WORD 2day: 31st October, 2014

Busy about our Father's business?

Phil 1: 1-11; Lk 14: 1-6

Jesus went about doing good! Doing good was his way of being the Son of God. This work that he started nobody could stop, because his Father was leading it towards its completion! The so-called religious heads or the oppressive political heads nor the discouraging responses of the people - nothing deterred him; because he was not doing his work. "My food is to do the will of the One who sent me!" Infact, the very things that the people wrongly understood as holy and sacred were posed in opposition to the goodness that Jesus wanted to spread. A very timely lesson for those of us who are passionate about doing something for God, and find that we are not able to... because of whatever reasons it may be... if it is God who has initiated it in us, God will bring it to its completion. Let us not fret! Let us be busy about Our Father's business.

WORD 2day: 30th October, 2014

Being a Christian today: is it simple?

Eph 6:10-20; Lk 13: 31-35

Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens (Eph 6:12). Yes, our life is a struggle! Yes, we are the Militant Church...the church that is fighting its way through, towards the eternal life, the sure crown that is promised. The Triumphant Church, who are the saints who have gone before us, is our shining model and an inspiring example.The message that the latter gives us, and the clear tone of the Word today, is that of Lk 12:4 - Do not fear those who can kill your body, but can do nothing to your soul! And Jesus lives that teaching in the Gospel today: 'Go tell that fox'...meaning Herod...'that I will be here today, tomorrow and the third day!'.

Jesus feared no one, because he was certain that God was with him. St. Paul today gives us a whole armour to put on; every kind of protection against every kind of danger. The Lord is our stronghold, the Lord is our refuge; whom should we fear? All that we need to do is stand firm in faith. Let us not deceive ourselves saying, being a Christian today is simple or natural; it is not! Neither shall we lose hope saying, we cannot! Jesus teaches us by his example today the technique of a Christian fight: Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong! (1 Cor 16:13). 

Remembering Blessed Michael Rua

The first successor of Don Bosco...29th October, 2014

Just to list a few things 
that are significant about Don Rua...

1. He was a strict man but was a fitting successor of Don Bosco with his true love for persons!

2. He was the one who sent first Salesians to India, in 1906.

3. He was Don Bosco's boy, grew and took the reins from Don Bosco!

WORD 2day: 29th October, 2014

To be saved...any shortcuts?

Eph 6: 1-9; Lk 13: 22-30

Will only  few be saved? Who will be saved and who will not be? Will so and so be saved? These are questions we hear more often than not. Jesus not even once when he was asked, answered these questions direct. He always gave an explanation that made them think more and think of something else! Once he said the parable of the camel and the eye of the needle and another time he explained to them that it is possible with God, and impossible with merely human effort. However today, he says there are no categories of people who would enter, neither are there selected races who would enter! Anyone can enter and everyone is invited to enter the Reign of God, provided they had the right disposition and the right life style!

St. Paul in the first reading explains what this disposition or life style has to be. It is nothing but living our life wherever we are, in a manner that is pleasing to God. It is easy to blame the others or the situation for a life lived below the standard that is expected of us and the Lord today challenges us to 'strive to go through the narrow door'...that is the door that leads to the Reign! In Paul's words, we are called to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:!2); it is not about fretting and fidgeting but about being diligent and dedicated in whatever we are called to be, wherever we are! 

Remembering Sts. Simon and Jude

28th October, 2014

Today we celebrate the feast of St.Simon and Jude... 

Simon was called the Zealot; it is the lesson that he has to give us all: we as the militant   church should always fight the battle for the will of God to be done and the Reign of God be established here and now.                                                       

Jude, called Thaddeaus in two of the four Gospels, is the considered the hope of those who are on the verge of giving up in life. The message is clear: there is nothing that is beyond God.

May our call to be apostles, sent by God, be filled with the same zeal and the unswerving faithfulness of these saints!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

WORD 2day: 27th October, 2014

Be compassionate because...

Eph 4: 32- 5: 8; Lk 13:  10-17.

'Children of Light', that is how St.Paul addresses us in the first reading today. Tbe reading also paints a clear picture of what it means to be children of God...it means to be kind, compassionate, forgiving, filled with love... in short being like God, simply because we are children of God. Love and compassion have to be the defining characteristics of our personality. Nothing can stop us from being compassionate... no difficulty should hinder us from being compassionate... no rule or regulation, no tradition or custom, no practice or policy can stop us from being compassionate; because it should become our very nature  as we are children of the Compassionate Father and Mother, God who has loved each of us into existence. 

It's Love allover again!!!

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 26th October, 2014

Exo 22:20-26; 1 Thes 1: 5c-10; 22: 34-40

"What is the central theme of the readings this Sunday?" asked a friend of mine. And when I replied, "it is about loving God and loving your neighbour", instinctively he sighed: 'oh the same love allover again!' Some times we might sound totally redundant speaking of love. In fact the fact is, in Jesus' message, Love is the sole dominant theme, and everything else is only a footnote to it.

