Those who love God...

27th July, 2014 - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Kgs 3: 5, 7-12; Rom 8: 28-30; Mt 13: 44-52

What would be your prayer, if God gives you an offer as God did to Solomon?

What would be your choice from a variety of spread: success, prosperity, happiness, and a life close to God....?

When things seem to go wrong... what do you do: get nervous, get frustrated, get anxious or you remain calm because God knows what is best and will work everything out for your good!

How much does God matter to you in your life? Or in other words what are all the things that you would keep aside in order to be with God?

St. Paul in the second reading today declares that God works for the good of "those who love God"... do you really belong to that category? the category of "THOSE WHO LOVE GOD"?

For today's reflection, this clip can help:

WORD 2day: 26th July, 2014

Celebrating Sts. Joachim and Anne: Grandparents' Day!!!

Jer 7: 1-11; Mt 13: 24-30

The first reading from Jeremiah reminds us of Jesus' stern words to the people, "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Mt 7:21). Show your faith in action, says he and James later challenged, 'Show me your faith apart from works and I by my works will show you my faith' (Jas 2:18). Your daily life and practice would say whether you are a plant or a weed, concludes the Gospel today. 

Caught in a dilemma whether to reflect on the readings from the proper of saints or to reflect on the readings of the Saturday in the 16th week, I finally chose to stick to the week day's readings, as it brings out a message that can lead us to think of the role of grand parents in our faith formation. Grand parents stand for the all important phenomenon of transmission of faith, from one generation to the next. 

The transmission that the grandparents effect is a practical and concrete transmission of lived faith. It deals with right practice and right living. Faith in its very essence has an all-embracing quality of transforming the entire life of a person and the community to which the person belongs. Let us treasure our traditions, transform our todays and thus pave way for meaningful tomorrows. Let us pray for our Grandparents specially today and honour them in some little way.

WORD 2day: 25th July, 2014

Jesus' School of Servant Leadership

Remembering St. James: 2 Cor 4: 7-15; Mt 20: 20-28

Feast of any Apostle reminds us of the wonderful words that St. Paul utters today: "we hold this treasure in earthen vessels". Every apostle has his own weakness, nevertheless the gift that they are and that they possess, surpasses everything as God's power and might is revealed in it.

Feast of St. James (with the Gospel that we are given to reflect today) reminds us of this more strongly and adds another specific teaching, a teaching from Jesus' School of Servant Leadership. In Matthew's and Mark's versions of the Gospel, we find every time that Jesus foretells about his passion, he follows it up with the discourse on servant leadership (as we see in Mt 16:24ff; 18:1ff; 20:20ff). James and John took time to realise that the only thing we can inherit from Jesus is his identity as Suffering Servant!

Eventually they wanted to bear the crown that Jesus mentioned and that is what they did. James led the community of Jerusalem... humble and service minded as the Master himself; and his blood shed like the Master's (Acts 12:2). Let us praise the Lord for the apostle St. James and be prepared to witness to the Lord till our last breath!

WORD 2day: 24th July, 2014

What everyone longs for!!!

Jer 2: 1-3, 7-8, 12-13; Mt 13: 10-17

There is one thing that everyone longs for ultimately in life and beyond... peace and serenity! Every time God calls us to Godself, we are promised comfort, peace, tranquility, peace and well being. These are the lofty gifts that the Lord has in store for us. These we receive not by looking but seeing, not by hearing but listening, not by desiring for riches and luxuries but for the presence of God. When we abandon God, we find ourselves abandoned, not because God has abandoned but because we have abandoned God and moved away from God. 

There are subtle ways of abandoning God - hearing but not understanding, looking but not perceiving, seeing but not taking to heart the presence and the majesty of God. We are after "useless idols" as Jeremiah says in the first reading. What everyone longs for, what the whole world is yearning for, is right near us for our taking. But we are too busy making our living, establishing our names and defining our own glories. 

All that we need to do is open our eyes and see, open our ears and listen, open our hearts and perceive: we have so easily available what everyone longs for, right at our doorstep - the peace and joy that the Lord alone can give!

WORD 2day: 23rd July, 2014

The Word that lives!

Jer 1: 1-4, 10; Mt 13: 1-9

"See, I put my word into your mouth and I set you over the nations!" It is the word of the Lord that is put into the mouth of a prophet that makes him or her the light to the nations, a reference point to the people. The Word comes to us daily, the Word lives in us, the Word which was made flesh in the person of Christ, dwells in us as the indwelling Spirit and enlightens every bit of our life. The question is, do we realise it?

If we do realise it, we would be like the good soil that gives a hundred, a sixty and thirty fold. Because we hardly realise it, the Word is pecked away by so many other attentions that we have, or it is scorched by the difficulties we have or choked by numerous other concerns that we have. 

The Word alone can show us those tendencies that are to be rooted out and to be torn down, or those that are to be destroyed and be demolished within me. The Word alone will enable me to build and to plant, to grow within me the values of the Reign and thus establish around me the Reign of God.

WORD 2day: 22nd July, 2014

Remembering Mary Magdalene: Passionate in love with the Lord!

Mic 7: 14-15, 18-20; Jn 20: 1-2, 11-18

Mary Magdalene is one character in the life of Jesus, that many are very curious about. The conspiracy theorists and apocryphal experts find in themselves a great interest to study this person more and more and find details that are there and even those that are not there! However they all begin with one question, which the Gospel today answers.

