CELEBRATING the Heart of Christian Faith: LOVE

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Hosea 11: 1,3-4,8-9; Ephesians 3: 8-12,14-19; John 19: 31-37

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is the feast of the very heart of Christian faith, that is Love; the feast of Love, the Love that God is. The feast invites us to meditate on the love that God has for each of us, to realise how unworthy we are at the same time as we are gifted and to make a choice to strive to become bearers of the same love to everyone around us. The Word and the feast, offer us a reflection on three important faces of this Sacred heart which inspire and challenge us at the same time!

The Parent-Heart

The Sacred heart comes across to us as a parent heart, the heart of a Father who longs to hold us close, guide us by our hand, lead us on the path of righteousness, as Hosea speaks of. It is presented as the heart of a mother who longs to nuture her child and see the child grow safe and sound right in her arms. It reflects the heart of the creator who made the creature and owns every bit of it and rejoices in its life and well being.

The Parent-heart loves us every moment, however we are and whatever we are upto. As we reflect in the words of Hosea, the Lord draws close to us and longs to draw closer - depends on us to really receive that love and be filled with it. The sad fact is that majority of us reject that love - some knowingly and others unknowingly. The grades of this rejection ranges from an absolute disregard for the love of God which consists of speaking against God and demeaning the image of God, to an insensible choice for ungodly ways of life being taken up by the immediate pleasure and ephemeral excitement. But the Lord never rejects us - as the imagery that Jesus gives us in his famous parable, the Parent-heart awaits with arms wide open for the return of the prodigal children.

The call that we have here is to GRATITUDE... to thank the Love of God, so caring, so warm and so unassuming! To thank the Love of God shared through persons so close and so far - those who are in the family and those who are friends; those who are unknown but still do so much good and those who come by in such miraculous ways to share this love with us! All these are ways in which the Parent-heart reaches out to us and should we not be grateful for it?

The Powerful Heart

The Sacred heart is certainly meek and humble, but definitely not weak nor little! It is the heart that reveals the mightiness of God in its simplicity and humanness. As St. Paul indicates, all sovereignties and powers are subject to it, and they learn from this heart the comprehensive Wisdom of God, a wisdom that is planted in love and built on love - not in haughtiness and cruel arrogance. We do not possess the capacity to grasp the breadth or the length, the height or the depth of this love, a love beyond all our knowledge.

The Powerful heart, is large and powerful, mighty and all-embracing. It is a heart that loves without measure and boundaries, loves all and everyone. It knows every move that we make and every choice that we pick, and even the motives and the intentions, however hidden they might be! How powerful and awesome it is. The awesomeness does not consist merely in knowing everything, but in the fact that despite knowing it continues to love and embrace us, in genuine and sincere care! 

The call that we have here is to AWE at the immensity of this love. At times, it is so unfortunate that persons and groups are prone to presenting God as avenging, retaliating, self-protective, ego-conscious and even arrogant! Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart; come to me and I shall give you rest... this is the type of heart we are reflecting on today: this is the true power to be celebrated, to be awed at.  It is important to unlearn the terror-instilling images of God and learn to stand in awe at the unfathomable love and the incredible mercy that God is. The power of the Sacred heart is its meekness and mercy! Should we not truly recognise and realise with awe the fullness of God that we are surrounded by, in and through this heart?

The Pierced Heart

The Sacred heart is the pierced heart, the heart to which we look up for grace and mercy, for forgiveness and acceptance into the life-giving embrace of God. As the Gospel points to, the Sacred heart is a giving heart, a heart that gave of itself until the last drop of blood and water. The water that flowed washes us and the blood that oozed gives us life - a washing away of the past and a promise towards a future, which is the crux of the hope that Christ our Lord promises us, as children of God. 

The Pierced heart, is broken, torn, hurt, injured, battered...all because of our insensitivities and our narcissistic tendencies. The heart bleeds due to our rejection and refusal to understand the obvious facts. The heart remains hurt by our self-centred choices and egoistic tendencies, considering ourselves the most important in the entire universe, expecting everything and everyone to serve our needs and our pleasures, and never opening our eyes to the needs of the other, even after it is brought to our notice in varieties of ways!

The call that we have here is to develop a DETERMINATION to reach out, to go out of ourselves, to feel for the other, to understand and empathise with the other and never take the other for granted. For God so loved us, that God gave us the Son who would die to save us, to make us children of God. The pierced heart commissions us to flow out, to stop looking at ourselves and our own private lives and needs and to take the love of God to the others, to our brothers and sisters, to our friends and neighbours, to the so-called strangers and every one who stands in any need! It is this determination that will make us and our faith truly Christ-ian. It has to be seen in our choices and priorities, in our decision making and daily lives, in terms of the heart of Christain Faith - love!

The Sacred Heart, which is a Parent-heart, a Powerful heart and the Pierced heart, invites us to celebrate love, in our daily lives, in our personal faith and  Christian community living. Let us realise that today in celebrating the Sacred Heart, we celebrate the heart of Christian faith: Love!

The Spirit of the Conqueror

WORD 2day: Monday after Ascension Sunday

May 17, 2021 - Acts 19:1-8; John 16: 29-33

No one probably understood Jesus when he was around. They were only making their guesses, putting together things that they saw, the things they heard and the things that were being reported. Today, in the Gospel, as many other times Jesus confronts them with the truth! When the disciples presume that they knew and understood what Jesus was saying, Jesus makes them realise their folly and their weakness - not out of despise - but out of genuine concern and fraternal love.

