WORD 2day: 22nd December, 2014

Fourth Monday in Advent
1 Sam 1: 24-28: Lk 1: 46-56

Grateful Hearts and the Saintly song!

It is a saintly song to sing in exultation for the great things that God does to us. Today we have Hannah and Mary singing to their hearts' content. Only a grateful heart will have reasons to exult and only a heart that finds reasons to exult is truly saintly. There can be no sorry saints; even the worst affected of all exults in the great things that the Lord has done for her or for him. Mary is an epitome of such a saint and Hannah is her foreshadow!

Mary and Hannah have a lot in common: they bore their child in strange circumstances, both ran the risk of being misjudged, both realised that the Lord had seen with pity on their lowliness and both offered their child to God without reserve. Hannah sang the song of exultation and Mary adapted it! The most important of all similarities is their grateful breaking forth into a song of exultation.

As we near the Christmas day, the readings invite us to count our blessings and name them one by one. We will be surprised to see, how long and how many of them escaped our attention! Let us sing from the depths of our hearts a song that is new and glorious: My soul magnifies the Lord!

H.O.M.E

4th Sunday of Advent: 21st December, 2014

27: 1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Rom 16: 25-27; Lk 1: 26-38

We are in the last Sunday before the all important feast we have been preparing ourselves for! Just 3 days to go for Christmas. Today the readings speak of the importance of getting ready with a home for the Lord. David in the first reading is concerned with building a home for the Lord and in the Gospel we see God preparing a worthy home for God's son to be born into this world, the worthy home being Mother Mary's immaculate womb. And it leaves us with one pertinent question: have I prepared a home to receive my saviour yet?

How do I prepare a home, a worthy dwelling for the Saviour who visits us? We can prepare a home by growing within us and among us the four qualities that are exemplified for us in the readings, by the persons involved.

Humility: Being humble is the first quality we are required to have. Mary is presented to us as the epitome of this humility. She acknowledges her lowliness before God and thus she is exalted high above all. The Lord teaches humility to David,through Nathan. The king David as a humble son, learns from God and accepts his state of unworthiness. We are called before the Lord to realise our state of mind and state of life, to be grateful and to acknowledge the goodness we have felt from God.

Obedience: Being obedient is the next important criterion for God to visit us. 'Be it done unto me, according to your word', said Mary. She knew the best thing that could happen to her was the Will of God for her life and so she submits herself totally to God's will. David too may have been rebellious at times but he was an obedient son, who always returned to listen to God and obey God's commands. We need to be obedient to the Lord to really receive the Lord into our lives- there can be no doubts about this!

Mercy: Being merciful, is the third important quality towards making a place for the Lord, worthy of the nature of the Lord. St. Paul brings out how the eternal mystery of God's love and mercy, was being manifested in the coming of the only Son of the Father. It is because the Lord is merciful, that in God's eternal mercy, God deigns to reveal Godself to us and thus come and dwell amidst us. 'Be ye merciful as your heavenly father is merciful', invited Jesus. Yes,that is the only way we can invite the Lord and make the Lord's presence felt among us.

Empathy: Being empathetic towards the needy, the suffering, the homeless, the lonely the least, the lost, the last, the hurt and the broken, is the most apt way of welcoming the Lord home! That will be the home that the Lord best loves, rather than homes that are merely spic and span because no one has entered that home; than the homes that are elegant because there is so much of money spent merely on external pomp and splendour; than the homes that are closed and secured, out of reach for the poor and the dirty, the needy and the clumsy. The Lord comes to identify himself with the poor, the sinners, the outcasts, the least, the marginalised; it is there the Lord would dwell. If we empathise with these, we would as well receive the Lord!

Humble, Obedient, Merciful and Empathetic, we can make a HOME for the Lord and there is no much time left: let us get into action NOW!

WORD 2day: 20th December, 2014

Third Saturday of Advent

Is 7: 1-14; Lk 1: 26-38

The Trustworthy Lord with us!

The world today seems lost and dissipated because by and large it has lost any solid foundation on which to base itself. Everything and everybody seems so flimsy and fragile that the moment you begin to feel secure things fall apart. And there is only one thing that we can stand firm on: Christmas says it all - the promises of God!

We stand on the promises of God. They alone do not fail us, come what may. The readings today bring this out in such vivid fashion that we do not need any interpretation to it. The first reading presents the promise made in King Ahaz's time and the Gospel presents the realisation of that promise. And in all this, Mary finds a special role. Her yes did not stop with the Angel disappearing but it continued all her life; she founded herself on the promises of God and as Elizabeth declares, "Blessed is the one who believes that what God promised will come true!"

Emmanuel, the Lord with us, is the foundation living with us. It is the Lord who resides with us and strengthens our confidence in this life through the promises and through the trust we have that the promises will come true. May this Christmas be a moment for us to rediscover this trustworthy Lord with us!

WORD 2day: 19th December, 2014

Third Friday of Advent
Jdgs 13: 2-7, 24, 25a; Lk 1: 5-25

The announcements and the precursors 

The readings from today would draw our attention to the various announcements and the numerous precursors that God sent in preparation for the climax of the salvation plan which is soon to begin unfolding! The two whom we see today: Samson and John the Baptist are announced! They have more than few characteristics that they share: both their mothers were considered barren or atleast already old; both were nazarites, that is set apart for God; one we see in the temple and the other we see in the wilderness but both in total union with God; both were chosen messengers of God and they play that part more than well.

