Cross: Salvific Suffering for the sake of the Other

THE WORD IN THE HOLY WEEK

Another Passion Week amidst the Pandemic - the Good Friday

April 2, 2021: Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42

Thinking of the Cross in relation to the pandemic is no difficult thing, it syncs naturally. So many different crosses, directly due to the disease and the indirectly due to its related effects.  The disease itself, the strange symptoms and the stranger lines of action like quarantine and isolation, the loss of dear ones, the still unclear state of the virus and its nature, the power and control that the moneyed have over the rest of the world, the ironic fact of how both the rich and the poor are affected by it, the silent cries of the millions and economic crises of families as well as societies... all these are crosses that we have faced during the time of pandemic which is still going on and threatens to prolong itself much more!

Amidst such experiences, how do we make sense of the Cross? "...ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried' - the words of Isaiah that prefigured the passion of Christ, give us a clue to understand what a true Cross is. Cross is not any suffering. Cross is not merely any inconvenience experienced in any mode. Cross is salvific, a suffering or an inconvenience, that brings a salvific grace to you and to others, is what can be called a Cross: this is the lesson that Jesus on the Cross offers us today. 

Cross is Salvific. Not any suffering is a cross...what if I chose to do all the wrong things and as a conequence, I face the suffering - is that a cross, merely because it is a suffering? What if I knew well where it was taking me, still I either actively or passively submitted myself to things that were very clearly enslaving and entrapping - could the resultant sufferings be called a cross just because it tears my life asunder? What if I deliberately chose to be arrogant and self-centred and as a result I feel abandoned and alone, languishing in loneliness and pain - could it be called a cross just because it gives me pain and burden? No... these are not salvific, these are choices that I make and the consequences that I have incurred. Cross, though heavy and burdensome, elevates me, raises me up to experience the mighty presence of God. If it has to be so, then, Cross is submission to God's will and Cross is taken up for the sake of others!

Cross is submission to God's will: "Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering" says the letter to the Hebrews. "Not mine, but your will be done," prayed Jesus as he took up the will of God. Cross is suffering in submission to the will of God. It is transcending rebellion and complaint; it is growing up to see the salvific nature of a suffering because it is accepted in submission to God's will. During these days of suffering due to the pandemic and its aftermath, how prepared are we to submit ourselves to God and God's will? How prepared are we to see the presence of God, even through the dark valley of insecurity, incertitude and inadvertent sufferings?

Cross is taken up for the sake of others: The pandemic has taught us this - wearing the masks, is not for myself but for others; staying in quarantine is not primarily for myself, but for others; giving up the normal pleasures of life, like going for entertainment and recreation, is not for myself, but for others! Without looking at the practicality and rightness of these directives, when I am able to take it upon myself for the sake of the others, those inconveniences becomes salvific - that is truly a Cross, from Christ-ian point of view! When I am ready to bear the burden, go the extra mile, do an extra sacrifice, exert a little more my energy and suffer an unnecessary trouble for the sake of others, not for my own benefit, that is a Cross and it is salvific: it serves others and saves me! 

Today from the Cross the Lord speaks to us - for you I have taken up all these suffering! How much suffering are you prepared for, for the sake of the other? Cross, is the Salvific Suffering for the sake of the other... are you prepared?

ON OUR WAY TO BEING GOD'S LOVE

Channels, Admirers or Bearers?

March 14, 2021: 4th Sunday of Lent - Laetare Sunday

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2: 4-10; John 3: 14-21

For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Son, that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life (Jn 3:16)... the Word presents in this verse, the crux of the mystery of God's love! St. Paul would elaborate on this when he says, "God who did not spare God's own son, will not withhold anything from us!" (Cf. Rom 8:32). God's love for us has been so undeservedly deep! What is our response? 

The fourth sunday of Lent is called the Laetare Sunday...or Rejoicing Sunday, within the Lent! It is because we are already prompted to think about Resurrection right in the middle of the season of the passion of Christ. Just to remind us, despite all suffering and temptation, what awaits is the crown that the Lord has prepared for us - because God loves us! Not because we deserve it, but because God has decided to love us, right till the end!

God's love for us is so deep, so undeservedly deep! And what response do we give...the Word educates us to it, this Sunday. There are three persons presented to us and may be we can take a lesson from each of them. 

The first person is Cyrus, the King of Persia, who released the people of Israel from their exile in Babylon. Cyrus, was not a believer in Yahweh; neither did he know the Lord or come to accept the Lord. But he was considered by the people of Israel as a messiah who acted on behalf of Lord God and gave them the long-yearned-for freedom. They could come back to their homeland and once again feel loved by God. Cyrus becomes a channel of the love of God... not that he experienced the love of God! Though he might have had the opportunity, we do no judge the person of Cyrus, but he chose to remain a mere channel through whom the love of God came to the people, without even affecting him in any decisive way. 

