Love - do we understand it at all?!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 3, 2021: Tobit 6:10-11; 7:1, 9-17; 8:4-9a; Mk 12: 28-34

Two unfortunate sharings I heard recently: one about a husband who decided to disown his wife a year after their wedding, because she was diagnosed with a serious illness; the second a religious who said she had not spoken for the past four years with another sister living with her in the same convent. These two and many such experiences raise a fundamental doubt: are we truly Christian? Have we, as we claim in and through baptism, really immersed ourselves into the mystery that God is? God is love and if we are born of God, we should love.

And there arises another perennial problem: what is love? Have we really understood it? How do we understand it? Have we really imbibed the sense that Jesus wants us to perceive, in love?

While the Gospel reiterates this call that each of us has received, in the first reading today we have a typical example in the person of Tobiah. Once he decides that he loves Sarah, nothing deters him from growing in that perfection. He is told how fatal it can be if he loves Sarah, but he does not hesitate. The reason is, he believed that Sarah was brought into his life by God. Just imagine, if only we look at every person in our life - our parents, our brothers and sisters, spouses, neighbours, colleagues and every one with whom we rub shoulders on a daily basis - as someone who has been brought into our lives by God, how blessed our life shall be. 

God entrusts with persons to love, in our daily life. Love is not merely a feeling; it is an act of faith. To look at every person around me and see and believe that God has given me that person, that brother or that sister, to love- that is the secret. That is true Christian love: does the world today, does every Christian today, do I today, really understand it at all?

Listen to the Word Alive - the Easter-mindset

WORD 2day: Thursday within the Easter Octave 

April 8, 2021: Acts 3: 11-26; Luke 24:35-48

Understanding the Scriptures was an essential part of realising their identity for the disciples. From yesterday we read from Luke how the Risen Lord took upon himself the task of opening their minds to the Scriptures, because it was from that understanding that they were able to make sense of all that they were going through. Once clarified, their identity was extraordinarily strong and they accomplished feats that nobody would imagine. That is the power of clear and specific identity.

Hence a typical Easter-mindset is to Listen to the Word Alive. The Word made flesh, lived among them and they failed to completely grasp what was happening. When the Lord resurrected, they beheld the Word anew... now it was a Word that was fulfilled, accomplished in history, holding out to them new life and new meaning, an altogether new identity, a Word that was so Alive to the more than ever! It is the same Word Alive that speaks to us today - in the Scripture, the Sacraments and the Situation around. Are we listening?

Listening to the Word Alive, would mean looking at what is happening around me with the eyes that the Word would provide; hearing the cries of the helpless and the neglected as the Word would resound; feeling one with the suffering and the exploited as the Word would propose; taking on ourselves the struggles of the unfortunate and the downtrodden as the Word, in Christ Jesus, did. These should begin from the closest of our circles - let us say our families, our communities, our neighbourhood, our workplace colleagues and so on. These are not merely some acts, it is a mindset, an Easter-mindset that would define our very identity.

Yes, if we are truly listening to the Word, we would hear these questions posed to us: what is your identity? What does the Scripture say to you? Do you spend time listening to the Lord speak in and through the Scripture, the Sacrament and the Situation? Do you really seek to understand what the Lord wants of you today and strive to fulfill it? 

What is my mindset today?

What do I do: Open up your heart!

WORD 2day: Tuesday within the Easter Octave

April 6, 2021:  Acts 2: 36-41; John 20: 11-18

'What are we to do?' ask the people cut to their heart! That is the first sign of a transformed people: being cut to the heart and wanting to do something about it. I remember a gathering of teachers that I addressed in the beginning of an academic year. There were over 200 of them and at the end of the meeting one teacher walked up to me and said: 'Fr. I want to do something... I just can't continue the way I am. Tell me now, what should I do?' And I gave him a suggestion, and now he is part of an Evangelisation Team, that was connected until 3 years ago!

Being cut to the heart - it can happen only when I open my heart! The Word is powerful, the living Word, the Risen Lord is powerful, yes. But I need to allow the Lord to touch me, to transform me! I need to allow the truth to penetrate my soul and my heart... it will never happen if I am busy proving myself, justifying myself and compromising my ways! My choice has to be radical and then I shall see that the Word shall cut through my heart. 