Their life and their calling have something precise to communicate to us: your birth is not by chance, it is by choice. God has willed you into existence and has wished that a specific task be carried out by you. Our life has to consist in understanding this call, unraveling this specific task and living upto it. How attentive are we to the numerous announcements made by the Lord to us, the numerous messages that the Lord passes on!

YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE #7

WORD 2day: 18th December, 2014

Third Thursday of Advent
Jer 23: 5-8; Mt 1: 18-25

Emmanuel,  our justice

The most challenging of all attributes of God is what Jeremiah notes today: the Lord our justice. It was the experience of God that proved salvific for the people of Israel and it was the same experience that proved their detriment when it was to deal  with their way of treating the strangers, the orphans,  the widows and the helpless.

The Lord showed them his preferential love because they were exploited  and those who exploited he reduced them to nothing. Today the Lord lives,  the Lord lives with us and we are invited to acknowledge that presence of the Lord amidst us. In acknowledging it, we acknowledge the call that each of us has received in the Lord- to be instruments of this special presence of the Lord.

Joseph received the instruction as to how to be that special presence. He carried it  out diligently and secured his irreplaceable niche in the marvellous plan of God.

WORD 2day: 17th December, 2014

Third Wednesday of Advent

Gen 49: 2, 8-10; Mt 1: 1-17

The Lord of History

Every time one reads the part of the Gospel presented by the Word today, one is filled with an awe at the wisdom of the Lord of History. History is in the hands of the Lord; the Lord creates, shapes and determines the history of humankind. How  foolish of us to think that we are making history or we are writing it ourselves. 

There are two aspects of the genealogy that impresses us at the very outset: 
First, the faithfulness of God from time immemorial. God promised something and he remained faithful to that promise for centuries and centuries together. It is this fact that inspires St. Paul to declare that even "if we are faithless, he remains faithful"(2 Tim 2:13). This faithfulness is underlined in today's Word from the first reading.
Second, the fact that the genealogy presented includes names such as Rahab the prostitute; Ruth, a non Hebrew woman; Bathsheba, an illegitimate connection and so on! It is an unparalleled statement made by God that anyone can be God's instrument in creating history and writing it, provided God wills it.

Let us believe: in and through us, here and now, the Lord is writing a history! We would do well to surrender ourselves totally into God's hands and be docile to God's promptings that we would be worthy elements of that history.

WORD 2day: 16th December, 2014

Third Tuesday of Advent

Zeph 3: 1-2, 9-13; Mt 21: 28-32

Truly God's children?

At a point in the first reading the Lord says: 'you need not be ashamed of all your deeds...'. Not to be ashamed of myself is a life of dignity and honour; that I am myself and I am proud of it. True love and true regard for each other will give one this dignity and honour. The Lord fills us with this dignity and honour as God's sons and daughters. 

In our moral integrity we are challenged to remain worthy of that calling we have, that is, to be sons and daughters of God our loving father and mother. It consists of the decision we make to hear the voice of God, listen to it, realise the call in it and act on it with love. Not hearing the voice would be a total insensitivity to God; hearing but not listening would be a disrespect; listening but not realising the call involved would be foolishness; and realising it but not acting upon it, would be a deliberate choice that would negate our very belonging to the Lord.

When we are ready to hear, listen, realise and act on God's word, we would be true sons and daughters of God; and we would never need to be ashamed of ourselves, our deeds or our lives. The point is, are we really God's children!

WORD 2day: 15th December, 2014

Third Monday of Advent

Num 24: 2-7, 15-17a; Mt 21:23-27

It's all around you!

There are those who make religion a fairy tale or a horror story. The recent times have seen bands and bands of such people, writing, preaching, proclaiming and shouting at the top of their voice about signs and events, mysteries and milestones...all exciting but so shallow and Un-Christ-ian! It is not for us to know the time and the hour...but the call is to be prepared and alert, watching and praying constantly, that we may never miss when the Lord visits us.

That visit is not something about which we would shudder and shiver, if we live our every moment according to the will of the One who has commissioned us. If we are true and honest about our experience with God, we would find God and Godly signs and God's call to act, every moment of our lives! It is all around us... in faces that surround us, in events that envelope us, in experiences that beckon our choice and in persons who challenge our priorities. 

Let us be convinced of the fact that the Lord is present in our days, living with us, walking beside us all the way! And let this be our prayer that we may never miss the Lord: Lord teach us your ways!

WORD 2day: 13th December, 2014

Second Saturday of Advent

Sir 48: 1-4, 9-11; Mt 17: 9a, 10-13

Elijah, John and You!

They wondered why Elijah should come back, because for them Elijah meant trouble. That is the reason they could not see Elijah in the Baptist. And Jesus pointed it out on their face. 

For us today 'Elijah' would be those persons and situations that challenge us to greater commitment and total dedication. And 'John 'would be those people who put us into a spiritual uneasiness by their witness in life. 

What would be your response to the urgency of the Reign today: the increasing compromises in Christian living and the senseless alienation of life from the Christian belief. Keep Elijah and John in your mind for a practical and concrete dedication towards the integrity of the Reign.