This is one kind of response we can give to the love of God - that we become passive channels of the love of God. God in God's almightiness, can use any means to communicate God's love. And we can become one such channels - it is a very instrumental understanding of the role we play... nothing of myself is changed but through me others might feel the love of God. But what a loss for me, that I did not drink in, what I was passing on to the others. Some examples that come to our mind in this context are persons who are considered good, loving, lovable, kind and gentle...but suddenly they take an unfortunate decision to end their lives by themselves! Everyone known to them, starts wondering, what was wrong, because so many experienced goodness through these persons, but they themselves end up so desperate. When so many are capable of seeing, experiencing God's love in me, but I myself do not really recognise it or enjoy  it or be transformed by it...I am just being a channel of God's love, because God uses me! But how unfortunate that I don't know what I am missing - God's love so undeservedly deep.

The second person we are given to encounter today in the Word is, Nicodemus, a just Jew! He was someone who admired Jesus, he even loved Jesus, he was eager to listen to Jesus, but the sad thing...he could not decide to follow him! He was too afraid of his circumstances, the respect of his fellow Jews, the fear of losing the status as the teacher of the rabbis...he did not dare even to meet Jesus in the broad day light. That is why he comes today in the cover of the night to meet him and listen to him - oh, how he admired Jesus, but what is the use?

When Jesus the love of God is revealed to us, we could also respond this way: as just admirers; admirers from far, admirers in secret; admirers under cover. We know so much, we understand it all, but we cannot speak about it or witness to it...for fear of so many things. Because we fear being called old fashioned, because we don't want to be called pietistic, because we are afraid of being branded 'religious', because we wish to be modern or post-modern, because we want to keep abreast with the latest fashion of questioning everything and making fun of everything, because we want to identify ourselves with the so-called scientific world...we at times are prepared to forego the immense love that awaits us, the love that comes across to us in varied ways! In spite of knowing well what it is and what it is that we are missing, we choose to miss it, because we consider something else more important! How sad it is again, that we remain mere admirers of the love of God without really getting it into our selves - our body, heart, mind and soul!

The third person we meet today, is the one through whom the Word speaks so powerfully - St. Paul, the Apostle... he uses the very same terms of Jesus: the words, 'God loved us with so much love, that...' - they sound just as Jesus said, 'for God so loved the world, that...' St. Paul understood how much God loves us, how God chose us from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), how God does not spare anything for our sakes (Rom 8), how God sent God's own son even when we were sinners (Rom 5:8) and how God's love is poured into our hearts (Rom 5:5). He was someone opposed to this love, thinking all the time about the law and the rule and the Jewish supremacy, but when he was touched by that love, he gave in, he gave himself up fully! He admired God's love, became a channel of God's love and he grew gradually towards becoming that love - be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1), he said.

This is the response that we are expected to grow towards: to become God's love ourselves. Just as Jesus was God's love, we are called to become God's love - that is, persons who bear God's love to the others, specially to those who are in need of it most. Being bearers of God's love would presume that we have known that love, tasted it, and are filled with it, that we share it with everyone whom we come into contact with. Bearing God's love to the other is not merely doing something for the other, it is not giving something or making something for the other - it is being God's love to them. Our very beings need to be transformed by God's love. The lenten practices should lead us to that: not merely to some self inflicted pain that bears no fruit for the other, but a continual and gradual transformationof selves, that we become God's love to those around us!

However, with the personal weaknesses and the temptations, with the kind of characters around and the troubling situations, with the concerns we have and the burdens of worldly responsibilities, it becomes tremendously difficult to pursue that call: to be true bearers of God's love! But that should not worry us, as long as we are constantly, in our will and in our efforts, on our way, on this journey towards being God's love to the world and everyone around us! 

ON OUR WAY TO THE CROSS

The folly of God

March 7, 2021: 3rd Sunday in Lent
Exodus 20: 1-17; 1 Corinthians 1: 22-25; John 2: 13-25

 

The Crucifix is the symbol of "the foolishness of God", says St. Paul today. Where does the folly lie - in the fact that God loves humanity beyond all the limitations and defects found in it. True love not only does not hurt, but takes the hurt on itself without any complaints. The Crucifix, apart from being the sign of this great love that God has for God’s children, it is a standing message from God, a lesson for whole Christian living and a reminder of what we are and what we are up to. It is a challenge that invites us to be mindful that in our daily Christian life we are on our way to the Cross!

On our way to the Cross – that is a description of our life as Christians; that is the call given to each of us disciples of Christ to grow towards; and it is also a check on our way, to ensure we remain on the right path all through our lives!

The Cross is a Judgement

Whenever we see the Crucifix it has to remind us of the wretchedness of humanity. The first reading speaks to us of the covenant, the contract, made between the people and the Lord and the Cross, as the Gospel presents to us is the picture of all the atrocities humanity ventured into, disrespecting all those commandments. Just as that day when Jesus had to take the whip against them, so does the Cross today convict us of our failures and atrocities today! What was happening at the temple was an outright breach of the covenant…and the same is happening all over the world today – injustice and inhumanity, ungodliness and devilish craze for power and possession is making humanity so wretched. The Cross is a summary of all these!

The commandments given to the people ensured the right place for God and the right place for one's brothers and sisters. Both of these were at stake in the Temple as Jesus saw it, that was the reason for Jesus' anger flaring up against them: that they pushed God out of the Temple area and they pushed the poor and the penniless out of the bounds of the temple area. This was unacceptable to Jesus, the greatest of prophets of God, the Son of God, the righteousness of God! The Cross is not merely a symbol of love but a reminder of our wretchedness, and what we made of God’s love for us.

