COME HOLY SPIRIT...WE NEED YOU!!!

Fire, Fruits and Friendship

May 23, 2021: Pentecost Sunday
Acts 2:1-11; Galatians 5: 16-25; John 20: 19-23

Welcome to the birthday celebrations of the One Holy Apostolic Church! Thousands of small communities of the people of God, chosen by God, saved by the Word and animated by the Spirit might exist in the world today - the origin is the One Holy Spirit, the One Spirit of communion and courage, the One Spirit of conviction and consolation who underlies every good thing that comes from God. Hence... let us wish each other today a happy birthday, because we were reborn in the Spirit as the people of God. When Jesus said, unless one is born again in the Spirit of God, one cannot enter the Reign of God - this is what the Lord meant: to receive the Spirit - in concrete it means to feel the fire, bear the fruits and grow in the friendship that comes from the Spirit.

We need the Holy Spirit, now more than ever! Look around us... there is pain and sorrow, fear and weariness, disease and death, grief and confusion, suspicion and conspiracies... the pandemic has pushed not just some parts of the world, but the entire humanity into this situation today! In spite of this predicament, there is still injustice, inhumanity, cruelties, insensitivities, insincerity, exploitation, corruption, dehumanisation, abuse, sexual perversion, self seeking, money mindedness, materialism, relativism, consumerism, egoism, fundamentalism, fanaticism, hegemonism, totalitarianism... every thing working against Truth and Justice! Sinfulness has become the order of the day and every day the level of sinfulness keeps rising and nothing matters anymore than the capacity to fend for oneself. Worse still, it looks like a handful who are affluent and moneyed, could control the entire globe and have their way, come what may. They are able to bulldoze even the so-called transnational organisations and all sorts of historical attempts at setting up neutral watchdogs for human rights and dignity. What a state of gloom the human race is pushed into!

We need the FIRE of the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to face the Truth! When things go wrong or go in the way we would never want them to, we need the courage to accept it. When things seem to be dark and so in incomprehensible to us that we are lost in our life's ways, we need the light to decide our next steps. When we look around and see everything around us justifies what the Lord considers 'evil' and perpetrates darkness and doubt, we need the fire that burns the evil away, the fire that lights up the true Christian way! That fire that was lit in our hearts (though when we were still in our mother's womb, yet concretely and externally) at our baptism; the fire that we were commissioned to keep burning till we return to the Lord, that we may see clearly the way set out for us and show it to our brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours.

We need the Holy Spirit, now more than ever! When selfishness is justified and glorified as success mindset, when violence is looked upon as a way to make one's dreams come true, when money and wealth come before humanity and peace, when politics means nothing but dominating the masses in whichever inhuman means possible, when happiness means pleasure and excitement at the cost of anything and anyone, when love means possessing and marriage means merely a contract, when the suffering persons become just numbers of cases and people dying become merely masses to be dealt with,  what difference are we called to make today as people of the Spirit? 

We need the FRUITS  of the Holy Spirit, that we may live true love and teach it to the world, that we may have the inner joy and show it to those around, that we may spread peace that creates heaven where we are, that we may have the patience to endure the evils holding firm to the good, that we may possess the kindness to see beyond the failures of people, that we may have the generosity to give of ourselves for the good of the other and the entire humanity, that we may ever be faithful to the One who has called us and commissioned us, that we may challenge the violent world with our gentleness, that we may possess the self control that puts us in control of everything else - this is the difference we are called to make - can we?

We need the holy Spirit, now more than ever! How do we picture ourselves today: As people of the Spirit, people of God, people of Redemption...if so, our identity has to be different from that of the world. The world identifies itself with power, possession and prestige. Persons are ready to do anything to have power - power over others, power over means of wealth, power over systems and power over everyone else! The craze to possess, ruins any humanity that could be. To possess things and to possess persons have come to mean the same and the world differentiates no more one from the other. Prestige and ego, seem to rule everything and the society seems ready to sacrifice anything for it. Today the experience of the pandemic proclaims so loud the fragility and the vulnerability that lies under the covers of our claim to know everything and be in control of everything! 

