WORD 2day : 11th November, 2015

A humble heart is a grateful heart

Wednesday,  32nd week in Ordinary Time
Wis 6: 1-11; Lk 17: 11-19

Recently I listened to an insightful sharing of one of my friend-priests on this Gospel episode,  explaining 'nine reasons why a person turns ungrateful'... if I may, I would sum them all up to just one basic reason: lack of humility,  humility understood here as accepting the truth as it is. It is humility with a hook to exaggeratedly lower myself than what I actually am. It is ofcourse madness to imagine myself to be a super being, mindless of the numerous limitations I do possess. The Word invites me today to look squarely at myself and acknowledge the good that God has done to me. It is at one and the same time,  both humility and gratitude because,  a humble heart is a grateful heart!

While the first reading draws attention to the haughty at heart who think they are creators unto themselves, the Gospel pictures the ingratitude of the many and the lowliness of the truly righteous. When I know and accept the limitations within me, I would be surprised at every good and admirable thing that I accomplish. I would instantly realise the wonders that God works in and through me, without much ado. That is a humble heart,  a grateful heart,  a truly holy heart.

WORD 2day: 10th November, 2015

The Credit Issue

Tuesday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time
Wis 2:23 - 3:9; Lk 17: 7-10

Though it has been there always, today in particular the consciousness of giving credits to the person who claims ownership has come to be more and more important. Recently in a discussion with a youngster he shared with me the contributions that he had made to the making of some recent movies. When I asked him why his name has not appeared on the official credits, he said "Oh that will take time. Until I establish myself firmly in the field they won't give me those credits. We are still nobody in the field! " That set me thinking!

In our work for the Reign of God,  how crazy we go to take the credit for every simple thing that we do... from the donors slabs in the Churches to the monuments we wish to leave behind in our memories, from the insistence on the names to be read at mass intentions to the rustle that takes place when someone forgets to mention a name in the vote of thanks... everywhere it is a craze for credits, in varied proportions  ofcourse. Blessed Mother Teresa understood well  what Jesus says today,  when she declared, "I am merely a pencil in the hands of God. He is the artist."

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Be,  Build and Beware

9th November, 2015: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Ezek 47:1-2,8-9,12; 1 Cor 3:9-11,16-17; Jn 2:13-22

The feast of today gives us great insights into living an authentic Christian life!

The first insight is to be the Temple of the Lord, in our personal dedication to the Lord,  in our unselfish and pure relationships and in our capacity to hold God out to people who come in touch with us.

The second insight is to build the Temple of the Lord,  that is the people of God. Today we see a tendency to invest crores on constructing and renovating churches,  while the whole world is helplessly looking at misery that swallows scores of have-nots so easily pushed to peripheries because the majority are bothered only upto themselves.

The third insight is to beware of breaking or dividing or scattering this Church,  the living body of Christ. The sealed churches, the schismatics, the churches that divide people with lies for ulterior motives - these are anti Gospel elements which not only delay the coming of the Reign of God but actively block it.

May we be, may we build and may we take optimum care of the House of God here on earth.

GIVING

What type is your Giving?

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: 8th November, 2015

1 Kgs 17: 10-16; Heb 9: 24-28; Mk 12: 38-44

The widow at the gates of Sidon, the widow in the Temple of Jerusalem and God who gave God's only son as a sacrifice are given to us as models of giving, in today's Word. Giving is one act that can be done out of many a kind of motivation. Not all giving are of the same kind or type or degree! Analysing the models present to us, we are called to reflect on our type of giving... reflect along and say, what type is your giving!

Giving to Gain: there is a lot of giving that is going on today. There are people or agencies or corporates who give even tons of money, but they are particular about what they stand to gain. They calculate the gain and then proceed to give: it could be a tax exemption, or a favour in return, or a end to achieve, or a popularity stunt! However big and enormous this giving is, it would not be truly giving, it is in the final analysis, a getting, a begging, a receiving, a business, a gain! At times when we give, however small it is,  from our time or energy or effort,  if we are particular about our calculations of gain, then our giving has no value in itself, it value is merely what we have gained.

Giving to Get: this is the safest form of giving, where one is sure what one gives is not merely thrown in the air but it will return. I do a favour to someone expecting a favour in return; I be nice to someone expecting the person to be nice to me in return; I claim to love someone with the expectation that i will be loved in return! These are giving to get. Though it is not about gain or profit or expecting a glorious image of oneself, this is a plain give and take, a barter mentality.

Giving to Give: this is truly divine, truly Christ-ian! I give, because I find fulfillment in giving. I stand any chance of getting it back or I dont think anyone else will ever know, but I give, I give whole heartedly, of my time, my effort, my energy, my concern, my resources, because it is in giving that I find the true meaning of my life. God gave God's only Son because God loved the world to that extent; it was an expression of God's love, not an expectation of the same in return! Jesus gave his life, his body and his blood, and what did he expect in return? 

I am doing all this for him or for her or for them, what am I going to get in return? 

Oh, I did all these to you, and is this how you respond?

Is it safe to give this, or do this, for this particular person, will it come back?