We are beginning a new phase of our liturgical year, a short but very important phase...when Jesus has ascended and the Spirit has not yet descended...it is the interim phase when the disciples had to be patient and strong, holding on to the teachings that they have heard from their Master. They still had not known the Spirit, just as those persons of Ephesus whom we come across in the first reading. 

Jesus begins to introduce to them and speak to us of the continuous presence of God, which is the indwelling Spirit. It is with the coming of the Spirit that the apostles come to understand Jesus and all that Jesus said while he was with them... it is only with that they became conquerors, because the Spirit they received was the Spirit of the Conqueror - the one who had conquered the world and even death!

Beginning today, we are invited to contemplate on this Spirit of the Lord, who will make of us too, conquerors of the world and all its wiles. The Spirit will make us understand things plainly - with a lot of things happening around us today, we are unable to understand anything in life! We need the Spirit all the more to plainly understand the meaning of all that is happening and be calm and serene, because the Spirit promised to us, the Spirit who lives in us, the Spirit that awaits to take control of our lives, is the Spirit of the Conqueror....let us be brave!

The Spirit of Truth

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

May 12, 2021: Acts 17:15,22 -18:1; John 16: 12-15

The Spirit of the Lord convicts because the Spirit leads us to the truth. We have all the truth right in front of us. We fail to see them and understand them; or we are tempted not to see them or understand them; or we choose not to see them and understand them!

When we fail to see, the Spirit gives us the wisdom and leads us to see it, leading us to light, as St Paul tries to lead the Athenians. The grace comes through the Spirit to overcome our inability to see and observe God present in a situation that is not so obviously manifest of that Divine presence. It is like an ordinary day, when everything seems 'normal' and 'ordinary', that we do not get to observe anything out of the ordinary or anything extraordinary!

When we are tempted not to see, the Spirit fills us with the courage to see it, making us free and bold as children of God, as Jesus promises his disciples. The light comes with the Spirit illumining the darkest moment of our lives. It could be a crisis, a loss, a failure, a disappointment, a delusion that comes up in life and we are tempted to question the presence and real mercy of God. More than ever, we need courage at those moments and it is the Spirit of Truth who can give us that courage and light.

When we choose not to see, the Spirit convicts us, as we heard yesterday and makes us understand how mistaken we are. Peter, Paul, the other apostles and everyone who owes his or her rapport with God to a dramatic conversion, would vouch for this role of the Spirit. What is at play is more stubborness, insensitivity and arrogance of human mind to rebel against the presence of God, than an inability or a genuine crisis. This is a sin against the Holy Spirit and the person here keeps oneself deliberately away from God.

The crux of the message is: that I need to open my mind to the Word, failing which I will laugh at the Word or postpone listening to it, to another convenient moment, as the people do in the first reading today. Then I shall be the loser; a tragic loss at that. 

God draws those who are drawn!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 3rd week in Easter time 

April 22, 2021: Acts 8: 26-40; John 6: 44-51

Phillip is mightily used by God, taken from place to place by the Spirit. It was because he allowed himself to be used; he submitted to the plans of God. The Court Official is chosen to belong to the Lord because he had a fundamental thirst for the knowledge of the matters of God. Why should he after all struggle with understanding the scroll of Isaiah on his journey...he was drawn to God from within himself.

Jesus declares that it is the Lord who draws a person to Godself. And we can easily understand, combining that teaching with the event in the first reading, that the Lord draws those who are drawn to the Lord in their choices, in their priorities, in their daily decisions. Yes, the Lord does not draw you without your consent...that would be against the freedom that the Lord has given us! 

Yes, it is ofcourse the Lord who initiates but it is upto us to readily and promptly acknowledge these initiatives and respond to them from the depths of our beings. The responses are the use of the freedom that the Lord has given us! The choices we make are ours and therefore, many a time things that happen to our lives, depend on some choice somewhere that we have made...hard to understand, but if only we go to the depths we would get that connection clear. 

However, God does not cease to invite us. However far we may go from the Lord, however deviated our choices get, however warped out priorities become, the Lord does not quit soliciting our loving choice for God and for what pertains to God. If only we are drawn to God, if only we choose to draw ourselves near to God, we would see, that the Lord has already drawn us so close to Godself, and it is in fact, God who drew us. 

How simply James put it: draw near to God and God will draw near to you! (James 4:8). 

A chip from the same block - the Image of Christ

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 3rd week in Easter time 

April 20, 2021: Acts 7:51 -8:1a; John 6: 30-35.

Sometimes when we speak to the youngsters (even to others for that matter), about the suffering that Jesus underwent, about his endurance of passion, his capacity to surrender into the hands of God, his capacity to forgive etc., they tend to retort saying: 'but after all, he was son of God! he could bear that!" That is a heretic way of thinking, we need to be very careful about it!

Yes, Jesus was the Son of God but he was a human person and fully so. He was not appearing to be a human being, he WAS a human being. As the letter to the Hebrews says, he was like us, a human being in everything! That is infact the most challenging part of our faith. That Jesus lived our life, he went through all that we experience ourselves: feelings and temptations, sufferings and anxieties, irritations and all of human realities. The challenge is that we live in his footsteps. The early Church was highly conscious of this call and we have today in the first reading the fruit of this.