We need the FRIENDSHIP of the Holy Spirit, to understand the true identity that we have. We are friends - made friends of God, called to be friends to each other, commissioned to be friends to the needy, the broken, the afflicted, the suffering, the discouraged, the lonely, the grieving, the weak and the downtrodden! It is the Spirit that gives us the heart and the capacity it takes to be friends... the Spirit unites, makes us understand each other, synchronises our thoughts, synergises our capacities and moulds us together as One People of God. Where there is division and hatred, there is no Spirit because the Spirit of God, is the Spirit of love and wisdom, communion and friendship.

Yes, let us pray together this day:
Come Holy Spirit, we need thee!
We need your Fire to burn and to light up,
We need your Fruits to raise this world up,
We need your Friendship to truly grow up!
Come Holy Spirit, we need thee!

With the Holy Spirit - it starts all over!

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

May 22, 2021: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31; John 21: 20-25

Don't you find a sense of winding up in the readings today? A type of 'and-they-lived-happily-everafter' narration! Paul seems to settle down for good in Rome as an honoured guest in house arrest, while Jesus seems to be bidding his final bye and the book of John comes to an end, with the concluding note of the author... But the end is for a new beginning... because the Church awaits the all important feast of the Pentecost tomorrow, an outpouring of the Spirit that led to a renewed life and radical witness.

With the Spirit, everything begins all over! It may look like an end, or as if everything is done and dusted. But the Holy Spirit is someone who renews the face of the earth, renews it constantly, with new life, new vigour, new enthusiasm, new power and new energy! All that we need to do, is resolve to follow Christ, to remain in Christ and be open to the Spirit.

Yes, the message today is our call to 'follow Christ' in season and out of season, whether we are free or captive, whether we live or die, whether we eat or drink! Good news has to be announced by all means and the responsibility is ours, irrespective of our state of life or situation at present. Our readiness and submission to God is sufficient, the Spirit is there to renew, energise and recreate  us!

Come Holy Spirit! Come renew us! 

Christian Leadership - a crucial gift of the Spirit!

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

May 21, 2021: Acts 25: 13b-21; John 21: 15-19

Jesus seems to be preparing the second level of leadership. Peter he appoints already before he goes and Paul he seems to be taking to all the ends of the earth that he may bear witness, true to his promises. These leaders prepared by Jesus, and the way they are prepared and the qualities expected of them can also be contrasted with the other leaders who are implicitly present in the readings today - Festus, Felix and Caesar, the Roman officials and the Jewish leadership which did away with Jesus and now wants to do away with Peter, or Paul or anyone else who has got something to do with Jesus.

In his mode of preparation and commission of his second line leaders, Jesus offers us an insight into Christian leadership: it does not consist in power and position but in bearing witness and serving the community of faith. Infact, in such a perspective, every baptised person is called to play a role as a leader in their own level - witnessing to the goodness of the Lord and serving the people of God.

Today, taking a look at the context - our communities, be it parish communities where the laity scheme their way to positions of honour and fame, or the members of religious congregations or the clergy playing political games and construing divisive plots... true understanding of Christian leadership seems to have taken a back seat. With the pandemic wrecking an havoc, we are getting to see the colours of true Christian leadership and self-centred pseudo leaderships! 

The Gospel Acclamation reminds us today that the Spirit will teach us the truth and all the truth. May the Spirit of the Lord rekindle our faith and lead us towards true sense of Christian leadership, because it is indeed a crucial gift of the Spirit!

Spirit, the love dwelling in us!

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

May 20, 2021: Acts 22:30 - 23: 6-11; John 17: 20-25

As in Jerusalem, so in Rome! Just out of one danger in Jerusalem, Paul is promised more of them, in Rome! Courage! says the Lord. We can live our life with courage and confidence because the Lord dwells in us, or atleast wants to dwell in us! He prays to his Father, 'that I may be in them!' 

