To understand the Word and the Power of God

WORD 2day: Wednesday. 9th week in Ordinary time

June 2, 2021: Tobit 3: 1-11,16-17; Mark 12:18-27

Is this not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? - Jesus chides the Sadducees. Why was Jesus upset with the question that the Sadducees posed with regard to the woman who had married seven brothers one after the other. Jesus saw through and identified the irony and sarcasm that was at play in that question - that was what irritated Jesus. Not the doubt but the arrogance that the Sadduccees sported, that was what made Jesus give them a piece of his mind. 

Tobit feels that it would be better to die than to live on with his blindness; Sarah prays that she would die rather than hear the treacherous things told of her. But to let them die was not God's plan. The Lord of the living wanted them to live; the Lord of the living wants all of us to live; the Lord of the living has given us the Only Son of God, 'that we may have life, life in all its abundance.'

The invitation is therefore to understand the Word and the Power of God, which reside with us all the time. The Word is the very communication of God to us and the Power of God is the manifestation of this ever present God with us. Our Prayer has to help us come to grips with the Word and its Power. 

Let us begin to develop two spiritual habits, inspired by the Word today: one, let us learn and practice to pray with the Word, with the Word of God, not merely with empty words; secondly, let us realise the Power of God that resides within us - that come what may, we will remain unmoved and strong, holding on to God and God's love for us. That is where our life lies, the fullness of our lives. The Word and the Power of God, give meaning to our daily life here and now!  

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! 

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!

ON OUR WAY TO ETERNAL LIFE

Embracing suffering and death, towards life

March 21, 2021: 5th Sunday in Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrew 5: 7-9; John 12: 20-23

The talk of the pandemic has filled the air all around us for more than a year now! The talks of cases and deaths, lockdowns and curfews, have only graduated to the next level adding to itself newer terms such as variants and vaccines; there doesnt seem to appear a definitive solution! In such a context, it is highly probable that a person or we as a society, give up hope! There are other equally unfortunate possibilities too - that we drink in the consipiracy theories and spread their negative vibes far and wide, or we grow terrified with the developments and close in, giving rise to depression and delusion! Yet again this year, the Paschal celebrations run the risk of being hampered by the restrictive measures of the governmental organisations... are we in an eschatological era? In this light, the Word this Sunday seems to drive home a very strong and difficult lesson to our Christian hearts and communities. 

First lesson is to learn to embrace suffering.

It is easy, practical, human and highly justified to entreat the Lord with saying - take these sufferings away from us! Jesus poses that pointed question: is that what we need to do? Is it not to suffer that the Son of Man came on earth - a suffering that he embraced in loving obedience to the Lord, says the second reading. The mind of Christ consists in seeing beyond the suffering, the pain and the misery, and noticing the hand of God accompanying us and guiding us. In suffering and pain, we begin to understand the real implication of the concrete choices we make in our daily lives. For instant joys and passing pleasures we choose whatever does not give us a problem or a difficulty or a suffering. Avoidance of suffering has come to be considered almost an absolute goal in life! But is it so? Jesus says, no!

It is in the 'obedience through suffering' that Jesus brought his identity and mission to their fulfilment! He invites us, rather challenges us to the same obedience through suffering. To embrace sufferings of the daily life, and the hardships of a Christian life, is  an essential faith lesson that we have to learn as early as possible in life. The more we learn this lesson, the more livable our life becomes! If not, our life remains marred by questions, complaints and murmurings. As true disciples of the Suffering Servant of God we are called to embrace suffering, on our way!

Second lesson is to dare to embrace death.

Death rather than sin - that is what we are given to remember when we reflect on the people of whom the Lord refers to, in the words of Jeremiah. That motto of the teenage saint, Dominc Savio, reflects the covenantal life style that we are called to live. I treasure the covenant that I have made with my Lord to the extent that I prefer to embrace death, but not break the covenant that unites me to my Lord - is that our attitude? That is true Christian attitude, the real mind of Christ. "The people broke the covenant," complains the Lord, through Jeremiah, reminding us of our mindlessness and at times, even wickedness. But that Lord wishes to forgive our iniquities, remove the trace of our wrong doings, forget our unfaithfulnesses... provided we are ready to change our ways, and die to our sinful tendencies and ungodly priorities. 

Unless the seed dies, it cannot give life...unless we choose to die to our selfishness and sinfulness, we shall never rise to eternal life. That is the journey that we have undertaken, from the time we were entrusted with the light at our baptism and beckoned to bring that light through to that encounter with the Lord; from the time that we were adorned with the garments of salvation at our baptism and required to bring it unsullied to the wedding feast of the Lamb. The effort to keep that light burning, to maintain that garment unsullied, is embracing death, on a daily basis - dying to our craving for pleasure, dying to our tendencies of selfishness, dying to our sense of stubborness! 

The third lesson is to focus on the glory of eternal life. 

The season of Lent is a time of refocusing, a time when we learn to perspectivise our life and get the right outlook to continue our journey. We are on our way to eternal life - a life in the Lord, a life of glory and light, a life that is endless and limitless. Our souls may be troubled at times. Our spirits may grow weak repeatedly. Our hearts may cry out in anguish and pain. Our light may go faint losing focus. But what need we do to: just as those people ask in the Gospel today, we need to say, "we wish to see Jesus"... we wish to focus on Jesus, the source of eternal salvation, the glory of eternal life that is given to us by God our Father and Mother, as the lamb of the eternal covenant, as the seal of the everlasting covenant, as the promise of eternal life!

We are on our way to Eternal life and on this way we have to embrace suffering and death, just as Jesus did, in order that we keep ourselves alive in the Spirit. When we do so, the Lord who is lifted up from the earth, shall draw us to himself, to eternal life! 

