented to us: love of God and love of the neighbours. 

Love and not sacrifice is a dictum that can communicate three fundamental messages to those who are serious about Christian Spirituality: 

First of all, it is a shift from the doing paradigm to a being pardigm. We are challenged to concentrate on who we are  at the core of our beings and make our doing a simple and sincere expression of what we are. The other way cannot make me neither christian nor spiritual - that is trying to do a lot of things and from there intending to define my identity. That would lead to the peculiar problem of today - the secularisation of faith. 

The second message is to liberate ourselves from ourselves and focus more on the other! What I do, what I give up, what good things I accomplish - these are of course important elements of discussion, but a true Christian spirituality would redirect me to look at the other, what the other needs, what the other feels, and what the other experiences on a daily basis.

Thirdly, it is a reminder of the precedence and centrality of love in Chrisian Spirituality. When done out of sincere love, everything goes well with the Lord. That is why Augustine dared to say, "love and do what you wish!" What we do, might end up a failure, not bear the right effects, not result in anything lasting... but if it is really done in love, the Lord would approve of it - and we would go home justified!

A Return to hope... to love the One Lord

THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, Third week in Lent

March 28, 2025 - Hosea 14:2-10; Mark 12: 28-34

We are reflecting these days on doing the will of God, by way of our obedience to the commandments, the precepts or the teachings of the Lord. It is not simply following a rule, or abiding by a law, or keeping up a custom... it is all about a relationship with God - how absolute that relationship is, and how uncompromising our dedication is! 

First of all, the compromises might come in, when we find excuses to not follow the rule or reasons to break the law or justifications to define exceptions - whatever name we give them, dispensation or allowance or remission and so on. But what matters here is the motive, the real and the innermost motive, and not what is apparently presented. At the level of the conscience we need to come to grips with it. 

The other mode of compromise is what is more dangerous, and the prophet speaks to us about it: creating our own gods... making our own idols, not only in the literal sense, but in the most applicative or figurative sense. When we make riches, conveniences, comfort, progress, advancement, happiness, success, human respect, status, prestige, power, control etc. the priorities of our decision making, we are making of them little gods who will slowly grow and begin occupying larger and larger space in our lives, be it as indivuduals or as communities.

The remedy, as the Word presents to us today is - listening to the voice of the Lord! And the Jesus explains to us that, as the first and the most fundamental commandment: to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The commandment that follows is a sequel to it, rather a verification of the former - to love our neighbours. It is the latter, true love for the other, that makes sure that I am not making a god for myself, or making a god of myself... but remain loyal to the call that I have received from my One God - to love him in everything. 

 

A Return to hope... to turn to that Voice!

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Third week in Lent

March 27, 2025 - Jeremiah 7: 23-28; Luke 11: 14-23

Yesterday, w began the discourse on obedience to the Lord, obedience to the will of God, obedience to the eternal plan that God has for us. But how do we obey without knowing it... which means the Lord takes an extra effort to make it known to us, notwithstanding the fact that we habitually ignore all those efforts. This is what we see the Lord instructing Jeremiah in the first reading today - the Lord is almost preparing him for a rejection, because that is what the people have always done. 

In the Gospel we see Jesus facing the same rejection from the people, inspite of all the signs and wonders that were given to them. The call here is turn to the Voice of the Lord - that Voice that reaches us in so many varied ways: through those who speak to us directly the Word of God, through those who inspire us by their ordinary conversations or daily experiences, through extraordinary events that make us pause a moment and take a look, through ordinary and regular events that we most of the times take for granted, through signs of happenings be they glad or sad... in varied ways, the Voices keeps calling our attention; and our call is to turn to that Voice.

Not hearing the voice and not heeding to its call, it is true that we are not with God! More than that, we will be held responsible, for two reasons - one, that we failed to be that Voice for the others around us; two, that we distracted the others too from listening to that voice by our negligence and lack of witness! That is why Jesus warns us categorically: those who are not with me are against me; those who do not gather with me scatter what I came to gather. There is no neutrality here - either we are with God or we are against the Lord! 