If we allow the Risen Lord to encounter us through the numerous ways the Lord usually does, we will be cut to our hearts! The Lord has a suggestion for the future course of action: Go and Announce! He would say he is going to the Father and would ask us to continue what he started. The disciples took it to heart and they did an enormous work... what about you and me today?

How frequently do we have this pressing question in our hearts: What are we to do? What am I to do? Is there some course of my life that I need to alter, in order that I may live my life to the full? There is no use lamenting on the past or counting the unhatched chicks of the future... I need to act today and I need to choose today! This is the Easter Call, to open our hearts, to ask that question: what do I do, and to resume our course towards living a life to the full!

True Christian Love: The capacity to look into yourself

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

March 18, 2021: Exodus 32: 7-14; John 5: 31-47

 

The one who loves more will be hurt more! This is an ordinary experience of life. True love never counts the hurts, nor does it give up, fearing hurt. God's love for us has proved this to us time and again. We see in the first reading today how the people were absolutely insensitive to God's love and went behind their need for a concrete and tangible expression of a passing love. All that they needed was to just take time and look into themselves, to look back into their lives, to look at the way they had come by! Moses had to come down, break those tablets amidst them and call their attention to those very things, and they realised their folly!

 

We may wonder reading this account, how was it possible for them to do it! After all the great experience of wonders and marvels in Egypt and in the desert, how could these people think of making a god for themselves! Let us not be too fast in this. Let us just pause and look at ourselves. How better are we?

 

How swift we are to give up on the Lord and Lord's ways, even after having experienced the Lord so much! We give it up for gods of our own making - our time more important than spending few extra minutes listening to the Word of God, our work more important than giving God the due that we should, our pleasures more important than taking up a few sacrifices for God and for God's plan... aren't these the same as what the people of Israel did?

 

Go into the depth of your hearts and look at the way you have travelled, the way God has loved you all this while, the way you have been nourished by the love of God, you will understand where you are going wrong! Be courageous enough to turn back, re-tread your ways to the Lord. 

To grow in true Christian love, revive your capacity to look into yourself, every now and then!

 

Renewing Christian Hope: Switch to the Reign Mode

THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, 2nd week in Lent

March 3, 2021: Jeremiah 18: 18-20; Matthew 20: 17-28

 

The Word today presents to us the stark contrast between the Jesus' way of thinking and the worldly terms of thinking. These are two contrasting paradigms, and we become conscious of them.  

Jesus' way of thinking is Reign mode of thinking; thinking of the primacy of God, thinking of the framework of love, thinking of the criterion of service, thinking of the fullness of life of all! 

The worldly mode of thinking is thinking of one's gains at all costs, thinking of one's comfort mindless about the struggles of others, thinking of scaling the ladder and not serving my brothers and sisters, thinking of every one and every situation as an opportunity for my own gains! Look at the hundreds of millions of scams that are being spoken of these days, even in nations so poor where millions go hungry out of misery everyday... what heights of greed and selfishness!

 

But before pointing a finger, before blaming someone, let each of judge for ourselves, in which mode we live our life today. At times our worldly mode may be the most justified looking at the way everyone else lives all around; and the Reign mode might seem totally ‘out of the world!’ Are we going to give into that conformity to the world? Or sometimes the modes may be off and on; that is, occasionally we may have the two of them alternating between themselves. But which of it is the predominant mode? 

 

When are we going to clearly switch to the Reign Mode? St. Paul instructs in his letter to the Philippians: 'Put on the mind of Christ' (2:5). That is the hope that the Christian way of life can offer to this battered world...but are we living up to that mission? If we have to...let us live our everyday in Reign Mode!

Growing in True Faith: the Right Righteousness

THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, First week of Lent

February 26, 2021: Ezekiel 18: 21-28; Matthew 5: 20-26

The "Scribes and the Pharisees"...we find this phrase very often in Jesus' words. What did he have against them? Was he then a sectarian too... dividing and categorising people by the group they belong to? No! Never! Jesus himself was a pharisee and he had disciples among pharisees, tax collectors and zealots. Then where is the justification for the usage of this phrase, 'the scribes and the pharisees'?