True Christian Love: choose life and lose life

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday after Ash Wednesday

February 18, 2021: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20; Luke 9: 22-25

The Word today sets one thinking, even a bit confusing. The first reading tells us to choose life and the Gospel challenges us to lose life! Do we choose or do we lose it? 

The confusion will be cleared and we will understand that both these injunctions - to choose life and to lose life - are one and the same, if we look at them from the point of view of love, the true Christian love!

True Christian love is about choosing and losing life at one and the same time: choosing life which is God and ready to lose our life for God, and for others in the name of God. The two pronged love that Christ stood for, advocated, lived and died for, is what is spoken of in the Word today. 

Choosing God is choosing life; not to choose God is choosing death! Losing life is being ready to give up one's life for having deliberately chosen God. Choosing life is to choose to love God; losing life is to choose to love God so much that one is ready even to lay one's life down for God and for God's purposes.

Choosing life is to choose the author of life, instead of the spices of life. Those which add taste and colour to life are good but not essential to live. We would be highly mistaken if we give them the priority place in our life. Life is all about choices and choices are made at every instance in life... every word that I choose to say, every thought I entertain, every deed that I choose to do should manifest a will and a commitment to promote life, and life to the full for everyone!

Love teaches us to choose God as a way to choose life; it prepares me to lose my life for the sake of those whom God has entrusted me with, specially the most needy and the most suffering. Love makes my life precious and it is the same love that makes me capable of giving up that life! These are inevitable lessons from the Christ-ian school of love! 

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!

TO BE PEOPLE OF LIGHT

January 3, 2021: Solemnity of Epiphany

Isaiah 60: 1-6; Ephesians 2: 2-7 a, 5-6; Matthew 2: 1-12

The Light came to the earth; the Lord came unto His own but His own received him not! We are people of the Light and that is the feast we celebrate today! The feast which reminds us that we are the people of the Revelation. God has revealed Godself to us and awaits our response.

I remember an experience that I had a few years back. Two of us were sent to pick up a priest from the railway station. This is no strange experience! How many times we would have received people in the airports and railway stations! But the twitch here was. ..we did not know the person we are going to pick up. All that we know was that we are going to pick up a middle aged priest from another State, who was coming to Chennai. We positioned ourselves in a prominent spot and awaited the guest as the crowd started spilling into the platform from the train. Crowds and crowds of people were passing by but we did not spot our guest. Many who were standing alongside with us waiting for their guests were gone. There was one standing beside me for quite sometime. A man with a dhoti and a white shirt with a long grey beard! He didn't even seem to be looking out for someone. The best surprise was when he asked us. ..'so are you waiting for a priest from this particular State? , 'yes'! And when he said. .."I am the one", we didn't know really how to react!

At times, the Lord reveals Godself but we have certain preconceived ideas that don't allow us to see the Lord. Today we are invited to be people of the light., that is people who live in light always, people who are ready and prepared to receive the revelations that God wishes to give us.

The Lord reveals himself to us constantly. ..first of all through extraordinary means: let's pray that God gives that gift to many of us! But there is another way God reveals, the ordinary means: through prayer experiences, spiritual direction, liturgical celebrations, etc. Let's take care when we celebrate these moments in life so that we don't miss the revelations involved.

There is the third way which is more subtle and more challenging: the Daily means. The fact is that the Lord constantly reveals himself through every day experiences...through people we encounter, through challenging situations we face, through successful experiments we have, through people who come to us in need, through persons who demand our responsibility and so on. Let's open our eyes, our ears, our hearts. ..that we may receive the Light that encounters us daily in our life.

To never grow tired!

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 09, 2020: Second Wednesday in Advent

Isaiah 40: 25-31; Matthew 11: 28-30

To run and not to grow weary, to walk and never to tire... that is the call that the Word has today. That is clearly a sign of God's people. Think of a person like Mother Teresa, she fought all her life against everything that drains humanity of its dignity, did she succeed? Or a person like Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in the prison to stand for equality and political freedom, did he totally succeed? Succeed... that does not matter. They never grew tired - that was the sign of their greatness, their godliness! Nothing could break them. They were putting out their wings like the eagle, every time the oppressive powers tended to curtail them.

It is like the techniques that are taught to the sprinters... having just a hundred or two hundred meters at their disposition, to prove themselves, they cannot afford to look back, compare with the other or console oneself in comparison with the other! Till the very last moment the person has to keep the pace up, because even in the last moment, one can be easily overtaken! 

Yes, we have this course to run, called life. But we cannot become tired of it, we cannot complain about it. There are difficult moments and tiresome experiences. But there are also precious treasures that the Lord has in store for us - wonderful experiences, inspiring people, captivating values, sanctifying virtues, everything is there. We cannot grow tired. 

The Lord assures his sons and daughters that God will be with us strengthening us in this life and all its  trials...you will run but will not grow tired, you will walk but will not grow faint...if and only if you have God with you! The Lord expresses God's wish to comfort us and assist us, it is upto us to receive this grace and accept his accompaniment. 

We are God's people, only in as much as we develop our capacity to never grow tired!

Between death and life, there is living!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 30th week in Ordinary time

October 31, 2020: Philippians 1: 18-26; Luke 14:1,7-11

Paul speaks to us of a popular dilemma that all of us are caught between - the dilemma between death and life! At certain points in our life, this dilemma is strong, at other points it is mild, but it never ceases to exist, given the nature of the certainty of death and the uncertainty of its time or mode! These days with the global health crisis and the frequent news about sickness and death, brings this dilemma more to the limelight.

