THE WORD AND THE SAINT

22nd July,  2015: Remembering St. Mary Magdalene 

Exo 16: 1-5, 9-15; John 20:1-2,11-18

Weeping blinds you...Listen and Look!

They had seen the waters standing high,  they had seen those plagues and the way the Egyptians were buried alive in the waters... but here they are once again weeping and complaining.

Mary of Magdala loved Jesus intensely. She had encountered and experienced Jesus in such close quarters but now standing right beside him she is unable to identify him;  because she is too occupied with her weeping and complaining.

At times in our lives when troubles come by and trials abound,  we fumble and falter as if we are all alone. We fail to recognise the Lord who sticks so close to us,  because we are too busy weeping and complaining.

If only we opened our eyes and saw;  if only we opened our hearts and listened;  if only we believed in the words of the Lord,  "I have conquered the world"... we would leap for joy and love to cling to the Lord. Mary Magdalene gives us a clear message: stop weeping;  weeping blinds you;  look, listen and you will leap for joy, for the Lord is with you now and always!

WORD 2day: 21st July, 2015

The Lord fights... provided we allow!

Tuesday,  16th week in the Ordinary Time
Exo 14: 5-18; Mt 12: 46-50

Between the devil and the deep sea... that was literally where Moses found himself. What could he do caught between an army that was like a sea and the sea that was swarming like a devouring army! Moses knew just what he had to do. .. Do what the Lord tells him! Because it was the Lord's battle. The Lord was fighting for them;  they had to allow it and Moses did just that. The Lord said walk and he walked,  the Lord said stretch and he stretched, the Lord said be still and he stood still drinking in the majesty and the power of God.

Listen to the words of Father and carry it out exactly as said,  and you will see the glory of the Lord unfold right in front of yours eyes, declares Jesus. Are we alright with the Lord fighting our battle?  Or do we want to fight it ourselves? When the Lord fights the victory is certain but it may involve some challenging moments when we do not make sense of anything that would be happening. But it is the Lord who fights and we will surely triumph.

The Lord is ready and willing;  yes the Lord will fight our battle, provided we allow it.

WORD 2day: 20th July, 2015

You have only to be still

Monday, 16th week in Ordinary Time
Exo 14: 5-18;  Mt 12: 38-42

The people ask for a sign and on this count people have never changed or grown for the better in history. Asking for a sign or clamoring after magics, being obsessed with persons who claim to have the ability to perform extraordinary signs... these are prevalent even today. The answer from the Lord is very simple and straightforward.

All that you need to do is,  be still. The tendency to run after signs and frenetically looking for miracles should cease if we really keep growing in our faith maturity. Tear shedding statues and blood oozing artefacts cannot be the kindling factors of our faith; if only we could be still and see the works of God in our lives,  if only we could be still and observe the way the Lord accompanies us on a daily basis, in the ordinariness of our daily life, we would be filled with messages and revelations enough to fill our thoughts and increase our faith.

All I need to do today,  and everyday,  is Be Still... and know that the Lord is with me.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

WORD 2day : 18th July, 2015

HOPE: the sign of God's presence

Saturday,  15thweek in Ordinary Time
Exo 12:37-42, Mt 13: 14-21

Where God is,  there is hope.  No matter how dark it is,  and no matter how long it has been... where God is,  there is always a light at the end of everything. All that we need to do is hold on. Hold on with our judgments and actions and hold on to the finger of God. 430 years did not appear too long for the Israelites and the constant opposition did not seem a hindering block to Jesus. That was because they had hope alive in their hearts.

When God's presence is not realised or given importance to,  there is no source of constant hope. The situation around and persons around can offer me a ray of hope now or then but when I learn to see everyone of them as instruments in God's hands,  I begin to experience the ceaseless hope that God alone can give. The Lord is my hope and my song !

WORD 2day : 17th July, 2015

Mercy: the image of God

Friday,  15th week in Ordinary Time
Exo 11:10 - 12:14; Mt 12: 1-8

How do you look at the teacher who gets upset with all the e students who failed in a class test and as a reparation announces a special class after school hours for three days... it is not only the students but the teacher too, or especially the teacher who has to undergo the ordeal of that punishment. That teacher is a genuine type of a teacher who doesn't hesitate to give of oneself for the sake of the students.

