THE WORD AND THE SAINT

28th January, 2015: St. Thomas Aquinas

Heb 10: 11-18; Mk 4: 1-20

St. Thomas Aquinas, the saint we celebrate today can be easily considered the most important of all the theologians who have explained the Church's teachings. He has written an incredibly voluminous literature, expounding the truths of faith. But at the end of it all, when he had an intimate experience of God, he exclaimed that all that he had done till then were almost rubbish!

The readings today speak to us of living an acceptable life in the presence of God. It is never the case that the Lord rejects us or finds us unacceptable; the Lord said he had come to call the sinners and not the righteous! But the fact is we alienate ourselves from the Lord by the very choices we make on a daily basis and at every moment of decision making.

We may easily complain...the situation around is bad or that the conditions of life are not conducive. But we are asked to do the best without any compromise, wherever we are or in whatever condition we find ourselves in; the rest the one who has called us will take care. We can plant, water and take care, it is the Lord who gives us the growth!

DB NOVENA - DAY 6

Don Bosco Novena - day 6

27th January, 2015

WORD 2day: 27th January, 2015

The one absolute: God's Will

Heb 10:1-10; Mk 3: 31-35

Yesterday I was talking to a group of children about 'Vocation' and I was trying to drive home to them the fact that every one of us is called, each of us has a vocation; that we are all here on a purpose and God wants us to achieve that purpose. One smart boy raised a question: but how will we know what God wants us to do? 

Truly speaking, can we ever know for sure, what God wants of us? 

If we can stay tuned to God's voice and God's promptings, we would at any given moment make choices and decisions in keeping with God's will for us then and there. What is needed for this is a disposition that the readings today give us: Behold, I come to do your will. It is this readiness to do God's will that makes Mary the first disciple of Christ, more than merely the biological mother that she was to Jesus! The fundamental disposition is to never lose sight of that one absolute, in relation to which all our choices and decisions have to be made: God's Will, and a total surrender to it.

DB NOVENA - DAY 5

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Sts  Timothy and Titus: 26th January, 2015

2 Tim 1: 1-8; Lk 10: 1-9

Timothy and Titus are two models we are presented with today.  They were both finds of St. Paul on his journeys. Inspiring the listeners to make a life choice is a special gift that some are given with. St. Paul possessed this and used it well for the Reign of God. Timothy and Titus join the great band of apostles that Jesus initiated.

Today the call remains open. The Reign is yet to be made visibly present in the world today. Every baptised person is entrusted with the task of establishing the Reign of God and what is your response? Do examples such as Timothy's and Titus' impel us towards action?

DB NOVENA - DAY 4

Don Bosco Novena- Day 4

25th January

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?