The Call, Consecration and Commission!

25th January, 2015: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jon 3: 1-5, 10; 1 Cor 7: 29-31; Mk 1:4-20

The Lord calls each of us, consecrates us to Godself and commissions us to live as God's messengers: that is the crux of true Christian living. 

At times we live our Christian life as if we have nothing binding us with regard to our faith. Our faith in its very nature is binding..it is primarily a Call, not a choice!

Yes, we are called...Faith is a gift, a given, a call! Every person, whether he or she takes it seriously or not, every person baptised is in fact called; called to be children of God, to be co heirs to the Reign of God: but that does not come without a cost. That call comes with a commission: to go and speak, share, announce and proclaim the Good news of the Lord. The Lord equips us for that commission with the consecration that God accomplishes in us! 

The Call requires a response; the consecration involves a drastic renunciation and the commission demands a dedicated obedience. Jonah, St. Paul and the first four apostles are given to us an example of all these three elements of being a messenger of God. Jonah is willing to respond to the call but not willing to renounce his will. God gives him a crash course on true obedience and wins him over. St. Paul says yes to the call and shines as a resounding role model with his drastic renunciation which he recommends to our consideration today. The first four apostles too are immediate in their following of the Call, because their renunciation was total. 

All these for one reason: to take the Word of God to those whom God wanted them to! 

Today the Church reminds us that we have, everyone of us, received a specific call: to take the Word to whom the Lord sends us: it could be to your own family members, or neighbours or colleagues or other friends or strangers. What enables us is our spirit of renunciation of anything that binds -career or social image, loved ones or friends- so that we are free for the Reign of God. The Commission is to take the Word far and wide...the primary means of doing it being our personal life of witness! 

Let us take the call seriously, submit ourselves to God that God could consecrate us to Godself and carry out the commission given to us, taking care to become the message ourselves!

DB NOVENA - DAY 3

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

24th January, 2015: St. Francis De Sales
Heb 9: 2-3, 11-14; Mk 3: 20-21

Shall we go out of our mind? 

They considered Jesus out of his mind, because of the zeal that he had for the Kingdom of God. There are many others in history who were called thus - crazy,  mad, obsessed, etc. Today we celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Sales,  a person so filled with the love and tenderness of God. He has inspired many a person in history;  the two major congregations founded on his spirituality-the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales. The call today is to go out of our mind,  to go crazy with the zeal for the Reign of God... Shall we?

WORD 2day: 23rd January, 2015

The Call to be people of the New Covenant
Heb 8:6-13; Mk 3: 13-19

New covenant,  new people,  new faith,  new community,  new life: for behold I make all things new. ..this is the theme that dominated the life of the early Christians. And that was what made them so attractive. All these newness is from one fundamental experience. ..The experience of a new relationship in Christ.

If a relationship with someone is taken to some newer joyful levels,  that joy betrays oral in the test of your life's conditions. If a relationship that is on,  finds a rough patch sometime,  it is bound to affect a person's entire life,  thinking,  acting and all.

How much do I value my relationship with the Lord who calls me?

DB NOVENA - Day 2

DB NOVENA - DAY 1

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

22nd January, 2015: Bl. Laura Vicuña

Heb 7: 25 - 8: 6; Mk 3: 7-12

The letter to the Hebrews gives a distinguished importance to the quality of obedience of Jesus! In fact it speaks of obedience as special ministry of the Son of God. St. Paul's letters too have the same dimension (eg: Phil 2). At times holiness does not consist in doing great things to a great effect, but in simple and humble submission to the Lord. 

Bl. Laura Vicuña whom the Salesian family remembers today, is an exemplification of this submission. She gave herself up to the Lord, to do the Lord's will and attained an extraordinary level in sanctity already at that tender age!  In Don Bosco's spirituality,  this kind of sanctity is an ordinary sight. 

And today,  we begin the Novena to Don Bosco's  feast!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

21st January, 2015: St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr

Heb 7: 1-3,15-17; Mk 3: 1-6

The readings today speak of two religious disciplines that mattered much to the Old Testament people of God: the practice of tithing and the observance of the Sabbath. Both of them taken in their legalistic sense, would be practices very simple but of less significance. A tenth of your possession given grudgingly, or as in the example of Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5) trying to make it as affecting as possible, will bear no spiritual fruit. Keeping Sabbath as a day of dead and insensitive inactivity instead of holy and active worship to God, will be of no spiritual value. They key to right understanding here is, not giving of what we have, but giving of what we are: a true self giving.

St. Agnes the saint of the day, gave herself up - gave herself totally- to God and to her faith! This total self giving, her body, her soul and her heart, is what is presented to us as a challenge today. In a world that is torn between compromises and mixed allegiances, Agnes' example shines forth as a splendid beacon, beckoning us towards concrete and daily sanctity.

WORD 2day: 20th January, 2015

Faithfulness versus faithfulness
Heb 6: 10-20; Mk 2: 23-28

The crux of the the first reading today,  or for that matter even of the whole Gospels,  is the fact that God is faithful forever. God's faithfulness never ceases and the question is,  how do we find our faithfulness vis-a-vis that of God!

In demonstration of God's faithfulness,  God gives! God gives without count,  without any limit,  without restraint, without conditions,  without anything expected in return. What do we do to demonstrate our faithfulness to God?  A weekly appointment and a few fragmented moments every day and some special day's activities? All of them so legalistically followed sometimes with such insensitivity towards expressing our true love and gratitude...today let's give this dimension a serious thought: God's Faithfulness versus our faithfulness!

WORD 2day : 19th January, 2015

The New People
Heb 5:1-10; Mk 2: 18-22

When the Lord announces in the book of revelation,  'Behold I make all things new'...its not merely about some things to be made again or re-created;  it's primarily about a new mentality,  a new perspective that God wants to instil and inspire in us. The source and the spring of this new perspective is Christ himself. He is at the same time the priest and the sacrifice; the prophet and the Lord of the prophets!

Infact with a new way of relating with us,  with the unique way of sharing our very nature with us,  Christ makes us a new people! And that is what the Lord wants to see in us:our new selves -free from the shackles of the past and the prejudices of the ages-to relate with each other anew and to live each other without any conditions or preconceived notions.