WORD 2day : 24th October, 2015

The Spiritual and the Unspiritual

Saturday,  29th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 8: 1-11; Lk 13: 1-9

Not all those who suffer are people who deserve it and not all the good we enjoy we deserve it. What God gives God gives without even counting whether I deserve it... but in the course of handling them I prove whether I had deserved it or not! The Word invites us to think of the distinction between Spiritual and Unspiritual we would make in our lives.

'Spiritual' is thinking of God and godly things; it is putting the good of the other first vis-a-vis the good that can happen to me! It is counting the blessings from the Lord and acknowledging every bit of the Lord's doing in my life.

'Unspiritual,' would be thinking all the time of increasing gains and reducing pains; it is putting my pleasure before anything else,  even in the smallest of things that I get to do for others. It is constantly complaining against God and claiming absolute personal credits for any thing that is good in my life.

Where do I belong: the Spiritual or the Unspiritual? 

WORD 2day : 23rd October, 2015

Pride: The Urge to prove myself
Friday,  29th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 7: 18-25; Lk  12: 54-59

Many a trouble today brews in the waters of wanting to prove oneself at all cost. The world teaches us from our earliest that one should prove oneself...is it the same as living one's life to the full? While proving oneself is always a phenomenon in comparison with the other where the other becomes a threat or a competition or an element to be eliminated, living my life to the full is a serene acceptance of who I am what my capacity is and living it to the most. Here the others are my companions, my co-passengers and my colleagues! There isn't much need for proving myself, infact proving myself would turn detrimental within this mode of living.

The Word instructs us on this today,  inviting us through St Paul to understand the reality of our self: that is humility. It tells us that there is no need to justify oneself before people,  for God knows who we are: that is faith. However weak and wrong we could be,  God accepts us as we are and walks us to salvation through Jesus Christ if only we are ready to surrender: that is hope.

We would do well to stop worrying about the past but take lessons and move on. Pride would never allow that...with pride,  I would be worried only about proving myself!

WORD 2day: 22nd October, 2015

Demanding a choice

Remembering the Pope of the Media Age
Rom 6: 19-23 ; Lk 12: 49-53

The call to make a choice can sometimes place us in contrast with another person or group of persons. Mixing up persons and issues is a sign of lack of maturity. When we say God hates sin but not the sinners, we are referring to this capacity to love a person irrespective of the differences. That is a quality that leads to a healthy dialogue. Remembering today the great Pope Saint John Paul II, a man of dialogue and peace,  we are called to be persons who are convinced about what we believe and what we live, but at the same time persons who never judge others or look to divide persons!

WORD 2day : 21st October, 2015

Integrity: Being Slaves to Righteousness

Wednesday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 6: 12-18 -18; Lk 12: 39-48

Jesus continues his instruction as to how we need to be prepared for that hour of reckoning at any point of time in our life. Infact Jesus is ridiculing all the funny discussions and calculations about when that hour will come - some self proclaimed eschatalogical quacks make much ado of the end and its timings and miss the entire point that Jesus is driving home here.  No matter when and where,  you know what to do and why to do it. Take care how you do it - not seeking human attention but going by merely God's approval.

This is what we call Integrity where I don't need an external recognition and I have developed an internal system of convictions and criteria that makes me almost a "slave" to Righteousness... doing nothing but good, speaking nothing but good,  thinking nothing but good, no matter how unlikely the returns are, or what the consequences would be. I am good and righteous and there is no because!

WORD 2day: 19th October, 2015

Faith versus Foolishness

Monday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 4: 20-25; Lk 12: 13-21

Ultimately it is my faith that is going to make a difference, says the first reading and the Gospel corroborates the fact saying, 'if i don't realise that, I am getting more and more foolish!' In the face of death, what would anything other than my relationship with God mean to me. The source and destiny of my existence is God and God alone can make any difference to my being in the final analysis. A bit of realism and humility will bring every one to this thinking but the sad fact is that it takes a whole lifetime for some to come to that realisation. If we have it already, it is a reason to thank God for having inspired us early. Let us grow in the realisation, become more and more founded on our faith and less and less foolish in our life.

SUNDAY REFLECTION - 18 Oct, 2015

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time 

Is 53: 10-11; Heb 4: 14-16; Mk 10: 35-45

WORD 2day: 17th October, 2015

Faith that speaks and acts!

Saturday,  28th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 4:13,16-18; Lk 12: 8-12

Jesus assures us, true faith speaks for us. We need not hunt for ways and means of explaining and defending our faith;  it has to be self evident and self explanatory. We don't need mighty big formulae to hold on to a faith...all we need is the realisation of the constant and unceasing presence of the Lord with us. When I am convinced of this presence I can hope against hope as Abraham did. Such a faith speaks on my behalf, clarifies things for me and others and acts in my favour in the ultimate analysis.

WORD 2day: 16th October, 2015

Faith and what follows!

Friday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Rom 4: 1-8; Lk 12: 1-7

Faith is a gift, a gratuitous gift from God! My part is to grow in it. The more I grow in it, the more I realise how undeserving I am of it. Abraham was granted this gift and he grew tremendously worthy of it. Paul was granted this gift and he fought a brave fight to become worthy of it. Jesus accuses those who throw those pearls of faith to the swines of their ego and self centered thinking. If I have received this gift of faith, should I not be grateful for it and mindful enough to keep growing in it. Can I be boasting about it and mindlessly acting contrary to it? Jesus is warning us about something that would not look apparently like an aberration of faith, but in fact leads us gradually away from what true faith is all about - 'the yeast' of the Pharisees, that Jesus mentions in the Gospel today.

Taking my faith to be a reason for my pride, judging everyone else who does not partake of it; calling names at people who have a faith different from mine merely because of the difference and treating them with despite; making faith a means to make my living instead of making it my life and journeying genuinely towards my eternal life...these are somethings that I need to be on the guard about! Faith is a gift given to me and I need to grow in it every day, every moment.

THE MUDGUARD AND THE GENERATION X

It was still a drowsy morning, the day had not yet unclasped itself from the rain clouds of the previous night. I was on a mission to get things set for a programme to be held later that day. Riding a two wheeler, towards a destination roughly 10 kms away, after a couple of kilometers my peaceful ride was shaken with a jolt. A young lad whiffed past me in one of the latest model motor bikes. The noise and the speed that shook me were nothing when compared to what came next. He went over a puddle of muddy water created by the rain the previous night... before I could realise he had changed my plain shirt into dotted designer wear. There was mud all over me, in dots and florals and stars on my mild green kurtha. For a second I was furious with that biker but the very next moment my mind took off on another tangent! 

That bike had such a small mudguard that it would prevent the splash only for the rider himself. I wondered whether that mudguard reflected the mindset of the present generation. The older bikes have a mudguard big enough to prevent the dust or the mud being sprayed or splashed on the rest of the vehicles on the road, while the new generation bikes have such fancy small mudguards that serve only the rider himself. Does it in any way hint at the self centered and insensitive lifestyle of a generation that cares only about its own fun and thrill and nothing about what the others think or feel? 

I have never before thought about the connection between the mudguard and the generation X. Have you? 

ST. TERESA OF JESUS

15TH OCTOBER 2015: 

THE FIFTH CENTENETARY YEAR OF THE BIRTH OF ST. TERESA OF AVILA.

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing make you afraid.
All things are passing.
God alone never changes.
Patience gains all things.
If you have God you will want for nothing
God alone suffices.

- St. Teresa of Avila (in one of her bookmarks)