A Return to Hope... towards a fruitful obedience

THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, Third week in Lent

March 26, 2025 - Deuteronomy 4: 1,5-9; Matthew 5: 17-19

I have not come to abolish the Law, but to complete them, to fulfill them, to take them towards the fullness and fruitfulness. Speaking of hope, we know it means that at the end of all that may go well or on the contrary, the Lord's will shall be done, and God's will is always for my welfare! This is hope and the space for God's will within it is non negligible. One of the ways in which this aspect of hope as God's design for us, comes to the fore in the reality of the commandments. 

The commandments which become the fundamentals of our ethical living and Christian mores, is a crucial part of the scaffolding that keeps our hope intact. It refers to a simple conviction that the Lord has already thought through what is good for us and lets us know by the commandments - as to what to do and what to avoid. Hence following the Law, is the source of hope, peace and serenity. However, not all that appears to be obeying the law is unequivocally wholesome! Being legalistic can at times take us towards self righteousness more than sanctity. Jesus is aware of it, and that is why he reorients our attentions towards the fulfillment of the laws - that come from the fruitfulness of our choices. 

Obedience, as we spoke about it just yesterday, cannot be just doing something because it has to be done. Where is the human choice and freedom involved in such an action or such a decision? Obedience of Faith is much more: knowing the will of God, embracing it with love and carrying it out in life with purpose. That is the way that obedience can become fruitful. Returning to hope is all about choosing this obedience to the commandments, which are but God's will made easy. Beginning today, we shall be led to a deeper understanding of what obedience to God's will is - first and foremost, it leads to me to a sense of fulfillment, a sense of meaning and a sense of hope. You Words O Lord, are spirit, they are life. 

Obedience - a sign of the pilgrims of hope!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

March 25, 2025: The Solemnity of Annunciation

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

Obedience can take various degrees to it: the first is, doing what is said. Doing what is said is not entirely easy, unless a person is so dull headed that he or she has no idea or nothing to do on one's own. Obeying commands, keeping the rules, fulfilling the requirements - these fall under this category and they are virtues in themselves without doubt.

The second degree in obedience, is that of doing what is intended. This goes a bit beyond the first, in as much as the person who wishes to obey, is interested in knowing what is intended by what is asked of the person. It is not merely obeying rules but understanding the intention behind the rules; it is not merely fulfilling the requirements, but knowing what the purpose is behind the requirement; it is not merely carrying out what is said, but being interested in doing what is not said. This is more meritorious than the first and basic degree of obedience and here the free will, personal choice and integral participation are the highlights.

What Jesus teaches us, and what we celebrate today in our Blessed Mother is a much higher the degree of obedience. It is not merely doing what is said or what is intended, but living one's life according to what is wished, willed and planned by someone who wishes your good - this is where the aspect of hope plays a vital role. This is the most matured type of obedience, the obedience in the Spirit: a will and choice to submit to the will of the One who has created and called and commissioned me with this life, because my hope inspires me and hope never deludes. 

At times here, one may not even know what is expected of him or her, most of the times one may not know what would be the real outcome of it, but in spite of all these, the person makes an absolute choice and says: 'Here I am; I come to do your will; be it done unto me according to your Word'. That requires an assistance and strengthening from the Spirit of courage, hope and childlike trust.

The Solemnity today affirms that this obedience leads to salvation, salvation which means fullness of life, fullness of joy and fullness of meaning experienced in the ordinariness of the day, filled with hope. Responding to our call to be pilgrims of hope today, the challenge presented to us is, to dare to submit in totality to God's will, that is true obedience of the pilgrims of hope!

A Return to hope... towards humility and truth

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Third week in Lent

March 24, 2025 - 2 Kings 5: 1-15; Luke 4: 24-30

Hope is a gift and it is gratuitous; we would be at faluth to think it is our right or our prerogative. However, it is our prerogative, in as much as we are children of the Lord of hope. But the moment we become haughty about it, we may lose the essence of being so. Truth never ceases to exist, whether it is recognised or not. The more open we are to perceive it, the more we get closer to it; the more we are egoistic, the more likely it is that we miss it and that does not mean it did not exist. 

In Naman who is presented to us in the first reading today, we see someone who was about to miss out on a life time opportunity of healing, just because he was haughty and pride blinded his sight. However, there was the servant maid who was able to put sense into him - blessed is the Lord who hides things from the most erudite of people but reveals the truth to the little ones. And fortunately, although only after an ulterior beseeching, he chose to be humble and he discovered the truth, finding hope in life. 