The phrase actually refers to, that category of people, need not be necessarily only the scribes and the pharisees, who consider the external signs and legalistic fulfillment more important or significant than the interior disposition. What we do is important, but why we do what we do, matters much more! The internal disposition with which something is carried out, truly determines the value of the act or the attitude. 

Righteousness often can remain a matter of image building or opinion creation. There are those who hire the media, buy it up or throttle it to control, in order to project themselves as they wish to be seen - not exactly was they really are! Every one of us wishes to give a pleasing and desirable image of ourselves to the world - there is nothing much wrong in this wish per se. But the problem lies in the fact that I hide, how much I hide, to what extent I go in order to hide and what I want to gain by hiding what I really am! Can I still fall under the category of the 'righteous', after all this image creation?

Jesus, explains today his version of righteousness - the Right Righteousness. It consists of meekness and humility, openness (lack of judgments) and acceptance, endurance and perseverance, and endless hopefulness. It consists of accepting who I really am and working on myself without pretensions. It consists of accepting the other as he or she is and trying to live as brothers and sisters in peace! 

Against these measures on the scale, where does my righteousness stand?

The true offering: the inner spirit

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

February 15, 2021: Genesis 4: 1-15, 25; Mark 8: 11-13

Have you ever wondered from your childhood memories that you have heard the story as Cain brought some rotten fruits and leftovers, while Abel brought the best of the firstlings from his flock? But take a good look at the story as you read today in the first reading... there is nothing said in the Word that Cain's offering was rotten. Yes, it was not acceptable, but not because it was not of international standards or of the best known quality. 

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

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

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

LIVE LIFE CHRIST-LIKE - 2

For others, for the marginalised and for God!

February 14, 2021: 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Leviticus 13: 1-2, 44-46; 1 Corinthians 10:31- 11:1; Mark 1: 40-45

Certainly you have heard of this anecdote shared about a lay missionary, a doctor by profession who passed through a village once. He stayed with the people, treated them for their sicknesses, dealt with them with compassion and after a while he moved on to the next village. The wonderful memories of that doctor never left the minds of that village. After a couple of decades a missionary preacher came to the same village. He began talking to the people in the village squares and market places. All that he asked them was: "Do you know Jesus?" Many said, 'No' and moved away. One old man stopped and asked him: "alright, tell me what kind of a man is that Jesus you are enquiring about!" The missionary was indeed waiting for that question. He began: Oh, he is kind, he is loving, he is compassionate, he is caring, he deals with the sick with such love...he was intending to go on, but that old man stopped him. "Now, if that is the man you are talking about, we know him! He passed by our village some 20 years back!"

We are called to reflect on living our life Christ like, for a second consecutive week! The message is same as last week: to live like Christ. And the readings today highlight three attributes to a life that could be Christ-like, taking the cues from Christ's life.

Christ lived for Others: Today the atmosphere would be filled with red vibes, as many frenetically celebrate the valentines day! How many messages about love - defining what it is, describing how great it is, demonstrating how much one is immersed in it. Love does not need so many commentaries. It can just be understood in that simple classical definition: love is wishing the good of the other. Placing the other before myself, genuinely interested in the other's well being...that is love. 

Christ was love personified. He lived his life for others, entirely. He had no comforts, no protection, nothing that was his own. He was candid in telling those who wished to follow him, that it meant to own nothing, not even a place to rest one's head, if they were to follow him. Living totally for others, for the people of God, is the essence of a life that is Christ-like! Are we prepared? Or are we, even in the so-called service to the others, seeking our own name and fame, and glory and gain?

Christ lived for the Marginalised: Pope Francis has a concrete, unavoidable point to make, when he repeats : Go to the periphery! He invites us to live life Christ-like. Today's first reading tells us where the persons with leprosy lived: ostracised, in the peripheries, in the obscurity of humanity. If they were able to come to Jesus, it actually means Jesus went to those peripheries, those margins of the society. Jesus was often found in zone which were not meant to be traversed by a Jew like him, a teacher like him and a man with such following like him. 