The Cross is the Salvation

In the Cross, Jesus did not only take on himself our suffering and sin, he took on himself our weaknesses and shame too! That is why over and beyond the judgement we have in the act of rejecting God, we are assured and affirmed that we are loved by God, loved immensely and unconditionally – can we ever understand it? No, we cannot, because it is foolishness and has no rationale…it is the folly of God! That is where our salvation lies – that we are loved, not because we deserve it but because God has deigned it so. God has promised us God would love us and God so loved us that God gave the Son, for our life and resurrection. The Cross is the summary of this love, of this folly.

The Cross saves in the very fact that Christ became human like us, lived and died like us and showed us we are all on our way to the Cross and we have the responsibility of choosing the Cross to be saved. It is an offer, a gift, a grace and at the same time a challenge, a call and a commitment required of us to choose the Cross. There are umpteen alternatives proposed by the world and the culture around – what is going to be my choice? That shall decide whether I shall be saved or not. The Cross saves.

The Cross is the Law

The Crucifix is the epitome of the Christian law – Jesus summarised the entire set of commandments of the people of God into one word: Love. And he gave us the spelling of that word as, C R O S S. Taking up pains not for my own sake but for the will of God, taking up challenges not to prove myself but for the sake of the good of the other, taking up sufferings on myself not to show how heroic I am but to show that there is meaning in living for others and living for love… that is the way to the Cross. That is the law given to us as brothers and sisters of the Son of God, the Lord of the Cross. The Cross is the guideline given to us.

There is an episode narrated in the life of St. John Bosco, who had invited his elderly mother to come and stay with him and take care of his orphan and street kids. The elderly woman was so exhausted with the ruffians that the kids were, in a very short time. She went to her son and told him she could not manage and she wants to leave. Don Bosco in a gentle voice told her, “Mother please feel free to leave. I do not want to force you. But before you leave just have a deep look at this and do what you wish” and he pointed to her the crucifix that hung on the wall. Mamma Margaret, changed her mind and remained in the Oratory taking care of those kids, until her death!

Today, as Jesus entered the temple, so does he enter our lives, our personal lives, our family lives, the life in our faith communities, the life in our societies... what would be his reaction. Just take stock: have we given the right place to God, and the right place to our brothers and sisters? Are we really on our way to the Cross?

We know, the right place or the right perspective is not the order of the day! What is the sign that the Lord poses in front of our eyes: not the whip but the Cross, the Crucifix! That is the folly of God. The love of the Lord takes the pain on itself; the crucifix reminds us that every time we hurt humanity, we hurt the Lord; the continual inhumanities perpetrated, the rising crimes against the weak and the voiceless, these are clear signs that the world stands in need of repentance and conversion!

The folly of God, the crucifix alone can drive home the true lesson: love until it hurts!

Love never hurts!

Remembering the Mother of Sorrows

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 15, 2020: Remembering the sorrows of our Blessed Mother
Hebrews 5: 7-9; John 19: 25-27

A heart pierced with an arrow is a famous symbol today, a symbol very romantic. But there was a heart that was once told: one day a sword shall pierce you! And that heart remained patient and open, and bore that piercing for the sake of that one "yes" that was pronounced at the beginning of the string of those events.

The Mother of Sorrows is an icon that challenges us to understand the meaning of Christian living. As St. Paul would say, 'the reign of God is not a matter of food and drink, enjoyment and fun, a romantic feeling or a colourful happening'. It is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 14:17). Righteousness, requires a hunger and thirst for it (cf Mt 5:6); Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit consist of doing the will of the God, come what may. 

Following immediately the Exaltation of the Cross, the feast of today, establishes the truth that, in living a Christian life, there are a certain things clearly difficult and demanding. It requires an absolute choice to live a truly 'Christian' life  to the full. Mary was not merely the biological mother of Jesus, she was the first disciple who heard what Jesus said and put them into practice - thus becoming mother even by the definition that Jesus gave: those who hear my words and put them into practice, are my mothers, brothers and sisters. 

Mary made that choice and stuck to it right from the beginning and right up to the end and thanks to that choice, she had to undergo great traumas and odds. That is what we celebrate today. In fact, this humble but great person has shown us what it means to be a disciple of Christ, the Lord of the Cross! 

May our Blessed Mother, strengthen our spirits, increase our endurance and deepen our faith, to believe in the Lord, in and through our sufferings. 

Look up and be loved!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 14, 2020: The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Numbers 21: 4b-9; John 3:13-17

We have today a beautiful remembrance, the celebration of the Christian symbol of Love: the Cross. The Cross is taken more often than not, as a symbol of suffering! Yes, it was a symbol of suffering, until the loving Lord took it into his embrace, on his shoulders and climbed on it to give his life for us...all this out of the limitless love he had for us! He changed its meaning and ever since, the cross has come to symbolise love, the unconditional, limitless and boundless love that the Lord has for us.

Hence the feast that we celebrate today gives us a fundamental lesson for living our daily life: Look Up to the Lord and Be Loved!

