THE WORD IN LENT -38

In distress for the Lord

Fifth week in Lent: Friday, 27th Mar, 2015

Jer 20: 10-13; Jn 10: 31-42

Jeremiah seems a perfect foreshadow of Jesus, but in one case! He was in distress too for the sake of the will of the One who called him; he was cornered for nothing and taken to task for his dedication to the Lord and the task handed to him by the Lord. But differing from Jeremiah, Jesus does not wish to see the vengeance that the Lord would take on those who did not heed the call, those who were persecuting him for wrong reasons, those who refused to see such an obvious point made by Jesus' words and deeds. Jesus wishes that they turn to him, believe in him, in his words and in his works and realise that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. Both Jeremiah and Jesus, give us an example of persons in distress for the Lord: Blessed are those who hunger for justice and peace, for they shall be filled; Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for their's is the kingdom of God. How prepared and ready are we to be in distress for the Lord! 

THE WORD IN LENT -37

Understanding the Covenant

Fifth week in Lent: Thursday, 26th Mar, 2015

Gen 17:3-9;Jn 8: 51-59

Though they claimed to be people of the covenant, they do not grasp the real meaning of the covenant that the Lord had made with them. They considered it to be only a material blessing, giving them prosperity and posterity. Jesus tries to drive home to their minds the holistic difference that the Lord makes in our lives, in and through the covenant: the covenant actually makes us like God - eternal and all spiritual. Whoever keeps my word will never see death, declares Jesus. In Jesus we have a much deeper reality to observe and accept: that God wants to share with the God's very nature -the nature of eternity, the aspect of timelessness, the quality that our earthly life is just a part of the entire existence we possess, in the mind of God earlier and in union with God later. If we accept this perspective, we would understand the folly of an exaggerated insistence and dependence on material prosperity. Are we ready to understand the true meaning of the covenant we have with God or are we picking up stones against it?

GOD BEGINS...

Feast of Annunciation: 25th March, 2015

Is 7: 10-14, 8:10; Heb 10: 4-10; Lk 1: 26-36

Even as a  boy, I was always taken up by that subtitle in the prayer of the Angelus: God Begins! Our God is not merely a God who responds...Our God begins, God initiates, intervenes at the right time even without an asking. That is why St. John proclaimed, we love God because God first loved us (1 Jn 4:19). The feast of Annunciation is a splendid manifestation of this nature of God, the nature of intervening at the appointed time.

We see three people involved here, who in unison give the humanity a holistic life giving message. 

The Angel: stands for Faith - a concrete sign of God's relationship with us. Angels are God's spokespersons, God's messengers and God's extensions which make present God to us. Our Faith is that God continues to live with us, even amidst all the worldliness that we are surrounded by.

Mary: stands for Hope - a concrete sign of Our relationship with God. Mary shines as a counter witness to the hopeless humanity today. Indifference and Individualism marks the humanity of today and Mary's 'yes' is a revolution that spells hope to the world and to the entire humanity. 

The Child: stands for Love - a concrete sign that God still loves the World. God has not given up on us and God will never do! A love that is ready to give totally of Itself (Rom 8:32). The Child that is promised is a sign of God's everlasting and unconditional love that gives life and light to the otherwise darkness filled world today.

THE WORD IN LENT -35

When the Lord is lifted...

Fifth week in Lent: Tuesday,  24th Mar, 2015

Num 21: 4-9; Jn 8:21-30

They thought they were finishing his story off. Little did they know they were giving rise to an all new history. The Lord was lifted and as he had said,  he drew all to himself when he was lifted. Today,  as always the blood of some children of the Lord is being spilled for no reason,  but it is not a signal to the end of the Reign of the Lord. Let the world beware that the Lord is being lifted up. And when the Lord is lifted up,  he will definitely draw people to himself.  

All that we need to do is like Jesus himself guarantee that we do not act as we like but according to the will of the One who had called us.As Jesus himself testified it was his doing the will of his Father that gave him the meaning of his life. As the Scripture points through St. Paul it is the obedience to the Father that placed Jesus above every being on earth and gave him the name that is above every name ( Phil 2: 8-11)

THE WORD IN LENT -34

Condemnation or Compassion

Fifth week in Lent: Monday, 23rd Mar, 2015

Dan 13: 1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62; Jn 8; 1-11

Susanna's story in the first reading and the story of the woman brought to Jesus accused of adultery, are two grand examples of the fact that God takes side with the weak and the vulnerable. At times the so-called just and righteous will wonder what is wrong with God, the way God takes sides with the so-called sinners and the undeserving! If we were careful not to side ourselves with the self righteous and self proclaimed just ones, we would easily understand our call to play God's role in the situations we find ourselves in: the role of taking sides with the weak, the vulnerable, the little ones of the Lord! The difference between the above mentioned two camps is this: one itches to condemn, the other is moved by compassion. It is compassion that is Godly and we need to grow seriously out of a vindictive spirit, if we want to put on the mind of Christ. True Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things (1 Cor 13:7).

WANT TO SEE JESUS?

Fifth Sunday in Lent: 22nd March, 2015

Jer 31:31-34; Heb 5: 7-9; Jn 12: 20-23

The Word today has an open invitation: Do you really want to see Jesus? 

Wanting to see Jesus is a fitting exercise during the Lent; Jesus answers the question and teaches us an important lesson in knowing God and growing in that knowledge. 

It is possible at times that we say that we cannot know God, imagining God to be far away from us and from our human understanding. Jesus breaks that myth about God and brings God close to us, as close as God becoming human and living amidst us. In Jesus, God establishes what Jeremiah exclaims: that everyone will know God. Each and every one of us can know God and know God personally and intimately. Jesus makes the whole journey so easy and instead of challenging us to rise up to his level, he comes down to our status and assures us that we can have a relationship that is so concrete and real, with God.

