WORD 2day: 5th January, 2016

Love is love in action

1 Jn 3: 11-21; Mk 6: 34-44

God is love, not only because we believe so, but because we have seen that love in action. In fact God's love, true Love, is love in action. That is what John explains in the first reading. Because of that Love, God goes to the extent of sending God's own son into our sinful existence...the folly of God's love! Jesus in the Gospel today, is no exception. He decides to feed the multitude, because they were in need. It looked too silly to be practical for the apostles. But Jesus does it, because he had compassion on those people. Be merciful as your heavenly Father!

Today I cannot stop with talking and expressing my views on behalf of the people on whose side I have to stand and whose life I have to enhance. I cannot content myself with telling people in words that I love them...I have to love in action, my love has to be seen in what I do, the choices I make, the options that I take seriously and the principles I stand by. Those who love are born of God, for God is love!

WORD 2day: 4th Jnauary, 2015

Love, Life and the Lord

1 Jn 3:22 - 4:6; Mt 4: 12-17, 23-25

Testing the spirits, apostle John speaks of in the first reading today! Today this is so important a task for us to do, for so many of our own children of God are drawn away by spirits that are so selfish and ungodly. Just yesterday a youngster came to me vociferous telling me, 'I saw a video of a preacher of one of the denominations spreading calumny against the Holy Father and calling him names! How can he do that?' I only smiled at her and said, 'there were those who calumniated against Jesus himself, they killed John the Baptist and thwarted the first Christian community with the same calumny...so my dear, why worry?'

But however the Word today gives us a special task: to test the spirits...and not accepting everything that seems to be showy. How do we test? There are three criteria that can be culled out from today's readings: 1. Love: Is what is told and done, done out of  true, genuine and authentic love, or for selfish motives? 2. Life: Is what is spoken and what is initiated, life promoting, life enhancing and life giving? 3. Lord: Is what is being aimed at truly Lord oriented, or is it self oriented, or purse oriented, or kith and kin oriented? 

Don't be deceived by flowery words and fiery speeches; don't be carried away with the show of crowd and technological cloud... be guided by the One True Spirit of the Lord: be firmly founded on Love, Life and the Lord.

God made Known: the star, the house and the detour

Solemnity of Epiphany: 3rd January 2016

Is 60: 1-6;  Eph 3 : 2-3, 5-6; Mt 2 : 1-12 

The Word became flesh and came to dwell among us; today the world gets to see its Messiah. The feast of Epiphany has three important symbols carrying three crucial messages for us disciples of Christ. 

The first symbol is the star : the guiding star which led the magi to the Lord. Everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ has to be a star that guides people to Christ. Are your thoughts, words and decisions shining enough to lead people to Christ?

The second symbol is the house: the star  might have been magnificent but it rested on a simple manger. The signs and events might have been grand but the Messiah was found in a stable. What we are and what we have does not matter as much as who we are. Whether simple or sophisticated, whether learned or ordinary, whether rich or poor... we are called to possess the Lord,  we are called to be one home that houses the Lord. People who come to us should be able to see, feel and experience the Lord and praise the Lord through and for us. That is true Epiphany.

The third symbolic event is the detour: the magi who came were asked to leave on a different way back. They had to make a detour. ..because they had truly seen the Messiah. Even we,  if we truly see the Messiah,  we would not be able to go back the same way that we came. We would have to make a detour for sure. That detour could be our sign of repentance,  our change of ways, our going out of our way for the sake of someone else, our new life because we have come to know the Lord.

God is made known... it is upto us to become God's guiding stars, true dwelling places of God and people who are ready to arise and shine!

WORD 2day: 2nd January 2016

The Misleading Messiahs

1 Jn 2:22-28; Jn 1:19-28

Just recently we have beheld the Messiah in the manger, and the Word today warns of the Misleading Messiahs the world abounds with. We are not unfamiliar with this phenomenon so common today: the flashy flexes, the facebook pages, the media menace, the crowd pullers, the miracle workers, the oracle givers, the soothsayers and the trumpet blowers... I am reminded of a witty statement from an atheist: you can trust a fellow who says there is no God, you can even trust a fellow who says there is God; but never trust a fellow who says he is god! At times things reach this sorry state: in doing the so called work of God, we forget the God of the work! Worse still, we slowly project ourselves as the gods of the little work that we accomplish!

I am not the one, declared the Baptist! Recognise the True Messiah, the only One who reconciles you with God, invites John. Right orientation as we begin the year and set off with our regular routine. May we never be misled by the self made messiahs and more seriously, let us never shape up ourselves to be misleading messiahs today!

HAPPY NEW YEAR: 3 Messages for 2016

Here are 3 messages we can start the year with...

