THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Commissioned to be loyal servants of the Reign

30th September, 2015: Remembering St.  Jerome

Neh 2:1-8; Lk 9: 57-62

Jesus rejects one who wanted to join him;   while he deliberately invites another who is not prepared enough to join him at that moment. The message is clear- we are here on a mission,  each of us. The more conscious we are about what God wants of us at a particular moment,  the more prepared we shall be for the sacrifices that mission would entail. The more we think we are accomplishing something within our capacity and through our expertise, we tend to long for recognition and affirmation, we would be least prepared for the hardships.

Nehemiah was ready to face the risk of seeking the permission from the king and undertaking the arduous task of rebuilding the city,  because he felt commissioned. St.  Jerome lived his entire life in the secluded cave for the sake of the Word because he felt commissioned.

Wherever we are and whatever we do,  if only we are conscious of the fact that we are commissioned to be loyal of the Reign,  we would definitely make an enormous difference.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Felt Presences of God: Celebrating the Archangels

29th September, 2015

Dan 7: 9-10, 13-14; Jn 1: 47-51

Angels - how do we understand them? Angels are of various types and categories in various traditions. Every faith tradition speaks of angels, and each from its own perspective. As we well know, the Christian understanding of Angels is much drawn from the Jewish understanding of Angels, which in turn was much influenced by the Egyptian understanding. However, the Catholic teaching has gone through much refinement and we should thank God for the continuous revelations that we have had right through our faith tradition. 

Angels are the extensions of God; they are infact the felt presences of God. When a person needs to hear what the Lord wants of the person, the One who speaks those words is Angel Gabriel, the message of God. When a person badly needs a healing, a boost of health to carry out his or her assigned tasks in life, the One who brings that healing or the necessary strength is Angel Raphael, the healing of God. When a person feels weak and worn out, unable to withstand the tiresome world, the One who strengthens them is Angel Michael, the strength of God. How many persons we come across on a daily basis, in our homes, our families, our communities, our workplaces, who long to hear a good word, who look for a soothing balm for their hampered hearts, who long for a sustaining assurance! 

What am I going to do for those in need around me today: for the least, how much time am I ready to spend with them? What good words do I have in store for them? What encouraging gesture of mine is going to strengthen them in their endeavours? In short, how do I plan to start being a felt presence of God to my neighbour?

WORD 2day: 28th September, 2015

The Lord calls us 'MY PEOPLE'

Monday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time

Zech 8: 1-8; Lk 9: 46-50

The Lord time and again reiterates that the Lord shall be our God and We shall be the Lord's people. To be the Lord's people, we have to make a choice: there are two grounds presented in  the Word today. One, that we behold and recognise the presence of the Lord amidst us! To behold the Lord's presence we should be worthy and prepared. To recognise the presence of the Lord we should be open and eager to experience it.

The second ground is, to live our life according to the Lord's values and criteria. As St. Paul would often remind us: not conforming to the standards of the world but being recreated in the image of Christ (cf. Rom 12:2). 

The Lord calls us "My People"... are we prepared and worthy to call the Lord, "My God"?

FEELING J?

Feeling Jealous? or Feeling Jesus?

27th September, 2015: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Num 11: 25-29; Jas 5: 1-6; Mk 9: 38-43,45,47-48

Jesus gives us a lesson against feeling jealous. Feeling zealous is not Feeling Jealous. The first reading and the Gospel bring it out so clearly. The second reading points to the rest of the complications within feeling jealous, how it leads to greed and avarice and finally to perdition. 

Today we are aware of the denominations fighting with each other, the various churches giving into a sense of unchristian rivalry, the infights within a parish community, clashes and stand offs on the basis of caste or region within the churches... are these truly part of a Reign feel?

The Reign Feel is God Centered... it was not Moses or Aaron or Joshua...it was God, the I AM who was leading the community. Zeal for the Reign would make us think in terms of God and not in terms of divisions and establishments.

The Reign Feel is Jesus Centered... I belong to Apollos, I belong to Paul, I belong to Barnaba...the early Church already had factions we come to understand from the preoccupations of the Apostles like Paul and James.

The Reign Feel is Other Centered... not calculating my gains, my possessions, my comfort and my luxury; it is not getting obsessed with what I can profit or what I can hoard for myself, not looking for the fame that I can have or making my name known allover!

