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That is one reason, the Church and the Christian way of life is criticised, targetted and ridiculed - saying it is "outdated". In fact the Church knows well, everyone is calling its teachings outdated - oh, should it change then immediately?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!