Look Up: 

At times we are lost in the troubles that we have, in the daily struggles and everyday chores; so lost in those that we have time only to murmur, to lament and to complain. We do not have the patience and the capacity to look up! Look Up, look beyond, look upon high and you will see the horizon that will give you hope. Our troubles are big, our concerns are challenging, but the horizon is there, the silver lining is there...we have to look up to notice that. Hope is the key to Christian way of life. 

Look to the Lord:

Let us look to the Lord; it is from the Lord that our help comes! The Psalms further insist: Look upto Him and be radiant (34:5). 'Looking Up' alone is not enough, we can be deceived or distracted or misled. Looking to the Lord is the key to Christian Problem Solving. Unless through the Son of God who has come down from heaven, no one can go to the Father who is in heaven, says the Gospel today. The real solutions to our problems lie in the hands of God: it is in looking to the Lord that we will have life, life in all its fullness. It is a call to refrain from telling the Lord that our problems are big; but a call to tell our problems that our Lord is big and mighty!

Be Loved:

The Lord is filled with love, a total self emptying love that does not count the cost! God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that we have eternal life. The Son so loved the world that he gave everything up, and showed his love in the total self-giving on the Cross. We are promised a measure of love that no human mind can comprehend, because it is eternal and limitless. Such is God's love for us, but nothing can be done if I keep myself away from it. When I claim that love, in total obedience and surrender unto the Lord, I feel loved! When I rebel and keep myself away, I prevent myself from experiencing that love which is so present all around me. The key is allowing myself to be loved by God, seeing myself as being loved by God, identifying myself as the beloved child of God. 

As we exalt the Cross today, as we sing praises to the One who is lifted high for our salvation, let us resolve to Look Up, to Look to Him and to Let ourselves be loved! 

CRISES WITH CHRIST - Part 1

Facing CRISES WITH CHRIST on our side 

Life is to be lived happily – do you agree? It seems so obviously agreeable, given the insistence of the world today on maximum comfort, optimum pleasure and absolute convenience. But looking at things from a Christian purview of life, this may not be an indubitably right perspective of life.

What then would be right? Can it be then, that life is to be suffered through? Sounds so inhuman, doesn’t it? Is the author of life, God, so heartless a Being to create and programme life as a course of bitter suffering and endless pain - and just these and nothing else? Again, a perspective that is holistically Christian cannot subscribe to such a negative vision of human life, which could lead to aberrations ranging from a naïve sadism to an ultra-rigorous asceticism.

The truth stands, not merely in the midway but, in an altogether higher plane: life is to be lived to the full. That is what the Saviour declared as the very purpose of his human advent: I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness (cf. Jn 10:10). Life in its fullness would mean, life considered in all its dimensions and facets: sufferings and joys, victories and trials, happiness and doubts, celebrations and crises! It is the adroitness with which a person is able to face both the extremes of life’s sway, that the fullness of his or her living can be judged. Not losing one’s perspective amidst felicitous moments and not fumbling for meaning at life’s staggering instances are equally signs of living one’s life to the full.

The sanitary crisis that the world has plunged into in the past half of the year and the lockdown experience that has augmented the concomitants of the pandemic and made itself a multi-dimensional crisis of humanity, revealing its ugly tentacles clutching the economic, social, international wellbeing of humanity. It is here that a Christian reflection on such an experience becomes an important Gospel that needs to be announced these days. In simple terms, how could we live this lockdown with the Lord, is a pertinent question today. In a wider vision, it has to be a reflection on how to face crises in life with Christ on our side.

This reflection cannot but begin with the Cross – the centre and the summit of all Christian experience. Is Cross a sadistic or rigouristic symbol, that the world could dub as a block to human happiness and joyful existence? Is it all about pain and death, giving up and enduring injustice? Certainly, these would invariably be an outsider’s uninformed and unschooled views on the Cross, which is veritably not merely a symbol, but an event, a watershed, a succinct summary of the relationship between God and human persons, from Christ’s point of view. But for a Christian?

The Cross stands for faith in love. For God so loved the world, that God sent God’s only Son to die on the Cross, that everyone who believed in him could be saved (cf Jn 3:16). The Cross or the sufferings of Christ were born out of love that God the Father and Mother had for humanity, that is, for God’s children. Secondly, the Cross stands for love that is manifested in self-giving. The life, suffering and death of Christ were his manifestation of his love for his brothers and sisters, those whom he wanted to reconcile to the One who sent him. After all, did he not declare, ‘there can be no greater love than one laying down one’s life for one’s friends’ (cf Jn 15:13)? Thirdly, therefore for Christ-ians, the Cross stands out as a reminder of the call to a life that is lived in the Lord. St. Paul summarised that in his testimony: for me to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil 1:21). These perspectives on the Cross throw an enormous light on the way we live our life these days with the crisis at our doorsteps, for some unfortunately right within the household!

