In Water, the Spirit and the Word - BORN AGAIN

The Feast of Baptism of the Lord: 10th January, 2016

Is 40: 1-5,9-11; Tit 2: 11-14, 3:4-7; Lk 3: 15-16,21-22

Baptism - a moment when one is reborn, reborn through the waters, in the Spirit and by the Word.

The Water: Living in Chennai, water has a special meaning! There have been moments that I have stood still in front of that immensity of water, on the Marina beach looking on the Bay of Bengal, wondering what a power that lies there. It showed its true power with Tsunami that hit in 2004...and again a month back with the devastating floods. Water is not merely refreshing and renewing, but it is resetting. If that vocabulary from the e-world can be used, it would mean starting from the beginning once again. The waters of baptism claims exactly that effect on us. Being born again is not merely to undergo a ceremony and start judging the rest as damned; it is to reset my life, restart it with virtues and convictions that give me a new existence altogether.

The Spirit: The Mark of Ownership, the seal of the covenant between the Father and me, the One who makes me the dwelling place of God and the One who makes me call God, Abba Father! Being born again is to possess this personal sanctity and interpersonal sensitivity: personal sanctity of purity and sinlessness; the interpersonal sensitivity of accepting each other as brothers and sisters, born of that One Father! 

The Word: The Word, made flesh, who speaks to us and invites us to a life that is modeled after him. To be born again is to be transformed into the image of Christ, to put on the mind of Christ and to bear his likeness. I was amused by the sharing of my elder sister who teaches in a Government School in a village on the outskirts of Chennai. She said about her children in class, who do not know terms like Christian or Catholic, telling her - 'teacher neenga Jesus thaane, appadina leavu mudinji varum pothu sweet eduthuttu vaanga!' (Teacher you are Jesus isn't it? then bring sweets when you come after holidays). That set me thinking- Aren't you Jesus? Am I not Christ? Have I become another Christ - alter christus? The Word challenges us towards that... to be born again, is to be reborn in the image of Christ. 

Let us remember today the great gift we have been given in our Baptism and resolve to live that call to be Born Again - in water, the Spirit and the Word.

WORD 2day : 9th January, 2016

Who should increase?
1 John 5:14-21 ; Jn 3: 22-30

I came across a poster highlighting the first reading of today which read: whatever we may ask, the Lord hears us! It is an assuring statement and a very strong affirmation but I am afraid it is not true to the Word. Yes... there is a small but a crucial phrase that is left out in between. That is,  "if it is in accordance with His will" - that is where we falter.

We think, all that we ask has to be given. True faith would say, 'not necessarily'. Even when I don't seem to be receiving what I am praying for (prayer anyway is not merely asking), I am calm and serene for I trust in the will of God. This will happen only when I decrease and God increases in me. At times even in our prayer and God deeds we concentrate so much on what we do and what we achieve that there is no much place for God and God's will. John the Baptist seems to offer us a wonderful lesson,  inviting us to allow the Lord to increase, and making our own self, or ego, decrease.

Even in our so called spiritual exercises let us beware who really is increasing. ..the Lord or me?

WORD 2day : 8th January, 2016

Our Life in the Son
1 Jn 5: 513; Lk 5: 12-16

Anyone who believes in the Son has life... our life is in the Son. Elsewhere we read too, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3). The basis of a blessed life is not our achievements or our accomplishments, our hoardings and our savings, but our relationship with God, the Source of that life! How truly and sincerely are we connected to the Lord? Jesus is seen today drawing himself alone to pray... and it is reported every now and then by the Gospel writers.

Connecting to the Father and staying in touch with the Son is the work of the Spirit within. We are chosen in not merely water and blood but in the Spirit above all. Our life in the Son is our life in the Spirit and according to the will of the Father.

WORD 2day : 7th January, 2016

Compassion: the command and the commission.

1 Jn 4:19-5:4; Lk 4: 11-18

The Word speaks of two important aspects of a disciple: the command and the commission. The command is given in general and the commission is given to a specific individual or a small group. For a disciple the command is to love and the commission is to reachout,  to heal, to serve. Putting all of these and both the command and the commission together,  the call is towards Compassion. Compassion is the call of a disciple, the call for which the Lord has anointed you and me,  the call to genuinely love!

WORD 2day: 6th January, 2016

Love, the loaves and the waves!

1 Jn 4: 11-18; Mk 6: 45-52

The Gospel passage today raises a strange question within us... what is the connection between the loaves and Jesus walking on the water? How is it that Mark says they were dumbfounded at seeing Jesus walk on the turbulent waters because they had not still seen what the miracle of the loaves meant. Feeding the hungry in the wilderness was a Messianic Sign: and what is it but a child's play for the Messiah to walk on the water or calm the sea! Walking on the waters too resembled the walking through the waters, yet another messianic sign. But for Jesus none of these signs mattered. If they did,  he would have taught his disciples to walk on water and to multiply loaves. 

What mattered to Jesus was only one and that is what he taught them. That is the mind of Christ that is so vividly pictured in John's words: one who loves,  lives in God and God lives in him! Love alone matters,  neither the loaves nor the waves! 

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!