Power to the Children

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

March 1, 2025 - Sirach 17:1-13; Mark 10:13-16

The first reading brings out the majesty of being a human person. That glory and splendour arises from the fact that we have been given the very image and likeness of God. 

At times we create complexes within us or among us that we are fair or dark, or tall or short, or beautiful or handsome or ugly... all these do not matter at all because fundamentally we are made in the image of God, the image that resides deep within us. 

There can be no preferential treatment or despise on the basis of gender or colour or the social roots... that would be an utter foolishness and totally ungodly! Because the fundamental element, the kernel, the core of our being is the same - the image of God. 

The children do not have any trouble in understanding it. That is why the Lord declares today the power of the Reign is given to the Children. Without becoming a child (of God) I cannot inherit it - that's the Father's style: the Power to the Children.

Relationships - the heart of Christian faith

WORD 2day: Friday, 7th week in Ordinary time

February 28, 2025 - Sirach 6:5-17; Mark 10:1-12

It is not rules, regulations and rituals that are at the center of Christian life and practice, but persons, community and relationships. Genuine and sincere relationships at all levels is the true sign of Christian faith. 

Relationships are a mark that proves that a person is mature - because the person is able to think beyond oneself, is capable of looking beyond one's own likes and dislikes, or needs and wants, and is able to accommodate the other into one's own world. This is the psycho-social truth of human reality. This is equally true on a spiritual plane and much more so from a Christian perspective. We know how Jesus cyrstalised all law and prophets in one simple command - the command to love. 

The Word today invites us to reflect on two long standing relationships in any person's life: Friendship and Marriage! In both these what is expected of a person is faithfulness, to be sincere, genuine, authentic and integral. A faithful friend is a sure shelter and beyond price; whoever has found one has found a rare treasure! Instead of beginning to search you friendlist for the one who is such to you, begin thinking: to whom are you such a treasure! It is high time today, specially for the younger generation, to leave the portals of the virtual friendship and enter into true, life changing, long standing, meaning giving relationships.

Another insight this reflection can leave us with is the fact that these two above mentioned relationships (friendship and marriage) have been used as metaphors for our relationship with God - that is a crucial call too, to care about and focus on developing a personal relationship on a daily basis with the person of Christ, the image of the invisible God. 

Justice of the Lord

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

February 27, 2025 - Sirach 5:1-10; Mark 9: 41-50

The Word today is quite hard and as soon as we hear it we feel like saying, this is an old teaching, too rigorous and too bleak in hope. But as the wisdom of Sirach warns us, it can turn into an excuse for not changing oneself. We could have, in the name of modernity and culture, over the centuries lost some fundamental sense of faithfulness to the One, the Truth and the Goodness. 

The Lord knows the ďeepest of our thoughts and the most secret of our intentions. It is not possible to fake allegiance to the Lord as people do to each other. The Lord cannot be one of the options, that when all is done we have resort to the Lord. We say we trust in the Lord, but when? Maybe, when everything else is out of question and we have exploited all our so-called resources... without realising right from the beginning that all the resources we have, are from the hands of the Lord! 

However, the Lord is not only all knowing and compassionate, the Lord is also just and righteous. We would be at fault to think that we can appease the Lord with some legalities, some rituals and some compensations that are peripheral... nothing short of a true intention and a sincere dedication in our efforts to become acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, can make us God's own people!

Let us not only count on the mercies of the Lord, but also strive to live by the justice of the Lord.

Exaggerated Loyalty or Easy Lethargy?

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

February 26, 2025 - Ecclesiasticus 4: 12-22; Mark 9: 39-42

We have an identity as people belonging to the Lord and there is a rightful sense of feeling proud about it, which is expressed in our gratitude to God who has called us and made us God's own. But the danger is that sometimes we might take this sense or identity to two extremes, both of which are equally bad.

The first extreme is an exaggerated loyalty, that thinks as if we have the monopoly of God, and all that belongs to God - like truth, authority, judgement, righteousness etc.! We tend to dictate terms to the 'others' and feel a kind of superiority that is absolutely in no way Christ-ian. Today we see one such incident in the Gospel, where the apostles claim a patented right for doing good; Jesus talks them out of it.

The second extreme which is seen in the life of many so-called 'nominal' christians of today: where they live a life of abject lethargy, not conscious of their identity, not owning up the responsibility that comes with it and not really living up to the standards set while accepting that identity! There is no concrete sign that many of us are truly Christ-ians.

The solution to this lies in the relationship we have with Wisdom, the Counsel of the Lord, the Holy Spirit who sets our hearts to abide by the right balance. Neither exaggerated loyalty nor easy lethargy, but a humble and loving recognition of our identity and a faithful and committed living out, of the same.

Growing up... to be a true child!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 7th week in Ordinary time

February 25, 2025 - Sirach 2:1-11; Mark 9: 30-37

'Grow Up!' people say, when they are upset with some people's attitudes found wanting, when people behave 'childish' and immature, as it is said. Grow up, yes... but, grow up to what? The Word today invites us, to grow up to be children. That may sound a bit contradictory, or at least confusing to say - to grow to be children.  

Cling on, trust, hold on, wait on the Lord... in short, this is what we mean by learning to be true children, true children of God. It is a quality to grow in, to become children of God, true children of God, persons with a relationship like a child with its parent.

