QUALITY CHRISTIANS

with Christ-ian qualities!

May 9, 2021: 6th Sunday of Easter

Acts 10: 25-26,34-35,44-48; 1 Jn 4:7-10; Jn 15: 9-17

Being Christian today, for that matter anyday, is a demanding task. It is not a simple automatic membership to a community, but a serious, sincere and self-conscious dedication to living the faith that one has received as a gift, firstly from God and without doubt from the community - which includes family, the faith community and every one who stands by the person in his or her faith life. Today, amidst the confusions of the present world dominated by heartless science and selfish designs, this task becomes more challenging! More than a year and a half now, the world has been languishing in disease and death, grief and helplessness, fear and meaninglessness, due to the pandemic that is still ravaging certain parts of the world, India being at the peak of it. What does it mean to live a life that is truly Christian at this point of time - being Quality Christians would consist inevitably of certain Christ-ian qualities, that is, qualities lived, passed on and required by Christ, our Saviour, Master and Model. The readings of this Sunday, point to three qualities that are currently relevant and ever demanding.

1. Catholicism versus Exclusivism:

The First reading declares, 'God does not have favourites'! For long this tendency has haunted the spiritual beings and communities - being close to God or feeling the presence of God in the life experiences, has made people in history, not only holy and righteous as God would desire, but also proud, haughty and self-righteous! The Jews were very particular about their 'chosenness' and considered and treated everyone else as lesser beings, calling them 'pagans'! The Muslim mindset (the generalisation regretted), even today considers everyone else as an 'infidel' and wishes to bring everyone to their way of looking at reality! The sad fact is...in between these two major traditions the so-called tradition of Christianity too, considered itself 'saved' and the rest of the world rushing towards perdition, took a paternalistic attitude and gave into so many mistaken measures. How hard it is to forget the historical errors like the inquisitions and other similar vindicative ventures of the catholic church! However, we have learnt lessons and we cannot fall back into that error! And the fundamental correction is in the very name we have given ourselves - Catholic!

Catholicism is not merely a name, it is an attitude! It has to become our lifestyle as Christians - it is simply being "all-embracing"...it is to believe that God has no favourites...God loves every child of God. And those who hold on to God, feel the presence of God more and those who wish to move themselves away from God, feel it less. And therefore, as true chidlren of God our call is to look at everyone as a loved child of God, and create situations where everyone can feel and get closer to the presence of God, and not judge and place blocks on their way to God. We cannot write off someone as 'condemned' or 'damned' or 'hell-bound'. That is totally un-Christ-ian. Just the other day, someone forwarded on the social network, a video of someone who calls himself a preacher and a prophet, warning and threatening those who are of other faiths that they are all going astray from true God! Do you think, a blatant judgement of this sort will bring them to God? Does one have to threaten people in order to make them run to God? Is it not better to show love, share love and spread love, that those who feel that genuine love, feel the presence of God? That is catholicism...to embrace everyone as friends and share love.

2. God's versus gods:

All-embracing, does not mean we say, believing in any God is the same, it does not matter! Then my faith becomes meaningless and pointless. What we are saying is, be sincere about being God's people. When I am serious and committed to being a person of God, people will see it in my life. If I am friends with God, it can be seen in my daily life - a friend of God! As it is said of Moses, that God related and spoke to Moses as a friend would - so does God speak to each of us everyday. Are we aware, conscious, attentive and responsive to that? The more  we grow to be friends of God, the more we shall grow to be friends with every one else, because the love that we experience from God shall get translated into the love that we have for others in our concrete daily life. Just think of those persons who call themselves to be persons of God, but are totally inaccesible to the others around them - either due to their character and temperament, or due to the system they create around themselves and so on! The difference can be understood in the simple fact: whether they are truly God's, or are they making of themselves petty gods?

Specially in a time like today's, when there is so much misery and pain, a person of God reaches out, goes to the most suffering, empathises with the grieved and strives to offer relief to the wearied hearts. They cannot be those who stay up there and judge, pose as great visionaries and cast spells and warnings, make of themselves little gods and exploit the moment for their popularity and glory! That is the worst lifestyle that can be witnessed in any context, much worse in a Christian context! Being God's means being loving - God begets those who love, says John in the second reading today.We are God's as much as we love! When we make of ourselves gods, or when we make for ourselves gods of our name, our popularity, our branding, our riches, our comforts, our safety, our profits, our pleasure, our plans, and so on... we are being counter-witeness to God...instead of being God's, we are being anti-God! Is it not high time we look at the core motivations and intentions we have in our hearts, so that we truly grow more and more loving, thus grow to be persons who are God's own.

