Dancing to God's tunes

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 28, 2020: Remembering St. Thomas Aquinas

2 Samuel 6: 12-15,17-19; Mark 3: 31-35

David danced before the Ark of the Covenant - we come across this famous phrase from history. David apart from his rule as the favoured king of Israel, is known for the psalms he has given us and now for the dance he performs before the presence of the Lord. Moving away from all the literal significance of these facts, let us look at what David wants to communicate to us: it is, giving full vent to what you have within you, to what you are within you, before the Lord, that really matters. He cared nothing what the world cared as image!

Thomas Aquinas, whom we remember today was a great 13th century theologian who has contributed to the most clear and classical theological explication of the Catholic Church till date. He wrote an extensive theological work consisting of 3125 articles with such clear argumentation, that it is called a Philosophical Theology. But he left the intended third volume incomplete, because on Dec 6, 1273 he had a Divine vision after which he seemed to have declared, "All that I have written seems like a straw." His disciple had to complete it, after the death of Aquinas (Mar 7, 1274). All his great intelligence and proficiency seemed nothing in front of God, just like David considered his kingly splendour a rubbish.

Jesus says that in different terms - it does not matter you are a great powerful kind or a proficient intellectual giant; what matters is being in the presence of the Lord, listening to the Lord and doing what God wants of you. Losing ourselves in the Lord, being totally taken up with God's will...that is what being a child of God means. In David's terms, it is dancing to God's tunes! 

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

A JOURNEY OF CONVERSION

The Conversion of St. Paul: 25th January, 2016

Acts 22: 3-16; Mk 16: 15-18

Some thoughts from the Word on this feast:

1. Conversion is a life Journey: We need this grace of conversion, which the Lord inspires within us.

2. Conversion begins with a Bolt: We seem to be going in great pace with our life, when suddenly strikes a bolt. We call that a misfortune, a shock or a setback. But we need to be conscious of the fact that these experiences are messages, invitations for a transformation we need to effect within us.

3. Conversion definitely involves falling to the ground: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground, it will not bear fruit. When Saul fell from his horse to the ground, he rose as Paul, enquiring 'who are you Lord'! And from then his life changed...for no longer did he live, Christ lived in him.

4. Conversion is fundamentally a new vision: Nothing of Saul changed...he was the same determined, stubborn, hardliner. But his vision had changed and that changed everything else. When he got back his sight, he did not only see anew, but his vision was totally new! He now saw everything from the point of view of Christ. That is the conversion expected of us: to see everything as Christ does.

WORD 2day: 6th December, 2014

First Saturday of Advent

Is 30: 19-21, 23, 26; Mt 9: 31- 10:1, 5a, 6-8

The greatest gift of God, is God's continual presence with us!

Life, food, water, protection, healing, assurance, sustenance, love and care...these are given to us gratuitously by God. All these are gifts that we have received, whether we acknowledge it or not. The greatest of all and the gift beyond all these is God's continual presence with us. More precisely, the fundamental gift of all is the presence! 

God's presence is manifested to us in various ways: as providing presence that fulfills our needs; protecting presence that safeguards us from dangers; probing presence that challenges us on our life's journey; and above all, guiding presence that accompanies us on a constant basis. The last of these, is a bit different presence because, all others will be taken care of by God, even if we are mere passive receivers. But the accompanying presence of the Lord can be experienced only if we actively acknowledge, accept and allow the Lord to act on our behalf. 

Advent is a spiritual exercise precisely to grow in our capacity to become aware of this accompanying presence! It is a moment when we learn to see, practice to understand and be prepared to allow God to have God's way in our life. Are you on that journey?

WORD 2day: 2nd October, 2014

Learning to See - Celebrating the Accompanying God!

Job 19: 21-27;Mt 18: 1-5, 10

Feast of the Guardian Angels is an invitation to see, to see and perceive, to see and acknowledge, to see and experience the accompaniment of the Lord in a concrete manner. Every moment of our lives, we are being watched over and protected in love. We believe in an accompanying God, a God who has promised, never to leave us and to be with us till the end of this world. 

The reading from Job insists that the Lord exists, and has always existed, right beside us! We become aware of it progressively, we begin to believe in it as we experience things that happen around us. We learn to see, to see God present with us unceasingly. The Gospel instructs us against taking anyone for granted; because no one is alone! Every one is accompanied, by none less than our God itself. We celebrate today the accompanying God; may we grow to be more and more perceptive to the presence of God with us and see God accompanying us on our life journey.

WORD 2day: 16th August, 2014

The key to the Reign in the hands of a child

Ezek 18: 1-10, 13b, 30-32; Mt 19: 13-15

The Reign of God belongs to such as these, says the Lord pointing to the children. The condition seems to be plain: to become children to inherit the Reign. Ezekiel gives us the key to become children: a new heart and a new spirit! Children indicate two qualities essentially: Freshness of Vision and Purity of Intention. 

Freshness of vision gives one the capacity to learn new things; Purity of intention gives the capacity to love truly. Learning new things, or looking at things every time with a fresh disposition makes life interesting and keeps one young. Starting anew every time with a fresh vigour and renewed dedication makes life fully lived. Purity of intention removes duplicity and hypocrisy. It makes life simple, uncomplicated and meaningful. It allows one to live life with love in his or her heart, without a preoccupation to survive or succeed. 

The point is very clear in the readings today: A clean heart, or a child's heart, is the entry pass to the Reign of God and the access codes are freshness of vision and purity of intention. The former helps us to live without prejudices and the latter fills us with the sense of the Divine.    