1. Obey the Mother; Follow the Son:

We start the year with Mary the Mother of God. She is intent always on leading us to her son...Do whatever he tells you (Jn 2:5) : that is her refrain all the while. When the Church Fathers at Ephesus, in 432, thought of resolving the confusion whether Jesus was God or Man, they thought of defining a dogma on Mary...what a way to understand the nature of Jesus through the vocation of Mary! She was called to be Mother of God and that is what she is...Mother of God, Mother of us all, Mother of the Church. Obey the Mother, and you will automatically be following the Son.

2. Open your hearts; Begin with God:

Happy New Year we wish each other: just look around and tell me, what is new? Same old house, same old people, same old things and same old problems...aren't they? I met this kid last week after Christmas and found him very sad about Christmas...and I asked him why? Did you parent not give you gifts? No they gave, he said. Did they not buy you new clothes? Hmm..that is the problem, he said. They bought ...but the same colour as last year! I could not help smiling at it and say to myself: how often we think as that kid did. We are so adamant not to see things in a brighter light. Every time we have something that would stop us from being happy. We are so judgmental with everything, specially with people, that we cannot see anything new. As Mother Teresa would say, we are busy judging and so we do not have the time to love. Look at every person every time with a new open heart and you will see life will be much more blessed.

3. Overcome Indifference; Win Peace:

Today is also 49th World Peace Day celebrated by the Church. Pope Francis gives this as his Peace Day Message: Overcome Indifference and Win Peace. If the peace that we have has to be true and real and god-given, it has to arise from mercy, solidarity and compassion. There can be no indifference there. The call is to overcome indifference, indifference about God, indifference about Others and Indifference about those who are suffering! It is in keeping with the Jubilee Year of Mercy...we are called to be merciful as the heavenly Father. God is never indifferent, says the Holy Father. Let us overcome our Indifference and we will grow more and more peaceful!

Happy New Year 2016! May God be with you and grant you peace!

WORD 2day : 31st December, 2015

The end and the Beginning

7th day within Christmas Octave 

1 Jn 2: 18-21; Jn 1 : 1-18

The first reading today speaks of the last days and the Gospel speaks of the beginning with the Word! What a beautiful message to behold on the last day of the year! Things may appear as if everything is lost, but with the Lord nothing is lost. Any number of Anti Christs and evil forces may come, we will never lose: for we have with us a Lord whose love for us is more powerful than any power of this world! A Christian is one who is convinced of this to that extent that even in the middle of a life threatening crisis, he or she is ready to face it with serenity for the Lord is with him or her. The Word has become flesh and dwells amidst us, what do we have to fear! Let us welcome the new year with that unwavering hope in the Lord.

WORD 2day : 30th December, 2015

Maturity,  Wisdom and God's Favour
6th day in the Christmas Octave
1 Jn 2: 12-17; Lk 2: 36-40

Luke alone pictures the life of the Holy Family at Nazareth and the boyhood phases of Jesus. Today he notes that the Word become flesh and grew up to be a holistic human person.

Speaking of holistic growth,  I am reminded of the categories with which we were helped and evaluated for our growth when we were in initial formation towards priesthood. Maturity,  Wisdom and God's Favour, that Luke speaks of today actually refers to the of those criteria of growth: Physical, Intellectual and Spiritual.

I wonder why parents today should not take up these as their criteria to help their children or their wards in their growth. An all round growth is what the society stands in need of.

WORD 2day : 29th December, 2015

Secrets laid bare

5th day in the Christmas Octave
1 Jn 2: 3-11; Lk 2: 22-35

One of the key elements of an authentic spirituality should be to lay bare all secrets.  Jesus was meant to be doing that and that is one reason the pharisees and the Scribes could not put up with him. 

The way Jesus did it, was by making the criteria cut and dry. He stood far from multiplying requirements and rituals. He simplified the commandments and kept to the basics. He brought everything down to one commandment and this laid everything bare. No amount of beating around the bush would matter anymore... do you love or not? That was the only question which had to be answered and St John so plainly brings it out in today's first reading.

Let your love be genuine(Rom 12): St. Paul too understood this key to being Christlike.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

28th December, 2015

1 Jn 1:5 - 2:2; Mt 2: 13-18

Today as I reflect on this event, I feel I have to gainsay my post the day before! Is Stephen truly the first martyr? What about the innocents who gave their life up for the sake of Christ!

The Innocence of the children and the innocence demanded of us: the difference is what is underlined in the first reading today. The innocence of the children was forced on them, they were helpless and vulnerable, but they were all for the Lord and the Lord's Reign. 

The innocence expected of us has to be of choice, a choice that is well informed of one's own goodness and limitations. I am expected to make a choice for the Lord in spite of the weaknesses, overcoming them with a sense of total surrender to the Lord and the Lord's Reign.

The TIN Team