Jesus reached out to those in need, those in agony, those in the periphery. It is easy to love people who deserve our love; it is easy to love people who will love us in return; but it is Christian to love everyone, even those from whom we will receive nothing, not even the recognition of our love in return. Are we prepared? Or are we in the name of love, looking for our own pleasure and satisfaction, warm feeling and sense of being accepted and affirmed? Is our love truly reaching out, to those who really need it?

Christ lived for God: When a reporter commented to Mother Teresa, looking at the dirtiest tasks that she was involved in, like washing the wounds and wiping the puss: 'Mother, even if they gave me a million dollars I would not be able to do this!', the Saint of Kolkata seemed to have responded: 'Even for a couple of those million dollars, I would not do this. I do this for the Christ whom I see in these faces'. Whether you eat or drink, do everything for the glory of God, invites St. Paul. 

Christ did all that he did, said all that he said, was all that he was, because it was God's will for him. "My food is to do the will of the One who has sent me!' he declared. He lived it till the end - not my will but yours be done, O Father. That is the lesson for us too - to live our lives for God, in keeping with God's will, constantly striving to know what is God's will for us and dedicating ourselves to it, despite the inconveniences and discomforts - because we are convinced that we are called to live for God. Are we prepared? Or are we looking to make our life as comfortable as possible, giving into compromises of all sorts?

Living life Christ-like, is challenging indeed. But if we strive with all our heart, sincerely and humbly, we too will be able to tell the world as did St. Paul: Be imitators of me as I am of Christ! (1 Cor 11:1). Will I ever grow to that level?

From Sickness to Wholeness

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

February 11, 2021: Celebrating our Blessed Mother of Lourdes

Commemorating the 29th World day of the Sick

Genesis 2: 18-25; Mark 7: 24-30

Man-woman, we-they, rich-poor, high-low... these categories of daily consideration of people, things and events is something to be consciously transcended. Jesus himself receives a bit of a lesson from that Syro-phoenician woman. 

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

Divisions and discrimination are sins; they are a sickness, a sickness that has affected human persons right from the beginning and tries to control them all along. It makes humans sick... sick in their vision of the other, sick in their relations with the other, sick in their conception of the world and sick in their attitude towards others and everything else.

Celebrating Our Lady of Lourdes today, we are inspired to thank God for the great gift of her person and the fullness of grace that she possessed. And not just we in the Church, but even the world at large remembers as the world day of sick persons. Receiving the apparition at Lourdes, Bernadette said, 'The Mother said, I am the Immaculate Conception.' Immaculate Conception was a manifestation of God's fullness in the person of Mary, the wholeness which the Blessed Mother intercedes for. Especially these days when the whole world is tired of battling against the pandemic that is more than a year old, we need the sustenance of our Blessed Mother. 

From sickness to wholeness, or healing - that is the journey we are called to make today. Not just sicknesses of body, but also sicknesses of the mind - such as divisions and discriminations, sicknesses of the spirit - such as sinfulness and spiritual laziness, and sicknesses of all sorts. May our Blessed Mother strengthen and sustain us in this journey, from sickness to wholeness.

Neither death nor defilement!

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

February 10, 2021: Genesis 2: 4-9,15-17; Mark 7: 14-23

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

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

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

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

A Spirituality true to Christ

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

February 9, 2021: Genesis 1:20 - 2:4a; Mark 7: 1-13

The Word today invites us to understand the true Christian spirituality. Spirituality itself is a sense of being connected to everything and everybody. And further still, Christ's, Christ-like and Christian Spirituality is a sense of feeling an obligation to love people, fend for their good, be interested in their well being and spend oneself for the happiness and well being of the other. 

A true Christ-ian spirituality cannot be merely a dry or rigid performance of rituals and lifeless obedience to rules and commandments. It is about persons and relationships... the person of Christ and one's relationship with him; the persons who are around and one's relationship with them in Christ. It is all about that relationship that cares for each other - in a holistic sense, it is all about love.  

