THE FULLNESS THAT SATISFIES

Are we ever satisfied?

August 2, 2020: 18th Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 55:1-3; Romans 8: 35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21

You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing! The hand of the Lord feeds us; the Lord answers all our needs. Lovely words that we pray at the Responsorial time this Sunday. How good it would be if it were true in every sense!

Are we ever satisfied? Why all the bickering among the richest on the planet, everyday trying to outdo the other in business and trade - because they do not have what they need? Why all the political ploys and underground scheming among the rulers and the leaders - because they they lack the basic wants? Why all the craze among the richest medical facilities and pharma firms even amidst this pandemic to make the most of the people's plight - because they have to feed their empty stomachs? Why all the border disputes between already vast nations and sovereigns - because there is a matter of life and death? Even within each of us... why all the fret and frenzy in our daily life - because we have to ensure the next square meal? 

If only we pause, calm down and ask a few questions to ourselves, we shall come to know so many things about ourselves, so many things that we needlessly think about, so many decisions we unnecessarily take, so many activities that we go about without realising its futility, so many important values we dump for worthless substitutes and so many treasures that we have covered with the sludge of the so-called conventions of the society around and walk on them lamenting our miseries! 

The Word this Sunday presents us with three questions:

What is the Lack?

Recently we reflected from prophet Micah those words: you shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you; you shall put away, but not save; you shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine (Micah 6: 13-15) - does that not seem the experience of many today? We strive and strive, but are never satisfied. We struggle with all our lives, but we never feel fulfilled. But stop, think a while... what is the lack? what is the real lack? Lack of things? Lack of resources? As the Lord asks us today, why do you spend all that you have, on something that does not satisfy you? What is the real lack?

The real lack is the lack of knowledge: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge", cries the Lord through prophet Hosea (4:6). The lack of knowledge is destroying us all; it is destroying humankind; it is destroying the entire universe! The lack of right knowledge, the lack of right thinking, the lack of right choices, the lack of right priorities - this is the lack that is killing us all. Just as the Lord felt it so badly, while he was speaking to that woman at the Samarian well, "if only you knew"... yes, if only we knew! If only we knew the real lack that is in our hearts... if only we realised the real lack that is there in our families... if only we accepted the real lack that affects the society and humanity as whole today...we would be in a better position! If only, we knew what really satisfies! That leads us to the next question we need to ask.

What really satisfies?  

Fullness alone! Nothing else can satisfy us. We think "more" of something will satisfy us. It cannot. More will never be enough! More can never satisfy us. We think of increasing something, hoarding up something, stacking up, stocking in....nothing will satisfy us truly. It is fullness alone, that can satisfy us. More pleasure... will it satisfy? No, it will lead to more of it. More wealth... will it satisfy? That is not what we see, those who have more, look for more. More power... will it satisfy? Not until there is someone who still is not subdued. "Give me more," the world cries... but after that? There will only be more cry for more, and more, and more! Only one thing can satisfy...fullness. Imagine a cup immersed in a tub of water... do you think, it is filled? No, it is in fullness, it does not need to be filled. 

Fullness alone can satisfy us. Jesus feeds that crowd of people, with such serenity and calmness and all their frenetic anxiety earlier wondering how to feed and where to get food for so many, just vanishes into thin air. They did nothing to remove that anxiety. They just allowed themselves to be in the presence of that Fullness. The Fullness filled them; the Fullness fulfilled them. Fullness alone can fulfill us too. How much we need today to learn to be still, to be still and know that there is Fullness around! 

Where is this Fullness?

Yes, the Fullness satisfies, fulfills, heals, calms... it is true. But where is this Fullness, some can ask. Where is this Fullness, when we are suffering; where is this Fullness when we are so battered by disease and death; where is this Fullness when we are so broken and helpless before forces that are totally out of control? It is again this lack of knowledge that makes us fret. It is a wrong question to ask, where is this Fullness - because we are in the Fullness! Just imagine that fingerling who asked her mother fish, 'mamma, but you said you will show the ocean... where is it?'  

It is such a redundant question to ask, where is this Fullness, because we are in the Fullness, we are surrounded by the Fullness - that is what the Lord said: for I am with you till the end of times. Nothing can separate us from Christ, declares the second reading, because we are part of Christ and Christ is part of us. Now, this Fullness that satisfies us, how does it do?  