Who can wait on the mercies of the elders but a child, for when we consider ourselves grown up we crave to be independent. Who can cling on to someone else and keep trusting in their goodness, hoping that they will be led in the right path, but a child! Who but a child can look up to others and understand that he or she is the least of all who are around and helpless of the lot?

Jesus invites us - grow up to be a child... let go of your ego, learn to depend on the goodness of the Lord, allow God to take hold of your hands and you will find the true peace, the peace of a child. Grow up constantly, to be a true child!

Faith and Wisdom - gifts from God

WORD 2day: Monday, 7th week in Ordinary time

February 24, 2025 - Ecclesiastes 1:1-10; Mark 9: 14-29

Knowledge can be obtained by effort and hardwork, but wisdom comes from the Lord. We may read, listen, think and increase our knowledge, but putting various pieces of knowledge together to arrive at a decision is wisdom and that cannot be acquired by purely hardwork or merely human effort. 

It is a gift from the Lord, because Wisdom as the first reading tells us today, belongs to God and whom God deigns to grant it, and the measure God wills to grant it. Wisdom is basically the capacity for discernment   and we know well how much it is the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Belief is born from what we learn and what we understand, while Faith is not merely our lonesome job. It is our personal response to a self revealing God. If so, it is the Lord who grants us this faith, as a gift and helps us grow and mature in it too. It flows from the gift of discernment, the capacity to see the right sense from all that is presented to us in the name of knowledge and information.  

'Lord I believe, help my unbelief" ...we come across that profound prayer today. It would do a great good to us, to make this prayer a regular and daily prayer, confiding ourselves in the Lord, beckoning the Lord to help our unbelief and make us truly faithful sons and daughters!

LOVE AND BE LOVED!

My identity, my mission and a promise!

February 23, 2025: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary time 

Samuel 26: 2, 7-9,11-13, 22-23;  1 Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6: 27-38

The more we love, the more shall we be loved... loved by the Lord, loved by our fellow beings, and loved by the entire universe around. It is not that the Lord God lays a condition to love us, but the fact is that, we shall be able to experience the unconditional love of God, in as much as we are ready to love one another. Today we have an interesting set of readings, that impress on us why David was loved by God and by his people,  how God's love promises us a dignity that is incredibly immense and how love alone can set us apart as the people of God. It is not merely a romantic reflection on the value of love, but a concrete explanation of what it entails to really love!

To love is to forgive; it hurts, but it is my identity. 

At times love is imagined to be some kind of a pleasant feeling and ecstatic experience. But it is not all. Love involves hurt, pain and heart ache. It consists of forgiveness... showing the other cheek, blessing those who curse, and respecting those who vow to destroy you. True love hurts... not the one who is loved, but the one who loves. The one who loves, empties oneself to truly love the other. The best of example is the mystery of Incarnation itself - for God so loved the world that God gave God's only son as a ransom! Can we ask a question, 'why'? Why should God do this? The question does not stand, because it is the very identity of God. God is love. 

We are called to the same mode of living, because that is our identity too! We are created in the image of God; God is love and therefore our image, our identity is love! Anything against it is a distortion of that image. Today when forces speak against and work against the Christian people and the Church, what do we do? We love. Our identity is love. In that love we forgive, we express compassion, we spread love! Be it in the family, or in the society, we need to keep this identity very clear. We are sons and daughters of Love, and therefore, love is our identity.

To love is to give; it drains me, but it is my mission. 

Love one another as I have loved you, said Jesus and one of the simplest proofs that he gave for one who loves is, Giving. One who loves gives. God loved, God gave - gave everything, absolutely everything. God loves, and God gives! If we love, we need to give. give from what we have and what we are, without measure, without expectation or without any self-benefitting agenda. If I am disciple of Christ, I cannot but give. Giving is a sign of love as a mission. I am sent to give, just as Christ came to give and was sent to give, give of himself, give everything, even his life! So am I, sent to give, because I am sent to love. 

The Martyrs whom we celebrate and venerate... why do we do? Because they died? Because they suffered? Not all who are killed or not all who suffered are proclaimed martyrs... the Church has a wisdom behind to see if they were killed for the faith, if they suffered for their faith. Being killed for faith or suffering for faith means, carrying out the mission of love to the end. I am not sent merely to go and brainwash people and bring them to be baptised! I am sent to love people, to give of myself  in love for the people, to give God's love to people! We can never lose sight of this, because to love is our mission.

To love is to trust; it may look delusive, but it is a promise. 

When I give and forgive, when I love and do everything for the other, I have a promise that can never fail. That the Lord my God will find me modelled after the image in which I have been created. That I shall attain the fulfilment of my life and life's purpose. David seemed a loser in the eyes of his companions who were with him, for he could have killed Saul and become the king right away! Jesus speaks of allowing ourselves to be robbed, cheated, taken for granted and being treated as the evil ones wish... I may look like a loser, but I am not! I have a promise and I rest on that promise.

When evil forces encamp against us and the wild beastly powers surround us in ambush, strangely we are called to love, to forgive, to give and to do good! It could be governments, or it could be hostile groups, or private individuals or brainwashed mobs... when someone is out there to hurt us and break us, what do we do? It is a pertinent question for a true Christian and a true Christian community any time - we remain firm and continue to love! We continue to serve, we continue to give, we continue to do all the good that we can. Because we are not doing it for the recompense, or for a recognition, or for teaching anyone a lesson. We do it, because we have a promise: that the God who looks on, has a plan for us! 