Jesus is praying for us, as he says... I pray for these and those who will come to believe through the words of these. We have come to believe and the Lord wishes to dwell in us - the sign of his dwelling, is the love of the Father: that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them. The love that exists between the Father and the Son, is the Holy Spirit...the indwelling Spirit.

The most concrete sign of the indwelling Lord is not so much performing miracles or speaking in toungues, as living united to the Father in Christ, it is being united to each other in love! The more we grow to be one, as Jesus prays today, the more we become people of the Spirit. All that we need to do is remain united, remain one, witness to the oneness we see between the Father and the Son. 

Jesus prays that we may be one because, that would be the first witness to the Reign that he longed to establish on earth - that we live to be one, that the world sees us one! Jesus promises us the glory that God alone can give, that comes from the perfection of being one! That determination, that decision to remain before the world one and bold, will be the work of the Spirit who is the fellowship between the Father and the Son. 

Wherever we are, let us be aware and convinced that we possess the glory that the Lord has promised, and live up to that glory, to that gift, to that person who has called us to be one; one, in the Spirit, the love that dwells within us!

The Spirit that makes us One!

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

May 19, 2021: Acts 20: 28-38; John 17: 11b-19

From parting mood to prayer mode... the Word today captures both Jesus and Paul praying for and praying with their beloved followers. They invoke the Spirit who unites, and they warn the followers of the spirit of discord. Both those, the invocation and the warning, are a lesson for us today!

How we can discern the right direction to take in the face of differences among us - that is the question that the Word answers today. Be it in a family or in a community of faithful, given the fact that we are thinking individuals, there is bound to arise differences of opinion. First of all, the conviction to grow in, is this: that differences of opinoins are not a problem. They are a richness! They enrich the point of view, but as along as the motivations are right and well oriented. 

The differences, as long as they are from the Spirit, they shall lead only to growth and renewal, enrichment and empowerment. Hence we are invited today to invoke the Holy Spirit on ourselves and on our communities, not to abolish all differences and make us monocultural and monolithic in nature, but to help us see the oneness through the difference, to discover the harmony that exists in the diversity that we celebrate. 

We are warned here against the differences caused by the ravenous wolves and treacherous beasts. Ruled by ego, dominated by envy, and animated by competition, these differences are aimed at destroying the unity of the people of God. It does not enrich, impoverishes; it does not empower but enfeebles the community; it does not harmonise and build but breaks and destroys! It is clearly from the evil one.

Anything that comes from the Spirit unites us, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit that makes us one! Let us remain in the Spirit and remain united in love above everything else. May we live worthy of the prayer that Jesus made for us: that they may be one!

The Spirit of Extraordinary Courage!

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

May 18, 2021: Acts 20: 17-27; John 17: 1-11

We see both Paul and Jesus in a parting mood; Paul is sensing an imminent trouble and Jesus is sure of a fast approaching end. But both have a sense of having completed the task given to them. I have glorified you on earth and finished the work that you gave me to do, says Jesus praying to his Father (Jn 17:4); Paul is seen to be speaking of finishing the race and having done the task of proclamation entrusted to him. 

Besides this parting sentiment, both have a note of passing on the mission to those around them - Paul to the presbyters and elders, and Jesus to the apostles.They both are seen to be challenging the followers, to a life of commitment and endurance. And here it is that one thing can be found common to both cases of encounter that ensures the continuity: the One Spirit, a Spirit of extraordinary courage.

The same Spirit that was in Jesus, he gave to his apostles, to Paul and then Paul to the elders...the Spirit of courage and strength. As Paul would explain in 2 Tim 1:7, the Spirit of power, of love and of self discipline. Power, which makes us fearless; love which makes us feel for the others; and self discipline which enables us to do the will of the One who calls us, come what may!