Pope Francis’ words, recorded into a compilation recently published titled, Life after the Pandemic, recalls to us: “if we act as one people even in the face of the other pandemics that threaten us, we can make a real impact […]. May we find within us the necessary antibodies of justice, charity and solidarity. We must not be afraid to live the alternative civilisation of love […]. In this time of tribulation and mourning, I hope that, where you are, you will be able to experience Jesus, who comes to meet you, greets you and says, “Rejoice” (Mt. 28:2). And may this greeting mobilise us to invoke and amplify the Good news of the Kingdom of God.” Truly hope giving words from the Pontiff who made the whole world turn its eyes to the empty Square which was filled that rainy evening with the joys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the entire humanity! The world has tried to move on from there, but has not succeeded to a great extent in it. The crisis seems to persist and its aftereffects seem more threatening than ever. The Pandemic still hanging around, how do we handle it, in a Christ-like mode?

The term pandemic seems to contain within it a related reaction: panic! It seems a natural and immediate reaction, but to say the least: the most un-Christ-ian at it! Where does panic come from? From fear; fear which is absence of security, absence of knowledge, absence of light, absence of clarity – in short, fear which is absence of love. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love, says John in his epistle (1 Jn 4:18). Let us not give into the temptation of judging the so-called preachers and evangelists, who dare so doltishly to interpret this pandemic as a punishment on humanity and its wiles. Steering clear of those credulous claims, we need to remain calm, but vigilant, during these moments of disease and danger, because we have the Lord with us, come what may! The storms may blow, the arrows may fly and thousands may fall all around us, and some even on us, but the presence of the Lord is always with us and if we truly love the Lord, we have the assurance: ‘all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose’ (Rom 8:28). To panic is to doubt, to abandon the ever-present love of God.

Another related outcome, again alliterative with pandemic, is pandemonium! This is by far what is created by some, who unfortunately find themselves in the driving seat of the societies today! Pandemonium is simply a lack of order, a confusion, a chaos, an anarchy that arises out of a lack of logic! Stigmatising socially those who are infected with COVID-19, refusing burial grounds, overreacting to news and numbers regarding the disease, believing in myths and illogical rationale, promoting false propaganda with no proper grounds, blame game of the governments and officials, callous oversimplification of serious issues involved – have we not seen all of these in the past months? Apart from demeaning the rational capabilities of the homo sapiens and questioning the very existence of common sense, these have been from a Christian point of view, lack of compassion and horrendous acts of denial of human dignity! While we are reminded to never tire ourselves of doing what is right (2 Thes 1:13), these are diametrically opposed to what is good, what is true and what is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord (Eph 5:9-10). Creating or giving into a pandemonium, can never be a Christian response to a crisis in life. Where Christ is, there is light! Where can one find a possibility for pandemonium here?

Link:
https://indiancatholicmatters.org/icm-anniversary-special-facing-crises-with-christ-on-our-side/

Glowing for the love of God

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 20, 2020: Remembering the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Isaiah 61: 9-11; Luke 2: 41-51

Following the Sacred Heart, we remember the Immaculate Heart - so fitting and meaningful a tradition! The Heart of Mary, immaculate originally by the grace of God, but manifests more than that... a total dedication to God and the role God has to play in the salvation history of human kind.

The heart of Mary gives us three lessons to live by.

1. The heart was pierced by sorrows as Simeon predicted. In the book of Lamentations, we come across the picture of the lamenting daughter of Sion and Mary is prefigured in this imagery. But no matter how much the heart was was pierced and hurt and tortured, it always glowed for the love of God and the fulfillment of God's will.

2. The heart of Mary was absolutely open to the working of the Spirit and it was at the beck and call of the Word. We see this right from the moment she heard the greeting from the angel. Openness to the Spirit is a matter of the heart and Mary exemplifies it to the utmost.

3. The heart of Our Blessed Mother was filled with 'God-thoughts' and that was because she kept everything that was happening in her life in her heart and pondered over them. She recognised, acknowledged and accepted interventions of God in her life, and found herself being moved and animated by the Lord, the Lord's Word and the Lord's Spirit.

Imitating Mary, let us open our hearts to God, glow for God and allow ourselves to be guided by the Lord and we will experience strongly the presence of the Lord in our hearts. May the Immaculate heart of our Blessed Mother be a guide post on our journey towards the merciful heart of God, our Father and Mother. 

The real glory of a true disciple

WORD 2day: Tuesday after Ascension

May 26, 2020: Acts 20: 17-27; John 17: 1-11a

"Father the hour has come, give glory to your Son, that your Son may glorify you!" prays Jesus. The glory that he talks of is the baptism of blood, the cup of suffering that Jesus was preparing to take up! Not just himself, but all those who believed him were destined to that cup and to that baptism, says Jesus (Mk 10:39; Mt 20:23). 

St. Paul understood this perfectly. Though he knew well, instructed by the Holy Spirit, that suffering and imprisonment awaited wherever he went, he does not hesitate. He was more than prepared for the cup of suffering, for the baptism of blood! Today we hear him say that in terms so clear: I consider life of no importance to me! For him all that mattered was to carry the Good news to the farthest that he could! 