Nothing should discourage us from loving, because it is our identity to love. Nothing can stop us from loving because it is the very mission that we have been sent with. Nothing needs to motivate us to love, because we have a promise, that when we love, we make ourselves loved. The more we love, the more shall we be loved... loved by the Lord, loved by our fellow beings, and loved by the entire universe around. Let us love, and be loved!

Celebrating the Petrine Ministry

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

February 22, 2025: The Chair of St.Peter
1 Peter 5: 1-4; Matthew 16: 13-19

We celebrate today the pastoral responsibility that the Lord places on the successors of St. Peter. "You are Peter; on this rock I shall build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it." The Church has stood the test of time - 2 millennia and humbly, still counting despite all the forces which have always wanted it to buckle under pressure!

The First reading has a few remarkable elements that seem to explain perfectly the role of Papacy: 'presbyter among presbyters', 'not lording over the people', 'being example to the flock'! This is exactly what Pope Francis has been trying to do the past 12 years: stressing the Collegiality of Bishops, as Bishop of Rome, and not lording over but challenging everyone with his very life. Restraining from making a hero-idol of him, it is important at this moment that as a Church we gratefully recognise the timely contribution he has made, and hearken to his passionate call to live as light of the world and salt of the earth, spreading love and hope to those around us.

We are aware of so many forces today in the World that wants by all means to destroy the Church and its moral authority on the planet! The Lord promised that the gates of hell will never prevail over the Church, but we need to remain worthy of the promise, by being communities of genuine faith and integral living. This day, we have an absolute duty, to pray for the Holy Father, specially as he is going through a crucial moment of health crisis. 

Thank you Lord for Pope Francis; bless him, strenghten him and be with him with the joy of the Spirit! God bless our Pope!

Ego - the antonym of Christian love

WORD 2day: Friday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 21, 2025 - Genesis 11:1-9; Mark 8:34 - 9:1

Christian definition of Love is 'wishing the good of the other' and if this is what love means, its opposite is not just hate, but Ego! When I begin to look at me, mine and myself, when I begin to do anything to achieve my end, when everything around me is only an object for me to use, for my good and even persons are means to my ends... that is Ego.

The Word enumerates what one loses when the ego in the person grows... the person loses God, the person loses peace, the person loses the other! Godlessness, Division and Hatred - these are the three dominant viles that the humanity faces today.

Godlessness, that has made the human person arrogant, thinking of oneself as the master of everything and claiming rights over everything, even life - one's own and other's too... leading to inhumanities and killings of varied types.

Division that makes humanity broken, leaving us so despicable among the creatures on the face of the earth - not living our life and not letting others live their life, creating a hell out of the earth that is entrusted to our care - killing each other, destroying everything.

Hatred that keeps tearing apart humanity on a daily basis; making us inhuman and cruel, wishing the death of the other and in the mean time promoting and perpetrating a culture of death and decline!

Jesus challenges us to throw this ego behind and walk towards genuine love, pick up one's daily cross for others' sake and walk with the Lord, in humility and faith.

The Spirit and the Satan

WORD 2day: Thursday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 20, 2025 - Genesis 9:1-13; Mark 8:27-33

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us... for the Lord has created us in God's own image. We bear the name of God. The first reading today reiterates the fact in many ways - saying that God created everything for the human beings, that God gave human beings an ascendancy over the rest of the creatures and explicitly stating once again that God created human beings in God's image, the Spirit of God!

Peter is seen to be filled with that Spirit of God when he rightly points out who Jesus was - the Son of God. Yes, we possess the Spirit of the Lord within us, and that is what defines us, not all other forces that try to take us away, or tempt us towards ruin. 

A fact that we need to beware of is that the Satan is all the time lurching around the corner waiting for a time to pounce on us and draw us as far away as it could. Right from the first moment of the creation this enmity is on, isn't it true? But it all depends where I belong: the Spirit or the Satan - whose side am I on?

The Noah's Ravens

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 19, 2025 - Genesis 8: 6-13,20-22 ; Mark 8: 22-26

I am reminded, reflecting on today's first reading, of an expression a good friend of mine is fond of repeating. He would call some people, 'the Noah's ravens' - when they take up a task and set about it but never return to report the progress or the lack of it. It is indeed an interesting perspective to think from, isn't it?

Anything good or healthy we take up to, has a gradual progress and we need to follow it through. And to do that, there are three requirements...

Firstly, we should not be impatient as to expecting everything to happen in a jiffy. Noah was patiently waiting to get the right sign and the right time. In our personal lives and in our families, when we live through some trying times, how many impatient moments lead us to choices that are not truly divine?

Secondly, when we set off on the task we should be resolute enough to follow it through till its very end. Quitting and giving up are signs of lack of faith and trust and we are called to surrender into the hands of the Lord.

Thirdly, we should not forget those who are involved with us in the task... beginning with the Lord who initiates everything that is good. Unlike the ravens that were lost in their own amusement, forgetting the purpose behind the task taken up; we are called to be attentive to the Lord and wait on the Lord. The Lord will deign to offer us the right direction to renew our lives!