Amidst difficulties and struggles, oppositions and spirit-dampening events, with persons around who wish our downfall and our discouragement, if we have to go on with courage and strength, we cannot do it by our efforts alone! It takes what the Spirit can offer us: courage and strength, power and authority, love and empathy, and composure and serenity! This is what we need to learn from Jesus, as did Paul. Let us continue our journey, preparing ourselves to celebrate that Spirit of Extraordinary Courage, promised us by Christ.  

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. 

The Spirit that convicts!

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

May11, 2021: Acts 16: 22-34; John 16: 5-11

Jesus wishes that his disciples moved on to the next level. He is pushing them to it, goading them to make them not merely servants but friends, not merely working hands but leaders, not merely followers but inspirers. He is trying his best to introduce them to the Advocate, the Divine Counselor! This week, the Word presents to us, the varied aspects of a Spirit-filled Christian life... today's readings bring out one important aspect of this advocate, promised by Jesus: the aspect of the Spirit which convicts individuals, communities and all those who truly believe.

The Spirit when around makes things clear - about sin, righteousness and judgement, says the Word. No one can escape from the omniscient Spirit of the Lord, for even the innermost of the sinful tendencies are known to the Spirit. One who is righteous is sustained by the Spirit, that amidst even the worst of oppositions and criticism, the one who is conscientiosuly righteous, knows nothing can affect him or her. One who is in the Spirit knows that the judgement is at hand and lives not by fear, but by righteousness and in abhorrence of sin! In fact, receiving the Spirit, thus becomes a mode of equipping oneself to live a truly Christian life.

Receiving the Spirit is not an ordinary task. It is a divine mission that the Lord promised to those who sincerely ask for it. For when the spirit comes... the Spirit would convict the person. The person automatically goes into a self-examination mode, evaluating and appraising oneself on, how worthy one is, of the life to which he or she is called.

"What should we do to be saved" ... that is the question that would fill our hearts, when the Spirit overshadows us. What should I do to be acceptable in the eyes of God? What should I do to reject sin? What should I do to be righteous in the eyes of God? What should I become to face judgement with hope? We have a great help to answer these questions: the Spirit that convicts!

GPS Enabled?

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

May 8, 2021: Acts 16: 1-10; John 15: 18-21

Almost gone are those days when people bound for a place that they have never been to, find their destinations with the help of people on the road, bystanders, fellow passengers etc. Those who are in their forties now, don't you still remember your childhood days, when you were travelling, asking people for directions to reach a spot, or person asking you for such directions? Those of this generation, the teens of today, may look at that as a nuisance, an invadent behaviour, and uncultured, to disturb a person who is a stranger! This is because, nowadays with the smart phones in all hands, everyone is GPS Enabled: Global Positioning System!

Why are we talking about GPS... because, today in the first reading we find the apostles too, GPS Enabled. They are instructed where to go and where not to go. Only that the GPS here is... God's Powerful Spirit. Some time ago we read about Philip, reaching out to the Ethiopian court official in his carriage, so accurately... that was with the help of the GPS too: God's Powerful Spirit. 

Jesus warns his friends, wherever they go there will be people against them, because they are his disciples. But he also says, nothing to worry,  because they were all GPS Enabled: God's Protecting Spirit. They need not prepare their cause, they need not be anxious and they need not be afraid of the powers that can harm them, because they all had with them their GPS: God's Protecting Spirit.

And we see the disciples, no less daring than their Master. They were schooled so well and nothing could stop them from proclaming the Gospel, because they were all GPS Enabled: God's Propelling Spirit. The apostles, the disciples and the first christians, were unstoppable. Come what may, with all the troubles and persecutions they went on, even to the level of giving up their lives, because they were powered by GPS: God's Propelling Spirit.

Today, amidst all the confusions and troubles we are having all around us, the invitation to us is to be disciples of Christ in our daily life - in spite of all its struggles and temptations -  that is to be true disciples of Christ, who are GPS Enabled!

