WORD 2day: 19th September, 2016

Let your light shine!

Monday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

Prov 3: 27-35; Lk 18: 16-18

Be good, be just, be righteous...the Proverbs gives us a list of qualities of a just person who is acceptable  in the eyes of the Lord. Be good, be a light, shine before the world invites the Gospel. Let your light shine, let it shine day in and day out, let it shine regardless of the people and the situations around.

We do like to be good, we do wish to shine our light before the world...but is it so in all circumstances?

Like the electric bulbs which gives only as long as they receive, we are good to others only as long as others are good to us; we are good to the world only as long as the world around is good to us.

Like the oil lamps that sustain their burning as long as what they received lasts. We decide to be good for a little longer, anyway it lasts just as long as our memory of good done to us  lasts.

Consider the candle, which is initiated into burning and shining. It keeps burning as long as it exists, without expecting anything from outside! This is our call: to shine, regardless of what others do to us. Be good inspite of the evil that may rest around you. Be Godly, however ungodly the world around you gets!

WWW - Weath, Wellbeing and the World

18th September, 2016: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16: 1-13

We have needs, wants and desires... they are but human. When they are fulfilled we are happy and grateful; when they are not, we keep beseeching the Lord. Prosperity, from the time of the theology of the promised land, has always been looked at as a blessing from the Lord. Wealth makes our life easy and our living pleasurable. By the very fact that it is a blessing, it is obvious that it is 'given' and it is to be given. Wealth is a means provided for one not only to live his or her life, but also extend his hand to the needy, the unfortunate, the underprivileged, the have-nots, so that their life becomes blessed through one's instrumentality. Wealth, is a blessing, and more over a means, to be a blessing to the others! Prophet Amos minces no words in the first reading today. Swindling the other, manipulating the other and hurting the other for one's own well-being, is not Christian attitude; and it is no well-being at all.

Well-being is not merely one's individual pleasure and possession! Even if one possesses everything, if there is not harmony in his or her surroundings one cannot cherish those possessions. How many individuals who possess enormous riches but lack an internal serenity bear witness to this fact. How many nations today which seem rich and affluent but lack peace and security attest to this fact. Authentic Well-being is harmony in every sense, within oneself, around oneself and with the entire universe! It is the 'quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in everyway', that St. Paul speaks of in the second reading. Selfishness and Greed can never lead us to this well-being. Concern and Compassion, a collective thinking of 'all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth' - only such an outgoing spirit can grant the world, a real Well-being.

The world and the life we live today is an opportunity given to us, reminds Jesus in the Gospel with his intriguing parable of the prudent steward! Intriguing it is, because it seems to advocate slyness and fraud. But that is not the point. The focus lies on another perspective, and it is: However limited and burdensome, the present life we live is all that we have, here and now to make our journey to our 'eternal abode' pleasant and meaningful. It is said, how we live our life here will define and determine how we will exist hereafter. We have the gift and the giver: of these what matters to us, is the crucial question. It cannot be that both gift and the giver are important - one cannot serve two masters, warns Jesus. Once we give the first place to the Giver, the Eternal giver, the Loving giver, the Wonderful giver, everything else falls in place. Wealth becomes a means, Well-being becomes harmonious living and the World becomes an opportunity for us to create a paradise here and now, as we live our life in peace and harmony with our brothers and sisters!

WORD 2day: 17th September, 2016

Sowing, Reaping and the Seed

Saturday, 24th week in Ordinary Time 

1 Cor 15: 35-37,42-49; Lk 8: 4-15

We are so worried about the plight of the farmers as the tussle for water sharing continues between the two southern states of India. Timely, that the Word today speaks of sowing and reaping, burying and raising... what is crucial here is to understand the seed.

The Word keeps coming to us in various ways in our daily life- daily experiences, accidents, anti social happenings, political developments, international affairs and domestic fights and house hold events... everything keeps giving us a lesson. If only we pay the needed attention to every bit of our life, we would see ourselves learning from them and becoming more and more wise. Added to that if only we hear the Word from the Lord in and through them, we become more and more loving, forgiving, peaceful, in short Godly. That is the experience of Rising... those who are in Christ will rise!