Which is better... to die or to live? Truly life is a gift! We have it and we treasure it. But there are times when troubles come, unnecessary concerns cloud our days and necessary burdens weigh us down. There are moments, invariably in every person's life, when he or she, at least for a fraction of a second thinks, of what use it is to live! At the same time there is an insatiable anxiety within us to live, to live on and to live forever.

God has given us a gift of death too! Though many do not look at it that way, that is, death as a gift, it is in fact true. Imagine, there were nothing called 'death'? How many problems and how many queries to fend for! Death, in the Christian parlance (in another day. we shall be beginning with the month dedicated to faithful departed), is the gate through which one has to pass to encounter the Lord, for that ultimate face off. Can there be any other reason more exciting and inviting than that? 

We know all this,  that life is a gift and death is equally a gift, but we find it hard to accept it- be it for our own sake or for others. Paul clarifies that dilemma to us today: his statement simply is, that it is a wrong question to ask which is better, life or death - because it is neither death nor life, instead, what comes between the two: living! How we live our life - that is truly what matters. 

There are three clues to living that life: one, from the hands of God: living our life from the hands of God, realising the gift that it is, and striving to realise all the time its true purpose - be it immediate purpose or ultimate purpose; two, living with our eyes fixed on God: that God may call us back anytime and God alone is the author of life and God alone can instruct us about what is best for us at any given moment; three, living for the glory of God: that God be glorified in everything I am and I do!

Between death and life, there is our call to live, our commitment to live to the full, and our opportunity to live for the glory of God. When we do that, we would be able to say with Paul: for me to live is Christ, to die is gain!

Holding on to the Lord

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 10, 2020: 1 Kings 18: 20-39; Matthew 5: 17-19

Faith is holding on, it is holding on to the Lord against all odds. Hence perseverance is the capacity to hold on for a longer time, longer than your normal patience can really hold. Amidst crises of various kinds, and specially amidst some injustice that you experience for no cause of your's, the capacity to hold on, is tested more intensely.

Today we witness some spectacular events in Elijah's lifetime. This could both be a positive lesson and a negative one at that. Positive, when we think of the greatness that God reveals right in front of the eyes of everyone. Negative, when we think of the fact that people who look for these kinds of sensational happenings to prove God, or find reasons and justifications amidst sufferings like saying 'God is angry' and 'God is displeased' and all the human absurdities attributed to God! 

However, there is one formidable message that we can derive from Elijah's experience: one person's faith could save and revive the faith of an entire people... when we hold on to God, we hold our fellow persons up. So it is with us, even in our families for instance. When a person sees many in the family or all else in the family going away from God, the person's faith could prove instrumental in bring the rest of them back to God! How many today, stand testimonies to this phenomenon!

Holding on to God is not an easy thing anyway. Just because it is challenging the Lord does not go easy on that demand... he is unwaveringly stern on that call - to remain firm! It is of course, not merely calling out, 'Lord! Lord!", which means to hold on to God. But it is to keep the Word of the Lord, to live by the commands of the Lord, come what may. When we do that we hold on; if not, we fall. 

How prepared am I to hold on to the Lord?

BEING THE SHEPHERD'S FLOCK

The call to Follow, Obey and Respond

4th Sunday of Easter: May 3, 2020

Acts 2: 14a, 36-41; 1 Pet 2: 20b-25; Jn 10:1-10

The Post Resurrection scene is particularly important for us to reflect upon, because it provides us with an incomparable clarity of our identity as a believing community! Especially with a situation as that of today, with uncertainty all over with the health emergency we are faced with, we are all looking for a way out of this, a ray of hope that could emerge, a light at the end of the tunnel that would broaden and get closer! 

Precisely against this background, on this Shepherd's Sunday, the Lord invites us to realise and understand our special and challenging vocation to be the flock of the Divine Shepherd. The second reading reminds us, "you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." Have we?

The Shepherd Leads...we follow: Be patient in doing good and especially when you suffer for doing good, and that is the way to follow your shepherd, says St. Peter. At times when there is a particular crisis, all the goodness that you have manifested till now, all the generous disposition that you had sported until this moment, could be forgotten and everyone around you might turn against you, might become critical of you and denounce you before your face! What do you do? St. Paul would say, writing to the Thessalonians, "do not be weary of doing what is right" (2 Thes 3:13). 

The Lord leads us by example. Doing good was his nature, no one could stop him from doing it. His own did not accept him, they did not understand him, they labelled him 'out of his mind', the disciples deserted him, many hated him and the authorities sought to kill him! But he held on to his mission of doing good! He knew doing the will of the One who sent him was an absolute mission and he went about it without fear, discouragement or doubt, in spite of the threats and trials. Not only that he did not stop doing what he was doing, he did not even consider it absolutely necessary to stand there and prove to everyone that he was doing good, that he was right and that he was justified! That was infantile and immature, according to him - let him who has ears listen and let him who has eyes see! The Shepherd leads and we as his followers, are called to follow the same path. 

The Shepherd Directs...we obey: There are moments and circumstances when we go astray or give into delusions. It could be due to deliberate choices or deviant desires or discouraging experiences...but the fact is we go astray, linger off bounds, leave the flock for a while, check out other pastures, be deceived by mirages, feel a bit lost. The Shepherd's voice bellows behind us... as St. Peter speaks up and calls the attention of the people, in the first reading today. To be the Shepherd's flock means to heed to that voice of direction. As the Lord promises through Isaiah: and when you turn to the right or when you turn to your left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "this is the way; walk in it" (Isa 30:21). 