Jesus cites the same Naman to the people of his times, and warns them of their pride and obstinacy. Not all were ready to take that in, they wanted instead to get rid of the one who brings it to their notice. In fact, they thought they did away with the problem when they crucified Jesus finally. Least did they realise that Truth cannot be buried, it never ceases to exist. We would do well, Jesus beseeches us, to take note of the promises of the Lord and our unworthiness of beholding it. The more we become aware of the unworthiness, the more the Lord deigns that we behold the Truth. Hence, the journey of return to hope, is the path towards humility and truth. 

A RETURN TO HOPE... TOWARDS THE FRUITS

Burning bush, Turning people & Warning Christ

March 23, 2025 - THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

Exodus 3: 1-8, 13-15; 1 Corinthians 10: 1-6, 10-12; Luke 13: 1-9

Burning Bush

Refers to God, who wishes to act on our behalf; who intervenes in ways known only to God; who makes the ground we stand on, a holy ground!

Turning People

We are hard headed and stone hearted that whatever sign or wonder that God manifested, we are intent and obstinate on doing what we wish to and holding on what we desired!

Warning Christ

As the personification of the eternal and unlimited mercy of God, Christ offers us timely and repeated warning that the time is near and the Reign of God is close... We need to move swiftly towards the fruits we are called to bear!

A Return to hope... to the eternal mercy of God!

WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Second week in Lent

March 22, 2025 - Micah 7: 14-15, 18-20; Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32 

A return to hope, is a call that we have, not just this lent or not just at a particular time, but all our lives. We are called to get back to the Lord and the Lord never hesitates to lead us to himself or to embrace us when we reach out. The Lord "delights in showing mercy" the first reading tells us. God does not grudgingly extend his mercy, because obviously we are so unworthy of it. The Lord is forever merciful and endlessly merciful, eternal is his mercy - because it is not that the Lord has compassion; but the Lord is compassion and love; the Lord is mercy. 

But can that make us think that we can do whatever we like and the mercy of God will come reach us? There is a little hitch here... because we have to choose to receive that mercy. The mercy is in abundance and never refused with God, but we have to look for it, ask for it and behold it, in our concrete situation of life. The offer remains, but it is upto us to take it. 

When can we take advantage of that offer... not when we think, anyway the mercy is in abundance and it is for all, therefore I could do whatever I wish to and the mercy will be mine. I have a personal responsibility to avail myself of that mercy and I can do it, by coming to my senses and coming back to it, from the farlands that I have crossed over to! 

Like the younger son in the parable today, first I need to realise I have gone away and faraway; secondly, feel sorry that I have gone thus; and thirdly, decide to come back to the mercy. I need to decide and get up and walk back - RETURN... to that eternal mercy of God. The Lord never tires to forgive us, embrace us back into his love and make his once again his beloved sons and daughters. 

A Return to hope... hope in adversities

THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, Second week in Lent

March 21, 2025 - Genesis 37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Matthew 21:33-43,45-46

Living in hope does not mean everything will be in my favour; living for God does not guarantee that every thing in my life shall be pleasant and enjoyable. On the contrary, when I begin to choose God, when I begin to choose truth, when I begin to choose hope, precisely then my sufferings, troubles and temptations shall increase and intensify! How prepared am I? Yesterday the Word said, when I hope in the Lord, I am like that tree planted on the banks of the river... the question is, when tough times come can I stay there with hope, letting out my roots to the waters that run deep? 

They are specially the moments of difficulties and struggles which we could call the moments of adversities, that define the strength of my faith and the presence or absence of my hope. Hope in adversities, defines the life of a true Christian who does not hesistate to pick his or her cross and follow the Master... towards death, but ultimately towards resurrection.

We have in the first reading, Joseph of the Old Testament, who is faced with adversity in his life, and this was not the end of it. He would be facing many more such and even worse! But he goes about them all without a word of lament, because he had his trust pinned on the Lord, his hope stongly founded on the relationship with God (faith). While on our part it is a lesson to inculcate within us a sense of never dying hope and never failing trust in the Lord, on the Lord's part it is an assurance of his promise: for I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare not for your ruin (cf. Jeremiah 29:11). 