Christ's spirituality consists predominantly of love: which is to go out of one's way to make the other feel cared for; it is to wish the good of the other always in spite of the troubles and inconveniences for oneself. Just imagine if today anyone, even those who claim to love each other, would fit into this definition of love. 

If you would,  you are well on your way in mastering Christ's spirituality.

LIVE LIFE CHRIST-LIKE

The 3P Recipe: Proclaim, Practice and be Prepared!

February 7, 2021: 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Job 7:1-4,6,7; 1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22,23; Mark 1: 29-39

Remember those words of Mahatma Gandhi - "I like your Christ; but I don’t like you Christians. Because you Christians are so unlike your Christ." That great man had the clue to what it meant to be Christians - it is to be Christ-like!

To Live Life Christ-like... that is the call that the Word gives us this Sunday. To live for the Gospel, to live for the Reign, to live for the People of God and to love everyone with all your heart and soul: that is the life task given to you and me, and to everyone called in the name of Christ.

PROCLAIM:

Proclaim to the world that God is love! Live that love and spread it around, a true and genuine love that does not possess but a love that brings the whole world together. A love that reaches out, heals, frees, unites, enhances, enriches and rends every one whole. We hear a lot of voices today, that claim to be "christian" but speak of things other than love: they speak of condemnation, they speak of vengeance, they speak of violence, they speak of closing in, they speak of rejection of people, they speak of convenience rather than conviction, they speak of killing, they speak of establishing supremacies... are they truly Christian?

Proclaim, yes! But proclaim what? ...proclaim love, proclaim peace, proclaim wholeness - only that is Christ-like! When you proclaim that, you will have trouble. Because there are forces that stand for a heartless egoism, selfish development, inhuman exploitation and unbridled avarice! Now you will become the odd one out, when you speak of love and live for it. But still you will do it: because that is what you are called for - to live life Christ-like!

PRACTICE:

There is no great virtue in proclaiming alone! Today there are hundreds who are into it. Specially in those covid-stricken days, youtube channels and online sessions have proliferated. There are hundreds who are craving to proclaim, of course each with his or her own agenda! But which of these is truly Christ-like? To find that, one has to answer three questions -

First of all, to which band do I belong? Am I truly an apostle of love? Only I can answer the question regarding the deepest motivations of my soul. I may be ‘Christian’ by name, I may even appear to be so - but whether I am or not in reality, only I know, apart from the Lord who knows everything!

Secondly, if I proclaim the message of the Reign, the Gospel of love, does my style of life coincide with the proclamation. In simple words, do I walk the talk? Is there that moral integrity within me because of which I can command the evil forces with authority and they will go silenced before me! The authority that Jesus had before the demons and all other forces that challenged the wholeness of life, came from the fact that there was absolutely no discrepancy between what he proclaimed and what he practised. Can I command the same respect or authority?

Thirdly, if I identify myself with Christ and Christ's message, what do I do on a daily basis to justify my identity, stay relevant to my self-claim and be counted in that number? Will my lifestyle speak before my words ever leave my tongue? Will the values I stand for, make me stand before the Lord or cringe at His sight? Have I felt the burden of the Reign within my heart, an urgency that unsettles my heart, a passion that sets me afire?

PREPARE:

If I really take these questions seriously, and their responses, I will certainly be identified a Christian – but today that is not a great boon! The world despises what seems religious or spiritual. The world finds it offensive to hold on to your identity as a person of faith and a person of a spiritual lifestyle. There are the so-called ‘seculars’ who feel, it is infantile to speak of God or Church or practices of piety or virtues or ethics or values or standards of righteousness in life. There are those who think it is old fashioned to insist on heaven, hell, purgatory, last judgement, and the call to live a saintly life! What is my response? What would I say? Am I prepared?

May be today, the call that the Word gives us: to live life Christ-like, comes as a challenge. Are we living a life that is congruent to the message we are called to proclaim? Are we prepared to face the consequences of a choice of that kind – to live life Christ-like!

Moral Code or Spiritual Integrity?