The Word comes to us; directions come to us constantly; it is the capacity of the Shepherd's flock to hear, to listen, to understand and to put it into practice. Those who listened to the apostle were "cut to their heart", the reading says. They took it to the heart and obeyed it to the full. They were more than ready to change their course, redirect their lives and walk behind the shepherd. There are those who listen and allow the Word to go right through their beings causing a transformation; there are those who listen and understand but feel weak to allow the transformation happen within them; and there are those resistant lot who do not allow the Word to even enter their hearts, giving reasons and excuses, justifications and compromises, in order to prove themselves right to the world around, caring the least about that subtle inner voice that cries out to them to heed to the Lord. Which category do we belong to - the resistant ones, the rationalising ones or the ready ones?

The Shepherd Calls...we respond: I came that you may have life and have it in abundance, declares the Lord in the Gospel! We are called to live our lives to the full, and that is the sign of the Shepherd's flock. Amidst fear and anxiety, amidst loneliness and strife, amidst darkness and dreariness, amidst confusion and calamities, amidst struggles and strains, we are called to live to the full, live the moment, live grateful, live mindful of the blessings and make the most of all the goodness that we have received from the Lord. 

The Lord offers us life and life in all its fullness, we are called to respond to this offer by accepting it  and living it. Living to the full means living in faith and not in fear; living in love and not in selfishness; living in hope and not in darkness; living in service not in show-offs; living in compassion not in indifference; living in goodwill not in suspicion; living in joy not in gloom; living in fellowship not in seclusion. Let us embrace the whole suffering world with our arms of true love and compassion, however short and small they may be, because we have a Shepherd who is mighty big, bigger than the entire universe. 

As people of the Shepherd's flock, our lives have to be a witness to life in abundance. The world has to learn from us, and not laugh at us. We cannot conform to the world but the world has to be challenged by our lives! Let us pay heed to the Word today and follow, obey and respond to our Shepherd. Let us also pray for shepherds to be raised among us, shepherds after the heart of the Divine Shepherd. 

Conformity or Conflict? Conviction or Convenience?

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

April 22, 2020: Acts 5:17-26; John 3:16-21

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light; whoever lives the truth comes to the light! Light is given as an imagery of openness, transparency, outspokenness, integrity, conviction and courage. Darkness is hiding, double play, people pleasing, hypocrisy, convenience and comfort seeking.

The world contains four categories of people in relation to right things. 

The first category are those who do the right - they are people of Light, courageous and convinced. The second category are those who assist those who do the right - they are people for the the Light, convinced and seeking the truth! 

The third type are those who hinder anyone doing the right, these are people tending towards darkness and they stand for spreading that darkness. There is the fourth category, and the worst - they are those who are involved in doing the evil directly and acting against any light! We find all the four categories referred to in the readings today. 

The primary call we have today is to analyse our choices, our preferences and our priorities and see for ourselves, sincerely, to which of these four categories we would belong. Secondly, there is a lesson for us today, that while we strive to be people of the light and do the right, we can come across persons of all the four categories. What would our reaction be? What would guide our response in situations such as these... 

Conformity? or Conflict? or Conviction? or Convenience? 

LOVE CELEBRATES LIFE

Palm Sunday 2020 - April 5

Love, Live and live to the full 

Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66

Jesus enters Jerusalem. Jesus knows well what awaits him there... he had told his disciples that the Son of Man would be handed over to be tried and tortured; he had seen people plotting against him and waiting for a moment to lay hands on him; he had heard the whispers against him that it is better that one man dies for the whole of Israel. In spite of all these, Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem, he enters Jerusalem.

We are traversing an odd moment in history, not just odd, but hard too! The other day a Governor in the United States of America, speaking to the press said, 'many pose a question, when will be back to normal? Let me tell you, after these experiences, we can never be back to normal; we would only be back to a 'new normal'.' That is more or less the intensity of the experience we are living through these days. And the season of lent this year has been for a great extent intensely tinted with this sadness and anxiety. Not merely amidst the usual lenten sobriety, but amidst this unusual calamitous scene all around us, this Sunday we are invited to a festivity; to a joyous reception of the Lord into our dwellings! Exactly so did Jesus find, the joy of those people as he entered Jerusalem. His face was fixed on a Jerusalem that was waiting with condemnation and the Calvary that was holding out the Cross to him! But still, Jesus joins the rejoicing people in their celebration, notwithstanding the anxiety that clung to his soul. When someone suggested that he stop the people from all the frenzy, he disagreed with them and allowed the jubilation and joined them in it. True Love celebrates Life, come what may!

Jesus' solemn entry into Jerusalem, is not merely a road show; it is much more. Like the disciples who had the transfiguration experience to sustain themselves, the common believers are given this solemn reception as something that they can fall back on when things would look to be going wrong. He wants them to understand the celebration and the following confusions, the jubilation and the following tragedies, the triumphant entry and the shameful exit...all of these as part of a grand plan, the salvific plan. How is it possible?

It becomes possible for when realise that life is from God's hands and when we learn to live life from God's hands. That is what the world as a whole has lost, forgotten for a while. The world and humanity has taken every thing into their own hands - life and death, nature and space, living and non living creatures... everything has been usurped into the selfish hands of the world and the materialistic humanity! And here is the call to surrender every thing, every little thing that happens - joy or sorrow, challenge or victory, opportunity or obstacle... surrender every thing into the hands of God and find its meaning from there. This is living life from God's hands! When we do this there will be no dearth for celebration in life, come what may.

Jesus was constantly motivated by the Mission that was entrusted to him by the One who sent him. It was this mission that defined his thoughts, words and actions. When there was a temptation of resting on the glory of the wonders that were happening, or the pressure from the people to make him their king, or the tendency towards attachment to a particular place or people, Jesus had his mind clear. He always said, we have to go to other villages and proclaim the good news! Getting lost in the glories of victories or getting absorbed into the failures of human frailty - neither of this happens with a true apostle of the Lord! How does this happen?