For us it sounds good, means great and appears lofty, but does it really become our way of life? Every time a suffering comes my way, the first thought that crosses my mind is, why me! And as if it were alright some other time, why now? The fact is that whatever be the moment we would ask that same question. As soon as a grief or a burden befalls someone, we have to take a giant effort to justify it and negate it and decry that God would prevent, and protect, and deliver and so on and so forth! Why all these fretting? Why are we so slow to submit ourselves to the eternal design of God? Why is it so difficult to surrender to the plan of God, instead of suggesting all types of adjustments to the Lord?

How many times I would have languished that I don't get any consolation from God for belonging to God, for being on God's side and for speaking on behalf of God! Do I really understand in Jesus' terms, the real glory of a true disciple?

The height of discipleship

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 3rd week in Easter time

April 28, 2020: Acts 7:51-8:1a; John 6:30-35

We are given the picture of the martyrdom of Stephen... the height of discipleship, giving one's life up for the sake of Truth. The real courage that is exhibited in the passage of today, where Stephen dares to say what he saw and heard, or what he was given to see and hear. 

The Gospel presents the same courage manifested by Jesus, challenging the Scribes and the Pharisees and offering himself as the bread of life; infact, Stephen is presented to us as an ideal disciple who did what Jesus did, who lived the way Jesus lived and who died the exact way Jesus died. The cue is the prayer: "Into your hands I commend my spirit". While Jesus makes that prayer to the Father, Stephen makes it to Jesus: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". This, incidentally, is the first prayer that we see, addressed to Jesus, in history. 

The height of discipleship consists in the courage to imitate the master in every little detail...in our life, our prayer, our convictions and our priorities. Today surrounded by a health crisis, what is our mental disposition? 

A disposition of fright would right away disqualify us from being convinced disciples. A disposition of rash and ruthless denial of reality and insensitive breach of the consensus for common good, again is a disqualifier for a disciple of Christ. Instead, sensitivity to the suffering, faith to see the presence of God even amidst the darkness that surrounds, the readiness to state the facts and stand for truth, the compassion to look not only at our need and our boredom but at the needs and anxieties of the hapless lot, and finally the trust in entrusting ourselves and the entire world to the Will of God - these would be true signs and the height of our discipleship today.

How close are we in our lifestyle to Jesus, our Lord and Master?

LENT 2020 - READY TO DIALOGUE?

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5: 20)

A reflection on the Holy Father's Message for Lent 2020 

Ash Wednesday, February 26

As it is customary, the Holy Father has a concrete message for the season of lent that we are about to begin. Apart from the traditional picture of  prayer, penance and philanthropy that is always so helpfully right in front of our eyes at this time of the liturgical year, Pope Francis offers us an impressive image to behold all this season - the imagery, the icon, the framework of DIALOGUE, within which everything needs to be viewed in this holy season. 

God invites us to a loving Dialogue! Conversion is a dialogue, dialogue with a love so real, so deep, so unlimited and unconditional. It is truly a dialogue, not a threatening indoctrination that God wants us to experience. It is a friendly dialogue, with our eyes fixed on the outstretched arms of the crucified Son of God. It is an appeal that God makes that we let ourselves be saved in the Spirit who sustains that daily dialogue, the dialogue of conversion, the dialogue of salvation. 

The Dialogue of Conversion is an urgent need - in prayer, in the sacraments and in the Word, a dialogue with the Master. It is urgent because conversion is not the end of a journey, but every bit of the journey where we make concrete choices, for God and against anything that would separate us from God's love.

The Dialogue of Salvation is not an empty chatter - it is a deep and profound inward journey where we are able to encounter ourselves, confront ourselves and challenge ourselves towards real sense of life and true experience of love.

The Dialogue that draws our attention to our richness - in compassion and sharing we dialogue with the others, with the world, with the society, with those who are exploited, those who are marginalised, those who are suffering, in order that we are able to build a better world, a world of justice and peace founded on the love of God. 

Lent 2020 comes with a direct challenge to each of us: are you ready to Dialogue?

Dialogue with yourself – understand the core-call that you have received from the Lord, your commitment at baptism and your heartfelt response to the unconditional love of God.

Dialogue with the Other – respect, love and share your life with the other, your neighbour, your fellow brothers and sisters, without any discriminations and divisions, as true children of God.

Dialogue with God – recognising the love that the Lord has always shown you, recognising that love on the Cross, in the suffering Son of God who came as a living proof of God’s everlasting love.

Are you ready to dialogue? 
Let us make this a season of dialogue, dialogue of conversion, dialogue of salvation. 

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Raising and the Lowering

Glorifying the Cross: 14th September, 2016

Num 21: 4-9; Phil 2: 6-11; Jn 3:13-17

The readings today are filled with the terms regarding raising and lowering - being raised by God, being raised by people, self-lowering...everything points to the element of making God the priority and making God's will the absolute criterion. God has a design and that design is the original and the absolute good that is in creation. When we tamper with it, there is a mighty big ruin that we cause. 

We know it is important for the cocoon to break itself open and the creature to squeeze itself out - only then will there be a creature so beautiful and subtle to fly around. We know it is important for the seed to bury itself in the ground, get suffocated under mud and force itself out of the ground to yield multi-fold. 