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

February 5, 2021: Hebrews 13: 1-8; Mark 6:14-29

Is following a moral code enough to be a Christian? Moral codes are temporal and spatial- that is, what is wrong at one time may not be so at another time; what is right in a place may not be so elsewhere! Isn't it true? Killing a cow may be a disputed thing in India (though merely for a small group, not even the majority!), but elsewhere that is one of the major part of the regular diet! Once capital punishment was tolerated by the Church teaching as an extreme measure towards maintaining peace and justice, but today the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not even consider it a possible measure! These are natural and normal evolutions and diversities of reality. But there is a question that arises from here.

If all of us are formed from, and moving towards, the same Divine Being, then can our life style be so subjective? That is why Jesus always stood by Spiritual Integrity rather than a set of moral precepts. Integrity contains within it not only all dimensions of life, but even time, space, geography and history! It never changes, for it is associated to the One Eternal Being, who is the fullness of all that is good, God.

Jesus is same, yesterday, today and tomorrow! No time can change what Jesus stood for. The letter to the Hebrews presents to us a set of values which are not merely moral codes but are frameworks for spiritual integrity. Spiritual Integrity is knowing what is right to be done, being convinced of it and living by it, come what may. Even if we have to face extinction from this life, our stand shall not change. Just as John the Baptist who was ready to give up even his life. 

But how do we know what we are holding on to is right? That is where we need to be divinely informed, where we need the grace, the help of the Holy Spirit to hold on to eternally life-giving perspectives. May the Spirit always illumine us!

Face the fire!

THE WORD IN ADVENT 

December 12, 2020: 2nd Saturday in Advent

Sirach 48: 1-4, 9-11; Matthew 17: 9a, 10-13

Elijah arose like a fire, the Word says and John was the expected Elijah! Elijah was a mighty big challenge for the people of his times - the people revered, the kings trembled, and the other false prophets fell flat before him. This is why, the powerful people in the time of Jesus wondered why Elijah should come back, because for them Elijah meant trouble. Obviously, they could not, rather they did not want to see Elijah in the Baptist. And Jesus pointed it out on their face. 

For us today 'Elijah' would be those persons and situations that challenge us to greater commitment and total dedication. And 'John' would be those people who put us into a spiritual uneasiness by their witnessing life. At times we do not want to have anything to do with them. Worse still, we try to interpret their actions and attitudes to be too rude or pretentious,  thus writing them off from the public face. The worst, when we try to get rid of them, whatever it takes.

Look at the scenario today: the increasing compromises in Christian living and the senseless alienation of daily life from the Christian belief; duplicity of motivations in what we speak or do in the public domain; the underground discussions and partnerships that aim at toppling the righteous persons who burn with the fire of the Reign!

Let us keep the figures of Elijah and John in our minds for a practical and concrete dedication towards our call to be people of the Reign. Let us recognise willingly people with such fire within them! Even if we are not one of them, at least let us  learn to face them... let us learn to face the fire, with holy awe!

To find your depth...

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 11, 2020: 2nd Friday in Advent

Isaiah 48: 17-19; Matthew 11:16-19

If only you were... we use this expression very often when communicating our disappointment over someone. Today the Lord uses it in relation to the people of Israel...if only you had listened to me, and proved a little more faithful! There is a spark of an inspiration from the first reading today, speaking of faithfulness to God being like waves! In fact the Gospel too takes off from there. 

Waves ebb and flow, come and go, rise and fall, proceed and recede...but look at them at their origins - the deep sea. There they are calm like a sleeping giant. That is what faithfulness to God is all about. Though you may be involved in frenetic activity and never ending responsibilities, never lose that inner serenity where your being truly resides. 

Jesus gives a beautiful allegory - like children who play, we live our lives with numerous expectations on the other and disappointments within. We expect and get disappointed; or we get anxious to meet the expectations of the other or others, and feel stressed out. Jesus is simply suggesting to us: can you just stop and ask yourself, what are you up to? What are you toiling for? What are you stressing yourself out for? What are you really trying to prove and to whom? 

Jesus has this to tell us today: you have nothing to prove! You are what you are in the depth of your being. Discover that, realise that, and try to live that to the full. Do not get lost in the externals of show and appreciation or disappointments and critiques. You can do that only when you are able to find your depths. That is why the key to a truly 'happy' life, is finding your real depth and getting truly in touch with it.