We, the Holy Spirit and Love!

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

May 7, 2021: Acts 15: 22-31; John 15: 12-17

It has always been a fascinating formulation that we see in the first reading today; the apostles when they communicate their decision after a long discussion and discernment on the crisis, they say, "it has seemed good to us and to the holy spirit"... To us and to the Holy Spirit!

What happens really when this link is truly strong: me and the holy spirit, we and the holy spirit! The gospel speaks to us of this: when the Holy Spirit takes hold of us, all that we do, all that we choose, all that we decide will be guided by love and love alone! We see that the apostles and the first christians, were ready to give up their tradition, their heritage, their laws, all because they loved their new brothers and sisters in Christ. They did not want to over burden them. 

Jesus had already gone a step further, when he said: not just traditions and laws, but even your life; you should be ready to lay down even your life for the sake of the other, because that is true love. If the Son of God had given up everything for the love that he has for us, why do we hesitate to give up anything...especially our ego, our selfishness, our vain glory, in response to that love that we have received, so underservedly!!!

Now coming back to that formulation we started with, we and the Holy Spirit, if we are in constant rapport with the Spirit of the Risen Lord, we will be filled with true love! If we are filled with true love, then we would make of ourselves true disciples to Christ, the Son of God who is Love! 

We, the Holy Spirit and Love, we will together make a wonderful "Christ"ian Community. Shall we?

The Word, the Spirit and Life

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

April 24, 2021: Acts 9: 31-42; John 6: 60-69

The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life, says the Lord to the people gathered! The Apostles understood it only when Jesus had risen from the dead and was present amidst them in the Spirit... The Word which was with them, was the Spirit and was the Life. That is why, Peter raising the dead Tabitha, is no wonder for them. It was a matter of fact - the Word, the Spirit and life, all are at play here.

The true testimony that a disciple of Christ is called to give to the world rests in these three: the Word, the Spirit and life!

We are called to be the presence of the Word amidst people who are in need of light, in need of direction and in need of consolation. Especially today amidst the experience of the pandemic...are we truly persons who can offer the Word...the living Word, through our words of hope and consolation? Or are we spreading fear and apathy?

We are called to be the manifestations of the Spirit in a world that is so much running after things that are material - with the whole curse of consumerism and the use-and-throw culture that we have. Persons are made use of and things are loved and treasured...what an irony! Are we truly persons of the Spirit who can manifest God's goodness to people: how can I repay God's goodness to me, says the psalmist...it is only in reflecting the goodness to others in the Spirit.

We are called to be life givers...every word we speak, every action we take, every attitude we sport has to give life to others, pull them out from the possible depression they find themselves it, give them hope to live their life with a new vision, fill them with energy and effort to find the ways of the Lord in every little thing that happens in their life! Are we truly life-giving or are we spreading a culture of death by pessimism and negativity?

The Word, the Spirit and life are the touchstones to true Christian living today...we will do well to reflect on them today!

Obedience: the promptings of the Spirit

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

April 15, 2021: Acts 5:27-33; John 3: 31-36

We must obey God rather than men; we must obey God's directions rather than men's directives; we must obey the promptings of the Spirit rather than the rulings of men! What a clarity on the part of the disciples. If only we had today that same clarity! But it could be problematic too, as evidenced in these COVID times in many places! It is a dilemma that we face, think along!

Do not conform to the standards of the world; rather renewed in Spirit conform to the mind of Christ, instructed St. Paul well in this line (cf. Rom 12:2). At times we justify conformity and compromise on the grounds of "peace in the house"; other times we create division and sport rebellion under the pretext of being unique and convinced, while it could just be a way of promoting one's own convenience! Our own innermost self is our judge, and of course the one who resides there: the Spirit of the Lord!

Today, with the pandemic situation and the measures to contain it, there are governments and the international organisations that are tending to make rules and controls, forcing people at large to obey, at times even blackmailing masses into submission. What are we to do? Does out religiosity, our faith, our spirituality, come into play in this scenario? They have to. If not, what are they for?