At times in spite of all the love that we have for God and despite all the goodness we possess, we find it so difficult to accept pain - pains of different kinds - psychological, physical or spiritual. The moment we are able to subject ourselves to pain with serenity, the moment we are ready to go through a bit of the darkness of the unknown, the moment we are prepared to grope a bit in the shady parts of our life...all these with complete trust that the Lord is certainly around, I begin to rise! When I rise, people will look at me and give glory to the Lord, the Lord of the Cross!

WORD 2day: 5th August, 2016

Dare to endure your share

Friday, 18th week in Ordinary Time
Nah 2:1-3,3:1-3,6-7; Mt 16: 24-28

The Lord deceives no one. The deceiver is the evil one who swears to charm people through his deceptive ways. The Lord lacks that enticing charm because the Lord goes by  truth,  that is God's Word. And the Word promises eternal life but with a price. However,  it is not an undue price. It is merely  each choosing to endure one's  own cross,  without trying to excuse oneself from it, rebel against it or bemoan it.

HOLY WEEK 2016 - The Good Friday

THE TASK: SURRENDER

25th March

Into your hands Lord I commend my Spirit...that was not merely words said by Jesus at the end of his life, it was an attitude with which he live his entire life. That is precisely why even his death proved to be a triumph.

Jesus is the High Priest, the Sacrificial Lamb and the Sacrificial Altar at one and the same time. The Sufferings of Christ become the salvation of our beings. The Cross becomes the sign through which we are saved.

Sufferings in our lives have to be faced with a sense of surrender, that they may serve to be instruments that reveal the very significance of our life. 

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Cross Talk: Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

14th September, 2015

Num 21: 4-9; Phil 2: 6-11; Jn 3:13-17

Celebrating the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, our focus is on that symbol of God's love for humanity, the Tree of our Salvation. Exalting the Cross today, we are called to hearken to the voice of the Cross. If the Cross would speak to us, we would hear these three words:

1. Look Up: Look up to the Cross and be saved. It is in and through the Cross that we have been saved. Cross is not a symbol of suffering nor a sign of curse. By choosing the Cross as his weapon and throne, Christ who has conquered the world has won God's salvation for us. In all our difficulties we are called to look up and draw hope from this Cross.

2. Be Lifted Up: When we look up, we are given the light. Those who look up to Him shall never be ashamed, promises the Word. We are invited to be lifted up by the Lord...just like the Saviour who was lifted up! The love of the Lord will lift us up, inspite of the burdens we bear and the clutches that tend to pull us down. Let us surrender, so that we can be lifted up; let us humble ourselves before the Lord that we could be lifted up by the Lord.

3. Lift Up: Once lifted up, the Son of Man would draw everyone to Himself. And once we are lifted up by the Son, we should in turn lift everyone else up to the Lord. Our life has been punctuated with so many blessings and marvels from the Lord and today, we look up, we gaze at the One who is lifted up, and be lifted up ourselves. Our life in Lord should lift up the rest of the humankind with us to the Lord that everyone may look up to Him and be saved.

WORD 2day: 7th August, 2015

Feel overburdened? ..just open your eyes!

Friday, 18th week in Ordinary Time

Dt 4: 32-40; Mt16:24-28

Today I am reminded of an event from Don Bosco's life. It was his mother Mamma Margaret who had loads of complaints about  Don Bosco's boys. ..they were spoiling all her hard work. ..her kitchen garden,  her work of mending their shoes or clothes, her work of tidying the simple house they had...none of these counted for anything as the boys went around rampaging everything immersed in their play! She came with a turmoil and said she is leaving the oratory for good. And Don Bosco with a serene countenance looked at her and told her, 'Mama leave if you want to! But before that have a look at that!' and he pointed to the crucifix that was hanging on the wall. She turned around and went back to her chores. I am reminded of this incident for two reasons. 

The first reason is the readings of today which call us to look at the good that God has done to us, the amount of love that the Lord has showered on us, the countless blessing the Lord has bestowed on us. If we are mindful of it, Moses seems to say, we would never go away from the Lord or complain when we face some inconvenience. Jesus says that in other words, if you feel you are a disciple, that is one who is mindful of the Lord with you and you being with the Lord, count your blessings and carry your cross with the same joy in your heart! What a challenging call.

The second reason is the journey I am beginning today: a journey to Turin to be at Don Bosco's place for the celebration of his birth bicentenary! A journey to the roots, a visit to the beginnings of Don Bosco and the Salesian Congregation. My heart wells up with gratitude as I begin this journey and I take all of you my dear readers with me... to Don Bosco's sacred places. May this wonderful saint of our times, grant you all the joy that filled his heart always, the joy of giving and the joy of being in the presence of the Lord!

NOTE: From today till August 23rd...my posts on the daily readings would not appear! Please do keep me in your prayers and you are all spiritually in union with me as I journey on! God bless you all!

NO GREATER LOVE

GOOD FRIDAY: 3rd April, 2015

At no one's death we will rejoice; but Christ's death gives us a reason to rejoice forever and limitlessly because it brings to the fore the abundance of love that God has for us. 

For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Son... a love that lays no conditions, has no expectations, never gets discouraged, never loses hope and never closes the wide open arms. 

God's love calls me, chooses me and challenges me... to love as he loved (Jn 13:34)! We hear the words of love from the cross. 