The dangerous leaven

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 18, 2025: Genesis 6: 5-8, 7: 1-5, 10; Mark 8: 14-21

The Lord invites us, as God's people to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Another significant role the Lord assigns to us, is to be the leaven of goodness; the yeast of the Reign. Jesus uses this image of the leaven - both in the positive sense of the leaven of the Reign, and in the negative sense of the leaven of the pharisees to be avoided.

Today, the Lord warns us of a danger that we become a leaven of insincerity, compromises, mediocrity and hypocrisy. Even though we may not outwardly choose to be blatantly evil, we may live a life of double or multiple standards, a life of total discrepancy; that life would not only be unfit for Reign, it would be dangerously against the Reign.

Getting into the ark of the Lord, that is the Reign of God, is not a simple matter that happens automatically. It is a series of deliberate choices to be made, on a daily basis. It does not happen by decisions others have made on our behalf (something like the parents deciding to baptise the kids), nor does it happen by mere enrollment on a list of members in a society or a community! It is a personal choice and an absolute way of life.

The Intention within!

WORD 2day: Monday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 17, 2025: Genesis 4: 1-15, 25; Mark 8: 11-13

What have we heard from our childhood memories about the story we hear today: as Cain brought some rotten fruits and leftovers, while Abel brought the best of the firstlings from his flock? But let us take a good look at the story as we read today in the first reading: there is nothing in there that says in the Word that Cain's offering was rotten. Yes, it was not acceptable, but not because it was not of international standards or of the best known quality.

It is the question from the Lord that gives us the reason why Cain's offering was abominable: because of the heart with which it was offered. His heart was probably filled with envy, pride and malice and that renders even the best of gifts worthless. It is not what we give that matters, but with what kind of a spirit we make the offering we make.

The Gospel presents to us another scene where Jesus is upset with the Pharisees and the Scribes. So many had asked him for healing and miracles... he had no issues with them, that is about healing or doing miracles. But today when they ask for a sign he is worked up. The reason was simple: what lay in their heart as they asked for it! Feelings of animosity, pride, envy and hypocrisy. It was not what they asked that irritated him, but what was there behind what they asked, what was there in their hearts even as they made that demand from him!

When we come to the presence of the Lord to pray, let us check our inner disposition first. Are we worthy to behold the presence of the Lord?

IN GOD WE TRUST

Trust, in God, do we?

February 16, 2025: 6th Sunday in Ordinary time

Jeremiah 17: 5-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20; Luke 6: 17, 20-26

In God we trust, is a famous dictum, not just because it is found printed on the much sought-after dollar bills of the United States of America, but because it is the motto adopted by the nation since almost seven decades (to be precise, from 1956). This phrase is famous, but is it practised? It is popular, but is it meant when and where it is used, with all that we know is going there? There is no motive to criticise the Nation in reference here, but to bring our attention to such a statement that we make so frequently... that we trust in God. Do we? Do we really trust in God, in our practical day to day life? 

One of the first questions to be answered here is, what does 'trusting' mean? Trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something! When I say I trust, I know that the person or the thing, is capable of something that is in reference. To trust, therefore is to know. To trust is to use that knowledge to rely on that someone or something. To trust is however not totally foolproof. Because trusting is a leap that one takes from what one knows about someone, to a judgement about what that someone is. The knowledge one has can be deceptive, or purposely created and shared to deceive. Remember the episode of Adam and Eve with the serpent... they trusted the serpent! That is why the whole idea of who is trust-worthy and who is not, arises.  

Here comes the second question, what does it mean, when I say, I trust in God. It means that I know God, I have gotten to know God, I have my convictions about God, I have a relationship with God as a result of knowing God. Can I say, 'O God, in you I trust', without really knowing God? Can I claim to trust in God, without really developing a true relationship in God? Do I really trust in God or do I trust in what I have created for myself as trust-worthy gods? May be riches, may be power or position or dominion over the other, may be the pleasures of life, may be my ego, may be the opinions of the world, may be the false image that I wish to give the world about myself... anyone of these I could create for myself as my trust-worthy deity.  

The question that remains to be answered is, do I really trust in God? Or am I using God for my own purposes - pacifying myself, justifying myself, satisfying myself, fending for myself and reaching my own ends! The world today teaches this generation to look at the what is here and now, to consider the facts and concrete reality as seen, to value statistics and believe in calculated precisions. In the name of science, certain knowledge is created and spread and everyone is directly or indirectly obliged to accept it, submit to it and act on it. What is 'spiritual' is considered unreal, what is 'theological' is considered unscientific, and what is 'transcendental' is considered a waste of time. To add to the predicament, there are those who misinterpret the 'spiritual', manipulate the 'theological' and manoeuvre the 'transcendental' to suit their own ends. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians in the second reading today, these are the 'most unfortunate of all people' and not only that - the most dangerous of all, misleading everyone. 

The contrast that repeats itself in the first reading and the Gospel - the blessed and the cursed - consists in trusting truly in God or trusting in the gods that we create for ourselves! 

The worst of the possibilities is that we intentionally create deities for ourselves and for others around and make people trust in them. As the society today creates success, popularity and comfort as deities and propose to people to chase after, for the sake of happiness and meaning in life! It is enough a person is successful and moneyed, whatever he or she says becomes trust-worthy, today. Look at some bigwigs who control the entire governments and their policies, just because they have the money and might! In the past we have seen too, the moneyed controlling the world… and where it led to! Where is the trust of the world placed?