It happens when we know what it means to live life for God's Mission - that was all that mattered to Jesus. That is why a call from Herod for signs or a plea from Pilate for a submission or the threats from the high priests - all of them fell on a deaf ear. He could call Herod a 'fox' and he could snub Pilate saying he was after all a puppet in the hands of the people and in God's hands.  Jesus' mind was focused on just one thing: living life for God's Mission. Nothing that seemed a threat could deter him on his mission!

The self definition of Jesus in relation to his mission was so categorical: I came that you may have life, life in all its fullness. The true glory of God is a human being fully alive, and Jesus is the prototype of this. Difficulties, rejections, let downs, oppositions, criticisms and condemnations, nothing really mattered for Jesus. The only concern that was uppermost in his mind was his call to live his life to the full - nobody, nothing, no situation could stop him from that. He was not moved by praises, nor bogged down by criticism, neither was he overwhelmed by a need to prove himself to the world. How could he be so calm and serene?

It was so because Jesus was convinced that living life to the full consisted of all these experiences put together. Amidst the challenges, anxieties and sufferings, what matters is hope, trust, and courage in the Lord with which to leap into the future, filled with joy, splendour and peace that God alone can give. Behold, I come to do your will, says the Son and challenges us to do the same: to live our life to the full. Not to give up at the first of problems; not to give in to the least of the tests; but to remain faithful to the will of God, and obey with the same humility as the Son of God who emptied himself to the point of accepting death on the Cross. 

Let us look at the picture that the readings paint today...the man who foresees a terrible time amidst the people gathered around in extraordinary jubilation; the calmness of Jesus and the excitement of the people. This is living the moment to the full, living every thing that comes our way with intensity, this is celebrating life come what may! Jesus was capable of this, because he loved his Father and he was so convinced that God loved him absolutely! That is the secret - amidst all our uncertainties and anxieties, we need to ask ourselves: do we love God with all our heart; and how confident are we on the love that God has for us?

The sign that we truly love the Lord and are absolutely certain of the love of the Lord, would be that we live our life from God's hands, live our life for God's mission and live our life to the full, after the example of our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes!

PREPARE FOR A TRANSFORMATION - THE DIALOGUE OF THE PEOPLE OF LIFE

THE WORD IN LENT - 5th Sunday

The Call to be People of Life
March 29, 2020: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

The signs of life are newness, change, growth, freshness, development, and all of them put together, Transformation. We are called to be People of Life, people who are prepared for a transformation, through sufferings and struggles. This message comes out very strongly in the current context - with the world wide lock down and the so called Social Quarantine! Even apart from this, being people of life is not that easy today, because we live surrounded by a culture of Death. 

Death is signified by a state of stand still, a state of no change, a state of decay, a state of giving up, a state of discouragement - if we are going to look at this situation as an isolation, as a punishment, as a terrifying threat to self preservation, we are giving right into that culture of death. The world today is filled with these signs - there seems to be a panic, a self-centered survival instinct unleashed everywhere, a objectifying look that makes everyone other than me a virus out to attack me! Are these signs of a people of life? Can a Christ-ian take this stand towards life?

The Word today invite us to enter into a dialogue proper to the People of Life... because we are children of the God of Life. There is constantly the conflict between the forces of Life and those of death, right before our eyes, in our very own lives, in daily situations and the choices we have to make concretely. If we are people of life, we shall enter into a dialogue of life, being prepared for a transformation. When the Lord promises new life, it does not come out of nothing, not without the process that we have to put ourselves through, not without the struggle, the effort, the self-giving that we need to be prepared for. It is a kind of Spiritual Alchemy that gives rise to a real transformation within. The Lent, and this time of pandemic crisis, is a moment to prepare ourselves for a Transformation.

IN FAITH: God gives us life and constantly renews us. Life is not our making, it is a gift! The more we realise that the more grateful we shall become and the more responsible we would grow in handling it. The first reading, invites us to reflect through Prophet Ezekiel, the gift of Life that is given to us by the very author of life, that is God. I shall give you my Spirit and you shall live, says the Lord. 

In faith we have a relationship built between God and us: You shall be my people and I shall be your God...that is the alliance that God has made with us, and is faithful to. You shall be my children and I shall be your father and mother; You shall be my flock and I shall be your shepherd; You shall be my beloved and I shall fill you with my love..says the Lord. Today the Lord promises us amidst all the darkness of the world and the shadow of death, to fill us with God's Spirit and make us live. As those dry bones, gathered together and stood up to life, so can we rise up in this world as people of life, IN FAITH.

IN HOPE: We are constantly challenged and threatened by the darkness that surrounds us, as the darkness that surrounded Lazarus in the tomb. Just as we are crying out to the Lord, "Lord its been four months the world is grinding through this epidemic crisis," we see the people there telling Jesus, "Lord it's been four days since he has been laid there." Four days...the Jews believed that from the fourth day after death, the process of decay began. The decayed body comes to life, the situation of total hopelessness is brought to life by the Hope of Resurrection.

In hope we need to behold what Jesus declares: I am the Life and Resurrection. In Baptism we are all united to the death of Christ on the Cross, and that gives us the hope of sharing the Resurrection of the Lord. We are called to live as People of life, people who look to the light, people who look up to resurrection, people who are filled with joy and optimism, people who are prepared to be Transformed IN HOPE.

IN LOVE: If we are people of life, it has to be seen in our daily life, in our constant transformation... we cannot live a life that is like anybody else and call ourselves people of life. We cannot grumble and mourn like everyone and call ourselves people of life. We cannot give up and groan like the rest of the world and call ourselves people of life. We cannot panic and get frustrated looking at the suffering, and call ourselves people of life. We cannot look at people as viruses and call ourselves people of life. We cannot become insensitive to the most affected, just because we are also affected, and still call ourselves people of life. We cannot just succumb to sinfulness and evil and still call ourselves people of life. 