Jesus alludes to the experience of Joseph, combining it to what he was being put through, in the parable we find in the Gosple passage today! Hope in adversities - what great model can we have than the Crucifix that stands right in front of our eyes, whenever we enter the sanctuary of the presence of the Lord. That is limit to our hope, already lived as a witness by the Son of God... that we go to the farthest extent in trusting the Lord, holding the hand of God and going ahead on our life's journey! 

 

A Return to hope... to the right sense of trust

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Sec0nd week in Lent

March 20, 2025 - Jeremiah 17:5-10; Luke 16: 19-31

Hope, what is it all about? It is about the future... that everything is going to be fullfilled. Now the question is, where does that feeling come from? From our wealth, from our power, from our strength, from our capacity to do things, from our ability to pull strings? 

Hope come from a trust is that is built up, out of a relationship. That relationship with God is faith. Hence hope is based on the trust that arises from our faith! The question remains: where does come hope rest? On human beings or human realities, or on God and God's promises? This contrast is brought in direct terms in the first reading where we are called reflect on how blessed the one who places his or her trust entirely in the Lord; and on the corollary, what a curse one brings upon oneself the more he or she trusts in the things that are passing!

There is a second contrast that offered to the one who goes towards the right sense of truth and the other who does otherwise - the former is like the trees by the river, even when apparently there seems no water in the stream, they find the unseen ground water that sustains them and keeps them alive. Whereas the latter are like the bushes in the middle of nowhere - when it rains they come up and look so dense and green, but soon find their end as the dryness takes over!

There is yet another contrast that Jesus offers in the parable that he narrates, providing a grounded illustration of the facts spoken of by the Word today - Lazarus who had no one else to rely on and was rewarded with the eternal bliss; and the rich man who had nothing else to bother but his own ease and wellbeing! We know where the right sense of trust remains and what takes us onwards in our journey of hope. 

St. Joseph, our Co-pilgrim towards Hope!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

March 19, 2025 - Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of Mary and Foster father of Jesus

2 Samuel 7: 4-5, 12-14, 16; Romans 4: 13, 16-18, 22; Matthew 1: 16-24

We celebrate the feast of Joseph, the foster father of the Saviour, the husband of Mary, an extraordinary model on our pilgrimage of hope! Joseph reminds of three important figures in the Old Testament and right enough they are presented to us by the Word today... and through that resemblance he brings to us three fundamental dimensions of hope.

Joseph - and Abraham the father of faith: hope in impossibility

One of the primary figures whom Joseph reminds us of, is Abraham. Some how Joseph takes on himself an image of the partriarchs... we do not know really why, but it is a natural resemblance. That is why, most of the times when Joseph is depicted in a painting, he is depicted old, aged and wise. Nothing in the Gospels tells us that Joseph was old... may be our tendency to see him in the ranks of those patriarchs inspires such art forms. Leaving that aside, let us come to the figure of Abraham that Joseph resembles - Abraham is a prophet of impossibility! St. Paul explains that to us. He says, Abraham hoped against hope, and that is why he is the father of faith for all of us. 

Joseph when he found his wife with the child before his marriage with her, found that nothing could be done about it. Just imagine, who would accept that. Is that not a an impossibility almost...and Joseph accepts that role become the prophet of impossibility, and giving us hope in moments which seem to be moments of impossibility.

Joseph - and David the chosen servant of God: hope in unworthiness

There could be no one among the servants that God chose for Godself, more beloved to God than David. God loved David and was proud of this son! For his sake and in his name, there were so many promises made... to his son Solomon, to the people, that his reign would not end, and so on. Was David such an exceptionally faithful person... absolutely no! He failed in almost all the fundamental commands of the Lord: do no kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, keep sabbath holy... but one thing that David would never do... compromise on his God! He was totally aware of his unworthiness, but in all that unworthiness, he never left the hand of God. He held on to it and the Lord saw that feeble but loving child with favour. Joseph who came in the lineage of David, from the house of David, recalls this trait of a child of God. 

