WORD 2day

24th August, 2013: Remembering St. Bartholomew, the Apostle.

Known in the Gospel of St.John with the name Nathanael, Bartholomew received from the Lord a great compliment - a man in whom there is no guile, says the Lord. Though he did not believe what Phillip said and originally did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus recognises the goodness in him. The readings today have three lessons to teach: One, the readiness of Jesus to appreciate the goodness in a person even when the person did not believe in him. How many times friends turn the worst enemies when they begin to disagree with each other! Second lesson is from Bartholomew, who accepts the call to 'come and see' and goes, sees, believes and remains with the Lord. The third lesson is from the feast itself - a remembrance of the Apostles is a special invitation to each of us to recognise the call we have received to to go into the world and proclaim God's Reign. Bartholomew took the Gospel right upto Armenia and Arabia. There exists a legend that Bartholomew reached even India's western borders! Each of us is reminded today of our call to bear the goodnews to the ends of the world, to establish the Reign of God - beginning with the closest of our contexts - that is, right wherever we are!

WORD 2day

23rd August, 2013

Approaching today's readings with the question, 'how does one become a son or daughter of God' - there is an example and a theory! The example is that of Ruth and the theory is presented to us by Jesus himself in the Gospel. Ruth, a moabite, who lost her hebrew husband but still becomes a part of God's salvation plan and becomes one of the few women referred to in the long history of the Israelites. How does it happen? The answer is, true and selfless LOVE. Love is the only way one can become a child of God, as John puts it so simply in his letter - 'Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God' (1 Jn 4:7). John learnt it from his master and beloved friend, Jesus who dared to synthesise the whole of the law and the prophets (that is, the whole of Hebrew Scripture) into two directives, which actually amounted to just one command: LOVE. Let us love one another and be God's children.

WORD 2day

22nd August, 2013: Celebrating the Queenship of Mary

On this day, which is exactly a week after Assumption of Mary into the presence of God, a tradition in the Church celebrates the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. Though it is just a memoria, it is worth celebrating and reflecting on! In what does Mary's Queenship consist? We are not dealing here with a contestable fact that would irk the Non-Catholic friends, as if we are claiming an undeserved and an over-exaggerated place for Mary within our religious convictions. The choice of the readings today beautifully expresses the Church's stand on this: The glory of the Lord that is revealed in incarnation is the point of focus of the first reading from Isaiah, while the Gospel presents the role of Mary in that glorious event - a humble role of a servant who tells God, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to your word!" No wonder she is crowned the Queen, because Jesus said: One who humbles oneself, will be exalted!

WORD 2day

21st August, 2013

Just yesterday we reflected on God's choices; today we get to reflect on the human choices. If God's choices were strange for noble reasons; the human choices are strange too, but for all wrong reasons - lack of judgement, result of manipulation, jealousy and maliciousness! The first reading is a picturesque presentation of this situation, by way of a parable narrated by Jotham - how we end up at times happily choosing the bramble as our shelter and hope! Discernment - it is a very important grace that we need in our daily living - to make the right choices! Haste and Imbalanced judgements make up for the mistakes we land in. But the moment we realise that, we are called to return to the Lord, and be God's people. We need not think of what hour and what stage it is; it's never too late with God's love, as long as the will to return is nothing but genuine. All that God wants is that we choose to say 'yes', when he calls! The choice is truly ours.

WORD 2day

20th August, 2013

The Lord's choices are curious, infact, strange! There is a series of them we can cite from both Old Testament and the New. Today's first reading presents to us one such personality - Gideon, a fear-stricken young man who defines himself as the least of all in Israel - is chosen by God and called, "Mighty Warrior". The numerous others like Jacob the less-stronger, David the puniest of the sons, Solomon the son of the coveted wife and over to the New Testament the uneducated  fishermen and  despised sinners as disciples and apostles -  the list is endless. But the whole of Salvation History is accomplished in and through these so-called odd choices - it is very clear: "it is impossible for humans; but for God everything is possible." While the world and we ourselves look for something, God looks at something totally different and expects something totally different from us! Infact, that which God sees and expects is the most appropriate and when that coincides with what I see and expect from myself - the miracle happens: the first becomes the last and the last becomes the first!

WORD 2day

19th August, 2013

While we were in the period of initial formation as aspirants to priesthood, there used to be periodic assessment of behaviour and it used to be communicated to us in person by a one in charge of our formation. I remember a phrase that was often used - 'you have a lot of good will; but good will alone is not good enough!' It seems funny to look back and take note of that remark, but looking at our life and the way we live, very often that statement applies well to most of us. Like the young man in the Gospel today, who had so much of good will to inherit the Reign of God, found out from Jesus that, that alone was not going to be good enough! The Lord has great hopes on us, but we fail repeatedly to live up to that. The first reading presents to us a pattern of failures of Israel, not just an act of sin but a habit of sin, a regular falling short of their call. But the Lord never gave up on them, God offers them opportunities after opportunities to return to their glorious calling - to be God's chosen people! God never gives up on us, God has great hopes on us and invites us to "Go... give up all that tends to replace God... and return and follow the Lord!" 

RACE: An analogy for Christian Living!