3. Chosen versus choosy:

At times we get too choosy in life...we wish to choose whom to love and whom not to, we want to choose what kind of experiences we should have and what not, we want to choose what should happen to us and what should not, we want to choose in which we will follow the will of God and in which we want God to follow our wish and wants! If we are chosen, we just cannot be choosy! We think being chosen is a privilege; yes, of course it is! It is a privilege to be chosen people of God. But at the same time it is an obligation, a demand, a challenge, a call, a task that is given to us and we have so many things involved which we cannot choose! We cannot choose whether to love or not; we cannot choose whether to be truthful or not; we cannot choose whether to forgive or not; we cannot choose whether to reach out or not! It is infact a bit on the reverse - if we choose to love all, we are chosen people of God; if we choose to reach out those who are suffering, we are chosen people of God; if we choose to embrace all in fellowship and solidarity, we are chosen people of God!

Our chosenness is not a status statement, but a mission...You have not chosen me, I have chosen you... the Lord has chosen us and sent us, to bear fruit - fruits of love and compassion! Love is the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us. This I command you: that you love one another! The chosenness has to be revealed, manifested, lived out, in love. Quality Christians are those who in their thought, word and deed, their choices and priorities, in their fundamental perspectives and life-governing principles, are moved by love and love alone! 

Love is the secret key that would inspire and empower a person to move from exclusivism to catholicism; from the tendency to create one's own gods to being truly God's, from being choosy to realisation of being chosen by God! It is the fundamental of the Christ-ian qualities that can render a person, a Quality Christian. 

Remaining in God and Reminding the world about God!

Being People of God today

May 2, 2021: Fifth Sunday in Easter time

Acts 9: 26-31; 1 John 3: 18-24; John 15: 1-8

We are the Church of the Risen Lord, the People of God in the Risen Christ...it means we have an identity, a mission and a characteristic lifestyle, that should define us! This is what the Word comes to tell us this Sunday! It would be a challenging message, taken in the context of what we are going through as a worldwide experience these days! 

One statement that connects the second reading and the Gospel could provide us with a starting point for our reflection: "whatever we ask him, we shall receive" says the second reading (1 Jn 3:22) and "you ask what you will and you shall get it," says Jesus in the Gospel (Jn 15:7). Whatever we ask, we shall get! Whatever we pray for we shall receive! Are these not too tall as claims, looking at the travail that we are through during these days of pandemic...the effects lingering on in some parts of the world, and a fresher and more vigourous wave in other parts! Where have all these promises gone - one may feel like screaming! 

Whatever you shall ask, you shall receive, says the Word...be it first reading or the Gospel today. There are those who take this to be a magic spell, and expect that to happen as soon as they decide to arrange for a few hours of prayer and performance of some rites! It is a simplistic understanding of our relationship with God, with world and with each other, too simplistic. Prayer today has to be more an examination of conscience, a renewal of our confidence in God and a personal and communal decision to conversion! That is what is required of us - that again is the message of the Word today! Let us not be taken up and lost with just one part of the message: Ask whatever and you shall receive it; pray for whatever and you shall have it... there is another part, more crucial and more challenging... when is it that I shall have whatever I ask? when is it that I shall receive whatever I pray for?... the conditions matter much and in those conditions there is also a clue to another question - why is it that these untoward things happen in our life and leave us so helpless!

The condition is very clearly stated: when you remain in me, and I in you, the Lord says, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you! We receive from him anything we ask, the Apostle explains, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him! That is where lies the clue. From here we need to understand three (atleast) hard facts of life:

1. Things go wrong when we do not do what is in accordance with the Divine Law: The phrase, 'because we keep his commands and do what pleases him, we receive what we ask for', as a corollary instructs us that when we do things that do not go with the life that we are called to live, we face consequences that can turn our lives topsy turvy! How true! And at the same time, how hard! We refuse to face the fact that every time we make small choices against God's will, we are paving way for a disaster somewhere, sometime! All the experiments that go to any extent, be it in our personal lives or in the common life of humanity, when they are purportedly against what is true and what is right, we are slowly and gradually setting up our own ruin. Has the humanity any time in history really accepted this fact, though knowing it is true in every sense?

