WORD 2day: 7th May, 2014

Testimonies of true joy!

Acts 8:1b-8; Jn 6: 35-40

There was great joy in the city. Inspite of having to desert their hometowns and go into diaspora, the community of believers bring joy wherever they go. It was because, they carried the Risen Lord in their hearts. 

The resurrection experience filled them with a joy that could not be replaced by anything else under the sun. The words "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom 8:35) was a concrete life experience of the early Christians. The source of this experience is the total and loving self giving of the Lord. 

Imitating their Lord and Saviour, they were filled with hope and were emanating a divine joy. How joyful is our testimony as Christians? 

WORD 2day: 6th May, 2014

The height of discipleship

Acts 7:51-8:1a; Jn 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 today by Stephen consists in daring 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 is the first prayer we see, that was addressed to Jesus. 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. How close are we in our lifestyle to Jesus, our Lord and Master?

WORD 2day: 5th May, 2014

The Face of an Angel...

Acts 6:8-15; Jn 6:22-29

The readings today remind us of our vocation and gift. 'What are we called to?', that was the question that the people meant when they ask Jesus in the Gospel today, "what can we do to accomplish God's works?" "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent": that is our vocation, that is our gift! Vocation because it is our life task, to know the Lord, love and accept Him as our personal saviour and testify to him unto death. It is a gift, because in doing it, we become children of God (cf.Jn 1:12), we turn into co-heirs to the Reign (cf Rom 8:17), and we acquire the face of angel - as it is said of St.Stephen in the first reading today. Our faith and our commitment to faith adorn our face with a light and beauty that makes it look 'angelic'... let us realise our hidden face of an angel; let us preserve and persevere in growing to the full stature of the angels - close to God and ever at God's service!

WORD 2day: 1st May, 2014

Work - the likeness of divinity within humanity

Gen 1:26-2:3; Mt 13:54-58.

May day, for a Christian holds much more than mere glorification of work. This is because of the very nature of God that sanctifies this essential aspect of human existence. The first reading underlines the fact that the work of creation is an essential image of God and goes on to imply that it form part of humanity, which holds the likeness and image God. 

That St. Joseph, the working hand and leader of the Holy Family, is not merely an imagination but a practical possibility and the Church today capitalises on this possibility to draw inspiration from a saint who reminds us of this essential element of our human existence.

Work is a participation in the Creative initiative of God. Work can never be a slavery; it can never be carried out solely for an external gain or out of external pressure. Today, let us promise to respect the dignity of labour and look at our opportunity to contribute through work as a personal participation in the image and likeness of God.

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?