Joseph was weak too... he wanted to give up on Mary. But the Lord directed him and he surrrendered to abide by the direction of the Lord. We do not see Joseph speak anywhere, may be because he was not certain about anything that was happening, just as no one else was. But one thing he was certain... in all that unoworthiness, never to leave the hand of God and that the hand of God would lead him on. Accepting our unworthiness, at no point, will make us less disposed to experience the love of God. Instead, the more we realise that, the more hope shall we be filled with.

Joseph - and Joseph the dreamer: hope in adversities

The very name of Joseph, takes us back to the Old Testament Joseph, the patriarch...and not just that. The dreamer that Joseph of Old Testament was, is seen in Joseph the leader of the holy family too. Joseph, son of Jacob, suffered... suffered because of his dreams, but he lived on by those dreams. Joseph is presented by the scholars as a prefigurement of Christ himself, in various dimensions of his life, but especially in his absolute surrender to the holy will of God and his perfect readiness to suffer all adversities for the sake of God, and God's eternal plan. 

Joseph, had to hunt for a place to provide for his family, run away to protect the family, get back by the direction of the Lord. He faced all the tragedies without a word of complaint. Non of these adversities broke him...he knew to hope in adversities. If we are playing by the plan of God, we shall fear no adversities, because it is the Lord who fights our battle (2 Chronicles 20: 15). Hope in adversities makes us prepared to endure and persevere in our pilgrimage of hope. 

St. Joseph, thus becomes our co-pilgrim on our pilgrimage of hope. Joseph teaches us to hope in moments of impossibity, hope even amidst our realisation of unworthiness, and hope even at experiences of adversities! St. Joseph is model in being pilgrims of hope. 

Today is also the 12 anniversary of the day when Pope Francis assumed the Petrine Office. LEt us entrust him to the Lord, through the intercession of St. Joseph. May St. Joseph intercede for each of us that we may be strengthened in our call to be pilgrims of hope today.

A Return to hope... towards true Glory

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, Second week in Lent

March 18, 2025 - Isaiah 1: 10, 16-20;  Matthew 23: 1-12

We began this week with a call to return to the homeland... the question we raised then, which is the homeland. At times we have the tendency to fix our own homelands and not the original one, and thus go about our choices so mistaken ruining our own lives and that of the entire humanity and the universe! That is why today the Word points to us the true homeland, the true glory that we need to tend to. 

It is not our own petty glory before those who are around me. That has become an overriding criterion that does not permit me to live my life the way it ought to be. I begin to be compromising, pretentious, megalomaniac and so on... because I wish to prove myself before the others and command glory and respect from them. 

The real glory is in our humility... those who humbe themselves shall be exalted. It is in that humility that we will acknowledge our limitations and the reality of our being... that is where the Lord encounters us and there shall be a dialogue... come let us discuss, the Lord invites us.

Let us seek that true glory and that will take us back to hope, back to our homeland!

A Return to hope... Recognition and Response

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Second Week of Lent

March 17, 2025 - Daniel 9: 4-10; Luke 6: 36-38

A RETURN TO HOPE... TO THE HOMELAND

The fact, the pact and the foretaste

Second Sunday in Lent - March 16, 2025

Genesis 15: 5-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17 - 4:1; Luke 9: 28-36 

The Fact:

Our life is a pilgrimage, a pilgrimage towards our eternal homeland. It is a fact that we are passing by, but how prepared are we to accept that, recognise that and make it our perspective?

The Pact:

How are we so sure that the Lord has the homeland prepared for us? The Pact, the covenant... that is the eternal promise, there can be no doubt about it. Only issue could be that we make ourselves not worthy of that homeland by our choices and our priorities, but we have an open and persistent invitation to grow into heaven, our homeland.

The Foretaste:

The Lord gives us a foretaste of this glory, the splendour that the Lord has prepared for us, as our homeland. Just as Jesus gives his disciples the foretaste of the future glory, so does the Lord give us in many ways - our celebrations, the sacraments, every eucharist, our successes in life - all of these are foretastes of the splendour promised us. 

A Return to hope... towards Perfection

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, First week in Ordinary time

March 15, 2025 - Deuteronomy 26: 16-19; Matthew 5: 43-48

The pilgrimage, the journey, the return to the roots... these are the themes predominant in these days of lent and yesterday we affirmed this saying lent is a journey towards renewal. The Word today is raising a further question, a journey and a renewal upto what? What is that point of arrival? And the answer is: Perfection. The destination is perfection. Now the alarm - Oh, is it possible for us weak and limited human beings to arrive at that perfection? And what does this perfection really mean?