The first reading today presents to us, the first martyr Stephen  - he was a chip from the same block as Christ. The apostles performed miracles and healings, just as Jesus did and of course the Word records them all. But as death, it records only that of Stephen, because he died like Christ! Just like the apostles lived like Christ, Stephen died like Christ! There is a special call in this - to imitate the life of Christ, life-project of Christ and the life style of Christ, right upto death. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ, said St. Paul...who was standing there as young Saul and watching Stephen die! Oh what beginnings the Church had!

Do we carry the same spirit within us today, as people of God - the spirit of Christ? When we do, we shall not only imitate Christ, we shall become alter christus, another Christ... that is what we are called to be: to be a chip from that same block.

The stir in the sea: Complaints

WORD 2day: Saturday, 2nd week in Easter time 

April 17, 2021: Acts 6: 1-6; John 6: 16-21

When we get together, we will surely have misgivings and clash of opinions, unless we fail to think freely and forget our individuality. As long as each one has the capacity to think for oneself, and the freedom to express oneself, there are bound to be misgivings - but without these, the conditions are not human at all! We see in the first reading today the earliest of misunderstandings and complaints that arose in the new born church! The way the apostles dealt with it, was so Christ-like. 

When the sea was stirred with the storm that arose, and the hearts of those in the boat were disturbed too, Jesus walked up to them and said: It is I; do not be afraid. He assured them, the stirring will cause no damage, if you understand the Lord is with you. The storm will not upset the boat, until you know that it is the Lord who is in charge! 

When the complaints came up and accusing fingers pointed at each other, the Apostles were not alarmed, they were not reacting to the complaint, they did not try their best to silence the dissenting voices or command everyone to compliance. They knew that it was a sign the Lord was giving them, for their own growth and for a sense of transcendence. 

Confusions, complaints and contradictory opinions were instrumental moments through which the Lord effected solid evolution in the Christian faith experience post resurrection. Individual convictions, daring discussions, evolving mindsets...these are signs of growth. At times we can get threatened and have recourse to control and oppression - be it in families or in larger communities. That is not truly a Christ-like mentality. In the parish communities, or in the basic christian communities, or religious communities, or in the families, how do we look at differences of opinions? Is there a true freedom of expression? Are we matured enough to look at these as experiences of growth? 

That requires a true mindset of faith. Amidst the stir in the sea, the Lord walks up to us saying: fear not, it's I. 

The test of time - Endurance!

WORD 2day: Friday, 2nd week in Easter time 

April 16, 2021: Acts 5: 34-42; John 6: 1-15

One term that unites the two readings today is the term, "test." Jesus himself is tested with such a big number to feed. He tests his disciples with a task given them. And in the first reading we have Gamaliel setting up a test of time for the believers! All of these are tests that bring out the quality of Endurance. 

Jesus could have very well said, let the people go and find their own means of food, after all they came on their own; they were not obliged to come! Won't we do that, when we plan some activities for others or in ministry? But that would have been on Jesus' part, an escapism! When Jesus asked the disciples where they could buy bread for the crowds, they could have easily said it wasn't possible! Or later in the Acts of the Apostles, when they were threatened and jailed, the disciples could have, at the first instance said, why should we break our head over the salvation of these people! That would have been shirking the responsibility given to them. As a community the first Christians could have remained calm, quiet and comfortable within their small circle loving each other and fending for each other. But that was not to be the case!

If Jesus were to have taken an escapist mode of reaction to the situation, or the disciples the shirking mode, or the first believers a comfort seeking compromise mode... we would have nothing of what we believe and belong to today. The revelation of the limitless love of God in the person of Jesus, the Christian community that experienced that love and handed it down to the generations, the prophetic presence of the Church, as the sacrament of God's salvific love - these are grand signs of a simple decision that Jesus, the disciples and the community took - to endure the test!

Endurance is the time tested virtue that enables us to stand the test of time. The Martyrs of old, great saints in history, the holy ones of our times, all of them stand proofs to one fact: Endurance helps faith mature and endurance is a mark of a mature faith! Our faith is true, strong and alive, only in as much as it endures, especially the test of time!

To be fire-filled, not fear-filled - the Easter effect

WORD 2day: Friday within the Easter Octave 

April 9, 2021: Acts 4: 1-12; John 21: 1-14

Today in the Word we see, there begins the next round of efforts to contain the Good news. When Jesus spoke of it, they killed him and heaved a big sigh thinking it was all over. Little did they imagine the problem was far from settled. The Reign of God is like the seed that a sower planted in his field, the Master had said... after a brief silence, it will certainly shoot up. We see the Sadducees and the Pharisees begin to feel the startles as they see the first signs of this sprouting. That was already too strong! 

From a fear-filled bunch of rugged Jews, the apostles turned out to be fire-filled upstarts, gradually shaping up to be formidable people of God, standing for and proclaiming the Good news, namely the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the World. The Truth could not be contained... in fact, it can never be, whatever you do! Truth is what is and it shall ever be so, whether you like it or not and one day, regardless of how long it takes, it will stand up, rise up, and show itself up!