The Reign Feel is also feeling J... not Jealous but Jesus...It is feeling Jesus: it is thinking like Jesus, reasoning like Jesus, choosing like Jesus and prioritising like Jesus! 

WORD 2day: 26th September, 2015

God and God alone

Saturday,  25th week in Ordinary Time
Zech 2:5-9,14-15; Lk 9: 43-45

Beginning with last Sunday Jesus has been dwelling on the theme of his suffering. It is not yet the close of his ministry, if we carefully watch the context in the Gospel. What then is Jesus proposing to teach? Life with the Lord is not a career,  it is not a life securing strategy. It is infact,  on the contrary,  a challenging self giving. When we make a choice for God, we are taking a risky step of giving away our traditional concepts of security,  social upward mobility, self satisfaction and so on... but beyond all these insufficiencies there is the only Reality that can give meaning and fulfillment: God and God alone! It is the underlying presence of the ever living God that gives joy to a God's child, happiness beyond all struggles,  calmness beyond  all anxieties,  loveliness beyond all brokenness. God and God alone, can fill our beings truly!

WORD 2day: 25th September, 2015

Shaking up the earth and heaven

Friday,  25th week in Ordinary Time
Hag 1:15 - 2:9; Lk 9: 18-22

Jesus' self understanding and his consciousness of the Divine mandate was so strong and clear that it shook the earth and heaven; not merely that once when he died on the cross rejected and condemned, but every time he came in touch with an old fashioned clichéd concept of spirituality. The same shake up happens everytime a follower of Christ lives up to his or her call and mandate. The Christian has to be filled with the glory of the Lord from within. Be it Maxmillian Kolbe,  or Oscar Romero, or the thousands of Christians who stand up to their faith even if it costs their life.  Today let us be mindful of every situation or opportunity that would give us the possibility of manifesting the glory of the Lord enshrined within us.

WORD 2day: 24th September, 2015

Anxious to see Jesus?
Thursday,  25th week in Ordinary Time
Hag 1: 1-8; Lk 9: 7-9

We see in the Gospel today,  Herod anxious to see Jesus! Are we too anxious to see Jesus? For Herod it was because of a feeling of threat and a feeling of curiosity. If not for these two, he would have seen him much before Jesus was taken around for crucifixion.  Threatened because he thought there was John to challenge him again. Curious because he wanted to excite himself with some spectacle.

If we are moved by these two,  a feeling of threat or a feeling of curiosity,  we would only be anxious and needlessly so. We would ever be incomplete and empty as Haggai points out today. Anxiety would only blind our eyes and block our hearts. If we surrender with serenity we would see and feel Jesus right beside us,  intimately close to us.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Taking nothing is taking everything

23rd September,  2015: Remembering Padre Saint Pio

Ezra 9: 5-9; Lk 9: 1-6

The tendency of the world is to fill us with something so that we don't realise the emptiness within us that can be filled only with God. Or hearts are made for you,  said St Augustine. Give me souls take away the rest,  prayed Don Bosco in the footsteps of St. Francis de Sales. All these saints just as the saint that we have today,  Padre Pio. ..throw a challenge at us: to accept the absolute space that God has in our life! We can't replace God with anything other than meaninglessness and despair in our life. May Padre Pio intercede for us that we may fill ourselves with God and this fill the world with God.

WORD 2day : 22nd September, 2015

Built into a People of God

Tuesday,  25th week in Ordinary Time
Ezra 6:7-8,12,14-20; Lk 8: 19-21

The Word today speaks to us of the need to be built up into a People who together form the real dwelling of God. In listening to the word we are sanctified and by living it out we are raised to be holy sanctuaries of the Divine. In our oneness of heart we are transformed into a Temple where the Lord powerfully resides,  manifesting God's true glory to the world. The people of Israel faced not merely moments of subjection and trial but also moments of freedom and deliverance, such as we see in the first reading today. We are built by God's own hand and we need to grow into God's own people!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

21st September, 2015: Remembering St. Matthew. 

Eph 4: 1-7, 11-13; Mt 9 :9-13

There are a few clear messages that the calling of Matthew can offer us:

God hates sin not the sinners.

When it comes to God's call there are no Jews and no gentiles;  there are no favourites. We become favourites depending on the prompt response we give to that call.

God dares enter my private home and dine with me no matter who the others are, whom I have invited. But do I dare to let God come over!