So, do we abide by what they say or do we not? The question is - not whether we need to abide or we need not; but whether we can think logically or not; whether we can spiritually reason out or not; whether with the help of the Spirit, we can think holistically or not! Not with selfish concerns and sub-human criteria, but with true Spirit-filled mindset and truly all-embracing mindset, what is our judgement of things that are being said and being forced on us? It is not conformity or non-conformity, but our sense of faith and sense of clarity based on the wisdom of the Spirit!

Obedience is not merely conformity to the rule; nor its opposite mere negligence of the rule. It is all about being sincere to the innermost promptings of the Spirit. Being understood when one follows that promptings, is not always guaranteed. Being misunderstood cannot prevent me from being sincere to those promptings. One who obeys will see life (cf. Jn 3:36).

The Spirit Frees - Towards Light!

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

April 14, 2021: Acts 5: 17-26; John 3:16-21

From the prison to freedom, from the chains to an unfettered spirit, from fear to total commitment... the Spirit strengthens one to walk towards the light! The disciples were a transformed lot... they were the same who ran away when Jesus was arrested; the ones who denied and betrayed when there were pressures; the ones who closed themselves up for fear of the Jews who killed Jesus...but now, they are totally different!

They were standing up in public places and speaking up; they were answering the authorities back and affirming their connection to Jesus the Christ; they did things that were controversial and vouched for it and claimed responsibility; they were arrested and they expressed happiness about it; they were warned and threatened, and they cared nothing about it... they were a transformed lot! They stood for truth - to which Jesus said he came to bear witness; the truth that Jesus claimed that he was! They stood for that same truth!

At times truth hurts and at times it costs much, but if in the Spirit, we would count nothing too demanding! This is what they learnt from Christ, understood in the Spirit and lived in their concrete lives. They were ready to give up anything...their safety, their comfort, and even their lives.

Even today, people like Bro. Mario of Chalakudi fame, who have risked their lives for the sake of Christ... and many others similar, but not known in the public forum, are living illustrations of the episode from Acts that we read today. A youngster known to me, whom I consider a great inspiration to me, born in a hindu family, but chose to be a Christian and chose to become a priest and threw his well paid engineering job in a firm and disappeared from his family, to join a religious congregation, because they were mad at him in the family.

If I have the courage to see the Truth, accept it and live for it, nothing can stop me, not even death; because I have within me eternal life. And the Spirit is Truth, truth is light...in the Spirit, I am constantly moving towards the Light!

To be shaken and to shake up!

WORD 2day: Monday, 2nd week of Easter

April 12, 2021: Acts 4: 23-31; John 3: 1-8

A fundamental requirement to be born again is to be shaken up! When the Spirit of the Lord stirs hearts and souls, a new being is born and that new being is what Jesus proposes today as the being born again; being born of the Spirit. The Spirit gives birth to us - it is in blowing God's Spirit that we were created. And it is the same Spirit that can give us the rebirth, by a new breath that comes from God. We need the new life in Christ, a new birth in the Risen Lord, becoming new creations in the Spirit.

Becoming new creations in the Spirit is not some allegoric or analogical figure of speech, it is a real and concrete demand placed on us - to change, to transform, to convert ourselves constantly towards a mindset that is proper to the One who has chosen and called us. As St. Paul would time and again remind us that we cannot conform to the world, but become new creations in Christ, that is to have the mentality, the mindset, the perspective that  Christ carried within himself. 

This transformation cannot happen unless we are shaken up, the Spirit. Anyone who is not filled with the Spirit cannot recognise the Son of God as his or her saviour! One who finds and accepts the Son of God as the Risen Saviour, cannot but be encompassed by the Spirit, the Spirit which gives us new life - everyday and every moment.  