In love, when we decide to live our lives, as St. Paul makes it clear in the second reading today...we are to live our life in the Spirit, not the life of flesh. Life in the Spirit is filled with light, radiance, joy and above all, Love. The Spirit of the Risen Lord has to fill our life and thus we will be light to the nations, witness of God's love to the people around, testimonies of the Resurrection that is promised to us and signs of the eternal life that we are called to. The foundation is love...to live a life that is filled with love, love for God who loves us abundantly and love for our brothers and sisters, with respect, dignity, sensitivity and solidarity with every child of God. We will stand for, radiate and uphold life as people of life, IN LOVE.

Let us heed the call that the Word gives us today: to be prepared to be transformed into people of life, in faith, in hope and in love. Turning to the God of life in Faith, returning to the Life and Resurrection that is Jesus Christ in Hope and transforming ourselves to live these moments of trial in the Spirit, in true Love. Let these moments, not be moments of mere isolation or alienation; let these be moments of true internal and communitarian transformation.  

By the streams of living water

THE WORD IN LENT - 4th week, Tuesday

March 24, 2020: Ezekiel 47:1-9,12; John 5: 1-3,5-16

Point for Dialogue #22: Life threatening situations and the Life giving waters!

The Springs of living waters, that fill us with life, health and joy are pictured today in the readings. With terms all around us such as affected, infected, quarantined, critical care, epidemic, pandemic and so on, which announce death and the fear of death, the Word speaks to us about new life, healing and the life giving streams! 

The life giving waters keep flowing on, it depends on us to approach it and drink from it. Jesus invites us, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me; and let the one who believes in me, drink!" (Jn 7:37-38). It becomes crucial that we engage ourselves in the dialogue between the waters that the world offers - that of fear, anxiety and selfish concerns, and the waters that the Lord offers - that of new life, happiness and true joy.

We are planted by the stream that flows, that is, we are enlivened by the presence of the Lord who surrounds us each and every moment. True spirituality has to arise from there - based on the personal presence of God with us every moment of our life. Special places like the Church or the Sanctuaries and special moments like those of Eucharist and others, should be the springs from where the waters flow on into daily life, affecting our daily life, our every day thoughts, words and deeds! Even if these are placed in crisis, as it is happening right now, our communion with God and each other should be able to sustain itself. 

If that connection is lost or that flow is blocked, then we become lifeless vegetation that remains fruitless. Let us return to the Springs of living waters and make our daily life flourish, for the greater glory of God! Let us choose always to be by the streams of living water!

LIGHTED TO BE TESTIMONIES - THE DIALOGUE OF PROCLAMATION

THE WORD IN LENT - 4th Sunday

The Requirements of our Call to Proclaim 

March 22, 2020: 1 Samuel 16: 1,6-7, 10-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9: 1-41

"We are children of the Light", the readings remind us today and invite us to live in the light! To awake from the slumber of the darkness, to avoid the works of the people of darkness and to acknowledge that we have been anointed to announce the good news to the world - that is the call to be children of the light. It is a dialogue of Proclamation, the dialogue of recognising the Light within me and sharing it with the world! 

These are also the requirements, the demands, the prerequisites to be truly children of the light. We need to be convinced that we have the light within us, the Light of the world is with us and within us. We are lighted to shine, we are lighted to shine as testimonies to that Light which longs to lead everyone to fullness of life. We need to announce the the world, to every one around that they are called to that fullness of light; that they are called to that splendour that God has placed within us, as children of God. 

We are called to SEE. Blindness is not merely of the physical eye... blindness of the heart to perceive the something that is so apparent is the worst of all blindness. Physical blindness is a handicap, but Spiritual blindness sometimes is a choice, a choice against something obvious! Not to see the goodness of the other, not to see the good the other has done to you, not to see the great things that God has done for us, these are the blindnesses out of which the Lord calls us today. 

The darkness within us can surround us so much that we may find so comfortable and cosy within it, not knowing that it is actually eating into us...making us more and more empty. That was the problem of the pharisees and the scribes: they were so cosy in their own world but Jesus disturbed them! He called them to light, he called them to awake. The Word today, calls us to AWAKE and see the Light, shining on us!

We are called to SEE LIKE GOD. As children of God we are called to see like God. The first reading presents to us an incident where the Lord gives us a practical lesson for our life. David, the least of all in the family of Jesse was chosen against all odds to be the ruler of Israel. There are other such occasions too that we find in the Bible: Joseph the sold slave, Gideon the weakling, Esther the orphan girl and so on. The message is clear: to see like God. As the Lord clarifies it (1 Sam 16:7), the Lord sees the heart and not the external appearances; the Lord sees the internal disposition and not the eternal display; the Lord sees the interior openness and not a stubborn self righteousness. 

To see like God would mean to AVOID the works of the people of darkness, who try to close their eyes to any good that someone can do because of a prejudice they have at heart; who look for any lame excuse to judge and vilify others merely because they do not like the other; who look at others as threats and wait to see their ruin.It is a real challenge in the world today, to stay clear of the works of darkness, the thoughts of darkness, the prejudices of darkness, the discriminations of darkness - all in the name of traditions, customs and age old practices. Beware! Avoid the works of darkness and put on the armour of Light!

We are called to MAKE OTHERS SEE GOD. We are anointed people of God, chosen children of God. Peter reminds us in his letter, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet 1:9). The man in the Gospel was given his sight, as he was 'sent to Siloam'..he was sent, as we are sent! We are sent... with the light... that we may carry that light to all... that light which becomes the judgement of the world. As long as we do not realise it, we are not culpable; but the moment we realise it, we are liable to judgement, we are burdened with this call, we are loaded with a great responsibility on our shoulders as people of God: to be testimonies!