Fullness invites us from within, to come, eat and drink from God's love, from God's generosity, from God's compassion. In moments of need and struggle, in moments of our crises, the Lord reminds us of Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, the Fullness who satisfies.

Fullness has chosen us from before the foundation of the world, never to part from us. Just as the disciples tell the Lord that they could send the people away, there are so many things in life that wants to send us away from the Lord... our weaknesses, our sufferings, our temptations, our wrong choices. But the Lord insists, to stay on. Yes, the Fullness remains, because God has chosen to remain with us forever. That is the covenant: I shall be your God and you shall be my children.

Fullness remains with us whether we are conscious of it or not. Nothing separates us from the Lord except our decision to keep ourselves away from Him. In our need, in our troubles, in our struggles, in our concerns...the Lord promises to be with us and provide us with every bit of care we need. Not even death... nothing except our free choice to leave God, to go against God, can separate us from God. That places the entire burden on our part to remain with the Lord.

The Fullness remains, never to part from us. If we choose that Fullness, we shall be immersed in that Fullness...and nothing can separate us: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord, the Fullness of the Image of God, the Fullness that loves us and remains for ever with us! This Fullness alone can satisfy us! 

God with us - in thick and thin!

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

July 10, 2020: Hosea 14: 2-10; Matthew 10: 16-23

this sign in Indian tradition is called the Abhaya Mudra ,
the Lord assuring God's unfailing and protective presence

"Straight are the paths of the Lord"(Hos 14:10), declares prophet Hosea today. Straight, and therefore tough. Straight and therefore no compromises. Straight and therefore no confusions! Everyone knows the ways of the Lord; everyone knows what is acceptable to the Lord and what is not; it is made known by the Lord to every human person in their innermost self. No one can say, I was not aware that this is the right thing to do! Of course, every one knows it or at least has the possibility of getting to know it.

Further reflecting, the words of Jesus in the Gospel are quite frightening as we find Jesus trying to warn us against being good, against choosing the ways of the Lord and being God's disciples or apostles of the Word. He does not promise any prospects, instead persecution. He does not announce any offers, instead oppression. He says it very clearly that we will have to suffer for his sake, for the sake of the Word and for the sake of the Reign of God.

Each one knows what is good and what is right...and while choosing it, there is going to be problems and trials - unfortunately we know that too! Come to think of it: one knows saying the truth is the right thing, but doing it, he or she knows the consequences of being isolated; one knows being honest and sincere is the godly thing to choose, but he or she knows too, that it will only bring loss and lag, while the rest of the dishonest world seems to march ahead in victory and glory! So choosing God's ways seems to bring nothing desirable! 

Now listen to Jesus who assures the consolation of the Lord, the consoling and affirming presence of the Lord with us, always and everywhere. Because what we have chosen is the way of the Lord, we are certain to find the Lord present with us all the way. The way might be filled with pitfalls and climbs and hurdles and thorns and thistles... but we are sure amidst all these, the Lord walks with us, the Lord speaks on our behalf and the Lord acts in and through us. What a mighty consolation we have: in thick and thin, God with us!

Of course, the Lord wishes to...

WORD 2day: Friday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 26, 2020: 2 Kings 25: 1-12; Matthew 8: 1-4

The first reading today is an anticlimax... everything seems finished, everything seems done and dusted, all that has been seems useless at a point in life. This is what we call the breaking point. Each one reaches that in life, at some moment or the other. How one deals with it, depends much on what one has done the rest of the time in life - that is, how one has prepared onself for varied experiences of this kind, in life. 

Talk of depression, stress and anxiety disorders are more these days - not because the situation all around has gotten worse than what it has always been. It is because we have become less prepared for all that life can offer us in time. We are prepared for good times and for jubilations, but for trying moments and tribulations? Are we not seeing that from the way people panic when crises of the sort we are facing today world over, comes our way?

When the man asks Jesus to cure him, if he wishes to, Jesus says, "of course, I wish to!" That is what the Lord tells us today: of course, I wish to be with you, strengthen you and help you out at times of trials and difficulties - but what can I do, you have accustomed yourself to doing things by yourself, to taking things under your own control, deciding things on your own and working on things on merely your own terms! I don't seem to have a place in your life! 

