WORD 2day: 30th April, 2014

Conformity or Conflict? Conviction or Convenience?

Acts 5:17-26; Jn 3:16-21

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light; whoever lives the truth comes to the light! 

The world contains four categories of people in relation to right things. The first category are those who do the right, the second category are those who assist those who do the right, the third are those who hinder anyone doing the right and the worst are those who are involved in doing the evil! We find all the four categories referred to in the readings today. 

The first call to us is to analyse our choices, our preferences and our priorities and see sincerely to which of these four categories we would belong. The second lesson for us is that while we strive to be people of the light and do the right, we can come across persons of all the four categories. What would our reaction be? Conformity? or Conflict? or Conviction? or Convenience? What would guide our response in situations such as these?

WORD 2day: 29th April, 2014

Life in the Spirit

Acts 4:32-37; Jn 3:7B-15

Unless you are born in the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God...but how do you see that one is born in the Spirit? It is only through the life that is lived. There can be no space between belief and life... we are expected to live what we believe and what we believe has to be translated into our lives. That is the essence of a Christ-like life, the formula for life in the Spirit. 

Life in the Spirit has to be verified on a daily basis. As Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruits; so the signs of our life in the Spirit has to be seen in our day to day choice for love, our capacity for sharing, our willingness to give up for the sake of the Lord, our readiness to think of the other before ourselves and our sense of oneness in the Risen Lord!

Let us examine our daily choices: do they reflect a life in the Spirit? Or are we living a life born from below? Let us be born from above, let us be born of the Spirit!

WORD 2day: 28th April, 2014

Let the earth be shaken up!

Acts 4:23-31; Jn 3:1-8

With Christ having risen from the dead and the disciples having realised its effects, history opens to the next phase! The people of God who were made into Easter people, now get ready to put on another identity as the people of the Spirit... "a Spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline" (2 Tim 1:7). 

It is like asking the believers to grow up and take charge, not to live in the shadow of fear and timidity but to speak up with courage the Good news of the Lord. But that needs a transformation - a real, total, concrete personal transformation leading to a transformation as a believing community. The courage and the conviction of faith of a true believer will shake the earth, describes the readings today. 

Let the earth be shaken up today, because of our convictions. Let the humanity which seems to be on a down-slide regarding values and morals, be shaken up because of our Spirit-filled lives. Let us not be overcome by evil; but let us overcome evil with Good (cf. Rom 12:21).

இரக்கம்...இறைமையின் அடையாளம்

MERCY - the mark of a Christian

27th April, 2014: Second Sunday of Easter

This Sunday is liturgically called the Low Sunday which marks the end of the Easter Octave. "A week later", indicates the Gospel today; it was a week later that Jesus appears to all the eleven, including Thomas and patiently, mercifully and lovingly leads them to true faith. The feast of Divine Mercy was instituted and fixed for this day by the late Pope John Paul II, who will be canonised (declared a saint officially) today! Along with him a pope so much loved for his compassion and mercifulness towards everyone, Pope John XXIII will be raised to the altar too. All of these give us one strong message today: MERCY!

The first reading speaks of how the early community of Christians becomes a mighty witness to the Lord. They were the epitome of the command that Jesus gave, 'be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful'. Mercy becomes their way of life, or rather their renewed way of life. As a mark of being a Christian, mercifulness to each other specially to those in need, becomes the point of attraction for many...and as the reading goes - the Lord added to their number everyday! Mercy, we know, is the high point of Christian identity. But what matters most is how it is lived on a daily basis. It begins with our life at home: with our dear ones, elderly parents, sickly loved ones, troublesome children, rebellious youngsters... how is our relationship? What level of patience and acceptance do we manifest?

The Second reading speaks to us of the source of mercy, God the father of Jesus Christ who in mercy sent the only Son for our salvation! The Mercy of God is given to us as the example and the measure of our "genuineness of faith"! Preaching and believing in high ideals of love and compassion, if we but hate people and divide families, envy others and detest their well being... we are far far away from God, the God of Mercy and compassion.

Jesus' encounter with the disciples after his resurrections manifests a special quality of mercy... it is an encounter that is full of unlimited forgiveness and unconditional love! There is no demand that the disciples have to render an account for having abandoned Jesus at the crucial moment of suffering, for having betrayed him or having denied him! All that Jesus does is, tell them he is with them and invite them to be his witnesses throughout the world. That is the mercy of God embodied, incarnate, which dwelt among us in flesh and blood and dwells among us today in the Spirit. Mercy, hence, has to be lived today in forgiveness and love; there can be no place for grudge and grievance, envy and slander, cheating and stealing, killing and enmity. 

As we celebrate the Divine Mercy of Jesus...let us understand and accept Mercy as our mark of identity as God's own children, the distinctive character of persons who call themselves Christians! Let us be merciful as our heavenly father is merciful.

