A Return to hope... is a deliberate Choice!

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday after Ash Wednesday

March 06, 2025 - Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 9: 22-25

We are on a journey, a pilgrimage, on a return to hope... but this return does not happen all on its own. It has to be a deliberate choice, or a set of deliberate choices! Hope is an assurance of the blessed and divine end that God has prepared for us, there is no doubt about it. Because the Lord has prepared the banquet of Salvation for each of us, but equally true it is that I have to make my choice for that! It is not automatic for certain. 

Choice, therefore is the fundamental expression of true faith. If I have an ongoing relationship with God, if I truly believe that I belong to God, if I think that I need to stand for what I believe in before the world today, I need to manifest that through my "choice", my "choices"! The first reading today presents us this experience of life - to choose between life and death, between blessing and curse, in summary, between good and evil. 

A further attention that is required of us is that we become conscious of our choices and the quality of those. Choosing good, especially today, could be tricky! The question raised immediateòy would be, "good, for whom?", "good in what sense?" There are numberous situations where persons claim that they are choosing what they think is good, but finally we are left at bay whether it is "truly" good!

Jesus has a clue, how we could ensure we are always choosing the really good, the right thing... the secret is to choose what is good in the eyes of the Lord, for me. That is why he says, choose your Cross! One who wishes to follow me, let the person pick up his or her daily cross and walk behind me. Our journey has to be a choice. Our pilgrimage, our return, has to be fundamentally a choice, a choice for good, a choice for life, a choice for God!

LENT 2025: A Return to Hope

THE WORD IN LENT

March 03, 2025 - Ash Wednesday

Joel 2: 12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

We begin the most precious of the liturgical seasons today - the season of Lent. 

My way of interpreting LENT is - Living Enthusiastically the Need to Transformation. First and foremost this transformation is certainly not an one-time event, but a life long process. A season like that of Lent, is a loud reminder of the original journey and the need to get back to the right itinerary, cost what it may. Today, beginning this season for this year, we are left with three key words to dwell on: Return, Hope and Journey!

Return - that is the overwhelming call, not only of the Word today but of the entire season that we begin today. Return, is not just a new turn, but a re-turn... a coming back to the origins, a resuming of the original state. That is why, the return is actually a reinstatement - where we give God the rightful place, give the other the rightful place and give ourselves the rightful place, in our daily lives. 

Hope - that is the key for this year, the Jubilee of Hope. Hope is the crux of the experience of Resurrection. If that is what we are preparing ourselves towards, in and through all that we are involved in this season, then we need to dwell on it, everyday all through this season. We are called to find the source of this hope, for ourselves, for all those who are around and especially for those who have lost it or are on the verge of losing it. 

Journey - that is the leitmotif of the Jubilee... as pilgrims, we are all on a journey. Reflecting on the symbol of Hope, the anchor, comes to us as a powerful symbol. Thinking of it  we cannot but think of the vessel that it is meant to hold firm, nor can we miss thinking about a voyage, a journey and on this journey, we are not alone - there are so many "other"s and above all there is the One who calls us to this life! 

Let us begin this journey, a return to hope, a hope that the Risen Lord alone can give. Let us fix our gaze on him, as we embark upon a journey of return to the Lord, return to the core of our beings, return to the nature with which we were created, a return to Hope! .