The proclamation of the apostles and the disciples, was strong because it was accompanied by signs and wonders, as the Master himself had set the model. Walking on the Sea, hauling an impossibly large catch of fish...these were no new signs for the disciples. They were merely confirmations of the continued presence of the Lord who had lived and moved with them. The disciples would not allow themselves to be stopped by anyone or anything. Soon we will begin to hear the violence that was unleashed against the new movement of the Risen Lord. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will stop them from their commitment to proclaim the Lord. That was an formidable Easter effect! 

Today, amidst the fear that is spread of this anti-human phenomenon of the pandemic, the other more dangerous ills that are these days forgotten and given a free ride into humanity (because everyoone is worried about the pandemic which no one really understands)... if we wish to be Easter people, let our life be a proclamation and a proclamation that is accompanied by signs and wonders: signs that stand counter to the self centered standards of the world today; and wonders that make people see the love and mercy of God in and through us! 

For that we need to sport with pride the Easter effect: to be Fire-filled and not fear-filled!

To burn within - rekindling that fire!

WORD 2day: Wednesday within the Easter Octave

April 7, 2021: Acts 3: 1-10; Luke 24: 13-35 

The presence of the Risen Lord was felt in a concrete sense by the apostles and those around them. The Risen Lord was there as a fire within them, burning their hearts, warming up their relationships, firing up their commitments and lighting up their understanding. Their lives were touched by the Lord and not merely they, but all those who were around felt that touch. Haven't we heard from persons, saying about someone in a group, or a family - 'when he or she is around, we cannot but sense it. There is so much laughter and cheer!' That is a fine compliment to receive for an apostle of Christ!  

Aren't we called to be Easter people, radiating joy, radiating warmth, radiating light! That does not mean we would have no problems or no struggles! They would in fact abound. But that does not matter because we have within us a fire that is alive, burning and igniting every part of our selves - the fire of the Risen Lord. Some of us may be burning, some of us would have been burning once in our life, or some of us have always been wishing to burn with that fire of the Lord... let us remember, we have that fire always with us, ever within us. We just need to rekindle it.

Once I received a message requesting prayers - the person said her marriage was broken, and that she found herself alone with her child. She could not go back to her family because she had entered into this marriage against all their wish! 'Why is God so blind to my problems,' she ended the message. I only enquired, if there were no indications when things were beginning to happen or was she negligent of those indications! However, even now she can confront her problems if only she draws strength from that fire that is within her - the presence of the Risen Lord! Can't she?

In fact, it is the case with every one of us. With that fire burning within our hearts, we can face any situation and find new lease of life within us and share the same with all around us. The source of life and energy, is within us and all that we need to do is, become aware of that source and connect to it; become aware of that fire within us and get closer to it, close enough that we can burn within us and set everyone around us affire! 

Commitment and Priority-Choice for God

THE WORD IN THE HOLY WEEK

Another Passion Week amidst the Pandemic - the Spy Wednesday

March 31, 2021: Isaiah 50: 4-9; Matthew 26:14-25

The disciple's tongue to speak and the disciple's ear to listen - that is what the Lord has given us; but whether we use the faculty or not, depends so much on our choice! What a sad illustration of this we have in the Gospel today. This Wednesday is called the Spy Wednesday, as Judas is seen to agree to betray Jesus to the authorities, for thirty silver pieces, and from that moment began looking for the opportunity to hand him over to Jews!

Did Judas make a mistake? Yes, most probably! But did he have a chance, not to make it? Yes, ofcourse he did! Be it Judas who betrayed Jesus, or Peter who denied him, or the rest of the apostles who abandoned Jesus and ran for their lives, they were all warned, forewarned and prepared for such a treacherous moment... but they chose not to act on what they knew!

That is why we need to know, that knowing alone is not enough. To know what is right and wrong, to know what is sin and what is righteousness, to know what is the apt choice to be made at a given time - these are all faculties that are good, but not enough. Our relationship with God, our commitment in faith, goes beyond merely knowing and understanding, it depends on the choices we make with the convictions we form. 

In fact, the three levels of growth from an ignorant way of life are -the level of knowing and understanding, where there is knowledge and intellectual prowess at play; the level of conviction and principles, where a person appears disciplined and guided by principles but there is still the dichotomy of the theory and practice, the beliefs and life; and thirdly comes the level of commitment and priority-choice, where there is nothing that can make one falter from the way of life that one is called to. 

While Judas was still in the first level, Peter and other apostles had gone to the second level, which depending on the grace and mercy of God could save them. But the call is always to the third level - to be persons committed to God and God's way of life, to be totally formed in the image of God and communicating the same to the world around. Jesus was that and he had to pay the price for it. That is what we are celebrating these days - his knowledge and understanding of his Father, his conviction and principles guided by his Father's will and his commitment and priority-choice for God and God's plan. 

Today, setting aside our judgemental looks at Judas, can we ask ourselves: am I growing in my commitment and priority-choice for God, that nothing else can distract me, tempt me or draw me away from God's plan for me?

Growing in Christian Faith: An Unfailing commitment to Unity

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, 5th week in Lent

March 27, 2021: Ezekiel 37: 21-28; John 11: 45-56

 

The readings today seem to give us a clue to understand the mission of the Son of God. As he himself announces, it is to gather into one all the dispersed children of God, dispersed geographically, spiritually, economically, politically and in every other way. Jesus is identified to be the son of David, promised in all eternity to gather not merely the two nations (Judah and Israel), but all dispersed children of God into one. 