WORD 2day: 26th April, 2014

SATURDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

Acts 4:13-21; Mk 16:19-15

"They recognised them as companions of Jesus", says a verse (13) in the first reading today. From the things that happened around them, from the words that the disciples were proclaiming and from the life that they were living, 'they recognised them as companions of Jesus.' 

Mark summarises the week after Easter in the passage that we read today in the Gospel. Again, the crux is to speak of, to announce, to proclaim Christ, whom they have experienced. Mary of Magdala 'went and told his companions'; the two of them 'returned and told'... Finally the Lord gives us the command: Go and Proclaim!

The two fold call that we have today is, firstly, to identify ourselves as companions of Jesus, to know that we are walking everyday with the Lord, that we are not alone on our life's journey and that all that happens in our daily experience has a tremendous impact on ourselves and others; Secondly, the call is to 'proclaim'...to begin with, through our mindsets, attitudes and lifestyle and then explicitly through our words and speech,

But the crux of it all is the statement that the apostles make at the Sanhedrin, "it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard"! Have we seen and heard, that is, experienced Jesus personally? Is it a compelling need for us to speak of Jesus to others? Are we really filled with the zeal to stand for Christ and speak of Christ today?

WORD 2day: 25th April, 2014

FRIDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

Acts 4:1-12; Luke 21:1-14

In whose name?...that is the crucial question today in the readings. The question lingers on even today, as each of us live our Christian call. The first reading presents the wondrous doing of God, how the rejected stone turns into the corner stone. 

The twofold lesson is: to grow to be cornerstones and to recognise our corner stone!

We are called to imitate the life of the Corner Stone, becoming ourselves corner stones to the Reign that the Lord wishes to establish within us and through us. Just as Jesus lived to do the will of the one who sent him, we are called to discover the unique plan that God has for us and live it to the full. 

Secondly, we need to readily recognise the corner stone of our lives, the Risen Lord Jesus! That feeling, "it is the Lord" and the readiness to jump into the waters of daily life to encounter the Risen Lord standing on the shore, are but just two of the many compelling examples that the apostles and their early communities give us. 

When we live our life "in His name" on a daily basis... we not only recognise the corner stone of our life but also train ourselves to be corner stones that create communities of joy and hope, wherever we are!

WORD 2day: 24th April, 2014

THURSDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

Acts 3:11-26; Lk 24:35-48

You are witnesses of these things...says the Gospel today. We are witnesses of the great works that the Lord has done in and through us! The readings today give us three steps towards being witnesses. It would do us good to reflect on these steps.

The first reading reports the discourse of the apostles to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem after the cure of the crippled man. This is the first step: to see our history through the eyes of faith. The second step is to be challenged by understanding history from the perspective of faith. The apostles who deserted Jesus, hid themselves away and looked to escape into their past, were challenged by the Risen Lord as we see in the Gospel. And they accepted the challenge and understood everything that happened from the perspective of faith.

The call, thirdly, is to challenge the others towards a commitment of faith! What Peter does today is not to accuse the Jews of anything, but challenging them towards a personal experience of the Risen Christ and only through that we can become real witnesses.

To see, to be challenged and to challenge - that is the road map to true witnesses!

WORD 2day: 23rd April, 2014

WEDNESDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

Acts 3:1-10; Lk 24: 13-35

To know that Christ is with you, is an incomparable potential. I shall be with you till the end of times, is the promise that Christ gives and keeps! Regardless of whether we realise it or not, acknowledge it or not, recognise it or not, the presence goes with us. 

The two disciples on the way to Emmaus, did not recognise Jesus nor acknowledge his presence. Peter and John, were mindful of the fact they had nothing much to offer on their own. The disciples walk all the way back to Jerusalem and the apostles make extraordinary things happen, the moment they become aware of the presence of the Risen Christ with them. 

When I know and am conscious of the presence of the Lord with me, I become capable of living life with an incredible serenity! The Lord's presence with me is a gift; recognising it on a daily basis, is my responsibility! 

WORD 2day - 22nd April, 2014

TUESDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

Acts 2: 36-41; Jn 20:11-18

"My father and your father" - what a beautiful expression to hear from Jesus today. The first reading presents repentance and baptism as a way of being accepted as children of the God who raised Jesus from the dead: Jesus' father and our father. Our faith is all about relationship: the relationship of a covenant that has been lived from eternity, between God and God's own.

At times our vision of God can be blurred, when we are too focused on our own whims and fancies and are stuck to our own selfish desires and decisions. Openness to hear what the Lord wants to communicate, is fundamentally the openness to a strong relationship with God, which presumes a cordial, responsible and loving relationship with each other, with one's brothers and sisters in Christ.