2. What I choose does not affect merely me, whether I acknowledge it or not: That is not the only fact; the other way is true too - that I am affected not only by what I choose, but what others choose, what collectively we choose! So there are so many who are affected, innocent of the choices made, but vulnerable to the effects of the wrong choices. The small and tiny choices come together, make up a whole culture and there is a culture of exploitation, use-and-throw, consumerism, greed, insensitive hoarding, inhuman priorities that is created today - the effects of which the whole world has been facing for the past two years. Who shall we blame for it - a country somewhere in the corner of the globe, a continent that bears a big percentage of the population, an alleged conspiratory group that contriving against the entire humanity...the blame game can go one endlessly. What I need to do is, become aware of my choices and become critical of the choices at large. Acknowledge my mistaken choices and speak up against the ungodly choices! That is where a disciple is identified, that is where an apostle is seen, that is where a Christian is born... in reminding the world of the right choices? Am I capable of doing it. Paul did it...he was about to be killed...he had to move out so that the Churches would be left in peace!

3. The Christian faith does not end in an answered prayer: I ask and Lord gives, and does everything end there? I want something and that comes to be, or comes not to be...does it end there? It cannot. We read in the first reading the Churches in Judea, Galilea and Samaria were left in peace...and they built themselves up, in the fear of the Lord and in the consolation of the Spirit. That is what is to be done in our lives too: this pandemic will end, soon; yes it will; we hope in the Lord, it will. And after that what is going to be our response? The reflection has to lead us to a further choice, a choice to hold on to the Lord, to remain with the Lord, to make an absolute choice for the Lord! Once that sort of an absolute choice is made for God, we do not ask anything from God, we do not wish anything different from what God wishes...that is the state of life we are called to grow towards!

To remain in the Lord is being connected to the Lord, thinking with the mind of God, knowing exactly what pleases God, living in accordance to the will of God and building up ourselves as People of God, growing up into the image of God and bearing fruit in abudance, reminding the world of God, in everyway! 

To burn within - rekindling that fire!

WORD 2day: Wednesday within the Easter Octave

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

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

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

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

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

Doing good is doing God's will

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

February 6, 2021: Gosalo Garcia and others

Hebrews 13:15-17, 20-21; Mark 6: 30-34

In the recent weeks we have been remembering saints, blesseds and martyrs connected to India. Bl. Devasagayam, St. Joseph Vaz, John de Britto and today it is Gonsalo Garcia. Though in the Universal Catholic Church it is commemorated as Paul Miki and companions, for us in India it would be just and right to focus on Gonsalo Garcia, who was part of that company of missionaries who were crucified in Nagasaki, in the year 1597, for the sake of the Word and for the Kingdom of God.

Some interesting facts about St. Gonsalo: he was born of a Portuguese father and an Indian mother. He left India when he was 15. He was among the 26 missionaries killed in Nagasaki, Japan. The Franciscan expedition of missionaries took Gonsalo Garcia, who was just lately accepted as a Third Order Minor into their congregation, because he wanted to go out as a missionary of the Lord.

The Gospel presents to us a picture of a missionary of the Lord - frenetic activity for sake of the Kingdom! The disciples are all intent on doing good, as their Master himself who went around doing good. At times we can be at a loss deciding what is God's will at a point of time. The readings today seem to suggest one simple criterion: do good to others; do good to as many as possible; do good to all!

God is the shepherd who knows our needs and cares for them, but God does it through God's sons and daughters who become shepherds in turn. We are called to be the sheep of God's flock but at the same time to grow to be shepherds to each other, doing as much good as we could to each other. That would be the easiest way of experiencing the continued presence of God.