That is the call that Jesus our Master has passed on to every disciple of his. We are called to be agents of unity and harmony, uniting people in love and building a humanity that is joyful. If we are against such unity, even though merely in thought or merely in a few single instances, we can be certain that we are not in line with the mission of the Saviour. He would say, 'if you don't gather with me, you scatter!' (cf. Lk 11:23; Mt 12:30). 

 

It is saddening to see some, even within the Church and within the category of being the shepherds of the flock, spreading division and hatred, sometimes. How hypocritical of those persons to call themselves people of God, much worse, shepherds of the people of God! The Spirit of Christ unites and if I have the Spirit within me, I have to unite! 

 

The only division that can be is the division between the good and the evil…nothing else is a division that comes from the Spirit of the Lord. And if I think of justifying, that is why I wish to divide from those people who are evil, who gave me the right to ‘judge’ a person as evil. Sin is to be shunned, not sinner. Division cannot be justified in the sight of the Lord.

The real question is, how committed am I to true peace, harmony, love, and thus to unity?

Growing in Christian Faith: Getting ready to flow on!

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, 4th week in Lent

March 16, 2021: Ezekiel 47:1-3,9-12; John 5: 1-3a,5-16

 

We have a wonderful imagery today to ponder over: the flowing water that enlivens! Ezekiel speaks of it and John presents it; Ezekiel underlines the presence of the flowing water by the Temple while John points out the very presence of Christ as the life-giving spring! 

For that man who had been waiting for years to get into that life-giving water, the fact that Jesus approached him was like the waters came to him, instead of he going to the waters. But it is not all that comfortable, when the waters really flow! That is why Jesus asks him that question: do you want to be well again? 

We may think it is a dumb question to ask - but it matters! What if the man was comfortable drawing pity from the others? What if the man gained much more than what he could have with his limbs alright? Hence, the need for Jesus to ask him, if he really wanted to be healed! It is our choice to be healed, to be well, to be wholesome!

We may blame people around, the situation around, the events and experiences and remain in self-pity! That will never lead us to wellness, health or wholeness. If we really want to live our life to the full, we need to receive the flowing grace willingly. It might require of us certain changes...which may not be comfortable - the man was asked to pick up his mat and wall. All this while people were carrying him around! Are we prepared for the inconveniences of grace?

The Lord reaches out to us, flows into our lives to enliven us and Jesus invites us to become the waters that enliven people around us, that we reach out to others and flow into their lives, enlivening them!

 

Let us ask ourselves, is our faith matured enough? How ready are we to flow on?

 

ON OUR WAY TO BEING GOD'S LOVE

Channels, Admirers or Bearers?

March 14, 2021: 4th Sunday of Lent - Laetare Sunday

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2: 4-10; John 3: 14-21

For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Son, that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life (Jn 3:16)... the Word presents in this verse, the crux of the mystery of God's love! St. Paul would elaborate on this when he says, "God who did not spare God's own son, will not withhold anything from us!" (Cf. Rom 8:32). God's love for us has been so undeservedly deep! What is our response? 

The fourth sunday of Lent is called the Laetare Sunday...or Rejoicing Sunday, within the Lent! It is because we are already prompted to think about Resurrection right in the middle of the season of the passion of Christ. Just to remind us, despite all suffering and temptation, what awaits is the crown that the Lord has prepared for us - because God loves us! Not because we deserve it, but because God has decided to love us, right till the end!

God's love for us is so deep, so undeservedly deep! And what response do we give...the Word educates us to it, this Sunday. There are three persons presented to us and may be we can take a lesson from each of them. 

The first person is Cyrus, the King of Persia, who released the people of Israel from their exile in Babylon. Cyrus, was not a believer in Yahweh; neither did he know the Lord or come to accept the Lord. But he was considered by the people of Israel as a messiah who acted on behalf of Lord God and gave them the long-yearned-for freedom. They could come back to their homeland and once again feel loved by God. Cyrus becomes a channel of the love of God... not that he experienced the love of God! Though he might have had the opportunity, we do no judge the person of Cyrus, but he chose to remain a mere channel through whom the love of God came to the people, without even affecting him in any decisive way. 

This is one kind of response we can give to the love of God - that we become passive channels of the love of God. God in God's almightiness, can use any means to communicate God's love. And we can become one such channels - it is a very instrumental understanding of the role we play... nothing of myself is changed but through me others might feel the love of God. But what a loss for me, that I did not drink in, what I was passing on to the others. Some examples that come to our mind in this context are persons who are considered good, loving, lovable, kind and gentle...but suddenly they take an unfortunate decision to end their lives by themselves! Everyone known to them, starts wondering, what was wrong, because so many experienced goodness through these persons, but they themselves end up so desperate. When so many are capable of seeing, experiencing God's love in me, but I myself do not really recognise it or enjoy  it or be transformed by it...I am just being a channel of God's love, because God uses me! But how unfortunate that I don't know what I am missing - God's love so undeservedly deep.

The second person we are given to encounter today in the Word is, Nicodemus, a just Jew! He was someone who admired Jesus, he even loved Jesus, he was eager to listen to Jesus, but the sad thing...he could not decide to follow him! He was too afraid of his circumstances, the respect of his fellow Jews, the fear of losing the status as the teacher of the rabbis...he did not dare even to meet Jesus in the broad day light. That is why he comes today in the cover of the night to meet him and listen to him - oh, how he admired Jesus, but what is the use?

