Growing after the HOLY FAMILY

Feast of Holy Family: 27th December, 2015

1 Sam 1: 20-22,24-28; Col 3: 12-21; Lk 2: 41-52

The Feast today presents to us the model of the Holy Family... especially in the year when we have reflected so much upon the theme of family, we have a clarion call today: to grow after the Holy Family. 

The Question is, what makes your family HOLY?

It's Humble, Obedient and Loving You that makes your family H.O.L.Y.

It is You who have to make your family holy! Rarely do we take that onus on our own selves. We look for someone who is failing in his or her duties, someone with some weakness to shove all the responsibility. 

Humility versus Blame Game

Humility is the first ingredient of holiness. Humility is all about truthfulness and there can be no holiness without truthfulness. Humility is to understand the reality that is me and accept it as it is. It is neither overrating myself nor trampling myself. Joseph and Mary, stand out in this  humility, as they knows exactly what their role is in the holy family and play just that. They never overdo, nor do they shirk their responsibility.

Obedience versus Ego Trips

Most of the times the fights in a family are not about what is right and what is wrong, it is about who is right and who is wrong. Authority is what is contended here... who has the final word? Should the wife always obey the husband? Or is it fine to have an henpecked husband? The solution is not wife obeying husband or husband obeying the wife; it is not about children obeying the parents or parent complying in everything with children; it is about husband, wife and children all obeying God! Knowing exactly what God wants of me, and doing that in peace and unity. It is important to be on our Father's Business!

Love versus Self Seeking

Whether Mary or Joseph or Jesus, there is something that dominates the picture - true and genuine love. Love never seeks its own good! Love is always concerned about the other: Joseph about Mary, Mary about Jesus, Jesus about the people... it is always about the other, not about oneself! The less I concern myself with my self, the more loving I become. Jesus who is Word made flesh, Joseph who takes charge of the holy family merely because God wanted him to, Mary who said that yes without even calculating the risks involved...all the three are epitomies of the love of God. 

The Year of Mercy has a special invitation today - to grow into holy families...each of us holy unto the Lord, each of us into a humble, obedient and loving you!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Feast of St. Stephen,  the first Martyr

26th December, 2015

Acts 6: 8-10,7:54-59; Mt 10:17-22

I was amused when I looked at this picture of St. Stephen when I was looking for something to post... amused because the picture spoke what came to me as a reflection of the readings today.

If anyone read the Gospel of today and complained that they did not understand what exactly it meant, they could be directed to the first reading and that would make an elaborate and concrete explanation with example, of what Jesus says in the Gospel. 

Holding the Book (the Word) and the Stones together, with such serenity in the face and an olive branch in the other hand... portrays Stephen to the detail. Accepting to be a disciple, to belong to the apostolic community and to proclaim Jesus through service (Stephen was a deacon), was a bold acceptance of the consequences that Jesus spoke of already. Stephen seems to have accepted that demand, along with a firm faith in the promise of the Lord : do not search for what to say or what to do...the Spirit will enlighten you as to that! Stephen, enlightened by the Spirit, does exactly what Jesus did on the Cross: prays for those who persecuted him! 

To celebrate the feast of St Stephen immediately after the Christmas day also brings out a sharp message: yesterday was the birth of Christ, today is the birth of Christians...first time some one died to belong to Christ forever.

HOPE, LOVE, JOY & PEACE

Christmas 2015

Christmas means Hope: the Hope of a second chance, an endless second chance that God gives me. God has never expected me to deserve God's mercy! How blessed am I! To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God (Jn 1:12). That is Hope! I receive hope as I receive the Lord today!

Christmas means Love: God so loved the world that he sent his only son (Jn 3:16). There is no end to the Love that God has for me. The Mercy of God abounds all around me! When I receive this love, when I truly receive this love, I will be transformed into love. If I am not transformed into love, I have not received that love. Today the task for me is to receive that love truly... become merciful, as merciful as the loving Father.

