Comes, Becomes and Challenges to Become!

2nd February, 2014: The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

We have been prepared during the last week towards the celebration today! The reflections on David's dedication to the Lord, the fall of Saul and the eventual fall of David...all these communicated to us the nature of our vocation as human persons: that we are called to belong to the Lord. They also brought out to us the weakness with which we have to constantly struggle in order to be faithful to this call. The feast today assures that we are not alone in this struggle, the Lord lives with us all along.

THE MEMORY: The memory that we celebrate today is that of the Lord who comes, who comes into His temple! A beautiful moment so picturesquely presented by Luke. The expectations, the entry, the enchantment and the extravaganza that was witnessed in the Temple as Mary and Joseph bring the child into the temple premises. We celebrate this memory, the memory of the Lord coming to us, the Lord of the world entering our world.

THE MEANING: The memory has a specific meaning, the Lord comes to be like us! The Lord chose to share this world with us in His incarnation and became like us, like us in everything, except sin, says the letter to the Hebrews (4:15). The Lord chose to suffer, the Lord chose to be tempted, the Lord chose to undergo the same struggle as each of us do! 

THE MISSION: The meaning of this memory, leads us to a deeper understanding of the Mission of the Lord who comes. The Lord comes to be like us, that we may become like Him. When John proclaims in his Gospel, "to those who believed in him, he gave the power to become children of God" (Jn 1:12), he underlined this specific mission of the Messiah - to make us like him! 

If we have to become like him we have to first "Let Him enter" when He comes. The responsorial psalm invites us to open the portals of our heart and let the King enter. And when the Lord enters, He enters to purify us...like the fuller who washes the linen white, like the silver smith who burns the silver to purity, like the gush of water that enters to wash away all sediments of impurities, the Lord enters. At times it can be painful to be washed, to be refined, and to be flushed of our naive attachments and egoistic pleasures. But without those, there is no purification or refinement. Speaking of faith, in the Apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis says, "God asks everything of us,yet at the same time he offers everything to us" (n.12). The feast of Presentation reminds us of this dimension of our faith - to offer to the Lord everything of ourselves! 

The Lord becomes like us to challenge us to become like him. Jesus lived like us, but every moment of his life was a declaration to the One who sent him: "Here I come to do your will" (Heb 10:7)... that self submission to God begins in the event that we celebrate today. Let us pray for the Christian Parents that they, like the Holy Family, may offer themselves and their family into the hands of God, who has called them into loving existence. Let us pray for the Religious who have offered themselves to the Lord, that their consecration might ever be uncompromising. Let us pray for each of us, that we may welcome the Lord who comes to us, who becomes like us, that we may learn to become like Him! 

Happy Feast of Don Bosco

To every person who loves, respects and counts on the young...
a very happy feast of the Friend of the Youth!

WORD 2day: 31st January, 2014

The Reign and the ruin - beware...both are subtle!

Remembering St. John Bosco.

Jesus today explains how the Reign of God is subtle in its presence and its growth; it does not happen with a bang but it germinates, sprouts and grows in a manner that no one notices it. The danger is, even the enemy is subtle in his ways! The first reading presents how the chosen one falls into the inconspicuous trap set by the enemy. One fall follows the other...one worse than the before! We are reminded of the necessity to be alert all the time, as the Word of God reminds us very often. St. John Bosco, the saint we celebrate today, understood this fact perfectly. That is why he suggested that the way out of sin, is holy joy! To be thoroughly occupied with good things, that you will never have the time to sin - that was his ingenuous suggestion to the young. 'Run, jump and shout, but do not sin,' he said. Let our hearts be so filled with the Lord, that we hardly have time to think of any other. The Reign, no doubt, is subtle; unfortunately the ruin too could be subtle. Our dedication to the Lord has to be absolute; let us serve the Lord in holy joy!

[Note: the readings are different where the proper of the feast of St. John Bosco is chosen; here the readings are of the day - 3rd week, Friday]

WORD 2day: 30th January, 2014

Consecrated to Shine!