When Jesus the love of God is revealed to us, we could also respond this way: as just admirers; admirers from far, admirers in secret; admirers under cover. We know so much, we understand it all, but we cannot speak about it or witness to it...for fear of so many things. Because we fear being called old fashioned, because we don't want to be called pietistic, because we are afraid of being branded 'religious', because we wish to be modern or post-modern, because we want to keep abreast with the latest fashion of questioning everything and making fun of everything, because we want to identify ourselves with the so-called scientific world...we at times are prepared to forego the immense love that awaits us, the love that comes across to us in varied ways! In spite of knowing well what it is and what it is that we are missing, we choose to miss it, because we consider something else more important! How sad it is again, that we remain mere admirers of the love of God without really getting it into our selves - our body, heart, mind and soul!

The third person we meet today, is the one through whom the Word speaks so powerfully - St. Paul, the Apostle... he uses the very same terms of Jesus: the words, 'God loved us with so much love, that...' - they sound just as Jesus said, 'for God so loved the world, that...' St. Paul understood how much God loves us, how God chose us from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), how God does not spare anything for our sakes (Rom 8), how God sent God's own son even when we were sinners (Rom 5:8) and how God's love is poured into our hearts (Rom 5:5). He was someone opposed to this love, thinking all the time about the law and the rule and the Jewish supremacy, but when he was touched by that love, he gave in, he gave himself up fully! He admired God's love, became a channel of God's love and he grew gradually towards becoming that love - be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1), he said.

This is the response that we are expected to grow towards: to become God's love ourselves. Just as Jesus was God's love, we are called to become God's love - that is, persons who bear God's love to the others, specially to those who are in need of it most. Being bearers of God's love would presume that we have known that love, tasted it, and are filled with it, that we share it with everyone whom we come into contact with. Bearing God's love to the other is not merely doing something for the other, it is not giving something or making something for the other - it is being God's love to them. Our very beings need to be transformed by God's love. The lenten practices should lead us to that: not merely to some self inflicted pain that bears no fruit for the other, but a continual and gradual transformationof selves, that we become God's love to those around us!

However, with the personal weaknesses and the temptations, with the kind of characters around and the troubling situations, with the concerns we have and the burdens of worldly responsibilities, it becomes tremendously difficult to pursue that call: to be true bearers of God's love! But that should not worry us, as long as we are constantly, in our will and in our efforts, on our way, on this journey towards being God's love to the world and everyone around us! 

Growing in Christian Faith: Rootedness to the Foundation

 THE WORD IN LENT: Wednesday, 3rd week in Lent

March 10, 2021: Deuteronomy 4: 1,5-9; Matthew 5: 17-19

 

The Commandments were nothing but the expressed wish of the Lord who brought the people up to their status of God's people. It was actually the human side of the covenant that God made with us: on God’s part God loves us forever without end, and on our part, we are called to keep the commandments as a sign to say we love God!

 

The Old Testament people felt assured that when they walked in the path of the commandments, they were on the right track. At times this assurance, and the anxiety to hold on to this assurance, made them even highly legalistic. However, their respect for the law of the Lord, their zeal for the commandments and the attachment to the Word of the Lord was always commendable.

Though Jesus stood tooth and nail against legalism, he too respected the commands of the Lord and taught his disciples how to make it humanly possible to abide by those commandments. The expressed wish of the Father, was something sacred and holy to Jesus and he declared that they are never changing, eternal and foundational for our faith. 

 

Our faith, that is, our rapport with the Lord, our faithfulness to God has to be based firmly on something. And Jesus offers the right solution: the Word of the Lord. The Word which contains the expressed wish of the Father, the Word that will never perish, is the Rock foundation on which our faith has to be established! Whoever obeys and teaches these, will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 

Let us uphold our rootedness to our foundations!

 

True Christian Love: Grow Sensitive to the Suffering

THE WORD IN LENT: Thursday, 2nd week in Lent

March 04, 2021: Jeremiah 17: 5-10; Luke 16: 19-31

 

Reflecting on the passage in the Gospel today, we may be led to wonder at times, what mistake did that rich man do? And in what way he is responsible for Lazarus' misery? In no way is he responsible for the misery of the miserable poor man, Lazarus! But the rich man is responsible for his attitude towards Lazarus. That he did not care even to see the miseries of the person right at the foot of his table, looking for the crumbs - oh, what a gross insensitivity! Sheer blindness! And the worst of all, that blindness comes from the blessings he had, the abundance that he had for himself. The Blessings blinded him. 

Look at the situation everywhere, especially in places that are badly stricken by the recent experience of pandemic!... the world at large seems to be oblivious of the doubled suffering of the poor amidst this! There are stray voices that call for a global attention, but nothing seems too serious! The affluent are busy making more money. The medical industry, the health care institutions, the pharma industry, they are keen on making the optimum use of the crisis. The powerful are looking out for opportunities to further demonstrate their power over the rest. The crooked are making use of every chance to reach their hidden agenda at all cost. 

 

Blessings should make us more grateful and more sensitive; unfortunately, it can also blind us to those in need around us - within the family, in the neighbourhood, in our workplaces, in our known circles or outside the immediate circle! We can grow so comfortable and cosy about our life that we may forget to look out – out just beside our doorsteps, out right next to us, out there in the broad day light – to find , people suffering, struggling and stifling themselves to death. Should not our blessings make us more aware of those in need?