Good people or God's people?

WORD 2day: Monday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 23, 2020: Revelation 14:1-5; Luke 21: 1-4

Are we called to be good people? Yes, but not just that. The Word today challenges us: it is not enough to be good people, but we are called to be God's people. Being good seems a bit of a relative opinion these days. We are good to some, and not so to some others! According to some, I am good and for some others, I am not good. I am good at times when I see an advantage in being so, but when it is not going to favour me in anyway, I give up on that guard. Being good seems so relative.

Just have a look at the posters with politicians doling out their "generous" gifts to the unfortunate lot, the numerous NGOs scripting out projects for the eradication of social evils for decades and decades together, the so-called social activists voicing the woes of the downtrodden. And these days, the scenario is worse... to see poses with masks and microphones...everything seems a show! People who do good and claim to do good, do it with various intentions and it is that which makes all the difference.

One thing it is to be known as people who do good and the other is to be people of God. Doing good has no end to it and is evaluated in its quantity, in the volume of the good we do. Being God's people is in one way simpler and in another way a lot more demanding. 

It is simpler because it does not matter what you do and how much you do but with how much of love you do whatever you do! You need not be giving away tonnes of things to others in charity or announcing everyday one scheme, which means nothing to none. What matters is you have true compassion for the other, in the depth of your heart.

More demanding because even a slight intention of selfishness or vain glory can negate the true effect of the good that is done. It is what is in your heart that makes your gift valid or not in the sight of the Lord - whether it is sacks of gold or a mere two pennies! You can hide what you have in your heart to everyone, but to God? 

To be marked as people of God is to belong to God and to put our whole self and all we have at the disposal of the One who gave it all to us. It is important to be people who do good, but more important it is to be people of God.

The God of the Living

WORD 2day: Saturday, 33rd week in Ordinary time 

November 21, 2020: Revelation 11: 4-12; Luke 20: 27-40

The God of the living - that is how Jesus presents his God and Father, and our God and Father. Resurrection is the foundation of our conviction that our life is not merely made of the few years that we spend on this earth. Our life is part of the Eternal Stream, that is God and we have but a few years here on earth. We come from, and we are meant for, a union that is eternal and all our efforts during this life has to be towards ensuring that union for ever. 

What would be the fallout if we had this truth right in front of our minds while we live? We would not unnecessarily fret to make ourselves comfortable at the cost of the other. We would not long to possess something or someone, leading to undue striving to control the other and manipulate situations. We would not harm others or harm the nature just because at present we would like to make more money or make life more easy. We would not calculate everything in terms of gain and profit and dividends and surplus.

These months have done this in a great sense - the uncontrollable dance of the disease, the threatening face of death, the gnawing claws of misery, the frightening stare of unemployment...how many forms of impermanence we have experienced... but have we changed in our attitudes? Time and again, something or the other - like a storm, or a flood, or an earthquake, or a fire - comes by to remind us of our vulnerability...but do we learn our lessons? How many times we get to stare into the eyes of death, may be our own dear ones, those known to us, famous personalities... seeing them make that last lap of journey in front of our eyes... does that in anyway change our mindsets?

Anyway, should we wait for such terrifying moments to repent and reset our values? Jesus offers us a wonderful criterion: the criterion of Resurrection. Live as Resurrection-people - it means the ability to see far ahead of this limited life we have! Live as people of the Eternity - it means living a life that will never end, will go on in its goodness and love. Live as people who really believe that your life does not end here and now... live as people who belong to the God of the living!

Sweet in the mouth; bitter in the stomach

WORD 2day: Friday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 20, 2020: Revelation 10: 8-11; Luke 19: 45-48

Jesus was attractive; people rallied after him so willingly and readily. He was interesting to listen to; so many pharisees and scribes hung on to his lips. He was famous; the mere name drew not just crowds but even prominent persons like Zachaeus, Nicodemus and others. He had charming ways; even Herod wanted to see him atleast once! All these were true only in as much as they all looked at Jesus from a distance. When Jesus got near...he turned demanding. 