Another possibility is that we are mistaken in our understanding, and conceive God in a manner much limited and wrong. Some so-called preachers who delight in making fancy predictions and frightening propositions, make people fall for this and there are persons who trust in some rites, rituals and rules as those which can really save them from all pain and suffering in life. What a deception it can cause when they really get to know the Truth!

The only possibility that can do us eternal good is to earnestly pray with the psalmist today: happy is the one who trusts in the Lord. In God should we trust... in God alone, in God who is Love, Truth and Goodness. Only in love, should we trust, not in hatred and vengeance, not in proving one's point and winning over all others. Only in Truth should we trust, not in half-truths and fancy ideas, not in the deceptions of the evil one. Only in Goodness should we trust, not in craftiness and deceit, not in manipulations and exploitation. 

Only in God should we trust, for in God lies our eternal salvation. We are called to resurrection, to eternal life, to that salvation... which cannot be made sense of, except in relation to God. May our everyday life choices and priorities show to ourselves, that only IN GOD WE TRUST.

The Promise, the bread and the Word

WORD 2day: Saturday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 15, 2025 - Genesis 3: 9-24; Mark 8: 1-10

The Word in its entirety today, brings to us the deep connection that exists among the three key terms of our Christian faith: the promise, the bread and the Word.

The multiplication of the bread in the Gospel, is but a symbolic episode of the continuity that exists between the God of Old Testament and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We witness the God who provided, in a deserted place, to a multitude of people and from almost nowhere - and we see Jesus who provides food, gives them bread to eat, just as the Father gave them food, manna from heaven to eat.

The bread is not merely a bread to eat, but a sign of God'promise. You shall be my people and I shall be your God, was God's promise and God has remained faithful to it, all the time. God promised that we would be redeemed by an offspring from a woman... and we have been! The promise lies open to us and we stand firm on it, not because we deserve it but because the Lord our God is faithful to it.

The Word is the incarnation of the promise, and the Word comes to us every day in varied forms, including the form of the bread, the bread of the Covenant, the mystery of our redemption: the Eucharist. The Eucharist embodies all the three elements of the promise, the bread and the Word... it is a daily reminder of the goodness and the faithfulness of God.

Let our celebration of the Eucharist today, be a true thanksgiving to the goodness of God in which we are saved!

Half truths and complete destructions

WORD 2day: Friday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 14, 2025: Genesis 3:1-8; Mark 7: 31-37

We see a striking similarity in the claims of both the Satan and the Lord, in the Word today.

- Do what I say and your eyes will be opened, says the serpent.

- Ephatha, Be opened, says the Lord to the deaf ears of the man.

Both take place... but the latter opens to fullness of life, while the former to destruction of life.

Today in our situations of daily life we don't deliberately choose the evil, the lie, the destruction of life... we are deceived by the look-alikes. The evil one taunts us with lies which look like truth, while they are really half truths. The insistence on autonomy of individuals, need for self actualisation, the attraction of successful living - these are presented as ideals to be pursued! They look so good and we may tend to believe this is what the Lord made us for! But unfortunately a major part of humanity is today deceived by these half truths.

Yes, they are half truths, unless they are conceived, interpreted and presented in relation to the other half - love for the other, common good, human solidarity and universal harmony! These are the complements that make the reality of creation, truly what it was conceived to be by the Creator! We would understand that, if only we open our ears to the cries of the poor and the marginalised, the wailing of the crumbling creation, the mourning of the suffering part of the humanity - ephatha...be opened, says the Word to our deafened spiritual ears.

Half truths are more dangerous than the plain lies; they can make one walk one's own way to perdition. It is important that we remain faithful to the truths taught to us, clarify them further and deepen them instead of being carried away by the fancy teachings and fantastic claims of the half truths! 

Being One in the Lord!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week in Ordinary time 

February 13, 2025: Genesis 2: 18-25; Mark 7: 24-30

Man-woman, we-they, rich-poor, high-low... these categories of daily consideration of people, things and events is something to be consciously transcended. Jesus himself receives a bit of a lesson from that Syro-phoenician woman in the Gospel today and Jesus was not ashamed to acknowledge it: woman your faith is great!

At times people are apprehensive about interreligious dialogue or multi religious initiatives of unity and harmony. They prefer to look at the other as different, separate or even contrary. If we truly mean what we say and what we pray: I believe in One God - then I need to become more and more proactive and look at the reality as One Humanity!

Divisions and discrimination are types of possesions, demonic and devilish; they have affected human persons right from the beginning and try to control them all along. It makes us sick and broken. The Lord alone can chase this spirit away and grant us the wholeness that we are in need - because the Lord is One, and if we are in the Lord we shall be One too, never divided or discriminating!

Neither death nor defilement!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 12, 2025: Genesis 2: 4-9,15-17; Mark 7: 14-23

Religious practices and principles abound in our contexts defining what is right and what is wrong; determining what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in the sight of God. The Word today has one such clarification as to what would make a person unacceptable in the eyes of God from a Christian perspective - it is neither death nor defilement.

Death is considered the peak of negative experiences by many religious traditions but not the Christian. Death is merely another milestone considering the totality of human experiences. It shouldn't perturb us or preoccupy us... the least, it should not frighten us! For those who believe in the Risen Lord, death is but a transition, a passage, a moment of faith.