 

If at all we want to understand what is true Christian love, let us grow ever sensitivity to the suffering!

Growing in True Faith: Assume Personal Responsibility for your Choices!

THE WORD IN LENT: Tuesday, 2nd week of Lent

March 2, 2021: Isaiah 1: 10, 16-20; Matthew 23: 1-12

 

There are innumerable non-Catholic friends and groups which pick up the lines of Jesus today, entirely out of its context and keep creating polemics out of it, unfortunately. ‘Do not call any one your Father or your Master here on earth” – what does that injunction actually mean?

 

Let no one be responsible for your judgments, your behaviours, your decisions and your choices! That is in crux what Jesus meant when he said, let no one be your ‘father’ or ‘master’ here on earth. For a Hebrew, father would mean that person who decides everything for you! You have nothing else to say, because the father's decision is final. The master is someone who holds a total authority over you; what he decides to be right has to be right for you; what he decides to be desirable has to be desirable for you! Let that not be your mode of decision making; allow no one make choices for you, says Jesus.  

 

The point is clear beyond confusions: a person will be responsible for one's own choices. It is no more the case that a person does something or decides on something and passes the blame on to someone else: his or her father, or generations before, or persons in authority. That may be an age-old practice; not for a true disciple of Christ, the Son of God.

 

Let each one take responsibility for his or her own choices, challenges the Word today. Your choices determine your destiny, apart from the all-pervading love that is God. It is this love that has invested us with such a great personal will and freedom, using which we are challenged to choose God and all that pertains to God.

 

Let us quit looking for scapegoats; isn’t it essential to assume personal responsibility for our choices. 

Growing in True Faith: Live by the Christ-Criterion

THE WORD IN LENT: Monday, 2nd week in Lent

March 01, 2021: Daniel 9: 4b-10; Luke 6: 36-38

As pastors many have this experience, as once a priest shared: “as it has happened many a times, I stepped out of the Sacristy after the Sunday Eucharist, and a person approached me and said: ‘Fr., thanks for the homily today! It was really beautiful, but I am afraid too difficult to practice!’ And I smiled at her reassuringly and said, ‘If I were to think of living my life anyway, with compromises, it would be much easier! But living a true and convinced Christian life is any day, difficult.’ She smiled, and bowed for a blessing!”

Is that not a very common experience, a very spontaneous thinking that many of us might have? That we can go easy on ourselves, and not demand too much from ourselves, to go with the flow and live in conformity to the society we find ourselves in? But conforming to the world or conforming to Christ…which is our real call?

"To live by the law you gave us", prays prophet Daniel today in the first reading! And Jesus gives us a criterion, to follow the law. Let what you expect from others for yourself be the criterion for your dealings with others! But the difficult part follows: Jesus says, let what you expect be the criterion but not what you actually get! You may or may not get what you expect, but you have an obligation to give the others what you expect from them! What you get in return - does that actually matter?

An apt day to pray with St. Francis of Assisi, 'Lord, grant that I may seek to understand than to be understood; to love than to be loved; to forgive than to be forgiven'. To give, give and to give, that is the Christ-Criterion!

Let us live by the Christ-criterion - that shall be the last renewal required of us!

Growing in True Faith: Rethink Prayer!

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, First week of Lent

February 23, 2021: Isaiah 55:10-11; Matthew 6:7-15

Prayer is a fundamental act of a believer. However, the way we understand it can differ quite drastically. Apart from the clarity that prayer cannot be mere favour list made to God and apart from the comprehensive understanding that prayer should essentially include an act of contrition, that of thanksgiving and of praise along with the petitions made, prayer should be understood basically as a relationship with God. 

My simple personal definition of prayer is, "living our life with God"; with God, every moment of it - joys and sorrows, failures and successes, temptations and threats, difficulties and dreams! All this, with the confidence that the Lord is with me and that God's ways are best that can happen to me at anytime.

Asking for and clamouring for something is very much like a child's relation to his or her father or mother! That is never bad, but remaining all one's life at that level would leave us childish, and not child-like. We need to move to the next levels of submitting into the hands of the Lord; abandoning ourselves to the eternal Will and the powerful Word of the Lord. This we will be able to do only when we trust the Lord as our Father, as someone who protects us always and rescues us when we are in distress.

Let us rethink our outlook on prayer - it is not begging God; neither is it making a wish list to God nor counselling God as to what is best to be done! Prayer is a loving entrustment of ourselves into the hands of God, our loving Father and Mother. Is there a need to rethink your prayer?

As a Rock-based Community

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

February 22, 2021: Celebrating the Chair of St.Peter

1 Peter 5: 1-4; Matthew 16: 13-19

Today we celebrate the pastoral responsibility that the Lord places on the successors of St. Peter - You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

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 the meaning of guarding the Church against the gates of hell. binding on earth what is against the Kingdom of heaven and loosening on earth all that will build up a community that is worthy of the Lord who has called and commissioned that community. 

This is exactly what Pope Francis is trying to do: stressing the Collegiality of the Bishops as Bishop of Rome, not lording over but challenging everyone with his very life. Restraining from making a hero-idol of himself, but putting the concerns of the people and the suffering world first in the order of importance. 

It is important as a Church that we begin to 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 have a duty to pray for the Holy Father, as there are so many forces today in the World that wants by all means to destroy the Church and its moral authority on the planet today! And very specially when there are forces from unexpected quarters and in least foreseen forms trying to do away with that rock-based people of God, the Church. 