Jesus promises us another favour: that He will draw us to Himself! I am reminded of an anecdote that I have heard when I was a boy, about that little girl who got lost on a trek into the forest.  It started to grow dark and the little girl was frightened, she hid herself behind a bush and remained there a bit scared. The father began to go in search his little one, worried and anxious. At a point, he reached the bush where the girl was hiding and as he peeped in to check that bush out,  the girl shouted with a great relief: "Daddy! I found you!" At times we think we are in search of God, or that we find God and understand God. The fact is the other way around. God is in search of us constantly. It is God who draws us to Godself. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father (Jn 6:44) Jesus had declared and he assures us today that he will himself draw us to where he is (Jn 12:32). He wants us to be where he is; Jesus wants us to share his world, his priorities, his mission and his vision of God. 

Jesus wants us to be like him, who learnt obedience from what he suffered. Lent is a time when we dwell on Jesus' suffering, not to emotionally sympathise with the suffering servant, but to understand the meaning of obedience in life, to prepare ourselves to be like Jesus, always open to the will of God and ready to surrender ourselves into God's hands. The more we surrender into the hands of God, the more serene we can become even at the face of all the trials that our life holds out to us! The less we surrender, the more anxious we become! This is why, the Lord suggests to us that we learn of him who is meek and humble of heart and thus find rest to our souls (cf. Mt 11:29). 

Let the rest of the season of lent be an exercise of this spiritual discipline to surrender ourselves into the all powerful hand of God and find rest to our worried, anxious and restless souls. And the right point to start is where we find those gentlemen from Greece, enquiring: 'Sir, we would like to see Jesus'!

THE WORD IN LENT -32

Half baked opinions and fully blocked minds

Fourth week in Lent: Saturday, 21st Mar, 2015

Jer 11: 18-20; Jn 7: 40-53

Forming opinions on persons or events without actually knowing the whole truth is a judgement, and of course would be a wrong one at that. Incomplete knowledge is dangerous, and not being aware of its incompleteness is doubly dangerous. Today we see this phenomenon at work every where: the clashes between religious fanatics, the terrifying threats of some fundamentalists, inter denominational hatred and divisions, interpersonal issues in the families...everywhere this phenomenon is at work: half baked opinions and fully blocked minds, that do not allow genuine dialogue and lead only to the slaughter of the minority by the senseless majority, or stifling of the weak by the ruthless strong!

The Word presents to us the same picture today, with Jesus taking the place of the minority, the weak, the vulnerable, the affected, the sacrificed lamb. It can be that everyday we could be sacrificing someone at the altars of our ego and our judgments...and in their persons we could be slaughtering the sacrificial Lamb over and over again. It takes courage to realise and accept the harm my half baked opinions and fully blocked mind can do, to me and to others!

THE WORD IN LENT -31

Doing away with persons

Fourth week in Lent: Friday,  20th Mar, 2015

Wis 2: 1a, 12-22; Jn 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30

People need no special reason to reject or condemn some one... it is enough that he or she is different from them. The passage from the book of Wisdom,  though written hundreds of years before Christ, seems to fit in exactly to his life, as if it were a direct prophecy about Christ's life and its end. Just take another look, it seems to fit into many others' lives too... D.K. Ravi IAS, who was found dead just 4 days back, Srinivas, Satyendra Dubey, Manjunath and so many others who have given their lives for having been what they were, in our own nation. Others who are fighting to be what they are, like Sagayam IAS and others... the passage seems to fit in! 

Yes, it will fit in to the life of anyone who wishes to live the purpose of one's life to the full. Like Jesus, we are called to be persons who live our life to the full, and be reminders to everyone to live their's. Jesus knows that he will be soon laid hands upon, but that would not stop him from being what he were, or doing what he did! It is so important that we understand our real identity with such clarity, to be as strong and determined as Jesus was. May the Lord fill us with that understanding!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

He did as the Lord commanded him

Feast of St. Joseph: 19th March, 2015

2 Sam 7: 4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22; Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a.

St. Joseph  is presented in the Gospels often as a modern icon of the ancient fathers -Abraham, Jacob, David and others! The readings today bring out the same theme, as they dwell on the ancestry and the promises fulfilled. Apart from various other similarities that we can find, one striking similarity between the Fathers and St. Joseph, is that of their readiness to do what the Lord commands. 

Joseph seems to have had no objections whatsoever to carrying out the projects handed on to him by God- a perfect attitude of faith, the attitude of total surrender and absolute trust. The Holy Family was in safe hands because he did not allow his ego to dominate but allowed the Lord to be the center of his household.

May St. Joseph teach us these three things for our daily living: - Listening to God and living by it; - Letting God have His way in whatever it may; - Loving those entrusted to us by the Divine Providence, with a love that is committed and selfless.

THE WORD IN LENT -29

To each proper to their need

Fourth week in Lent: Wednesday, 18th Mar, 2015

Isa 49: 8-15; Jn 5: 17-30

Does God love all in the same manner? Ofcourse, God is never partial but what would love mean if it is the same with everyone, everywhere! God's love is specific says the Word today. God's love comes to respond to the need of each one proper to the void he or she experiences in life. A mother's expression of love to a hungry child is feeding it; her reaching out to a frightened child is to caress it reassuringly!  God's love is such, declares the Word today: even if that mother were to forsake, God would never forsake us! it takes special effort to respond to each one proper to their need, at times the needs of each persons vary, at times even clash one against the other! God alone knows the trick of reconciling them and making the right thing happen at the right time. After all, is it not true that, all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to God's purpose (cf Rom 8:28)?