Defilement laws are seen as important religious factors in a society. What makes one socially acceptable or not, is a crucial religious parlance. But Jesus is categorical in stating that nothing of that sort - categories of acceptability and experience of defilement, exists in his Father's mind. The Father is all Mercy and Compassion towards God's children!

So, neither death nor defilement can separate me from the Lord, but a deliberate choice does. I cannot live my Christian faith merely on customary practices and accepted mores. It is not so much about what I say and what I do, as about what I think and what I intend. It is there I need to make concrete and categorical choices, within me! I need to make those deliberate choices on a daily basis and at every moment of my life... choices that would determine whether I belong to God or no.

Imago Dei - Our real core

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 11, 2025 - Genesis 1: 20 - 2:4a; Mark 7: 1-13

Jesus had one thing that he could never bear or tolerate! Living two lives... how much ever good I may do, it does not matter as much as, I being good. This is because Jesus is mindful of the real core of our being: Imago Dei, the image of God that is enshrined within us.

God saw everything was good as God created them one by one. But when God had created the human beings, God found it very good - the recorded Word says. Because God saw Godself in the human person. The inner core of our being is that godliness that we can observe in God. When we refuse to see it within us or reject what is at the core of our selves, we become aliens to ourselves. This is what Jesus is warning us against. Get closer and closer to the real core of your being: the image of God. 

This is the true Christian spirituality, that the Word today wants us to understand. Spirituality itself is a sense of being connected to everything and everybody... and further still, Christ's, Christ-like and Christian Spirituality is a sense of feeling an obligation to love people, fend for their good, be interested in their well being and spend oneself for the happiness and well being of the other. It cannot be merely a dry or rigid performance of rituals and lifeless hypocritical obedience to rules and commandments. 

Christ's spirituality consists predominantly of love: because God is love and that is the image that is placed at the core of our beings. We are called to recognise the presence of this image within us, marvel at its majesty and strive to live true to it, come what may: troubles, inconveniences, burdens, sacrifices and carrying of crosses! If we are prepared, we are well on our way to become what we really are, in our real core - the living images of God.

To touch and to be healed...

WORD 2day: Monday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 10, 2025: Genesis 1: 1-19; Mark 6: 53-56

It did not matter whether they touched the Lord or the Lord touched them, they were healed. Both ways it is an act of faith: to touch the Lord and to allow the Lord to touch us! 'Speak Lord, but a word and my soul shall be healed,' we pray! A word, a touch, a glimpse or a gaze, a whisper... that is all that it takes for us to receive the fullness, from the hands of the Lord who has made us and continues to guard and protect us.

We begin from today to listen to and reflect on the book of genesis. What marvellous accounts as the basis of our faith experience! God reigns... God holds everything in being... God manifests God's glory and might in everything. When God said a word it was done. And when Jesus came, it was enough people touched him, mighty things happened. There was a spiritual connect between the people and the Lord. That spiritual connect is what we call faith, the experience of faith.

All that we need to know is to understand that we are handiworks of the Master Creator, and live our lives according to the mind of the One who has loved us into existence, with a well defined purpose and an eternal plan. How prepared are we to allow the Lord to touch us? How eager are we to touch the Lord with all sincerity of heart? Because, when the Lord touches, nothing remains the same; they change, they transform, they are recreated! 

All those who touched him were cured; and all those whom he touched were healed! Let us seek his touch this day.

WE ARE CALLED

In spite of, in view of & in the place of...

February 9, 2025: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary time

Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5: 1-11

We are called - this is one of the most fundamental self-understanding that every Christian should possess. We are Christians, we are followers of Christ because we are called. 

We know that in our present Indian context, a term seems prevalent - 'Ghar Wapsi', refering to bringing back to the 'hindu' fold, those who had gone to other religions in the name of conversion! Is it as simple as this - just changing camps, or changing names? Or there is also another movement, however minor, of people who claim that their ancestors were converted to Christianity and that they have no allegiance to it on their own! What has been their self-understanding all this while? Still more, there are those who go from one denomination of Christian faith to another, looking for excitement and variety! Looking at all these phenomena, the sad fact that emerges is that those who claim to have received the faith, still need to understand that faith is a call!

Faith is a call, in fact, a response to a call... a personal response to God who reveals Godself to us, in various ways. Fundamentally, every believer in God is called, is called to a self-understanding, a way of life, and a mission. The Liturgy of the Word this Sunday reminds us of this fact: that we are called. And in this respect there are three messages given to us to reflect upon:

We are called in spite of... in spite of our limitedness, in spite of our weakness, in spite of our unworthiness! This is the common thread that obviously runs through the three readings we listen to. Isaiah exclaims that he is impure and lives among impure people and therefore is not worthy to even hear or pronounce the Word of the Lord; Paul declares that he has been like a person who was unexpectedly born and an enemy of the people of God; Peter falls at the feet of the Lord and begs the Lord to leave him because he is unworthy and sinful. The unworthiness, weakness, and at times even wickedness, is a matter of fact within us - it is in spite of that the Lord has called us!