A love that  forgives (Lk 23:34)
A love that embraces everyone despite unworthiness (Lk 23:43)
A love that cares for the beloved (Jn 19:26)
A love that endures extreme anguish for our sake (Mk 15:34)
A love that thirsts for my love (Jn 19:28)
A love that accomplishes every bit of what God wills (Jn 19:30)
A love that invites us to surrender ourselves into the Father's hands (Lk 23:46)

LET US DARE TO LOVE, AS HE LOVED!

WORD 2day: 15th September, 2014

Remembering the Mother of Sorrows

1 Cor 11:17-26, 33; Lk 2: 33-35 or Jn 19: 25-27

A heart pierced with an arrow is a famous symbol today, a symbol very romantic. But there was a heart that was once told: one day a sword shall pierce you! And that heart remained patient and bore that piercing for the sake of that one "yes" that was pronounced at the beginning of the string of those events. The Mother of Sorrows is an icon that challenges us to understand the meaning of Christian living. As St. Paul would say, 'the reign of God is not a matter of food and drink, enjoyment and fun, a romantic feeling or a colourful happening'. It is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 14:17). Righteousness, requires a hunger and thirst for it (cf Mt 5:6); Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit consist of doing the will of the God, come what may. 

Following immediately the Exaltation of the Cross, the feast of today, establishes the truth that, in living a Christian life, there are a certain things clearly difficult and demanding. It requires an absolute choice to live a truly 'Christian' life  to the full. Mary made that choice and stuck to it right up to the end and that is what we celebrate today. She has shown us what it means to be a disciple of Christ, the Lord of the Cross! May our Blessed Mother, strengthen our spirits, increase our endurance and deepen our faith. 

Look up to the Lord and be Loved

14th September 2014: Exaltation of the Cross

Num 21: 4b-9; Phil 2: 6-11; Jn 3:13-17

We have today a beautiful remembrance, the celebration of the Christian symbol of Love: the Cross. The Cross is taken more often than not, as a symbol of suffering! Yes, it was a symbol of suffering, until the loving Lord took it into his embrace, on his shoulders and climbed on it to give his life for us...all this out of the limitless love he had for us! He changed its meaning and ever since, the cross has come to symbolise love, the unconditional, limitless and boundless love that the Lord has for us.

Hence the feast that we celebrated today gives us a fundamental lesson for living our daily life: Look Up to the Lord and Be Loved!

Look Up: 

At times we are lost in the troubles that we have, in the daily struggles and everyday chores; so lost in those that we have time only to murmur, to lament and to complain. We do not have the patience and the capacity to look up! Look Up, look beyond, look upon high and you will see the horizon that will give you hope. Our troubles are big, our concerns are challenging, but the horizon is there, the silver lining is there...we have to look up to notice that. Hope is the key to Christian way of life. 

Look to the Lord:

Let us look to the Lord; it is from the Lord that our help comes! The Psalms further insist: Look upto Him and be radiant (34:5). 'Looking Up' alone is not enough, we can be deceived or distracted or misled. Looking to the Lord is the key to Christian Problem Solving. Unless through the Son of God who has come down from heaven, no one can go to the Father who is in heaven, says the Gospel today. The real solutions to our problems lie in the hands of God: it is in looking to the Lord that we will have life, life in all its fullness. It is a call to refrain from telling the Lord that our problems are big; but a call to tell our problems that our Lord is big and mighty!

Be Loved:

The Lord is filled with love, a total self emptying love that does not count the cost! God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that we have eternal life. The Son so loved the world that he gave everything up, and showed his love in the total self-giving on the Cross. We are promised a measure of love that no human mind can comprehend, because it is eternal and limitless. Such is God's love for us, but nothing can be done if I keep myself away from it. When I claim that love, in total obedience and surrender unto the Lord, I feel loved! When I rebel and keep myself away, I prevent myself from experiencing that love which is so present all around me. The key is allowing myself to be loved by God, seeing myself as being loved by God, identifying myself as the beloved child of God. 

As we exalt the Cross today, as we sing praises to the One who is lifted high for our salvation, let us resolve to Look Up, to Look to Him and to Let ourselves be loved! 

WORD 2day: 8th August, 2014

The true blessedness from God

Nah 2:1-3, 3:1-3, 6,7; Mt 16: 24-28

Today we hear the hope giving words of Nahum. But just a few days earlier we heard from Jeremiah a sharp criticism of the self proclaimed prophet Hananiah, saying the prophecies of prosperity can be accepted as such only after the things prophesied come to pass. However the words of Hananiah were soon  proved to be  mere search for popular acceptance!

Nahum's promise of the restoration of God's people comes combined with a call to be prepared, alert and girded. Jesus takes that a step forward to say, it takes a ready acceptance of the daily cross and a loving preparedness to walk in the ways of the Lord, to experience the true "blessedness" from God.

Prosperity, fame, popularity, joy, sense of fulfilment, peace and a sense of being loved... these are ofcourse signs of God's blessings...but they cannot be our focus in our daily life, instructs Jesus. When we strive to live acceptable in the eyes of God, all the rest will follow. What matters thus is..the true "blessedness"  in the sight of God!