Of course, the Lord wants to, but are we willing to go into the presence of the Lord and surrender ourselves, and say, "if you wish to...do what you wish with me!"

God is in charge!

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

June 8, 2020: I Kings 17:1-6; Matthew 5: 1-12

We have today the all famous 'Beatitudes' from the Gospel according to Mathew. Jesus explains to us a set of blessedness, a definition that goes contrary to the definitions of the so called 'ordinary world'. It seems as if St. Paul took the cue from here to write those beautiful wisdom: "Do not be conformed to the world, but... discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2).

The Blessedness that Jesus presents is not something that demands that I do a lot of things and that I prove myself to be a great success in unbelievable feats! It just consists in surrendering to the Lord and realising that in everything, and in spite of everything, 'God is incharge!' 

The situation today all around the world, though seems more tolerated than a few weeks ago, seems all intriguing and challenging. Not just gotten over with a crisis so bad, we already see riots on the streets, war cries on the horizon and unnecessary feuds on the cards... situations such as these that try our patience, persons who get on to our nerves, moments that challenge our will to belong to and trust in God and temptations that avow to take us away from God...they are bound to be there... may be this day, may be this week we begin, or any day in my daily life: but what is going to be my attitude? 

Let us have a look at the attitude of Elijah in the first reading: he surrenders, and surrenders totally! That is the model, that is the example, that is the attitude of the beatitude, that is the mentality that realises, accepts and believes that in everything, 'God is incharge!' When I do that, my needs will be miraculously met: even a raven could do the bidding of the Lord, don't we see?

WORD 2day: 2nd August, 2016

The Courage to Wait

Tuesday, 18th week in Ordinary Time

Jer 30: 1-2,12-15,18-22; Mt 14: 22-36

Waiting seems an undue demand on persons these days. Traffic, queues, public modes of transport...everywhere this is the feeling I had recently - people resent to wait. With the Lord, there is no other way to peace than to wait... for God lives in eternity!

Jeremiah today speaks of an imminent and wholesome intervention by God on behalf of the people of Israel. All this while he would be taking to task those people who spoke of a positive change of the times, he would find fault and challenge them. But now they are all silenced, but Jeremiah speaks of it: restoring, rebuilding and raising Israel back from its dust, to be God's people.

Jesus' intention was to state without doubt the fact that whatever happens the Lord never leaves us- be it storming sea or the threatening world around. The last word is the Lord's and we need to wait till the last word is said! It takes enormous courage to do that. Our patience runs dry, our ground appears to give way, our trust shifts focus and our minds begin to question. When every thing around us seems to be going wrong, can we just hold the hands of the Lord and keep walking come what may... that requires the courage to wait!

MERCILENT 2016 - 16th March

BE FREE: Hold on to One, True God

Wednesday, 5th week in Lent

Dan 3: 52-56; Jn 8: 31-42

Freedom of the Children of God - is a phrase that we are used to hearing. What a tremendous sense it makes when we seriously think about that fact, that we are children of God. It makes us free, secure and sincere!

Free because we need not think of pleasing anybody else, we need not compromise to favour someone else other than my God who is beyond anybody or anything. All the furnace around me cannot consume me. All the predators around me cannot prey on me. Because I am a child of God and even amidst the fire, the Lord walks beside me!

Secure because the one who is with me is the most trustworthy one you can ever think of - One who keeps promises, One who keeps back nothing from me for the sake of my happiness, One who treasures me having written my name on His palm.

Sincere because I have no necessity to hold on to anything that is not true. I need not put up an appearance, I need not prove myself beyond what  I really am, I need not be anxious about whether I will be rejected or sidelined, I need not bother how dire the consequences will be. I have come to bear witness to the Truth, said my Master. That is the same vocation I share.

My Lord is my Master and I am liberated, I am free and I don't have to fear anything!

The Mercilent Attitude for today: Do not fear; Just feel Free and act Sincere!

THE WORD IN ADVENT - 1st THURSDAY

The Advent Task: Trusting in the Rock

3rd December,  2014

Is 26: 6-10; Mt 7: 21, 24-27

The way things are done today and the things that practically work today seem to suggest that there are ways and means to get things done rather than trusting them into God's hands. We worry about things as if everything depended on us and as if they are totally within our capacity. We tend to think of God only at the end of it all,  when we feel nothing else had really worked!