It is not because we are worthy that the Lord has called us, we are worthy to stand before the Lord because the Lord has called us. Every day of our life when we have an opportunity to do good to someone, when we have a recognition for the identity we bear as followers of Christ, when we are in a position to serve someone because we have the identity of a Christian, we need to remind ourselves that we are called. we are called in spite of our limitedness. Our call, our identity can never be a source of pride or arrogance - judging others, condemning others, looking down on others, and treating them as people who have to be somehow rescued to life! As Christians we need to grow more and more humble, towards an authentic self-understanding of a people who are called by God, in spite of our unworthiness.

We are called in view of... in view of a mission, in view of a purpose, in view of a task to be accomplished! The three characters we meet today in the Word - Isaiah, Paul and Peter - were called for a particular purpose - to be a messenger of God, to proclaim the Gospel to the peoples, to be fisher of persons! There were called in view of something, they did not know that. They were thinking only of their past, their present and their situation in life; they could not see what lay ahead of them. They were in fact being called for a way of life, for a new way of life, for a completely different way of life! As soon as they realised this, they were able to come over their fixation with the past and the present and they began to look that the new life they were called to life - as a messenger, as a preacher, as an apostle!

It is important to be attentive to what the Lord is calling me to. I cannot consider myself called and continue with the same old life style of the past or the present. As the saying goes, 'you cannot make a difference, if you do not do anything different!' My call, taken seriously, transforms me totally, to a new way of life, to a new perspective of life, to a new understanding of life, into a new person altogether. There is a sense of renewal in my choices, my priorities, my values, my outlook on life and my perception of persons. All these transformations, of course, are for the better, not for worse! Because as Jesus chides the pharisees and the scribes - woe to you who go across land and see to make one single convert, and make them twice as much a child of hell as yourselves! What a powerful accusation Jesus has against a conversion that does not bear its right fruit. We are called in view of a new way of life!

We are called in the place of... in place of God, to speak to the people who need to hear God's word, to announce the good news of God to the people that God loves them and comes to them with salvation, to become fishers of persons who need to come into the net of the Reign of God so that they can experience God more intimately and become truly fulfilled in life. Be it Isaiah, Paul, Peter, or any one called in the history of salvation, they have been called to carry out a mission in the name of God. Could there have been a person better than Isaiah, more commited than Paul, holier than Peter? Certainly, Yes! But all the same God chose these, and God had a specific mission for each of these.

When we are called, we are called to make the Lord present wherever we are. That is our mission. In our words, in the news we wish to announce to each other, in the choices we wish to propose to others, in the kind of outlook of the world we create, in the kind of mindset that we wish to spread, we need to be people who do it in the place of God...that is, those who create what God wishes to create, those who build what God wants to build, those who bring people to that net which gathers persons into the Reign of God. We are called with a mission to be presences of God, that people shall experience God in us, that persons shall be drawn to know God more in and through us, that persons can feel the need of having God close to them in their lives.

We are called. Inspite of our unworthiness, we are called; in view of presenting to the world a style of life that becomes a witness; a witness that speaks in the place of God, that speaks hope and joy to a world immersed in strife. Let us live our lives ever mindful that we are called!

The Sheep of the Divine Shepherd!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 4th week in Ordinary time

February 8, 2025 - Hebrews 13:15-17,20-21; Mark 6: 30-34

That the Lord is our shepherd, we need to have no doubt, it is the choice of the Lord. And we have nothing much to do about it. But there is something that we have to worry about entirely, that we need to become the sheep of the flock that belongs to the Lord - that does not happen automatically. 

The way to become the sheep of the Lord's flock, is to endlessly do good. Do good without any reason, without any hesitation, without any expectation, without any discouragement.

The Gospel presents a picture of frenetic activity today. The disciples are all intent on doing good, as their master himself who went around doing good. At times we can be at a loss deciding what is God's will at a point of time. The readings today seem to suggest one simple criterion: do good to others; do good to as many as possible; do good to all!

Three qualities are needed by all means to do this: first of all, faith with which we accept this challenge from the Lord; secondly, endurance with which we withstand all disheartening factors that surround; and thirdly, sensitivity with which we learn to know what the other needs without the other even expressing it.

God is the shepherd who knows our needs and cares for them, but God does it through God's sons and daughters who become shepherds in turn. We are called to be the sheep of God's flock but at the same time to grow to be shepherds to each other, doing as much good as we could to each other. Our Divine Shepherd is an epitome of the qualities we just mentioned... because he accepted the challenge of being good, endured all that worked against it and treated everyone around him with utmost sensitivity. 

Are we on our way to becoming the sheep of the Lord's flock?

Change and Permanence - an assurance of faith

WORD 2day: Friday, 4th week in Ordinary time

February 7, 2025 - Hebrews 13: 1-8; Mark 6: 14-29

Change is the only thing that never changes, it is said! Everything is changing all around us - what is right or wrong, what is admirable and what not, what is popular and what not...these are all changing by the day. Trends and trending choices all around are daily happenings today. People and societies are finding much easier, justifications and explanations for choices that were once difficult to standy for! Do these make 'anything' acceptable? No, not for us!

That is one reason, the Church and the Christian way of life is criticised, targetted and ridiculed - saying it is "outdated". In fact the Church knows well, everyone is calling its teachings outdated - oh, should it change then immediately? Otherwise, it would go obsolete and die its way out? Does not matter, in certain things the Church will stick on, remain put because some things cannot change. But why? Because we have a Lord who does not change!