As individuals, as families, as faith communities we need to shake ourselves up, allow ourselves to be shaken up and thus shake up each other, towards being what we are created to be, called to be and commissoned to be. Allowing the Spirit to influence us in whatever are involved, following the promtings of the Spirit in every action or decision we take, letting ourselves be guided by the spirit in every moment of discernment is the sign of people shaken up by the Spirit. When we begin to transform ourselves so, we shall experience what it means to see the community around us being shaken! To be shaken and to shake up the world is the call that we have from the Risen Lord - are we listening?

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!

The Spirit of Courage and Hope

WORD 2day: Friday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 16, 2020: Ephesians 1: 11-14; Luke 12: 1-7.

The Word today brings out a crucial theme for these days - the Spirit of power and love and self-discipline (cf. 2 Tim 1:7), with which we are sealed, which brings freedom to those who belong to God. Where does this Spirit of courage and hope come from? From a life that is lived founded well on Christ like convictions and absolute commitment. Jesus brings that out in radical terms in the Gospel. 

Do not fear, do not be afraid... Jesus repeatedly assures us not to be guided by fear. When we are guided by solid convictions and not convenient compromises, when we are taken up with absolute commitment to the life's tasks entrusted to us, we will be truthful to God who has created us, chosen us in Christ and commissioned us to be the people of God. That truth will indeed set us free (cf. Jn 8:32). When we live by truth, we will not fear anyone or anything. 

Looking at the crisis of the pandemic around, the rise of fundamentalist forces all over, the irrational hegemony of the moneyed forces in the world, the voiceless struggles of the poor and oppressed, the merciless rampage of the corporates on the economically weaker sections - all these are disheartening issues and predicaments. But a true disciple of Christ, a genuine Christ-ian, a true son or daughter filled with the Spirit, will stand firm in courage and hope! 

We have great and shining witnesses in thousands of martyrs that we have in history, and those that are suffering heroically even today, for the cause of truth and justice! Even if we do not have an opportunity to give our witness in that manner, let us at least stand by these who are doing it - then we shall have a share in that testimony! 

For that we need to be enabled by the Spirit of Courage, that is poured into our hearts, that which we hold on to as the mark of our belonging to God. We will do well to pray for it. 

Supplying the Spirit

 WORD 2day: Thursday, 27th week in Ordinary time

October 8, 2020: Gal 3: 1-5; Lk 11: 5-13

One who supplies the Spirit to you: that is an identity that the Word reveals of God, in both the readings today (Gal 3:5; Lk 11:13). 'To supply the Spirit'...what would that mean? It would mean that we are given the assurance of the continued presence of the Lord perennially. 'The Spirit is the mark of God's ownership on us', St. Paul would declare elsewhere(cf Eph 1:13). 

The Spirit is God's definition of our identity, our call and the meaning of our life. We are called to be sons and daughters in the Spirit and the Spirit does not leave us even a moment, because it us our very being. In the Spirit, do we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:28). We are accompanied all through - and all that we need to do is, become aware of it, take advantage of it, rejoice in it and share the fruits of it with everyone around! 

On the other hand, when doubts assail us, when we face the risk of falling into temptations and when we do fall in those, when we lax into lower standards of human moral living, give into the vile pressures of the evil one and the vices of the distraught world, we are shunning the Spirit of the Lord. We are failing to take advantage of it, we are letting great fruits go waste, we are sitting on a treasure box and begging for stranded shekels! 

All our life, we are called to remember our identity and never lose sight of it. We are challenged to feel the truth right within us, the image and likeness what we possess and the great mission each of us has in life - grow into that image, following the fullness revealed in Christ, through the Spirit. In this the act of prayer comes as an act of becoming aware, taking advantage of the great treasures within - it is asking, knocking and seeking, something that is always so close to us.

Asking, knocking, seeking are acts of faith, they are not acts of some desperate effort to get something by all means. They are acts of faith by which we live our convictions that, even before asking the Lord knows my needs. To knock is to surrender oneself totally, come what may. And to seek is not a call to seek in vain or in all-emptiness but to seek the person who lives within us, who dwell within us, who makes us the dwelling places of God (cf 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19).Once we possess the Spirit, we would need nothing: Seek ye first the Reign of God, and everything will be given unto you.