The Missionary of the Millennium

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

December 3, 2020: Remembering St. Francis Xavier, the Patron of India

1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23; Mark 16: 15-20

3 Messages that Francis Xavier can teach us from the Word today:

1. GO TO THE ENDS

One of the many representations of St. Francis Xavier, has the saint holding his heart in his hands and the heart burning! Indeed, a perfect image for this great missionary who not only dared to go to the ends of the world, but yearned to. He was burning with zeal for the Lord and for the proclamation of the Word. 

2. PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL

Proclaiming the Gospel, as Paul would say, for Francis Xavier was a God-given duty, not merely his fancy hobby. That is the reason for the zeal and the dedication that he had. Today we are called to proclaim too, as a duty! But let us take the inspiration from the other Francis, the one from Assisi: 'Proclaim the Gospel always; use words when necessary!' The very zeal that Francis Xavier had for the Lord and the Word, was already a proclamation... then followed his missionary trips.

3. SEEK GOD BEFORE EVERYTHING 

What would a person profit, if he gained the whole world, but lost his soul! That was the Word that shook Francis Xavier towards sanctity, a sanctity which is so concretely observed even today in his remains, that stand testimony to the whole world! Can we just sit down and list out today, how many things are rated before God as priorities in our lives... may be, we will do well to work on that list and reduce the number of those things in our life that tend to take a priority over and above, the Lord.

Happy feast of the Missionary of the Millennium!

MAY FRANCIS XAVIER FILL US WITH THE SAME ZEAL THAT HE HAD.

It is the Master who sends...

WORD 2day: Saturday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 11, 2020: Isaiah 6: 1-8; Matthew 10: 24-33

It is the Lord who sends; it is the Master who calls; it is the Teacher who commissions! It is not because I am worthy to be sent, or qualified to be called or skilled to be commissioned... but it is because it is the Lord who calls! As St. Paul says it in such simple terms: "those whom he called, he justified" (cf. Rom 8:29). However unworthy I am, when the Lord has appointed me for a mission, he makes sure that mission goes on through me. 

As soon as we speak of being called and being commissioned, let us not think of those in the ministry - the priests or the religious or the lay ministers or those who have some special responsibility in the faith community! The 'called', the 'sent', the 'commissioned' referred to here, are not those but every Christian who is called, commissioned and sent by the very fact of one's baptism in the Lord! 

Yes, we are called, commissioned and sent, each of us! And it is the Master who sends, the King who clothes us with his majesty and glory, adorns us with his identity and entrusts with his power. It is in the name of the Lord, that we go - not because we can go or we are competent to go - but because, the Lord, the King, the Master, wants us to!

On my part, the challenge is to be mindful of the fact that it is the Lord who has sent me and commissioned me and to be convinced that the Lord takes care of everything around me, provided I live my life faithful to the call. A thousand may fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand, but nothing will come near me, for I have made God my refuge, prays the Psalmist (in Ps 91:7).

It is the Lord who has called me and it is Lord who has commissioned me, I am accountable to the Lord and only to the Lord. In this world and to those around me, I have nothing to prove! All that I need to do, is stand in awe at the majesty of the Lord, believe in the Lord's sovereignty and submit myself in total faith into the hands of God, saying "Here am I Lord, send me!" When the Lord does, we will see the glory of God revealed in marvelous ways!

The Lord in the Gentle Breeze

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

June 12, 2020: I Kings 19: 9a, 11-16; Matthew 5: 27- 32

The storm went thundering, the fire went blazing, but the Lord wasn't there! The Lord of surprises manifests himself in the gentle breeze and gives us the most powerful of all messages: "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10). We will find the Lord if only we earnestly seek. We will see the face of God, if only we seek it with all our heart. In our daily life and routine, can we truly declare, 'it is your face O Lord that I seek'!

Knowing God, experiencing God and manifesting God is not a matter of accomplishment, but a sense of simple acknowledgement. Knowing God is a grace, for we cannot know God unless God reveals Godself. It is in acknowledgement of that self revelation of God that we are blessed. Experiencing God is possible only if we are open to our daily happenings and the message they have for us. We would miss a treasure, if we fail to meditate on those daily events, even if they are just ordinary simple things! 