Things change and humanity progresses - we shall embrace it with love and joy. But that cannot make change an absolute, change for the sake of change! Change is not the absolute... change is made significant, only by those which remain permanent. For us who believe in the Lord, it is the Lord who gives us that element of permanence. That is the assurance of faith we have: that the Lord never changes, that love is the absolute, that Truth is the absolute, that the way of the Lord is the absolute, that the life in the Lord is the absolute. The Lord himself has said this. The Lord who is love, has said, I am the way, the truth and the life... these are the absolutes. 

It is so, because Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow!

From Sinai to Zion - a journey of faith

WORD 2day: Thursday, 4th week in Ordinary time

February 06, 2025 - Hebrews 12: 18-19, 21-24; Mark 6: 7-13

The Word today reminds us of a crucial journey of faith that we are called to make each of us and as a community of faith. The journey is not so much about from an old place to a new one, or one extreme to the other, as it is about a deepening; it is a journey within. First let us understand the journey and then define why it is a journey within. 

The journey is from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion - Sinai and Zion are two holy mounts that are referred to often in the history of our faith experience. What does Sinai stand for - for the awe that we have about God - of God's mighty presence, of God's fearsome feats, of God's omnipotence and omniscience. That is what we see in the Old Testament, on Mount Sinai - God met Moses, God spoke to God's people, God gave them the Ten Commandments and so on...but right enough, the people were frightened. They feared the awe-inspiring presence of God and contented themselves to listen to God's word from Moses! 

The letter to the Hebrews insists that this has to change, because we are not anymore in that stage of mere fear or awe. We have moved closer, and that is what Zion stands for - it is the place where we live with God, we share the abode with God, we delight in the presence of God and God delights in our presence. It is all about relationship here - a deep and profound relationship that we have built and continue to build with God. 

That is the reason, this journey is entering within... getting deeper within us, where we can find God waiting to encounter us and take our relationship to an all new plane. That is Zion - the union, the communion, the loving relationship with God. Faith journey has to lead us there, from Sinai to Zion! 

To the point of death

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

February 5, 2025 - Remembering St. Agatha 

Hebrews 12: 4-7, 11-15; Mark 6: 1-6 

One of the surest of attributes we have for God, is that God is omnipotent, there is nothing impossible for God. But the famous, or infamous, question that remains is, if God is "all" mighty, then how is there so much evil in the world, and how is there so much ungodliness there in? The answer is not totally strange to us too: it is the free will that we are given with, as part of our nature. 

But the challenge continues - how are we going to make this will of ours correspond to what God wants of us? It is a life-stuggle... and not just a struggle all life, but a struggle to the point of death. There are so many things that would take our focus away, our hearts astray and our determination down the drain. 

We should not really worry about it, because the Lord is training us! Apart from not losing our hearts and letting our knees droop, we could block that work of God in another way - by closing our hearts to the Lord. With an open heart, determined will and peace-loving spirit, we shall always remain sons and daughters of the Lord! 

Just as St. Agatha, the martyr we remember today or any other martyr for that matter, the life style we just spoke of, takes real effort, an effort right to the point of death.

  

Arise, Run and Endure

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 4th week in Ordinary time

February 4, 2025 - Hebrews 12: 1-4; Mark 5: 21-43

Arise, run and endure is the call today! Situations of death and darkness, moments of drowning spirits and desperate feelings, struggle between right knowledge and raging temptations. These abound in our daily life. But we are called to Arise from these landslips and Run the race that is alloted to us with an Endurance that is ready to put up with any difficulty, even upto shedding blood.

The endurance comes from the hope that Our God is an awesome God and can do anything for us. There is nothing that the Lord cannot do - all that it takes is a touch. Either we stretch in true faith and touch God or in total childlike submission surrender ourselves and allow God to touch us.

The strength to run the race comes from the faith that the Lord our God is running along and is ever present by our side. It is in the Lord that we run... we run and never are drained; we fly and never are consumed. As long as we are in the Lord, we run and we keep running without losing heart on breaks or blocks, we run not to overtake or overrun anyone, but we run to complete the race enrusted to us. 

The capacity to arise comes from the love that God showers on us, out of which God keeps holding our hands inspite of all situations and keeps whispering into our ears, my son, my daughter, my child, my friend... arise! Let us arise, run and endure, with the touch of the Lord.

Who is your hero?

WORD 2day: Monday, 4th week in Ordinary time

February 3, 2025: Hebrew 11:32-40; Mark 5:1-20

There is a book with an interesting title, 'even God has His champions!' It speaks of 120 saints and martyrs in history who have borne God's message to the world of their times.

The first reading from the letter to the Hebrews lists today a set of heroes, heroes of valour and vigour, heroes in history on whom the people pinned their hopes! But the letter adds an important but realistic twist... these heroes, they were all gone in the way of their fathers. That is an inevitable fact. However good or great they are, they are to be gone in time!

Today we too have our own heroes - persons or role models or absolute values or needs or priorities - heroes of various kind. It is important to ask ourselves who is our hero and what becomes the defining value of our lives!

With what Jesus did to the people of Gerasenes, they should have made him their hero. Jesus solved their years of problem in a moment. He just sent the legion of demons away from their living quarters... but was Jesus their hero? No! They asked Jesus to leave - may be because they felt their loss (of the swines) was too much to bear! No, they had some other things as their hero - not exactly what Jesus could offer them.

The crucial question is back: who is your hero?