The tradition of consecrating oneself or consecrating one's family or consecrating the world to God, at some high moments of spiritual significance is no new practice! Right from Joshua who declared, "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (Josh 24:15), we see this practice as an expressed desire to belong to the Lord despite changing times and diversified experiences. In fact, the Lord consecrated every one of us to Himself at our Baptism and this consecration has to be lived; it has to be pronounced with unction among the people; it has to shine forth reminding ourselves and inviting others to a fuller consecration to the Lord, our God. Have you consecrated yourself or your family to the Lord? If no, why not do it tomorrow... being Friday, you can consecrate yourself and your family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and thus give the central place to the love of God in your family. There is a beautiful Catholic Tradition of Consecration of the family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and an annual renewal of that consecration on a fixed date: could be a practical way to keep our faith alive and shining, like the lamp on the lampstand. 

WORD 2day: 29th January, 2014

Faithfulness and Fruitfulness

An oft repeated  quote of Blessed Mother Teresa explains that we are called to be faithful, not successful! It can well be paraphrased in today's readings as: We are called to be faithful and it is God's to make it fruitful. The Lord makes David understand that all the glory that he had acquired was a bountiful gift from God. The Lord does not want David to fall in the same trap as his predecessor, the trap of pride and arrogance. The Lord promises much more to David, just because he has proved himself to be a faithful servant and a loving son. Just like the sower in the parable that Jesus narrates, David did not have much to do with his rise from a simple shepherd boy to the king that he became. All that the sower can do is, sow and faithfully take care of the sown seed as it grows.  "Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow" (1 Cor 3:7), writes St. Paul. Our concern should be just one: to be faithful to the Lord in everything and the Lord will reward it with fruitfulness, in God's own goodness, because the Lord says: Forever I will maintain my love for my servant! 

WORD 2day: 28th January, 2014

Doing God's Will... but why?

Doing God's will, for us is at one and the same time, a duty and a guarantee of righteousness. But there can be various motivations for doing God's will in life. It could be because, we are afraid that if we do not do God's will we might get into trouble. It is like carrying out our duties out of fear of undesirable consequences. Secondly it could be because we are expected to do it; that is, doing the duty for the sake of duty. One feels he or she has been brought up and always been taught that way and it should carry on for whole life that way. Though there is an appreciable discipline involved here, it seems very robotic and slavish. Today, David in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel, give us a beautiful outlook on doing God's will - doing what God wants, because we love God! We have experienced the love of God to such an extent, that we cannot but do what pleases God; we cannot count the cost; we are ready to give up anything for the sake of doing the will of God. "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me!" declared Jesus with no hesitations (Jn 4:34). It is only when we too feel that way, we become like Jesus, we become his brothers and sisters...that is, we become the loving children of God our father and mother. 

WORD 2day: 27th January, 2014

Seeing God and God's glory in the other!

The oneness of the people of God is still the theme of the Liturgy... it continues from last week and the reflection on Sunday. The first reading presents to us the scene of the people of Israel being consolidated into One under David, the chosen one of God! The Gospel presents to us Jesus' longing to gather everyone together into one fold as children of God. Elsewhere, in the Gospel according to Matthew we would see this longing of Jesus when he says, "how often I have longed to gather you together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." (Mtt 23:37) Oh, how much our insensitive and self centered attitude renders our Christian life meaningless, pointless and a farce! We judge people, demonise their good will, begrudge their well being, and as a consequence ruin the others' happiness and our own inner peace. It's high time we learn to see God in others, instead of demonising them; that we begin to love people instead of judging them; that we see the glory of God in the well being of the others. If we do these, surely the faithfulness and the mercy of the Lord will ever be with us!

REIGN: DO IT YOURSELF

26th January, 2014 : 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Christians divided among themselves is a terrible scandal to the rest of the world. We have just ended the Unity Octave or the Prayer week for Unity among Christians, yesterday, and today the readings seem to point to an application of the same to our day to day Christian living! It is easier to brush aside the message saying it is impractical, than to take it seriously and examine our situation - personally, and in our immediate context.

The Readings have a practical logic that they follow: they present a problem, they indicate the cause and then propose the challenge! The Problem: Darkness, gloom and hatred in the world. Cause: Divisions among persons, for whatever reason it be! Challenge: Repent and Accept the Reign of God. The readings taken together seem to present to us a Do-it-yourself guide towards making the Reign of God present amidst us.