18th August, 2013: 20th Sunday in the Ordinary Time

"Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us"(Heb 12:1), invites the Liturgy today! Race - is a common analogy that is used to refer to something that requires relentless effort and enormous endurance. Today, the Liturgy of the Word invites us to look at our Christian living in the light of this analogy. Christian life is a Race; Living the Christian faith is like running a race...which has its starting point and the finish line in the person of Jesus Christ - "the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith"(Heb 12:2) Given the situation of the Greek Culture that was just spreading its wings, as Christianity was emerging out of Judaism, it was easy for the people to understand the analogy of Race applied to the life of faith. The analogy seems quite prevalent that we see apart from the letter to the Hebrews that we read today, also St. Paul uses it with facility, in his letters to the Philippians (Phil 3:14) and to Timothy(2 Tim 4:7,8). Extending a little more, the analogy, we shall try to understand our Christian life today. 

Christian Life is a Race, a race of Hurdles! Obstructions all along the way, does not in anyway hinder the progress of the athlete, the athlete has to jump over those and run towards the goal that is set before one's eyes. If at every hurdle the person contemplates a back off, the race is lost and ruined. Jesus today warns us of such hurdles and Jeremiah is presented to us in the midst of such overpowering obstructions. But Christian life has to go on! Jeremiah, when he was finally lifted up from the dungeon, he went back to proclaim the Word of the Lord! Up and across each hurdle, our life of faith, moves on!

Christian Life is a Race, a Relay Race! We are not running alone, we are in a team. Some one has run the race before us and they have passed the baton to us. It is our responsibility today to run and we will not be running it forever. We will have to finish our course and pass the baton to the next! Faith has to be lived, and passed on. In the encyclical, Lumen Fidei, chapter three we reflect that those who believe are never alone, faith is always shared and it tends to be spread; it has to be handed on! The second reading presents this beautifully recalling to our attention that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses(Heb 12:1).

Christian Life is a Race, a Marathon! It is not just a sprint, that I strive for a short time and I clinch a victory; it is a marathon, it is long and it is taxing. Speed is not enough, it demands also stamina! Endurance and Perseverance are inevitable subjects of attention when it comes to our Christian life. In Jesus' footsteps, St. Paul too instructs us, in his letter to the Thessalonians - never to be tired of doing what is right(2 Thes 3:13) and in the letter to Timothy - to endure every suffering and carry on our life (2 Tim 4:5). At times it can be boring, tedious or exasperating, but our character rests in staying on the track!

Be it what it may, the analogy of the Race requires of us three important mindsets!

The first is a sense of URGENCY. The Gospel presents this with the image of FIRE. Just as an athlete needs the fire within to run, a Christian needs the fire within to glow in his or her life. The fire that Jesus came to set, and badly wants ablaze. Jeremiah had it ablaze within his heart (Jer 20:9), the apostles, the martyrs, the first Christian community - all of them had it so ablaze within them, that it consumed them and spread wild to the world. Do we have it in us?

The second is the strength of PERSEVERANCE. The Second reading presents it with the image of the BLOOD. In every race, there are those who are ready to beat us, to over power us - in our Christian life too there are elements that are on the prowl to beat us, to over power us - the element of sin, the element of godlessness, the element of materiality! A Christian needs to fight these elements constantly, struggle against them relentlessly, right up even to the point of bloodshed. 

The third is the sense of FOCUS. The first reading presents it with the image of the MIRE. With those around want us to fail, with the tiredness that catches on, with the target that lies quite away in a distance... there are chances for the athlete to lose heart. The training is to focus on the finish line! The darkness of the dungeon or the Mire that was all around, did not in anyway take away the focus of Jeremiah! He had his eyes focused from where came his help! The second reading has those phrases - "looking to Jesus"(12:2) and "Consider Him(Jesus)"(12:3), underlining the need for us to Focus on Him, who is our beginning and our end, our alpha and the omega, our pioneer and perfecter. 

With a sense of Urgency in our will to live our faith to the full, with the strength to persevere all trials and with our focus always on Christ - let us run this race set before us. We are not alone, we have the example and the help of those who have gone before us - the saints and martyrs. We have our brothers and sisters around us, united in the One Lord, to support us and sustain us. With the example and the help of the Crucified Lord who sits at the right of the throne of God, as the Risen Lord, let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

WORD 2day

17^th August, 2013

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, declares Joshua before the people. He leads them by example! Just like Jesus who made it clear to the people that following him was not always a pleasure trip – ‘the foxes have their holes and the birds have their nest, but the son of man has no place to lay down’ – Joshua too makes it clear that choosing to serve God and giving a word on that, is a challenging task! But for children to depend on someone, without too much of thought to their own ego or pride, is a natural capacity. That is what prompted Jesus to say, ‘Unless you become like children you will not enter the Reign.’ And today in the gospel too, Jesus presents the children as the paradigm of the Reign of God. Innocence of the children is from the absence of pride and their docility is from the absence of ego. If we have to remain with the Lord and forever be God’s, the prime enemies we have to do away from within us are – our pride and ego!

DB turns 198

WORD 2day

16^th August, 2013

The gratuitous love of God and the conditional love of humans – that is the contrast the Word brings to the fore today. Taking the reins from Moses, the young Joshua consolidates his people reminding them of the great history of faith and wonders that they have behind them, the great things that God had accomplished for them though they deserved none of them! The love that God lavishes on us, and the measure in which God does it, we do not deserve it at all. It is a gratuitous gift from God and God has never counted the cost, even to the extent of sending the only Son of God as a ransom on our behalf (cf. John 3:16). That love is the model set before us, by Jesus. When Jesus changed the commandment of Leviticus (19:18) from ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn 13:34), Jesus made a deliberate choice to propose God’s love as the model. Accepting one another, forgiving one another, being good to one another, wishing the good of the other with all one's heart – in all these we are called to measure up to none less than God, who is Love itself!