Apart from these, that is knowing God and experiencing God, there is something that we have to take upon ourselves, choose to deliberately do, accept the responsibility for: that is, to manifest God. To manifest God, to reveal God, to make people know God, to enable the world experience God - this is a task given to us and when we do it, we are being instruments in the hands of God. That is what we are called to, each in our own way. In our words, our actions, our choices and the way we relate to people we are called to be those who manifest God: will those who seek God, find God in us?

If that has to happen, our daily life has to be a life of simple commitment to the Lord in all its sense. The tasks we undertake, the relationships we enter into, the commitments we accept on ourselves, the daily duties we perform, the normal cares on our shoulders and our minds: these are all ways to our sanctity, provided they are done with a purity of intention that befits the Lord who has called us to all these. This is the meaning of the gentle breeze, the ordinariness of life, the simple routine of the daily existence. 

The Lord in the gentle breeze invites us to personal integrity, simplicity of commitment and purity of intention, on a daily basis, in simple things, in ordinariness of daily life. 

To Leave... it is a missionary challenge!

WORD 2day: Thursday, sixth week in Easter time

May 21, 2020: Acts 18: 1-8; John 16: 16-20

Today is the Ascension day! But in many places (not all certainly), in order to celebrate the Solemnity on Sunday, they continue till the end of the week, as weekdays of the sixth week in the Easter time. So here too, we shall reflect on today's Word.

Paul leaves; he leaves Athens for Corinth, he leaves the Jews for the Gentiles. Jesus leaves; he leaves his earthly life and his friend disciples and prepares to go to his Father and our Father! You should glad that I leave, because I go to the Father and from there I shall draw you to myself, because where I am, you shall be too: what lovely words of Jesus these were! 

Be it Jesus, the missionary of the Father or Paul, the missionary of Christ the Word from the Father, they were able to 'leave' because their eyes were fixed on the mission that was entrusted to them: nothing that came in between, neither success nor failure, neither helps nor hindrances, neither pains nor pleasures - nothing could keep them back, no affections or no attachments. 

Another point the readings today point to: whenever they left something, something greater awaited. Christ left his worldly stint, to remain with the Father and thus with us for ever, to the end of ages. And Paul leaves place after place, and everywhere there were more and more people being touched by the Lord and won over for the Lord.

Leaving behind is not an easy task. The most challenging of all 'leaving behind' is to leave behind one's own desires and dreams, personal plans and projects, one's loves and longings! At times, if we have to witness to the Lord and the Gospel that the Lord wants us to announce, there is no other choice but to leave... it is indeed a missionary challenge!

A PRIESTLY PEOPLE

Chosen to belong forever

5th Sunday of Easter: May 10, 2020
Acts 6:1-7; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12

God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God in love” (Eph 1:4). That is the core of our identity; we are a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, God’s own people in order that we may proclaim the mighty acts of God, the God who has called us from darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9). 

What is my identity of myself?

Are we merely people who are looking up to God for some favours? Are we people who wait on God to come and solve our everyday problems? Are we merely people decrying the crisis around us and complaining about it to God? Are we people who are grudging about those around us who are not living up to our expectations, disappointing us, troubling us, not understanding us or causing us grief? Can we take a breath and reflect a moment about what identity God has invested in us and to what level we have diluted in our daily living of our faith.

We are Chosen…

It is not by chance that I am a Christian, I am chosen. Anandhi (name changed) a girl of another faith, came to a priest asking to be prepared for baptism. She was in love with Alfred (name changed), a Catholic and wanted to marry him in the Church. After all the preparation, finally the priest asked her a simple question, “who do you think brought you to this intention of receiving Baptism?” Without any hesitation, Anandhi seemed to have replied, “Alfred.” The priest gently smiled at her and took the opportunity to tell her, ‘It is really Christ who has brought you to Baptism.’ 

It is the Lord who has chosen us and it is definitely not the other way around: “You did not choose me, but I chose you”, says the Lord (Jn 15:16). It is the Lord who has chosen you and me, and all that we need to do is happily walk holding his hand at times of gladness, boldly walk with the one who strengthens us beside at times of hardships, hopefully walk with the light of the Lord at times of darkness and doubt...all because we are certain and  assured that we have been chosen!