Love spoken of in today's Word, as ever, is not a mere sentiment or a feeling! It is a choice, a concrete choice for good. It is a serious matter of the HEAD. It is a decision made, a rationale adopted, a perspective that affects all other decisions and choices in life. The ultimate good is God, hence love is basically a choice for God! Loving God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, is the basis of this choice for good. I choose good, because I choose God. How foolishly contradicting it would be to say I choose to love God and therefore I kill or harm my brothers and sisters! Is the choice really coherent? Is the choice really rational? Is the choice really good or Godly? Choosing God, is choosing the absolute good; it is choosing life not death; it is choosing the other not the self, that leads us to the second dimension.

Love is a choice for the other, a matter of the HEART. It is only through the heart can we place the other before us, because it is only through the heart can we hear the unsaid sorrows of the other; it is only through the heart we can see the unseen pains of the souls; it is only through the heart we can touch the unexplored depths of a person! Love has to be a concrete choice for the other, specially the afflicted, suffering 'Other', who cries out from the agony of the everyday life. Can we open the eyes of our heart; can we sharpen the ears of our heart; can we extend the hands of our heart... yes...

Love is a matter of the HANDS... it is a choice to act, to act on behalf of the needy. Love cannot remain a mere sentiment, it has to be translated into concrete decisions and transforming acts, on behalf of the needy. The first reading lists the widows, the orphan, the children, the poor, the needy... that is a broad indication of a whole lot of persons who are close to the heart of God: the exploited, the enslaved, the maltreated, the manipulated, the oppressed... It has to be active, affecting the life of the person who claims to love and transforming the life of the one who is  loved!

Love is the crux and the essence of Christ's message and it will never be redundant. Specially seeing the world that is growing increasingly selfish and menacingly might-oriented, love will ever be wanting and if you and I do not offer it abundantly wherever we are, it would be a serious deficiency of God in the world today!

WORD 2day: 25th October, 2014

Let us Grow Up!

Eph 4: 7-16; Lk 13: 1-9

The first reading today will lend itself so well for an interdenominational war and a catholics-protestants feud, one calling the other a human trickery and deceptive scheming. Let us grow up dear friends! St. Paul challenges us to grow into the full stature of Christ and that is nothing but love. Let us grow in love, love for God, love for each other, a patient acceptance of each other and loving fellowship of brothers and sisters. 

How long would we go on calling each other names and breaking the Body of Christ into non negotiable bits and pieces? If we go on like this, Jesus says that twice in the Gospel today: 'you will all perish!' It's high time we realise our call to grow up and bear fruit. God has given us enough and more chances. Let us equip ourselves, not with offences and defences, but with arms of love and feet of generosity. Let us prune our ego and till our arid hearts. Let us sow seeds of love and reap the fruit of brotherhood and sisterhood. Love is our identity and nothing else is: by this they will know that you are my disciples, by the love that you have for one another (Jn 13:35). There can be no worse scandal than a divided Church and of course, there can be no better proclamation of the Gospel than a loving and united community of faithful, who live together as brothers and sisters, one in the Lord and in the Spirit!

WORD 2day: 24th October, 2014

Oneness of Vision: Integrity

Eph 4: 1-6; Lk 12: 54-59

Recently discussing their problem with a couple, we could see no way out of the problem no matter how much we tried making sense of what was happening. Finally I had to tell them, 'we can arouse a person who is sleeping, but not the one who pretends to sleep!' It is true: for most of the problems today, it is not that we do not have a solution, but we do not want to arrive at it. 

Jesus give his piece of mind to the pharisees and scribes, because he finds in them the hypocrisy of not choosing things that were so obviously towards the right. Its like a group of people, here in our context, in spite of knowing that their leader was at fault, were making a hue and cry about the leader's conviction. The problems in the world are due to the lack of oneness of vision that afflicts us...each one with a selfish agenda, or groups with unfounded prejudices, classes with insensitive urge for advancement, persons with inhuman tendencies of manipulation and exploitation...these are persons who could not care less about the golden rule. They have a set of rules for themselves and a completely different one for others. These are people filled with discrepancies and disparities, and will be the least likely to enter the Reign of God. Are we in any chance among those in that list?

WORD 2day: 23rd October, 2014

Reasons to BE GOOD

Eph 3: 14-21; Lk 12: 49-53

Speaking to a group of families yesterday, on our call to be light to the world, I remarked, "People are afraid to be good these days!" Fear of manipulation, exploitation and being taken for granted are so live and real that we hesitate to be good and hold on to what is good. The Word today gives us three reasons why we cannot afford to be afraid of being good:

1. Because we take on our heredity from none less than the Almighty Lord: The Lord is our banner; the Lord is our identity, it is from the Lord we take our name, as a family of God. How can we be other than good?

2. Because the Love of God is poured into our hearts: A love whose measure, we can never comprehend to the full  - the length and breadth and depth and height of it so immense that we cannot but be concerned about being worthy of that love; which entails that we are good in our very being!

3. Because we have a Vocation to be a Community of Counter Culture: Jesus commissions us to be the People of the Reign, which is to be a people of counter culture, proposing a culture that is opposed to the culture of social sin, the culture of injustice and exploitation, the culture of imbalanced growth and inhuman development, a culture of total human insensitivity. When we intend to be such a community of counter culture, the rest of the world may turn against us. Jesus makes it clear today: if you choose me, choose be absolutely!