By our baptism we have been ANOINTED and by the sacrament of confirmation we are confirmed in the anointing, and we are sent - that we are to announce to the world the good news of the love of God. That we may see and see like God, we are given the Light of the Lord. The Light shines within us with such splendour that it radiates to the world around us! We are commissioned to be testimonies of the Light, the Light that shines within us, the Light shines in the world. 

If we can say like that blind man in the Gospel - "One thing I know, I was blind and now I can see!" - we are testimonies to the Light that shines within us, the Light that can give meaning to the world. When we really see and see like God, the works of God will be made visible through us and that is what we are called to. Let us thank God for having given us God's light and let us be lighted to be testimonies of the the Light to the world.

LEARN FROM TRANSFIGURATION - THE DIALOGUE OF DAILY LIVING

THE WORD IN LENT: 2nd Sunday

Transfiguration and the lessons for daily living

March 8, 2020: Genesis 12:1-4; 2 Timothy 1: 8-10; Matthew 17: 1-9

We are invited to meditate on one of the marvelous incidents in the life of Jesus and his disciples - the Transfiguration. Peter, James and John were the three privileged ones to be there at this spectacle. But was it only a spectacle...what purpose does it serve within the whole picture of Christ's life and mission? That would be an interesting question to ask, as  it comes very close to the end of Jesus' public mission. More interesting fact is that the Church invites us to this reflection during the season of lent...a season when we are intensely thinking of the sufferings of the Lord. 

For Jesus, the suffering did not start merely at the moment of the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane! It was there right through...there were moments when the people rejected him, wanted to throw him off from the cliff, despised him saying they knew him too well, endlessly asked for signs and wonders as if he were some street charlatan, and failed miserably to understand him! Jesus would have been anxious too, about how his ministry was really going on! Jesus felt the special call from the One who sent him, to stand up and to voice the call of the Lord to the people! And when he set off to understand that call and realise it in his life... he was faced with a myriad of problems. Might be that Jesus himself needed that wonderful assurance from God as a preparation for what lay in store for the coming days - the passion and death that awaited him. Secondly, it could have served as a trailer, a sneak peek for the disciples, who were in for a great trial within a few days. And the Church wants us to learn exactly these for our own life of faith too. What are those lessons?

The Glory of the Lord is always present within us. All that Jesus had to do was to merely go by himself up the mount. The Glory of the Lord is ever present within us and all that we need to do is to make time to be by ourselves. Amidst the din of daily life and trying responsibilities, we may not manage to really be by ourselves. Even our prayer moments could be so filled with thoughts and preoccupations that we fill them so much with words, figures and plans which take away the space that we could share alone with God, who wants to speak to us! 

Being by ourselves... a dialogue with the core of our selves... is an important spiritual exercise that we need to do every day... call it meditation or contemplation or merely prayer or retreat or recollection spiritual exercises or yoga or whatever name you wish. It is being by ourselves that matters - alone with the Alone; alone with the One who alone matters! It is when we are by ourselves that we can really turn to that glory of the Lord which resides within us. As long as we are not by ourselves, the glory lies hidden, it remains latent. 

Understanding the Glory sends us back to our daily life. Experiencing the glory of the Lord is not to get stuck there, reminds us Jesus. Peter's spontaneous response is usually what we wish in life - when we experience the Lord's presence close to us, may be at a miraculous happening, or a mysterious turn of events, or a joyful coincidence. But in fact it is merely a preparation for a moment that is hard and trying, for a moment when difficult things would come by, for a moment which cannot be explained in normal logic, for a moment when we need an extraordinary strength to remain faithful. Let us not lose the miraculous moment in excitement, but draw the necessary strength for a later dry patch! The transfiguration of Jesus would have been running through Peter's mind all the time during the moments of darkness - the death of Jesus, the crisis of faith and the hidden life in the upper room. That is why he makes sure he writes in his letter about this event (2 Pet 1: 17-18). Peter wanted to remain in that glory when he saw but Jesus reminds him to return to his daily life! 

Spending time with God...a dialogue with the source of our being... is not to remain there in that sanctuary, rapt in glory and praise, but it is to return to our daily life and live it more meaningfully; it is to take that experience into the daily life and make meaning out of it. It would become dichotomous if we experience highs with the Lord and soon return to the lows of life and keep digging there until we return for another high moment in life. No... every intimate moment spent with the Lord has to percolate into our daily life, making it more and more, however little by little, receptive and fertile. Hence the spiritually exciting moments are not so much for themselves, as they are for a sustained experience of the presence of God during the rest of our lives. 

The Glory of the Lord sheds new light on our days. The experience on the mount could have strengthened Jesus to walk with assurance towards Jerusalem. The experience of the disciples would have given them a new insight into who Jesus was. In a life filled with normal commitments and extraordinary sufferings, the experience of God's glory can clarify and illumine our path, preparing us to live them with newer meaning and fresher strength. St. Paul reminds us of that in the second reading today, asking us to derive strength from the Lord to bear our share of hardships. 

Witnessing God so close...a dialogue that invites us to look and behold the mighty Presence... every Eucharist we celebrate is a transfiguration event, and it is an invitation to live our life with increased meaning and commitment. Should we remain the same after a Eucharistic Celebration, either we have not been by ourselves on that mount or we have been blind to that resplendent glory. After so many Eucharistic experiences, when we think of a Catholic son or a daughter leave this privileged faith community for another which lacks so many crucial revelations of the Lord, be it for whatever reasons... it is an agonising blunder. After all the eucharistic encounters if we panic at a crisis situation, be it a world level health crisis as the Covid-19 we are facing now or a national socio-political crisis or a personal crisis, what have we really beheld in those miraculous encounters that we have been celebrating? We need to realise that the voice of the Lord resounds at every Eucharist: "This is my beloved Son,...Listen to Him." If we manage to gaze at the glory of the Lord and listen to the voice of the Lord, our life will be transformed and transfigured.