Christmas means Joy: The joy of the Saviour...the joy that cannot be taken away from me, the joy that I have in coming to understand that I am never alone. That your joy may be complete (Jn 15:11). A joy that comes from the right perspective to life, right priorities in life and the Lord's principles for life : a life of true mercy and forgiveness.

Christmas means Peace: The Lord be with you is synonymous to Peace be with you! Where the Lord is there is peace. Let our hearts not be troubled (Jn 14:27), for the Lord is always with us. That is the message of Christmas, that the Lord came to be with us, to stay with us, to live amidst us, to dwell among us. Peace comes where Mercy resides.

THE WORD IN ADVENT - 4th THURSDAY

The Advent Task: To Behold the fulfillment of the promises

24th December, 2015

2 Sam 7: 1-5,8-12,14,16; Lk 1: 67-79

You need special eyes to behold the fulfillment of the promises of the Lord. At times we implore the Lord for something and we see it doesn't come immediately. But let us be very clear, the Lord answers every query: the Lord either says yes and gives, or says no and forbids, or says wait and responds at the right time. But when it delays, we tend to lose our focus and be at our own business. We lose our sight so much that we are not prepared to behold them when the promises of the Lord are fulfilled... we are still busy complaining about something else.

We are on the last day before Christmas, Christmas a moment when humanity beheld the eternal promises of the Lord, the promise to be amidst us. Today let us take some moments off our busy preparations and sit in reflection for a while, going over our lives thus far and thanking the Lord for all the promises that have been fulfilled in our lives. That would be a beautiful preparation in itself to behold the Child of Eternal Promises tomorrow!

THE WORD IN ADVENT - 4th WEDNESDAY

The Advent Task: Read the Message

23rd December, 2015

Mal 3: 1-4, 23-24; Lk 1: 57-66

This is an age of whatsapp and instagram. I, for an instance, receive close to over 200 messages everyday. But how many of them do I read fully? Most of them I do not even open, some of them I read just the beginning and by then know what it is about. Just a very few I read with attention. At times our attitude to life too becomes this way: we get so used to life and daily events of life that we do not pay attention to any but just a few things around us. New people, new events remain merely strangers and strange happenings, familiar people become 'same old people' and not worth paying attention to, just a few whom we consider 'important' we attend to. Is that a Reign attitude? 

The Word today says, NO! To Read the Message in every event and in every person, is the task given to us. If we miss this task we would miss Jesus when he comes. The Messenger is sent. The Messages are all around. It is there for our taking. We need to receive them, read them with care and respond to them with life. 

THE WORD IN ADVENT - 4th TUESDAY

The Advent Task: Abandon yourself at the hands of the Lord 

22nd December, 2015

1 Sam 1: 24-28; Lk 1: 46-56

Two women, two different experiences, but the response is the same: they give praises to the Lord and abandon themselves at the hands of the Lord. That is the task given to us in the few days that remain - to grow in our capacity to abandon ourselves at the hands of the Lord. 

Hannah, cried and begged from the Lord for a child and when she got it, she did not forget the Lord, nor does she possess the gift and leave the Lord. She took that child and gave it back to the Lord. She was ready to abandon her desires and wishes, dreams and longings at the feet of the Lord as she prays today at the Temple. 

Mary had an advantage, she had a forerunner in the person of Hannah. She had already learnt from her formation, how best to respond when calls as such come our way. When the Lord wanted to do mighty things in and through her, she just said: behold, here I am, I abandon myself wholly to your Holy Will. Her greatness shone to the best at that moment when she abandoned herself at the hands of the Lord. Right enough she borrows words from Hannah and makes it her own, singing that greatest canticle of all: My soul magnifies the Lord! 

When we magnify the Lord, our life becomes clear and we see our littleness without fear... we are able to abandon ourselves at the hands of the Lord and say, Here I am, I come to do your will.

THE WORD IN ADVENT - 4th MONDAY

The Advent Task: Reach out to Receive

21st December, 2015

Song 2: 8-14; Lk 1: 39-45

To long for the Lord and to receive the Lord with true love in the heart: that is the objective of the season of Advent. At the fag end of this season the first reading brings that longing strongly to the fore. But the Word taken together offers us an insight totally different. 