The people came to him and he challenged them to live a life of destitution, with no place to even lay their heads. The people listened to him and he called them whitewashed sepulchers, inviting them to true personal conversion. Individuals approached him and he challenged them to total reformation of their personal and public lives. The people led him with such celebration into the city of Jerusalem and he enters the Temple and drives out the vendors and money lenders, challenging the social system that the people were so easily justifying and living with.

The Lord's promises are sweet, but when we take it to heart they are demanding. If we truly listen to the Word of God, we cannot remain the same forever, we would be challenged to change, to transform, to become more and more like the Lord himself. But that is not an easy process, though it has to form part of the life of every Christian. Hardly do we take it seriously... the reason - initially it looks attractive but as we get into it, it gets tougher and tougher.

The Word may be sweet in the mouth; but for sure it will be bitter in the stomach, churning the unwanted elements out and paving way towards the Reign. Are we truly prepared?

Called to Praise the Lord

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 18, 2020: Revelation 4: 1-11; Luke 19: 11-28

John impresses upon us how important and essential it is for us, as creatures of the Creator Almighty, to give praise to our Lord and King. Praising God - can never be done enough and it is always in want, in contrast to the boundless glory that the Lord possesses! The Word today distinguishes among three types of people who give praise to the Lord:

The first are the Psuedo Praisers: who praise the Lord with their tongues but are far away in spirit from the Lord. They are those who deceive themselves putting up a mere show of their allegiance to God, while in fact are all the while doing their own will. Wantonly, they make of themselves people unfit for the Reign.

The second are the Pointless Praisers: who think praising the Lord alone is enough to inherit the Reign. Their praising is pointless, in fact the Lord himself had declared: 'not all those who call me Lord Lord, will enter the Reign of God' (cf. Mt 7:21). They keep praising as a part time occupation, doing things diametrically opposed in the rest of their lives! Does it work so? At times due to spiritual laziness and other times due to undue attachments to the unhelpful attitudes, they hardly drag themselves towards the Reign. Ultimately, they fall short of entering the Reign. 

The third are the Profound Praisers: who do not consider praising the Lord as a duty in itself. Their very words, actions and life gives praise to the Lord. Their witness leads, not only themselves, but even those around them to praise the Lord to the heights. They live their life to the full, and seeing their lives, people are inspired to give praises to their King and Lord. They do have their share of weaknesses and faults, but they are quick to rise and get back in line with the Will of God. These are the People of the Reign, true and profound in their praise.

Obviously...apart from God, there is only one who can truly say to which of these categories I belong: Myself!

Letting Jesus enter our homes!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 33rd week in Ordinary time 

November 17, 2020: Revelation 3: 1-6, 14-22; Luke 19: 1-10

To welcome Jesus into our homes: that is the task given to us by the Word today. Obviously when Jesus comes its a blessing - 'today salvation has come into this house' (Lk 19:9). But it is more than that... it is a Challenge too: 'because you are neither cold nor hot, i will spit you' (cf. Rev 3:16). That is indeed a point to reflect on and think seriously about. 

Letting Jesus in, is fine...but once he comes, things cannot remain the same! You cannot remain both dead and alive at the same time; hot and cold at the same time; or belonging and not belonging to the Lord at the same time! You cannot have certain value systems in the heart and speak of different ones in public; you cannot have hidden motives and feign goodness in your actions and choices; you cannot be both this and that - you have to be either this or that!

The Word instructs me today: I have to make a choice and choices are all! 

Like Zachaeus who not only changed from his old ways but made up even for the mistakes, for his wrong doings and every thing that made others' lives less happy, we are constantly called to make some drastic choices. Choices for good, for what is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and for what is true. At a given moment, it may be difficult to do it, demanding to make such a choice and requiring a lot of effort and sacrifice. But I cannot imagine otherwise. I have to go through those struggles, take my time, but the Choice, I have to make. That choice will truly determine, who I am and on which side I am. That choice alone can truly say, whether I am ready to let Jesus enter my home, my heart or not!

The choice is ours - to keep to our old ways or to let Jesus enter our homes. The home that he enters, the hearts where he resides...will be marked by the choices, or the Choice 'to be blameless and holy before him' (Eph 1:4).