Step 1: Perceive the Problem: the darkness, the gloom and the hatred that surrounds today. Killings, wars, provocative political policies, inhuman oppressive practices, social unrest, economic exploitations, manipulation of the powerless and the suppression of the voiceless - today it looks like the world is a dangerous place to live in and it seems to get worse by the day! Isaiah speaks from such a context in the first reading, as explains Matthew in the Gospel: people who sit in darkness and land overshadowed by death! The world is such, yes; but how is it around you and me! The first step the readings suggest today is to take note of our situation: look around...it could be your family, or your parish, or your locality - identify the darkness, the shadow of death that hovers, anything that does not allow you and those around you to live your life to the full.

Step 2: Identify the Cause: self-centered vision and egocentric outlook on life. Divisions on the basis of various categories - be it economic, social, religious, traditional or whatever - are opposed to the Gospel message. How sad it is to see a Christian community divided on the basis of caste! How painful it is to see a Christian community where there are still people who have absolutely nothing to live on, while there are others who can spend lavishly on unreasonable luxuries! How scandalous to see a Christian community that comes together on the Sunday, celebrates together the sacraments and goes back unaffected by each other! How contradicting to see a Christian family divide within - for the sake of property or money, due to ego clashes or owing to years of hatred! The second reading pleads that we identify the cause of those situations that does not allow us to live our Christian life fully!

Step 3: Accept the Challenge of the Reign: to repent and be the change! We want the world to change, but we are not ready to be the change. We are scared to be taken advantage of, we do not want to take any risks. We preach peace and pray for prosperity in the world, but what do we do for it in practice? Are we ready to forgive without hesitation, love without calculation, help without expectation, contribute without remuneration? Are we ready to just leave everything and follow Christ as the disciples did? Follow Christ, to preach the Reign, by first of all, living ourselves as the people of the Reign? If we are ready...then, the people who sit in darkness will see a light; those dwelling in the land overshadowed by death will see a light. Let us repent, be the change, and spread peace, love and life!

WORD 2day: 25th January, 2014

Conversion - an absolute choice for God

The feast of Conversion of St. Paul invites us to reflect on our conversion. Unfortunately, in today's context, the word 'conversion' has more political connotation than spiritual! In fact today is a beautiful occasion for us to remind ourselves that conversion is not about numbers and increasing the fold. It is a personal decision to go towards God, an about-turn (as the Greek word 'metanoia' suggests); it is an absolute choice for God! Choice for God...because we begin to see the role that God has played in our life and choose to actively acknowledge it; Absolute... because nothing else matters as much as God and God's will do! We are called to conversion... may not be as dramatic as that of St. Paul's, as we read in the first reading today, but more demanding! Yes, we are called to daily conversion. To be aware, each day and each moment, of those things that take us away from our progress towards God. Nothing - no demonic powers, no distracting languages, no cunning serpents, no poisoning lifestyle - should lead us away from God... we are called to make an absolute choice every day, for God and for God's Word.  Not merely in words but by my very life, I am obliged to proclaim God's message. "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel," reminds me St.Paul (1 Cor 9:16). 

WORD 2day: 24th January, 2014

Being worthy of the One who has chosen us!
Remembering St. Francis of Sales

Jesus chose the twelve to be His apostles, to be with him and to be sent out to preach, heal and sanctify; in short, to be His! In the first reading we have Saul and David, both of whom God chose, to belong to God, to be God's! But we see Saul reaching a despicable state because of his continual wrong choices one over the other; and David stands tall today because of that Godly choice that he makes to respect Saul for what he was and spare his life -  an act of kindness and mercy, forgiveness and love, which comes from the godliness from within. At any point of time in our life, we become what we choose to be. Francis de Sales, the Doctor of Kindness whom we celebrate today, used to say: "The many troubles in your household will tend to your edification, if you strive to bear them all in gentleness, patience and kindness. Keep this ever before you, and remember constantly that God's loving eyes are upon you amid all these little worries and vexations." The Lord has chosen us, you and me; let us strive always to be worthy of the One who has chosen us to be His!