They ask, why is it that the Lord appeared to her first and not to the apostles? The Gospel answers it so simply: because she was there! As we read in the Gospel today, she was there at the tomb early morning. Then, she ran to the apostles and brought them; the apostles saw, they believe and they left, but she was there, she stayed at the tomb and kept weeping (cf v.11). She was there and she got to see her Master. She was like that widow about whom Jesus spoke of once (Lk 18), persistent and insistent! She wanted by all means to know what happened to her Master! She stayed on because she just could not go! She was so passionately in love with her Master.

The key is here: if we are passionately in love with the Lord, we will see the glory of the Lord right in front of our eyes. 

WORD 2day: 21st July, 2014

Want to see signs? Here is a project of life

Mic 6: 1-4, 6-8; Mt 12: 38-42

"Only to do the right and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God" - Micah presents a project of life in these precise words (Mic 6:8). It is a project that he gives to the people to walk in the Lord's ways and not to weary the Lord with their unfaithfulness and stubbornness. How different are we from the people whom Micah addresses today in the first reading? Aren't we just like the pharisees and the others who were incessantly asking for signs from the Lord? 

Crying statues, bleeding icons, moving crosses... aren't they a craze these days! Should they be? Ofcourse, for us miracles are a daily feature, because our God is an awesome God. But looking for some strange phenomenon and glamorous happenings, is not the "Christ"ian outlook of a miracle. For Christ the miracle is in the hope that we can give each other; miracle is in the love that we share for every one around us; miracle is the everyday faith in the Lord and the resultant serenity amidst all the din. 

Let's resolve to do the right, love goodness and walk humbly with the Lord and we will see miracles all around us, on a daily basis!

Lord God, the Just Judge

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 20th July, 2014

Wis 12: 13, 16-19; Rom 8: 26-27; Mt 13: 24-43

One thing that is sure about anything is that it will end. Our life too will end! However not necessarily at the end of our life, but at every moment of our life, as we make decisions, as we go through actions, as we choose our words to speak and our opinions to make, we are liable for judgement. The one who judges us is not anyone who is placed above us or those who are around us; but Lord God, the Just Judge!

The Lord alone can judge, for it is the Lord alone who knows our innermost thoughts and fundamental attitudes. When the Lord judges, the Lord judges not the action but the attitude, not the decision but the disposition, not the choice but the underlying intention and priority. Nothing can escape from the all knowing, ever present God who knows us through and through. That is both a challenge and a grace: a challenge because we cannot deceive God; a grace because the Lord never judges us rashly - the Lord is a Just Judge.

The Just Judge is Mighty but Merciful. The book of wisdom, in the first reading, so beautifully brings out the fact that the Lord is mighty but merciful as a judge. The Lord knows everything and sees through everything, but treats us with mercy and kindness. As St. Paul expresses in the second reading, the Spirit of the Lord knows us and inspires us from within. At times we fail repeatedly in our daily life, with tendencies that overpower us and with temptations that make us fumble. The Lord knows it all, but the Lord's mercies never cease! The Lord has perfect control over us and can decide to pull out the weeds at anytime, but that is not who God is! God is merciful and loving, slow to anger and abounding in love!

The Just Judge is Particular but Patient. The Lord is not satisfied with any mediocre life. The Lord is particular about the way we are to live our life. The Lord has set an ideal as acceptable way of life and wants us to live up to that. Nothing short of perfection is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord; but the Lord is patient. The Lord endures the wait. The Lord walks with us, step by step as we proceed towards this perfection. When we lack in perfection we actually are not testing the patience of the Lord, for the Lord's patience is endless, but we are running the risk of not being "gathered into the Lord's barn" (Mt 13:43). There is no end to the Lord's patience, but our possibilities are limited and it is we who have to feel the urgency!

The Just Judge is Firm but Forgiving. The Lord is demanding but absolutely understanding. The Lord's firmness never lessens the readiness to forgive. The justice of the Lord is guided by love, the absolute love that characterises the Lord alone! Firmness of God is in the very nature that we have inherited as sons and daughters of God. We are called to be plants, giving fruit, blossoming flowers and putting forth the yield, because we are children of God. We would belong to the Reign when we give fruit, however small or negligible it be: just a small mustard seed can give rise to a tree that houses hundreds of birds, a bit of yeast can leaven a bunch of dough. The Lord gives us chances but never relents from the demand to bear fruit. Forgiveness is never a compromise, it is always another chance to start anew, firm in conviction to reach the perfection.

The Lord is a just judge, loving and merciful, patient and kind, understanding and forgiving! Yet it is our duty to realise our call and bear fruit, grow into plants and not into weeds!

WORD 2day: 19th July, 2014

Choice! the choice of God!

Mic 2: 1-5; Mt 12: 14-21

Jesus was living dangerously. But he chose to, for the sake of the Reign of God. He stuck his neck out for the poor, for the oppressed, the marginalised, the ostracised, the exploited, the forgotten in the society. He believed that the Reign of God belonged to them. His life was a hope to the least, the last and the lost. 

In this choice Jesus was making present the God of the Old Testament who sided the oppressed, who stood by the just in their struggles and who kept watch over the persons who strove to live according to God's will. The first reading points out the choice of God, the choice for the poor and the suffering. This predilection on God's part distinguished Jesus and the choices he made. His choice was, the choice of God. There apparent and real dangers, and Jesus knew it well.

Nothing could stop him from proclaiming the Reign of God for he knew he had come precisely for that, to establish the Reign of the God of Truth, the God of the suffering, the Lord of the least, the protector of the lost, the hope of the last. Our identity has to be our Choices, may they be forever in keeping with the choices of God!

Abraham: Biblical Icons for Family Living #1

Abraham

From my contribution to Salesian Bulletin -July issue