A sure ground to stand on

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

June 9, 2021: 2 Corinthians 3: 4-11; Matthew 5: 17-19

What was celebrated good one day, is not considered good any more another day. What seems true today is soon proved a lie another day. A court finds one gravely guilty, a higher court acquits the same person as totally innocent! What is criticised one day, is identified as a norm another day. We are living in times of change! Can we base our life on facts as flimsy as these?

Even the covenant made with the people of the Old Testament is something that has become outdated with time, claims St. Paul in the first reading! Oh, what an alarming situation it is then! But he himself clarifies, that outdated covenant has been replaced with another covenant, that will never change or never expire - a covenant that is sealed forever by the blood of Christ! And Jesus give us another similar assurance.

Jesus refers to the only sure foundation we have: the foundation of rock, the foundation of the Word and the Holy Will of God. Nothing, not a dot, not a line shall go unfinished says Jesus. A sure foundation, an unfailing ground, a never expiring assurance, that comes in the person of Jesus, who reveals to us the true, One and Only God who is all love and goodness. In following the Lord, the Absolute love, the unconditional Good, we have a surity of peace, joy and love. When we go against what God is and what God expects from us, we have all the miseries we face in these days!

At times people place so much of confidence in persons who are around, that when they feel let down they feel as if the whole earth under their feet is giving way - just think of the famous 'break-ups', 'depressions', and other phenomenon people experience these days. We have nothing to assail us because we have a great wall of defence, a sure foundation in the Lord. 

Let us realise, we are standing on the promises of God, and that is a sure ground to stand on!

Growing in Christian Faith: Rootedness to the Foundation

 THE WORD IN LENT: Wednesday, 3rd week in Lent

March 10, 2021: Deuteronomy 4: 1,5-9; Matthew 5: 17-19

 

The Commandments were nothing but the expressed wish of the Lord who brought the people up to their status of God's people. It was actually the human side of the covenant that God made with us: on God’s part God loves us forever without end, and on our part, we are called to keep the commandments as a sign to say we love God!

 

The Old Testament people felt assured that when they walked in the path of the commandments, they were on the right track. At times this assurance, and the anxiety to hold on to this assurance, made them even highly legalistic. However, their respect for the law of the Lord, their zeal for the commandments and the attachment to the Word of the Lord was always commendable.

Though Jesus stood tooth and nail against legalism, he too respected the commands of the Lord and taught his disciples how to make it humanly possible to abide by those commandments. The expressed wish of the Father, was something sacred and holy to Jesus and he declared that they are never changing, eternal and foundational for our faith. 

 

Our faith, that is, our rapport with the Lord, our faithfulness to God has to be based firmly on something. And Jesus offers the right solution: the Word of the Lord. The Word which contains the expressed wish of the Father, the Word that will never perish, is the Rock foundation on which our faith has to be established! Whoever obeys and teaches these, will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 

Let us uphold our rootedness to our foundations!

 

The Promise, the bread and the Word!

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

February 13, 2021: Genesis 3: 9-24; Mark 8: 1-10

The Word in its entirety today, brings to us the deep connection that exists among the three key terms of our Christian faith: the promise, the bread and the Word. 

The multiplication of the bread in the Gospel, is but a symbolic episode of the continuity that exists between the God of Old Testament and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ / the God who provided, in a deserted placed, to a multitude of people and from almost nowhere - Jesus provides food; gives them bread to eat, juts as the Father gave them food, manna from heaven to eat.

The bread is not merely a bread to eat, but a sign of God'promise. You shall be my people and I shall be your God, was God's promise and God lived, and has lived faithful to it, all the time. Come what may, sun shine or nay, God is faithful in God's ways, each and every one of our days. God promised that we would be redeemed by an offspring from a woman...and we are! The promise lies open to us and we stand firm on it, not because we deserve it but because the Lord our God is faithful to it. 

The Word is the incarnation of the promise, and the Word comes to us every day in varied forms, including the form of the bread, the bread of the Covenant, the mystery of our redemption: the Eucharist. The Eucharist embodies all the three elements of the promise, the bread and the Word... it is a daily reminder of the goodness and the faithfulness of God.

Let our celebration of the Eucharist today, be a true thanksgiving to the goodness of God in which we are saved!

New People: with and in Christ

WORD 2day: Friday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 22, 2021: Hebrew 8:6-13; Mark 3: 13-19

New covenant, new people, new faith, new community, new life: for behold I make all things new. ..this is the theme that dominated the life of the early Christians. And that was what made them so attractive. Their life style and values brought freshness and zest for life. All this newness came from one fundamental experience - the experience of a new relationship with Christ and in Christ.

Their relationship with Christ defined their new existence. Their identities were renewed and their lives were transformed, Christ and relationship with Christ was not one of the things that marked their meaning to life, but was that which pervaded their entire life and reality, changing every bit of life and its significance.

Another salient feature of their new found life was their relationships in Christ - in Christ they found a new relationship with God and with one another. Their relationship with Christ affected their relationships in Christ... they began to see themselves as sons and daughters of God, beloved and blessed; they found in each other true brothers and sisters in Christ, bonded in love and not bound by some give and take transaction. Their relationships in Christ created a whole new society, a whole new world!

Let us make this two-fold reflecttion today: how is my relationship with Christ who wishes to draw me closer to himself every day; and how are my relationships with others founded in Christ? These will make us New people with and in Christ!

The Remnant and the Rest

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 5, 2020: Dedication of the Basilica of Mary Major - Our Lady of Snows

Jeremiah  31: 1-7; Matthew 15: 21-28

The theme of yesterday continues, the unending faithfulness and love of God. The Lord renews the covenant with the people in spite of their failures because the Lord had always loved them with an everlasting love. Today the Word warns us that those who will finally taste the fruits of God's faithfulness are the remnant and the rest of the people who come by and stick to the Lord.

The Remnant - these are those who choose to differ from the mainstream inspired  by a genuine conviction and sincere effort to be integral. They are remnant because, they are the few who remain, who choose to remain, combating all the lures of the times and the wiles of the evil one, all for the sake of being with God.

The Rest are those who are least expected to be favoured in the eyes of the Lord. The world has its own criteria of judgement - the acceptable, the chosen, the privileged, the gifted, the special and so on; but the Lord has a totally different set of criteria... single minded dedication to the Lord, genuine love for God's people and authentic life after the mind of God.

A feast like today - the dedication of a Basilica from the 5th century... reminds us of our tradition that dates centuries and even millennia... but what does that matter if we do not today, here and now, within our hearts and in our own personal lives do no live by what the Lord wants: do not conform to the world;  instead be transformed in Christ into new beings!

The grand basilica stands in reminder of the Reign of God which is mighty bigger and wider than this... waiting for everyone to enter and become sons and daughters. But unfortunately, those who will finally enter will be only the Remnant and the Rest!

Note: if you wish to listen to a very short history of this feast day, click the link:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/dedication-of-saint-mary-major-basilica/