LIGHTED TO BE TESTIMONIES

Lenten Project 2014: Sunday #4 - 30th March

"We are children of the Light", the readings remind us today and invite us to live in the light! To awake from the slumber of the darkness, to avoid the works of the people of darkness and to acknowledge being anointed to announce the good news to the world - that is the call to be children of the light. We have the light within us, the Light of the world is with us, we are lighted to shine, we are lighted to shine as testimonies to the Light that longs to lead everyone to fullness of life.

We are called to SEE. Blindness is not merely of the physical eye... blindness of the heart to perceive the something that is so apparent is the worst of all blindness. Physical blindness is a handicap, but Spiritual blindness sometimes is a choice, a choice against something obvious! Not to see the goodness of the other, not to see the good the other has done to you, not to see the great things that God has done for us, these are the blindnesses out of which the Lord calls us today. The darkness within us can surround us so much that we may find so comfortable within it. That was the problem of the pharisees and the scribes: they were so cosy in their own world but Jesus disturbed them! He called them to light, he called them to awake. The Word today, calls us to AWAKE and see the Light, shining on us!

We are called to SEE LIKE GOD. As children of God we are called to see like God. The first reading presents to us an incident where the Lord gives us a practical lesson for our life. David, the least of all in the family of Jesse was chosen against all odds to be the ruler of Israel. There are other such occasions too that we find in the Bible: Joseph the sold slave, Gideon the weakling, Esther the orphan girl and so on. The message is clear: to see like God. As the Lord clarifies it (1 Sam 16:7), the Lord sees the heart and not the external appearances; the Lord sees the internal disposition and not the eternal display; the Lord sees the interior openness and not a stubborn self righteousness. To see like God would mean to avoid the works of the people of darkness, who try to close their eyes to any good that someone can do because of a prejudice they have at heart; who look for any lame excuse to judge and vilify others merely because they do not like the other; who look at others as threats and wait to see their ruin. Avoid the works of darkness and put on the armour of Light!

We are called to MAKE OTHERS SEE GOD. We are anointed people of God, chosen children of God. Peter reminds us in his letter, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet 1:9). By our baptism we have been anointed and by the sacrament of confirmation we are confirmed in the anointing - that we are to announce to the world the good news of the love of God. That we may see and see like God, we are given the Light of the Lord. The Light shines within us with such splendour that it radiates to the world around us! We are commissioned to be testimonies of the Light that shines in the world. 

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

CELEBRATING THE SELF REVEALING GOD

5th January, 2014: The Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord

The only possibility of knowing about God is through God's own self revelation! God is no simple object to be discovered or invented; God is a person whom we should get to know. Knowing God is possible only through the self revelation of God in history, in the Word, in our day to day experiences and in ways known only to God. Today we celebrate that one event, that one life, that one person - JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, in whom God revealed Godself fully, completely, definitively and super abundantly! The revelation has been going on even before Christ, through prophets and judges (Heb 1:1), through chosen men and women . The revelation goes on even today in our everyday life, through the Word and the traditions, through day to day experiences, through holy men and women who have gone before us and those of our times. These revelations find their fullness in the Paschal Mystery, that is: the birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God.

The feast of epiphany is a celebration and a thanksgiving to the Self revealing God who deigned to reveal Godself in the person of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. This feast of revelation reminds of three realities of our faith:

SEEK... to know God: One has to seek, to know God; there should be a yearning within, in order to encounter God. The wise men from the east got wind of something special that was in store and they sought to know what it is. They were wise men, but they wanted to know more and more! Faith has to be deepened; there should be a yearning within us to grow more and more in our relationship with God. It is true that the fullness of revelation dwells in Christ, the Son of God...but I have to seek to personalise it, to encounter that revelation and relate to it in first person.

SEE... to find God: One has to see, to find God; God is always present with us, all that we need to do is see! 'Lift up your eyes round about, and see' says the first reading. We need to see the face of God: in our brothers and sisters; in those who are suffering and toiling; in those who are exploited and crushed; in those who are treated with disdain and burdened with pain; in those who wake up every morning not certain of the next; in those who have so many worries and concerns in life that they can never think of living the present moment! We need to see God, in the innocent love of a Child; in the tender touch of a mother; in the brimming eyes of a caring person; in the everyday miracles of life. Once we see God in these, we will surely find God concretely present in the Church, in the celebration of the sacraments and in our prayer moments. 

SHINE... to show God: One has to shine, to show God; we are called to become instruments of revelation ourselves. 'Arise! Shine!' calls the first reading. St. Paul speaks of how the Lord made him an instrument of revelation to the people! When we seek God and manage to see God, we begin to shine. That is why Isaiah says, "then you shall see and be radiant"...the very seeing makes us radiant, makes us shine! Our Faith is not merely to be understood and believed, but to be lived and be shared. Revelation is at one and the same time a grace and a challenge. A Grace, because it is gratuitous and comes from God. A challenge because, once we get to see God, we have to shine; shine and announce God; shine and share God; shine and show God to the world, to all who are in darkness, sadness and gloom!

The Self revealing God invites us to SEEK, SEE and SHINE. To accept the invitation is the act of FAITH; a beginning of a journey, a journey that lasts the whole life time- every day of which we are called to Seek the Lord, See the Lord and Shine for the Lord!

Youth Ministry - Reflexions

Happy to share starting from today... a series of Reflections on Youth Ministry via the posters!