I gave this, I did this, with so much of effort and money, and they dont even thank me in public!

These kinds of statements are candid indicatives of a giving that is not after the heart of our beloved Lord and Saviour. Because with the Lord we are called to give without measure. Freely freely you have received, freely freely give! Here the giving is to give, and nothing more!

WORD 2day : 7th November, 2015

The Strength to live by the Gospel

Saturday,  31st week in Ordinary Time
Rom 16:3-9,16,22-27; Lk 16: 9-15

To live a life that is pleasing to God, a life that holds the place of God over and above anything else,  a life that considers nothing other than God an absolute...it is not a simple task. It requires a concentration on only things that belong to God,  a commitment to causes that reflect the mind of God and choice for God against every thing else. St Paul says today in the first reading that such a choice or such a life cannot be lived all on my own strength. It is the Lord who gives me the strength to live by the Gospel. It is only with that strength can we say those words of Paul, for me to live is Christ and to die is a gain (Phil 1:21).

WORD 2day : 6th November, 2015

The Urgency of the Reign

Friday: 31st week in Ordinary Time
Rom 15: 14-21; Lk 16: 1-8

Jesus may be slightly intriguing in today's Gospel,  if he is justifying the shrewdness of the steward or approving of his lies. The point that Jesus is bringing forth is completely different. He wants us to realise how efficiently and time consciously the evil doers proceed with their affairs, while those who are committed to the cause of the Reign, find themselves taking their own sweet time, hesitating,  calculating, planning endlessly, creating support systems that can help on a difficult day, building defence faculties, devising and revising strategies and so on and so forth!

St. Paul is given as our model today: a man with an urgency to make Christ known and with a compelling clarity as to what was his task: to take Christ to those who didnt know Christ. The Urgency of the Reign comes from these three factors: Clarity of our task; Conviction that I have but a short time;  and a Commitment unto death.

WORD 2day : 5th November, 2015

Seeking company or busy complaining?
Thursday,  31st week in Ordinary Time
Rom 14: 7-12 ; Lk 15: 1-10

Two attitudes in contrast today bring out the quality of a person who belongs to the Reign of God. The so called sinners and publicans were seeking to be in the company of Jesus while the pharisees were busy complaining that Jesus was eating with sinners and meeting with the outcasts. Jesus says he cared two hoots about what the pharisees thought,  because Jesus' task was so clear cut and absolute for him: the Reign of God.

Eating and drinking and feasts and gatherings are ofcourse important for the spirit of the Reign. But they were not all for Jesus. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17)... that's the Reign of God. Whose company we seek? What do we decry? What is that which disturbs us when we look at the society today or our own life today. ...these are the pertinent questions that will make me truly a person of the Reign.

WORD 2day: 4th November, 2015

Love is a battle... Ready for it?

Wednesday,  31st Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 13: 8-10; Lk  14: 25-33

Love... it's a term that is by far the most spoken of,  not merely from a Christian perspective but that of the whole reality today. But that is no statement that guarantees the right usage of the term,  because more often than not it is misused and abused. A great percentage use it to mean a kind of feeling, a sentiment,  an emotion that warms up one's heart.

Love is not all those.. love is a decision,  a choice,  a commitment that would demand so much from me that,  I would find myself in a battle. Yes,  responding to the call to love is like undertaking a whole expedition,  against evil and hatred, for goodness and genuine fellowship. To accept to genuinely love, means being ready for any cost I would have to pay. After having launched myself into this battle, if I turn back and find myself wanting,  I will be considered unfit for the Reign. On a daily basis let us hearken to this call to love...which insists that we take a commitment every day which could be dangerously demanding. Am I truly ready for it?

WORD 2day : 3rd November, 2015

Belonging to each other

Tuesday, 31st week in Ordinary Time
Rom 12: 5-12; Lk 14: 15-24

The Church is a reality in continuous evolution,  it needs to grow into the Reign of God. And in this evolution every one of its members should grow and evolve... from being children to children of God. From being individuals who are worried only about himself or herself to persons who strive for communion with others, persons who readily wish to identify oneself with the Reign that Lord invites them to.

We may have oxens to tend to, land to till or the new found family to cater to... they are not wrong! But the Reign has to come before them all. My private concerns cannot overrule the concerns of the Reign. My life, my choices,  my priorities have to be those of the Reign... this will happen only when I manage to grow up to set myself aside and give the needy other a prominent place in my list of concerns because within the Reign,  we belong to each other (Rom 12: 5).

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Celebrating Hope!
2nd November,  2015: The Day for the deceased

Just recently I came across a funny conversation as part of a script I was reviewing. One asks the other- what happens when you bury a mango or a coconut in the ground.  The other says a mango or a coconut tree grows. Then he retorts, 'if that is so,  why doesn't a human tree grow when we bury a human being?' The conversation ends there on a comic note but isn't that what we believe?

Today we celebrate the hope that Jesus brought to us: that we have overgrown the traditional understanding that the wages of sin is death. Because in Christ Jesus we have been given the guarantee of life eternal. For us death is not the end but just a bend beyond which awaits something that we can imagine : the glorious life in the Lord.