We are Chosen to belong…

Last Sunday we celebrated the Good Shepherd Sunday and we would have specially prayed for vocations to Priesthood and Religious Life. That is a special call, a call for a ministry, just like Stephen and the 6 others are chosen today in the first reading for a special task – that is what we call Ministerial Priesthood. But there is another call that is universal… that is the call to Royal Priesthood… each and every one who is chosen in Christ, who is washed in the waters of baptism, is called to this priesthood. Yes! We are all priests unto the Lord! We are Chosen Race, Royal Priesthood… We have a special call to belong to the Lord. That is the crux of this priesthood. The ordained priests are ordained for a special ministry, while all of us share in the priesthood of Christ. 

The Priesthood of Christ consists in belonging to the Father. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” says the Lord (Jn 14:11). The priesthood that we share with Christ is to be in God, the Father and Mother; to belong to God, to be grafted on to God, to remain in God as the branches remain in the wine and give fruit. It is to show at every moment of the our life, in our action, in our choices, in our relationships, in the way we look at challenges and difficulties in life, in the approach to sickness, disease, isolation and death...at every step, belonging to the One who has chosen us and called us. 

We are Chosen to belong forever…

In belonging to the Lord, in remaining with Christ, in sharing the priesthood of Christ we inherit the greatest of all patrimonies: a dwelling place in the courts of the Lord. That is what is prepared for us, that if we belong in our life to God, we would belong to God forever - even in death. 

At times when we face difficulties and crises, we behave just as any other person - without confidence, without hope, without any faith, without any divine element within us, without any spiritual strength, without really mindful of the fact that we have been saved by the sufferings of the Lord, without acknowledging the fact that we have been healed by the wounds of the Son of God! We are not chosen by a mere almighty power, or a universal force... no, we are chosen by a Person, a Personal God, our Father and Mother, our Saviour and Master, our indwelling accompanier who loves us without conditions or limits! 

God our Father and Mother had chosen us, had sent the Chosen One to remind us of our chosenness, and continues to live as chosen people every day of our life.  Christ has gone before us to prepare this place for us, and when he comes we should still belong to God, we should still be his Priestly People, that we may receive that dwelling place prepared for us! Every day is an opportunity, through our ordinary tasks and daily duties, by our conscious choices and deliberate decisions, to deepen our belonging to the Lord, to realize we are chosen, that we are chosen to belong to God, chosen to belong forever, as a chosen race, a Priestly People!

Called to be messengers

WORD 2day: Thursday, 4th week in Easter time

May 7, 2020: Acts 13:13-25; John 13:16-20

St. Paul makes a long list of messengers running right upto John the Baptist, and Jesus in the Gospel, speaks of sending his own apostles as messengers. Messengers are people of God, people of the Message, people who carry what the Lord wants God's people to know, persons who share with the world what the Lord wants to. 

The Message, is the core of our faith. It has been so, it is so and it will always be so! The message was announced through ages through prophets and persons of God (cf. Heb 1:1). At a point in history, the Message became the Messenger...that was the crucial phase of history when the Message, the Sender, the Messenger (or the Medium) all came together in one sacred and mysterious union - in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. 

After this crucial phase of the identification of the Message with the Messenger, in Christ the Message of the loving Father made Messenger we see that, what once was done by a select few among the people, has been handed over to the entire people of God and every child of God. This is indeed the call of every Christ-ian.

We are His messengers and we are called primarily to live the message and in and through that, announce the Message to the World.

Am I aware of the Message; Do I really know the Message? Am I convinced that I am a messenger? Do I love the Message as much and in order that I may live that message!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

21st September, 2015: Remembering St. Matthew. 

Eph 4: 1-7, 11-13; Mt 9 :9-13

There are a few clear messages that the calling of Matthew can offer us:

God hates sin not the sinners.

When it comes to God's call there are no Jews and no gentiles;  there are no favourites. We become favourites depending on the prompt response we give to that call.

God dares enter my private home and dine with me no matter who the others are, whom I have invited. But do I dare to let God come over!

WORD 2day: 24th August, 2015

Remembering St. Bartholomew, the Apostle.
Rev 21: 9-14; Jn 1:45-51

Known in the Gospel of St.John with the name Nathanael, Bartholomew received from the Lord a great compliment - a man in whom there is no guile, says the Lord. Though he did not believe what Phillip said and originally did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus recognises the goodness in him.

