THE WORD AND THE SAINT

29th June, 2015: ST. PETER and ST. PAUL

Acts 12: 1-11; 2 Tim 4: 6-8, 17-18; Mt 16: 13-19

The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, marks the day of their martyrdom...of course they were not martyred together; neither were they martyred in the same place or manner! But they were both martyred in Rome and Rome has these two principal apostles as its patron.

There is one thing told of these two apostles in the readings today. They were called, and given a specific task and the Lord constantly protected them and rescued them when they were ready to give up anything, including their very lives, for the sake of the task entrusted to them. 

You shall be the rock... you shall be my instrument to take my name to the gentiles... these were the words with which the Lord invited them and in similar terms we are invited too, with a specific task, with hurdles and burdens yes, but the Lord is there all the way. 

Let us resolve to become aware of the special and unique call that the Lord has placed within us! 

LIFE, ME & GOD

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wis 1:13-15, 2:23-24; 2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15; Mk 5: 21-43

Life is a precious Gift from God. The first link that we have with God as someone outside of us,is the the link that we have from the fact that it is God who has given us life. Can we think of what is life? What constitutes life? Can we create life... yes, we can multiply, clone or enhance life, but creating it from nowhere, from nothing... Can we?

GOD OF LIFE
God is the author of life and the God we have is God of life, not God of death, says the book of Wisdom as we read today. Anything that enhances life and promotes it, comes from God. Anything that militates against life, in whatever way, it is contrary to God. The World today is being filled with forces that threaten life: unbalanced development, inhuman godliness, inauthentic means to living, unfettered exploitation of the other, disoriented conception of oneself... these are all principles in today's world that go against life. Abortions, Suicides and Genocides are dubbed as assertion of rights! 

LIFE OF GOD
The life that we have is the life of God, reminds us St.  Paul in the readings today. God has given us life, not only that,  God has given his own life that we may live! It is like that twin child who as told by the parents, your brother is dying and we need that you give him blood that he may live on! And the child after much frightful moments, said 'yes'. And once that blood was given to the ailing brother, the twin turned to the parents and asked: 'okay, now that I have given it, when will I die?' Giving blood that child thought, was to die and give life to the sick brother! God did exactly the same. The Son of God gave us his life to redeem us. The life we have is the life of God. We are living a life that is lent to us. We have brought in death into the world and into our own lives, by our faulty choices and warped priorities; but God has given us life so that we may live on in spite of our iniquities. Our life has been leased to us!

LIFE IN GOD
Whether we touch God or God touches us, God gives us life, a renewed life, a holistic life, a life that is abundant. I have come that you may have life, life in all its fullness - declared Our Blessed Lord. Reaching out to the Lord, or the Lord reaching out to us, we receive a new lease of life! All our brokenness, our sinfulness, our sicknesses, our infirmities, our inner conflicts... everything will be whisked away with that one glimpse from the eyes of the Lord. All that we need to do, is surrender into the hands of God and receive life from God's hands. At times we think or act as if 'my life belongs to me'! And in that vision of life, I will have added nothing but pain and meaninglessness to my life, which will show up at a moment when it would seem a point of no return. And then would follow depression, desperation and desolation. But if from the very moment that I realise, if I would begin to live my life, as a life lived in God, I would save myself a life that is so meaningful and wholesome.

The God of life has given me the very life of God, and all I need to do is resolve to live my life IN GOD.

WORD 2day: 27th June, 2015

When the Lord enters. ..

Saturday,  12th week in Ordinary Time
Gen 18: 1-15; 8: 5-17

The readings today have the leitmotif of the Lord who enters homes and when he does that,  there is something marvellous happening. The Lord enters Abraham's house, and the childless Sarah bears a child. The Lord enters Peter's home and Peter's mother in law rise up from her fever. The Lord's presence makes things come anew.  There is a third episode here which brings the same theme to the next plane: a mere Word from the Lord can make things beautiful.

If we allow the Word of the Lord to enter our homes, everything will be renewed testifies the Centurion in the Gospel. Allowing the Lord to enter our homes is a marvellous thing to do;  but it involves a great risk too. Things will not be the same anymore. We will have to be ready to forgo of a few things because,  when the Lord enters everything is renewed!

WORD 2day: 26th June, 2015

The folly of Back up Plan

Friday, 12th week in Ordinary Time
Gen 17: 1, 9-10, 15-22; Mt 8: 1-4

At times we act smart- though we ask God for a favour,  we begin making a back up plan...if in case we do not get what we ask! That actually spells a doom in most of the cases and instead of backing up, it backfires. Yesterday we read of Sarah making a back up plan of begetting a child through the maid servant and how it backfired. Today,  even as he listens to God communicating his plan,  Abraham is intent on having a back up plan,  seeing Ishmael as his progeny! Abraham has still to grow in his faith,  true and total faith. He will grow and he would soon be an epitome of faith but not yet.

In the Gospel we have an instance that shows us what it means to believe without a back up plan. ..'Lord if you wish. ..' An attitude of surrender,  a total surrender that is not tempted by the folly of having a back up plan. Alternatives are in the hands of God. ..it is not for us to make back up plans when we believe in God but to make an act of faith and leave everything into the hands of God.