What kind of an imagery do we get of the All merciful Father and Mother who instructs the people to mark out themselves with the blood and gives them God's own son's blood as the blood of redemption! It can be no other image than that of Mercy. When we are merciful we carry the image of God within us. When we lack mercy,  however sacrificing we are or however successful we are in anything,  we do not carry or project the true image of God!

WORD 2day : 16th July, 2015

Come and Go

Thursday, 15th week in Ordinary Time
Exo 3: 13-20; Mt 11: 28-30

The Word that dominates the first reading today is 'Go'... Yahweh sends Moses to the Pharaoh.  The term that stands out in the short but sweet Gospel of today is,  'Come'... the Lord invites the burdened to rest. Come and Go...may look like two opposite words but the reason given for both the movements is the same. Because I am with you, says the Lord.

Coming and going...refer to the do docility of the chosen, the willingness and readiness with which a messenger of the Lord vows to act. Every day and in ways mysterious and means ordinary the Lord keeps sending us these instructions: come,  go,  speak,  share,  remain,  endure and so on... are we prepared to listen and eager to act upon it?

WORD 2day :15th July, 2015

Who am I...

Wednesday.  15th week in Ordinary Time 

Exo 3: 1-6,9-12; Mt 11: 25-26

What do people think of me? How do I come across to people? What kind of an image do I give of myself to others? Will this make or mar the opinion others have about me? ...these are some popular considerations we have before we decide to do something! At times this consideration of human respect keeps me back from being who I am! The Lord declares in various ways today that it does not  matter so much who I am as to who is with me, who is for me!

Who I am that I should go to Pharaoh? - I will be with you, says the Lord! What makes the difference is that the Lord is with Moses. Who we are is important, but more important is who is with us! We may be merely children, but if God is with us, we can be worth all the wisest and powerful put together. Do not say you are merely a child, the Lord told Jeremiah. The Lord promises to be with us, what else do we need! If God is with us, what do we lack! If God is for us who can be against us! 

WORD 2day: 14th July, 2015

The Drama of Divine Design

Tuesday, 15th week in Ordinary Time

Exo 2: 1-15a; Mt 11: 20-24

'All the world's a stage...' said that genius of a poet Shakespeare. Though at times this thinking might lead to a tinge of pessimism and determinism, the fact is we find ourselves in the midst of a series of connected events. However, it is not that we are thrown there to fend for ourselves or find our own way out, we are sent with a purpose and disposition well imprinted in the core of our beings. True spirituality would be to find out at a given time and space, what God expects of me and without any selfish calculations carrying out that commission given to me! It is knowing, understanding and playing my part to the full within the drama of the Divine Design! 

The first reading presents to us how God raised a prophet for himself amidst all odds and how Moses had it in him to protect his people because the Divine design was active in and around him. But God teaches Moses that it is not by his own might that Moses is to accomplish great things, but it is by playing an instrument in the mighty hands of God that he would make the spectacle happen. And Moses gradually knows, understands and plays his part to the full.

At times we can miss out on ever realising the plan that God has for each of us. That is a sad probability; worse still is resisting any such plan merely to have my own! That is a woe that we would bring on ourselves. Our life, its meaning and its purpose will all be at risk in that case. That is what Jesus warns us of, in the Gospel today. If only you knew, understood and played your part wholeheartedly within God's design!

WORD 2day:13th July, 2015

People who forget their stories!

Monday, 15th week in Ordinary Time

Exo 1:8-14, 22; Mt 10:34 - 11:1

Not only did the Pharaoh not know the history of Joseph and things that happened in his predecessors' times, even the people seemed to have forgotten their origins - of how they reached Egypt and why they reached there and that they were there only for a while, that the Lord had said they will move to "their" land later! They began to think Egypt was their land and they would be there for eternity. They forgot their story. The Lord had to remind them. The world today too has this spiritual amnesia! 

That is why the Lord comes with the sword, with fire... that we may wake up and wake up the world, and bring ourselves back as people who are mindful of our stories, our experiences, all that we have enjoyed from the Lord and all that we have promised the Lord and all that we have neglected so far. At times when we face turmoils, we need to turn back to our stories thus far and draw consolation and inspiration from there. In those moments of struggle we need to realise that we are afflicted but not crushed,  perplexed but not driven to despair,  persecuted but not forsaken (cf 2 Cor 4:8)... let us pay heed that we do not become people who forget their stories.