Trust in the the Lord forever, the Lord is the everlasting Rock, says the first reading; while the Gospel challenges us to move from a fake and shallow relationship with God towards founding our lives on the rock! Founding our lives on the Rock,  trusting the Lord our Rock,  does not mean an empty jargon or a figure of speech. It is a concrete dependence on the Lord and the Lord's will on a daily basis, convinced to do just what the Lord wants and whatever the Lord wants!

Hand in hand with God

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 26th July, 2015

2 Kgs 4: 42-44; Eph 4: 1-6; Jn 6: 1-15

The times are bad...those are the words that we hear from almost all contexts today. Economic or Cultural or Moral or Political or Religious... every corner human existence seems to echo this judgement invariably. Need, misery, unbalanced growth, neglect of a majority, domination of a few, loss of meaning and a sort of helplessness that fills the minds of every person with good will... that is what the scene looks like today!

What am I going to do? That is the most pertinent question at the moment. Am I going to give in to that sense of helplessness and hopelessness. That cannot be a Christian attitude, says the Word today. I need to work hand in hand with God and things will surely change. I am fond of a movie titled, I am Gabriel, which begins and ends with the same shot - a shot of village name board. In the opening shot the board reads, 'where good things never happen' and the closing shot has the same board and the same reading, with that "never" erased! Where good things happen! Nothing much has changed; just a word removed and the entire sense changed. Even in that village during the movie, nothing much happens but the entire village goes through a revival! How do we revive the earth, and the humanity... by acting hand in hand with God.

GIVE... a heart to give - that is the essential correction needed for the humanity today. We need to have a heart to give, to give with all our heart. That is what God does. God gives, and gives, and gives! When we begin to grow within us a heart to give, truly give not merely of what we do not want, nor of what is excess with us but of ourselves and of what we actually need and of all that we have, that is Giving after the heart of God. God is essentially a Giver! Elijah is ready to Give, Jesus wants to Give, God is every ready to Give! Do I have the heart to Give?

OTHERS...an eye for the others - is the radical perspective that needs to guide the humanity today. People have ceased to think of the other. Whether a daily scene of jostling in the public places like railway stations or bus terminuses or the national politics and policy lobbying...every where humanity has grown cold to the other, thinking only of the self, only of the petty private interest. Even when they think of the common good, they think of what is common to a small circle to where they belong, and not the Greater Common Good...the good of the whole humanity, the good of the wholeworld - Lokasamgraha, Sarvodhaya, vasudhaiva kutumbakam,  Universal brotherhood and Sisterhood, the care for the Common Home...these have become merely wishful thinking!

DO... determined to do - is the fundamental mindset that will redeem the situation today. At times the good willed persons can lose heart seeing the enormity of the opposition. But that will only be a curse on ourselves. The Word today presents to us the determination of the man who brought the barley loaves to Elijah, Philip who brought the boy with the few loaves to Jesus...they knew what they were doing actually is nothing before the task that lay before them, but they were kind of determined about what they were doing. The One Lord who takes care of everything, the One Lord who is aware of everything, the One Lord who just waiting for us to do our part and take our responsible place in this humanity, will see to the needed revival. The Lord will provide the change that is needed for the times, but the times require that we act hand in hand with God. 

In Giving, in being sensitive to the Others, and in being determined to Do..., we act hand in hand with God, infact we initiate the very thing that God wants to do.

WORD 2day: 6th July, 2015

The Trust levels

Monday. 14th week in Ordinary Time

Gen 28: 10-22; Mt 9: 18-26

The Word presents to us today 4 levels of trust and may be we would do well to analyse ourselves and find out where we fit in.

If I come back safe... we see Jacob still at the level of hypothesising  trust.He wishes to remain faithful to the Lord if the Lord protects him.

If only I touch the Lord... we see the woman with hemorrhage confident that she will be healed on fulfilling certain conditions, a conditional trust that operates on cause and effect logic.

Though my daughter is dead...we see that official referred to here telling the Lord,my daughter is just dead! But that she was already dead was not a problem to him, because he had placed on the Lord an Absolute Trust that nothing is impossible for God.

Where do we stand in these levels of trust in the Lord? Hopefully, we are not in the fourth category which is the people who were standing around and mocking Jesus as he entered to raise the girl...they are the heroes of the nether world.