But let us not fret; the Lord has promised that the gates of hell will never prevail over the Church. In stead, let us strive to remain worthy of that promise, by being communities of genuine faith and integral living. Let us proclaim with all our heart, with the great disciple: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!

On a Pit stop on our Way!

Realise, Renew and Resume!

February 21, 2021: First Sunday in Lent

Genesis 9: 8-15; 1 Peter 3: 18-22; Mark 1: 12-15

We have begun the season of lent, with a reminder that we are all going up to Jerusalem...and on this journey it is time to renew our faith, hope and love! The journey might seem long, but it isn't that long. In comparison to the eternity from which God has chosen us and given us this call to reach Jerusalem, it is but a short journey, however with all its twists and turns, unforeseen drops and sudden bumps, demanding climbs and treacherous slopes and added to all these the faults of out making! On this journey, Lent is like a pit stop! Yes, we are on a pit stop on our way! Pit stops do have their own characteristics and tasks, don't they?

Do you understand pit stops? On a car  race, there are these stops to change the tyre, refuel, service and get back on the track for the rest of the laps! On a journey, specially those that are long, there are these stops to relax, stretch, refuel and start again, towards the destiny. These are pit stops. The season of lent is such a pit stop that we have on our Spiritual journey and they have their own purpose and their own tasks. The readings today remind us of these purposes and tasks.

It is a stop, but with a call to REALISE!

It is a stop, a rest, a pause, a slow down, a brake-moment, but not a moment that is inactive or without anything to do. There is a call to realise! Jesus went to the desert to pray. A withdrawal, yes! But not without any purpose or not without demanding tasks! He had to face the Satan, the temptations, the challenges that he had to overcome in order to realise who he was! 

With the COVID lockdowns and the resultant restrictions, we have long been in a sort of lent! Have we really taken that time to realise the follies of times, the mistakes in our choices, the anomalies in our priorities... or are we just moving on as we have always been, with nothing new to learn and nothing new to look forward to from life? We could have used this time for an overhauling of our spiritual selves, but have we really? Or have we been so busy complaining and coping that we have failed to realise things that have to be attended to? If we feel we haven't managed much out of it, here is an added pint of time - Lent. Let us make use of it, to realise the areas in our life to work on! Jesus made use of that time in the desert, to reinforce his belonging to his Father, his commitment to his mission and his dedication to the task entrusted to him. That is why, the arrest of John did not hinder him, but pushed him forward to set his mission to a start.

It is a halt, but to RENEW and move on!

A pit stop is a halt, but not an end. It is a halt for the movement, but the work continues, there is so much of things to be done - to repair and service, to renew! Peter reminds us of our life tasks in the second reading today - to trust in the pledge we have in the Lord, to open ourselves to the Risen Lord and the cleansing waters of the Spirit, to ride on the waters of salvation towards out destiny. 

We are saved by the death and resurrection of Christ; we are won over by Christ's blood for the salvation that we are promised as children of God. But these are promises and guarantees, and not automatic processes. We have to take our decision to get ourselves washed off the dirt that we have accumulated; we have to refill the fuel of the Spirit that we have depleted within us; we have to repair the broken pieces of the ark of our salvation. We need to mend our relationships; we need to revise our priorities; we need to reconsider our paths; and we need to retrace our journey. Somewhere in the last lap we have missed our way or lost our precision, and this is the time to recalibrate the dimensions of our life. What has been promised to us on the part of the Lord, remains the same - while it is we who have to realign ourselves to the project we had undertaken at the waters of our baptism. Yes, it is a time for renewal, renewing our faith, hope and love, the real fuel for our Spiritual sojourn.

It is a retreat, but only to RESUME and remain afloat!

In the fast moving race, or in the ongoing journey the pit stop can be considered a retreat, a lagging behind, but they are essential in order to resume the rest of the journey or at least the next lap, and remain on the run till the next opportunity to retreat. Noah's Ark is a typical image of this - when he began to build that ark, no one would have understood what he was really upto. But when the floods came and the household began to float, then things came to light... it was the Covenant of the Lord.

The Lord has made a covenant with us - I shall be your God and you shall be my people. And that covenant is the greatest of all guarantees that we have in life...while my God is with me, who can be against me! At times it can happen that I falter on my way, miss the road on my journey, overstep the track on my race...but there is the time to stop, renew and most important, Resume! Looking at where I have gone wrong, taking stock of the faults that have ruined my days, understanding the choices that have costed me dearly, rendering account for the moments wasted and occasions missed to do all the good that I could...these are ways to renew myself and not moments to lose the spirit within me. Confessions, sacrifices, prayers, charity to others...these are instruments of renewal that the Lord offers. They need to goad me on to resume my journey with more intensity and vigour. Just as the Lord gave Noah and the household a brand new chance, so does the Lord give us a chance to start again, pick the pieces of our brokenness and resume our journey. The stop cannot be for long...I cannot lose myself in regret and guilt for too long, I have to pick myself up and start again, start fast, and start strong... because the journey is on, and I go to remain afloat, on the waters of the promises of the Lord.

Lord teach me your ways, we pray today! The way of faith, hope and love: the way of profound faith, the way of unfailing hope and the way of unconditional love. That will keep me moving on!