WORD 2day: 25th June, 2015

Good to All alike

Thursday,  12th week in Ordinary Time
Gen 16:1-12, 15-16; Mt 7: 21-29

Speaking of his Father,  Jesus would say,  "the Father makes the sun shine upon and the rain shower upon the good and the evil." Heaven and earth may pass away but the Word of the Lord shall never! Making this Word the foundation of one's life is the best of all possibilities - what a great God is our God. God is good, not only all the time, but even to all persons. It does not matter, who the person is,  God's love extends itself when they cry out in agony. How much more will it support and sustain us,  if we consider ourselves loving children of God!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

24th June,  2015: Birthday of St. John the Baptist

The Gospels narrate a long list of similarities between the stories of John and Jesus... the apparently 'impossible' conditions in which the mothers conceived, the direct intervention of God in the conception, the apparitions of the angels to the fathers, the prior choice of the name of the child to be born - one simple message is the image of John the Baptist as the precursor of Jesus. But the birth narratives of John and Jesus, together have another important message to reveal to us and that is, we are not here by chance! We are part of a complex plan, an eternal design of God. We are willed into existence by God; we are loved into existence, by the Creator! We have a purpose, because God knew us right when we were being formed in the womb of our mothers! We have a special mission because, it is the Lord who has called us by name, even before we were born! We are chosen in the eyes of God, because as St. Paul says, God has chosen us before the foundations of the world in Christ Jesus, to be holy and blameless! We are created, called, commissioned and destined to usher in the Reign of God, as John announced the coming of Christ. Let us become aware of our call, our purpose and our destiny, which is much larger than the petty preoccupations of our daily worries!

WORD 2day: 23rd June, 2015

Fairness and Justice: a sense of God

Tuesday, 12th week in Ordinary Time

Gen 13: 2, 5-18; Mt 7: 6, 12-14

I was impressed by a child in the train the other day. She had her younger brother with her and every time the mother was giving anything to her or buying something for her, she instantly would turn to her younger brother as if asking her mother, what about him? The curious climax was, when she returned the biscuit packet that she was sharing with her brother, to her mother with just one biscuit remaining in it. When asked why she left it behind there, she said there is only one, how we two will take it? I began wondering where has this kind of a spirit gone, in the world today!

Selfishness and greed, jealousy and competition is the order of the day. Hardly anyone wishes to do anything if that does not bring them dividends atleast in some measure or kind. Abraham's dealing with his brother Lot and the suggestion of doing what you would wish others do to you, are narrow doors. Those won't be the kind of behaviour that the mainstream humanity will choose spontaneously today. But as disciples of the Lord, our choice has to be precisely this: a choice for fairness and justice, that would be the right sense of being a person of God. 

WORD 2day : 22nd June, 2015

To let go!

Monday,  12th week in Ordinary Time
Gen 12: 1-9; Mt 7: 1-5

We will be presented with Abraham for our reflection for the next few days. What was so special about Abraham? From the very first moment the Word clarifies that. Leave your country and your people,  calls the Lord and there he is doing it with such confidence. He lets go of everything,  everything that gave him an identity.

The Gospel presents to us a similar and greater challenge: to let go... of our opinions and judgements and prejudices of people and to be open minded. How many new experiences we would have lost because of our opinionated approach! How many enriching encounters we would have lost because of our prefixed judgements! How many growth experiences we would have lost because of our prejudiced mindset. How prepared are we to let go?

WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE HAVE!

21st June 2015: 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2 Cor 5: 14-17; Mk 4: 35-41

Quiet! Be Still... and you will know what a mighty God you have!

We are so fond of lamenting, fretting, complaining, grumbling, panting and gasping, that we fail to notice the mighty presence of God right beside us as we struggle in the daily storms of life. It takes that moment when the Lord finally intervenes and says: Quiet! Be Still...I am here, right here, in the midst of it all. Don't you see? Don't you believe? Haven't you experienced my interventions in the past? Haven't you learnt that lesson yet? 

Behold! a New Thing... the mighty God is creating it for you!

At times the turbulence that you go through may be a new thing in the making! Yesterday while we were on a task in place near the East Coast, a person with me commented looking at the plaque on a building: if it were not for the Tsunami, we would not have had this building here! Though it may sound less sensitive to the disaster and its effects, the statement triggered an insight in me. At times the turbulences that we experience in life, may lead to newer and fresher outlooks on events. 

Be Urged by the Love of Christ... the mightiest experience of God!

In every thing and at every moment, be urged by the love of Christ; a love that so powerfully brings the presence of God into our life. Allow God into your life, feel the presence of God and enjoy the love that God continues to shower on you - a love so immense and unconditional. If only we taste that love of God, we would become so filled with that love that we will overflow with that love. Our words, our thoughts, our gestures, our relations, our interactions and everything in us will be flooded with that love and people around us will experience it. That love will urge me to be loving; that love will push me to reach out to the other in love; that love will not allow me to remain quiet about the goodness that I have experienced; that love will make goodness so contagious and ofcourse everything around me will be created anew! I can never forget a statement  made by one of the parents from a group I had just addressed: there is something about you Christians that makes you happy people! Yes... can we stand up and accept the challenge: The Love of Christ urges us!

WORD 2day : 20th June, 2015

Sense of Sufficiency - sign of sanctity!

Saturday,  11th week in Ordinary Time
2 Cor 12: 1-10; Mt 6: 24-34

The rich and the poor,  the affluent and the needy,  the influential and the ordinary... they seem to be no different from each other! They wish for more and more and more. And at no point in their life they seem to have a sense of Sufficiency.

St.  Paul places a lot of importance on this attitude and considers it even a sign of sanctity. In his letter to the Philipians, Paul considers himself 'blessed' with a sense of Sufficiency, in plenty and in want (Phil 4: 11,12). In our families,  in our personal lives,  in our social life, in our religious communities... where does this virtue stand?

Be it Indian spirituality,  western monastic spirituality, eastern yogic spirituality. ..all of these seem to harp upon having fewer and fewer attachments as a way to sanctity. Where do I stand in this virtue?