The readings today have three lessons to teach: One, the readiness of Jesus to appreciate the goodness in a person even when the person did not believe in him. How many times friends turn the worst enemies when they begin to disagree with each other!

Second lesson is from Bartholomew, who accepts the call to 'come and see' and goes, sees, believes and remains with the Lord.

The third lesson is from the feast itself - a remembrance of the Apostles is a special invitation to each of us to recognise the call we have received to to go into the world and proclaim God's Reign. Bartholomew took the Gospel right upto Armenia and Arabia. There exists a legend that Bartholomew reached even India's western borders!

Each of us is reminded today of our call to bear the goodnews to the ends of the world, to establish the Reign of God - beginning with the closest of our contexts - that is, right wherever we are!

WORD 2day: Love that prevails

Monday, VI week of Easter: 11th May, 2015

Acts 16: 11-15; Jn 15:26 - 16:4a

Speaking of the new believer in the Lord, a lady of considerable renown, Paul says she prevailed over us! It is true love that prevails, a selfless love inspired by the newly accepted good news! The Lord opened her mind to listen to the Word and her heart to be the consolation for the messengers of the Word. The Lord provides through her.

Today, providing for the messengers of the Word, in ways truly numerous, is one way that we can make love prevail. We may have troubles from every corner, opposition from all sides and forces waiting to devour us - as we say Jesus telling us in the Gospel today. But nothing of this will block us from going ahead in our task and the challenge entrusted to us. The Lord will open minds, inspire hearts and remove blocks, that we may have all the back up needed to take the message far and wide. This has been, or this is at present, my experience too, personally! How many times I would have felt the providence of God, at the exact right moment! Persons coming to my aid, friends pitching in their bit, and so many other unbelievable ways in which the Lord has provided, or numerous ways in which Love has prevailed!

WORD 2day: The peace of the Lord

Tuesday, V week of Easter: 5th May,  2015
Acts 14: 19-28; Jn 14: 27-31a

Peace. ...the gift of the Risen Lord.  Peace would mean lack of conflicts and an absence of turbulence, in ordinary terms. But Jesus seems very particular that the peace that the Lord gives us is not the same as the peace that the world thinks.

It is not lack of conflicts but it is a victory over all conflicts, inner,  societal and universal! It is not an absence of turbulence but a transcending of all turbulence, a rising above all disturbance and a resolution of all crisis not an absence of them. We see this clearly in the lives of Paul,  Barnabas and other apostles who seem to perfectly understand the peace of the Lord. One trouble over, they were up for the next. Their peace was in the Lord and nothing could stop them from making it their own. Amidst all the turbulence, disturbance and crisis they enjoyed a peace and serenity that no one even comprehended.

Do you dare pray for that peace,  the peace of the Lord?

WORD 2day: A chip from the same block

Tuesday,  III week of Easter: 21st April, 2015
Acts 7:51 -8:1a; Jn 6: 30-35.

Sometimes when I speak to the youngsters about the suffering that Jesus underwent, about his endurance of passion,  his capacity to surrender into the hands of God,  his capacity to forgive etc.,  they tend to retort saying: 'but he was son of God!" That is a heretic way of thinking,  I used to threaten them.

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

Stephen was a chip from the same block as Christ. That is what we are called to be,  a chip from that same block.

The Spirit frees : TOWARDS LIGHT

Wednesday in the II Week of Easter

Acts 5: 17-26; Jn 3:16-21

From the prison to freedom,  from the chains to an unfettered spirit,  from fear to total commitment. .. the Spirit strengthens one to walk towards the light! At times truth hurts and at times it costs much,  but if in the Spirit, we would count nothing too demanding.

People like Bro. Mario of Chalakudi fame who have risked their lives for the sake of Christ in their lives are living illustrations of the episode from Acts that we read today. Another youngster in my life who has inspired me is one known to me who chose to be a Christian and chose to become a priest and threw his engineering post in a firm and disappeared from his family to join a religious congregation, because they were mad at him in the family.

If I have the courage to see the Truth,  accept it and live for it,  nothing can stop me, not even death;  because I have within me eternal life.