The Right thing to do...

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 22, 2020: Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13; Luke 8: 19-21

Doing the right thing is better than sacrifice says the first reading today. And the right thing is imprinted in our hearts. That is a simple but profound question each of us has to constantly ask ourselves- what does my heart say? what does my inner being say? Because, there is someone so great who resides there in profundity. 

The Word of God, comes to us through various ways: direct proclamation is just one among them. There are situations and persons whom we come across who bring us a challenge to face and respond to. The Word of God comes along, instructing us what is right and what is to be avoided. And before anything else, there is the inner voice within us, that "sound of sheer silence" (1 Kgs 19:12), which tells us at the right moment the right thing to do. 

All that we need to do is first of all, be attentive: attentive to the Word that comes across to us. Have you had experiences of what they call 'the inkling' or 'a feeling' as they put it in simple words...as you are about to do something or take a simple decision, you get a feeling within...or you are about to close your room and get out and you feel a kind of reminder of something...but you just carry on with what you are doing...only later regret that you did not pay attention to what was flashing across in your mind? That is what it means... that we need to pay attention to that soft, gentle inner voice!

Secondly, be sincere: sincere to admit that we have received the word and to recognise the demands that it places. At times because of the demands that the Word places on us, we pretend not to have heard, or not to have understood the real meaning of the Word. It would serve no purpose and we in fact deceive ourselves by doing it. 

Thirdly, our task is to be diligent, in carrying out amidst all struggles, what the Word tells us. We are in no way equating that inner voice to God..all that we wish to see is how the Lord can use such a subtle thing to communicate to us. And should we not be grateful for it and be diligent in doing what we ought to?

The Gospel today assures us that when we do all the three we would be considered not merely disciples, but mother, brother, sister, in short, coheirs with Christ to the Reign of God. But when we stop short of them, we would be deceiving ourselves warns the letter of James (1:22). So, the right thing to do... we have always known it, within us!

Sowing, growing and what is in between...

 WORD 2day: Saturday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 19, 2020: 1 Corinthians 15: 35-37, 42-49; Luke 8: 4-15

The Word today speaks of sowing and growing, and what goes on in between these - dying and being reborn! Dying and being reborn, is not merely an other-worldly experience as we immediately tend to think. It is a daily experience - think of the breathing process... every time we breathe out it is an experience of death (that is why it is called 'expiration' - breathing out) and every time we breathe in again, it is a new lease of life that we take in. Every night we go to rest, the entire system of our body comes to rest, it can either get to a halt or replenish itself - that is a daily miracle. Scientists say about 300 million cells die every minute in our bodies and equal numbers replace them! But with regard to our spiritual regeneration, how prepared are we to die and to be reborn?

The aspects of dying to ourselves and being reborn in Christ is a criterion for Christian living (cf. Rom 6). Many of us who claim to be followers, disciples and apostles of Christ, still refuse to die to certain tendencies, elements within our selves, which militate against the Spirit of the Lord who wants to dwell within us, for we are called to be the dwelling place of God, the temples of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19).

Of course, there are situations that are against our becoming totally the dwelling place of God: like the parched land or the scorching heat or the choking thorns. It could be a dry patch in life, or a difficult phase, or an intense suffering, or a repeated pounding of physical or spiritual pain. That is everyone's experience (of course, the intensity varies) and hence, cannot be ever a valid reason for our personal lack of commitment to belong to the Lord and for our lagging in efforts to grow closer to God. 

God has sown. God has called us and chosen us and appointed us, each in our own life and in our own context. What matters now is our personal commitment, perseverance, and loving decision to belong and to grow into the image and likeness of the One who has caused us and called us. What is in between sowing and growing is our effort, our commitment, our willingness to die and to be reborn!