The Lord or the Word today responds with clarity both of these crucial questions: first of all, yes it is possible! Not in the way we imagine... that at a point of time, we are totally perfect! We can never say that, but we can and we ought to keep moving towards that perfection. The way is clear, the means is defined, the route is predetermined, if we really wish to journey towards that perfection - and it is Love! 

This perfection is not something that is alien to us, says Jesus. You have your model - your Father in heaven. Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. You can grow to be that, because you have been already granted that image. What matters is that you need to shed all that does not go with that image within you; choose all that fits that image; and grow into that image. And that image is your Father, because God is love. 

Love. Love like your Father in heaven. Love one another as I have loved you... without expecting it in return, without calculating the cost it would demand and without counting the number and volume of difficulties it would land you in, love every one! That is the way to perfection and it is not alien to us, because we have received that love, we have enjoyed that love and we have been thriving because of that love, whether we recognise it or not. Hence, to love is not an option; it is the only way to Christian perfection! 

A Return to hope... towards Renewal

THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, First week in Ordinary time

March 14, 2025 - Ezekiel 18: 21-28; Matthew 5: 20-26

New heart, new spirit, renouncing evils ways, towards deeper sense of virtue... these themes that the Word presents to us today, remind us of the fact that the journey to hope, the lenten journey, has to be a process of renewal, a transformation of our heart and mind. Hearing this we might say, but I am not "wicked" or "evil" as the Word speaks of today, after all my sins are so petty and small! 

Let us beware: are there sins that are small and those that are big? Aren't we speaking about being faithful to our nature and not being so, being committed to our call and not being so... can that have grades? Aren't sins anyway ungodly, no matter of what measure they are? These are the cautionary reflections that the Word provokes within us today. 

Today the society is adept at finding justifications and excuses for all choices and actions. What's in a word, who does not do this today, it's become normal by far... these are some of the oft repeated phrases by the moral relativists of today who tend to justify anything in the sense of being normal or rational. When Jesus questions some of the laws and regulations, some legalities and conventions, he is not belittling moral judgements, he challenges us to 'a deeper understanding of virtues and a more diligent faithfulness to integrity'. 

Integrity, that is the key word to renewal, not subservience to law or norms. Integrity refers to my innermost yearnings, my deep seated identity and my vocation from the One who has willed me into existence. Once I realise that, my journey changes its direction, from going in search of what is truth and what is right, it takes me within me to discern them and listen to the voice from within - that calls me to renewal, a renewal of my entire being, everyday!

A Return to hope... to the right sense of Prayer

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, First week in Ordinary time

March 13, 2025 - Esther 4: 17; Matthew 7: 7-12

Ask, seek and knock... is a very popularly quoted teaching of Christ, not just by Christian literatures but even the others which wishes to explain what prayer is all about. Looking at this passage within our pilgrimage of return to hope, we have a particular dimension to be highlighted from the Word today. Let begin with a question - do I get all that I ask; do I find all that I seek; or does everything that I knock open for me? Of course, in all sincerity, the answer cannot be "yes". But why?

The Gospel Acclamation gives us a clue to respond to that question - a pure heart create for me O God... it is that pure heart that makes all the difference. That is why James instructs us: "when you ask, you do not receive, because you asl with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4: 3). What is this pure heart that we are speaking about here - is it some kind of spiritual elitism that we are promoting? Certainly not. 

The First reading gives us an illustration of this pure heart and explains to us what the right sense of prayer should be, if we really wish to be identified as "people of God". The pure heart is manifested by Esther when she prays with her whole being and calls all her actions and sacrifices almost nothing, and surrenders the entire course of events to the Lord. How prepared are we to do this, is the crucial reflection left to us. 

The journey to hope essentiall comprises of this return to the right sense of prayer - from asking, seeking and knocking for the sake of our plans, projects and pleasure, to asking the Lord to reveal God's plans to us, seek to understand the way that God has prepared for us and knocking to open the right avenues so that we may journey on with love, towards hope and trust in the loving providence of the Lord.