THE RETURN, REBUKE AND THE RESOLVE

Saturday within the Easter Octave: 11th April, 2015

Acts 4: 13-21; Mk 16: 9-15

Jesus returned, but they recognised him not! He was a bit annoyed as during his time with them. He takes the liberty to rebuke them, because he knew they loved him. It was for the same reason he did not reject them, but only rebuked them and their slowness to believe, in spite of the repeated signs and wonders. That rightful rebuke reassured the disciples much and they came to a resolve, no one or nothing could affect from then. No threats, no powers, no imprisonments, no lashes, no authority could stop them from proclaiming Christ because they were so powerfully taken up by that encounter with the Risen Christ. They knew he was with them every moment, as he had promised them!

Every day, the Risen Lord returns to us with a fresh proposal to live with us unceasingly; Our obstinacy to hold on to various concerns in life, our blindness to the extraordinary love with which the Risen Lord approaches us, our failure to see through and observe in the events of life, the Lord who walks with us - these deserve a rebuke from the Lord. It would not matter, until we reach the resolve as did the apostles, to proclaim in our words and deeds, the Lord who has won us over. We are called to be witnesses, beginning from wherever we are to the ends of the world. Are we ready? What are we upto today, in this regard?

WITH SIGNS AND WONDERS

Friday within the Easter Octave: 10th April, 2015

Acts 4: 1-12; Jn 21: 1-14

Today begins the next round of efforts to contain the good news. When Jesus spoke of it, they killed him and heaved a big sigh thinking it was over. Little did they imagine the problem was far from settled. The Reign of God is like the seed that a sower planted in his field, the Master had said... after a brief silence, it will certainly shoot up. Here the Saducees and the Pharisees begin to feel the startles as they see the first signs of sprouting. That was already too strong! From a fear filled bunch of rugged Jews, the apostles turned out to be fire filled upstarts, gradually shaping up to be formidable people of God, standing for and proclaiming the good news, namely the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the World.

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

Today, if we wish to be Easter people, let our life be a proclamation and a proclamation that is accompanied by signs and wonders: signs that stand counter to the self centered  standards of the world today; and wonders that make people see the love and mercy of God in and through us!

WHAT ARE WE TO DO?

Tuesday within the Easter Octave: 7th April, 2015

Acts 2: 36-41; Jn 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 this academic year (2014-2015). 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 our Evangelisation Team! I was amazed that out of the 200, there was one who was cut to his heart and changed his course in life.

If we allow the Risen Lord to encounter us through the numerous ways he 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? 

The Call, Consecration and Commission!

25th January, 2015: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jon 3: 1-5, 10; 1 Cor 7: 29-31; Mk 1:4-20

The Lord calls each of us, consecrates us to Godself and commissions us to live as God's messengers: that is the crux of true Christian living. 

At times we live our Christian life as if we have nothing binding us with regard to our faith. Our faith in its very nature is binding..it is primarily a Call, not a choice!

Yes, we are called...Faith is a gift, a given, a call! Every person, whether he or she takes it seriously or not, every person baptised is in fact called; called to be children of God, to be co heirs to the Reign of God: but that does not come without a cost. That call comes with a commission: to go and speak, share, announce and proclaim the Good news of the Lord. The Lord equips us for that commission with the consecration that God accomplishes in us! 

The Call requires a response; the consecration involves a drastic renunciation and the commission demands a dedicated obedience. Jonah, St. Paul and the first four apostles are given to us an example of all these three elements of being a messenger of God. Jonah is willing to respond to the call but not willing to renounce his will. God gives him a crash course on true obedience and wins him over. St. Paul says yes to the call and shines as a resounding role model with his drastic renunciation which he recommends to our consideration today. The first four apostles too are immediate in their following of the Call, because their renunciation was total. 

All these for one reason: to take the Word of God to those whom God wanted them to! 

Today the Church reminds us that we have, everyone of us, received a specific call: to take the Word to whom the Lord sends us: it could be to your own family members, or neighbours or colleagues or other friends or strangers. What enables us is our spirit of renunciation of anything that binds -career or social image, loved ones or friends- so that we are free for the Reign of God. The Commission is to take the Word far and wide...the primary means of doing it being our personal life of witness! 

Let us take the call seriously, submit ourselves to God that God could consecrate us to Godself and carry out the commission given to us, taking care to become the message ourselves!