To turn to the glory that resides within us, to return strengthened to live our life with increased commitment and to relearn the real meaning of Christian life of faith: that is  a dialogue of daily life that we are called to engage in as children of God. Our daily life has to be a fruit of this dialogue and this lenten Sunday challenges us to intensify this dialogue. May the Spirit inspire us ahead.

Life or Death - what do you choose?

THE WORD IN LENT: Thursday after Ash Wednesday

February 27, 2020: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20; Luke 9: 22-25
Point for Dialogue #1: Life or Death

Life and Death: both are present right in front of us! The choice is ours. The choice is a bit tricky. And as all truth, it is dialogic. There needs to be a profound understanding before we choose one of these, or anything for that matter in life. 

Let us beware, choosing to live may not always be a choice for Life; neither does choosing to die for a cause, mean a choice for death! There needs to be a dialogue between our innermost selves and the choices we make on a dialy basis.

In the name of a happy life, a comfortable life or a prosperous life the world today runs after false guarantees: Money, Pleasure, Power, Domination, Ego and Social Status... and the result - promiscuity, exploitation, loss of self and human dignity, lack of respect for life... in short, a CULTURE OF DEATH. That is what the world is battling against today. 

Instead if we choose love, sacrifice, mutual respect, empowerment of the other, wishing the good of the other, universal brotherhood and sisterhood in the One God who has created us all - it would cost a lot personally - but it would be definitely a TURN TO LIFE. We see Jesus getting ready to lay down his life in the Gospel - was it a choice for death? No a concrete and absolute choice for life, for eternal life, for you and me. 

Hence, today, let us not tread the beaten path towards the culture of death, but resolve to turn to life, in every way, every day. Let a live dialogue be on, within ourselves that we will always have the Truth in front our eyes. 

LAW - OUR CHOICE!!!

LAW - to Love and Abide by the Word

February 16, 2020: 6th Sunday in Ordinary time

Ecclesiasticus 15:16-21; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5: 17-37

Choice is the central theme running through the readings today! And there is another dominant theme that qualifies this choice - that is LAW. Law for the people of Israel was the way ordained by the Lord. Law was for them the guarantee of remaining  people of God; it was their part of executing the covenant that the Lord made with them: I shall be your God and you shall be my people! To speak or act against the law was for them a serious and punishable offence. There is a discussion on two other themes- "maturity" and "wisdom" in the second reading from St.Paul. Combining all these, Jesus in the Gospel presents to us a mature and wise attitude towards LAW. He invites us to Choose LAW... that is to choose to Love and Abide by the Word. 

Faith is a Choice...

Faith is not a blind leap, it is a conscious Choice! As Pope Francis' exhortation, Lumen Fidei n.3 affirms, faith cannot be associated with darkness, instead faith is a light that enlightens one to choose, to choose believe in God, to choose to see God alive in one's life. The first reading presents to us the same perspective today: we have the choice between water and fire, between good and evil, between true joy and fleeting pleasures, between the right and the convenient, between conviction and compromise, between life and death! 

The choice is ours! We cannot ride on the shoulders of tradition and custom, and justify our acts and habits. We have to grow up! Our maturity has to be seen in the wisdom we possess. It is God who gives us this wisdom, as St.Paul reminds us. Jesus embodies that wisdom and presents the same to us in his words: I have come not to abolish the law, but bring it to its fulfillment. 

A Choice beyond the Law...

Jesus declares that his disciples should make a choice, not against the law but, beyond the law! He gives a new meaning to law, and presents the way to go beyond, to transcend a mere slavish legalism and reach the heights of saintly perfection, through love and compassion. The words of Jesus, "You have heard that it was said,...but I say to you", heard repeatedly in the Gospel today presents Jesus as the New Moses, and describes the community of disciples as the New People of God! "See I am making all things new," declares Jesus by this (Rev. 21:5). 

The new law...how do we understand today that new law, the law beyond law... L - to Love, A - to Abide, and W - the Word. To love the Word and Abide by it...is the new law that Jesus gives. The Word presents to us a guarantee to sanctity. To know the Word, to reflect on it and understand it, to love it and strive to abide by it, is the sure way to be real children of God, worthy people of God. Our life does not comprise merely of avoiding evil, it is much more profound and meaningful. It is to live, to love, to relate, to do good, to mature, to be happy, to make others happy and thus together as a community of God's children, to renew the world and fill it with joy.

To Obey the Law...

Jesus teaches the people today not to go against the law but to understand what it really means to obey the law. For Him, to obey the law was not to obey the letter of the law but to obey the Lord of the law! It was so for the people of Israel; they obeyed the law as an act of obedience to YHWH. But when the Lord of the law was with them, and they did not realise it. The Word lived and moved among them, but they did not comprehend it. 

The danger for us too is the same: that we may be, by definition, the best of Christians - missing no Sunday Mass, regular with reading the Bible and reciting the prayers, strict with our fasting and abstinence, visiting as many pilgrim shrines as possible - but let us beware, we may be missing the point. These are good but not good enough - the Word instructs us: Love and Abide by the Word... to love the Word, and to live by it; not being merely hearers of the Word  but doers(Jam 1:22); to say YES to the Word and mean it, to face all the consequences of that Yes and live through it. 

Our YES to the Word has to be our choice, our choice to go beyond the Law and obey the Lord of the law, to live and fill the earth with love and compassion; to challenge the present standards of the world towards a new world, new heaven and new earth!