To begin with, it is not enough to long for the Lord and imagine that the Lord will come to stay with me, as if the Lord has to come from somewhere... the Lord is already in our midst and we need to feel the presence of the Lord. The way to feel the presence of the Lord is to Reach Out to those in need, those in want, those in struggles, those in loneliness, those in grief. See our Blessed Mother reaching out, in the Gospel.

Secondly, when we reach out, that is when we go to do something for someone in need, we feel that we are giving - the Word today says, No! In reaching out, we receive! In reaching out to the other who is in need, we actually receive, we receive meaning to our life, we receive peace in our hearts, we receive the Lord who is in our midst. In reaching out, we infact, receive!

THE WORD IN ADVENT - 4th SUNDAY

THE WAY TO PEACE

20th December, 2015

Mic 5: 1-4; Heb 10:5-10;Lk 1:39-44

The past three weeks have inspired us to reflect on Hope, Love and Joy. This week we have Peace as the point of focus. The world stands in need of peace and many offer this peace at the cost of various things. No matter what cost we pay, the peace seems to exhaust in a while. Where do go in search of a lasting peace. We need not go anywhere because the Peace has come to us. He himself will be peace, promises prophet Micah in the first reading today. 

The readings today trace the way to peace, a true lasting peace: Stop thinking about yourself, start thinking of the other, peace will automatically happen.

The model of Incarnation: God began to think of us, God began to think of us so much to the extent of giving up the divine form and become a human person... the Prince of Peace was born.

The model of Jesus: Here I come to do your will - that was the disposition with which Jesus lived his life here on earth as the letter to the Hebrews bring out so clearly. Jesus, did not only speak of doing the will of his Father, but lived it right upto the death on the cross.

The model of Mary: We have yet another closer model, a model that showed how this whole process can work - forgetting oneself, making a journey all that distance and being of service to Elizabeth.

The more I think of myself, there is a tendency that rises to prove myself, compete with the others, look at others as a threat and thus a lack of peace and serenity. The less I think of myself, there is a possibility that my life will be lived in communion with the One who sustains my life and with those who are around me, sharing the same experience of humanity. 

Let us begin to lessen thinking of ourselves, increase the thinking about others...then peace will have its chance.

THE WORD IN ADVENT - 3rd SATURDAY

The Advent Task: Be Fruitful

19th December, 2015

Judg 13:2-7,24-25; Lk 1: 5-25

We have two episodes of miraculous fruitfulness narrated today... both bring out an advent task, a Reign trait expected of us: to be fruitful. 

When the Lord is with us, and we acknowledge and appreciate that presence and found our lives on that presence, we become fruitful in a miraculous way. From where we do not expect and from circumstances that are most unlikely we will  see shoots of new life - that is Lord's doing. There are two verses that have struck this note very strongly in my mind: First from John: Apart from me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5). And the second, a corollary from Paul: I can do everything through him who strengthens me (Phil 4:13). How true! With my Lord around, it is not difficult at all, to be fruitful.

THE WORD IN ADVENT - 3rd FRIDAY

The Advent Task: Grow in Integrity

18th December, 2015

Jer 23: 5-8; Mt 1: 18-24

There is one name that is common in both the first reading and the Gospel...David! David was such a loved person to the Lord, even after the blunders that he made and received the deserved punishment! What was so special about David? Obviously, he was not the perfect of the people available. But he was the most integral of all, because when he made and mistake and that mistake was pointed out, he accepted it and repented. When we talk of integrity, we are not speaking of a spotless perfection in a person, but of the capacity to look at reality and accept it for what it is. Even Joseph had his own plans of keeping Mary away, but when Lord God revealed his plan, he was able to look at the divine plan and accept it, and carry out the task entrusted to him.

Not just the Messiah, but the Lord wishes that each of us come in the line of David, in his humility, in his docility, in his availability, in short, in his integrity.When we begin to grow in our integrity, we would be earning more and more critiques or even hate mongers. What is going to be our response - merely find fault with these critiques or grow more and more in our personal and collective integrity!