WORD 2day: 16th September, 2016

The gift of hope

Friday, 24th week in Ordinary Time 

1 Cor 15:12-20; Lk 8:1-3

The worst of experience in our day to day life is having nothing to look forward to. We call it boredom, monotony etc. When it comes to our spiritual life this boredom - dubbed spiritual boredom or spiritual dryness - can be very trying and painful. It can lead to a slackening that can be detrimental to one's progress. Jesus gives us a gift par excellence: Hope! An endless optimism is triggered off with Jesus' resurrection, telling us today a Christian, if he or she is truly convinced of it, can never give into despair! Nothing, absolutely nothing, can drive us to despair for we have Jesus who makes our life meaningful and hopeful. That explains why so many just followed him throwing all their lives at his feet!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Mother with a sword

Our Lady of Sorrows-15th September,  2016

Heb 5:7-9; Lk 2: 33-35

Not a warrior mother who fights for her survival but a sacrificing mother who bears all sorrows for our sake - the sword is the reminder of what good I can do to others through my suffering,  through a suffering that is willingly and purposefully accepted.  Mary stands tall with her swords,  all of them pierced and trying to drain her of her hope and faith. The greatness of the blessed mother rests on the fact that she never took credit for what she was undergoing.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Raising and the Lowering

Glorifying the Cross: 14th September, 2016

Num 21: 4-9; Phil 2: 6-11; Jn 3:13-17

The readings today are filled with the terms regarding raising and lowering - being raised by God, being raised by people, self-lowering...everything points to the element of making God the priority and making God's will the absolute criterion. God has a design and that design is the original and the absolute good that is in creation. When we tamper with it, there is a mighty big ruin that we cause. 

We know it is important for the cocoon to break itself open and the creature to squeeze itself out - only then will there be a creature so beautiful and subtle to fly around. We know it is important for the seed to bury itself in the ground, get suffocated under mud and force itself out of the ground to yield multi-fold. 

At times in spite of all the love that we have for God and despite all the goodness we possess, we find it so difficult to accept pain - pains of different kinds - psychological, physical or spiritual. The moment we are able to subject ourselves to pain with serenity, the moment we are ready to go through a bit of the darkness of the unknown, the moment we are prepared to grope a bit in the shady parts of our life...all these with complete trust that the Lord is certainly around, I begin to rise! When I rise, people will look at me and give glory to the Lord, the Lord of the Cross!

WORD 2day: 13th September, 2016

Can you say, Do not Cry?

Tuesday, 24th week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 12: 12-14, 27-31; Lk 7: 11-17

There is a talk all around these couple of days about the ongoing rioting in Karnataka (a state in the South of India)...there are any number of messages being circulated among the Tamils spreading hate against the kannadikas and the same among kannadikas against the Tamils! Don't we see that these messages spread are only adding fuel to the fire? How many are really intent at this time to spread messages of hope, unity, assurance and good will? How many refuse to succumb to the evil that is spread by the political miscreants and stay clear of this mob mentality? Those are truly people of God, able to see the oneness of humanity beyond all differences and disparities! Like Jesus, do we have the eye to see the sufferings of all people beyond the fact that they are different from us? Are we able to say to ANYONE (without allusions to affiliations) suffering, 'do not cry'?

WORD 2day: 12th September, 2016

The Communion and the Coming of Jesus

Monday,  24th week in Ordinary Time
1 Cor 11: 17-26,33; Lk 7: 1-10

The Word presents to us the two inseparable dimensions of the Eucharistic celebration.  The coming of Jesus Christ the Word made flesh and the communion of the Body of Christ the people of God.

It's a real challenge today to make our Eucharistic Celebration truly a moment of communion of hearts rather than merely a ritual of ceremonies. That needs a bit of homework prior to the celebration itself.  The Communion has to be built in the daily life and celebrated at the Eucharist.  If it had not been built all already what do we celebrate at all?

The coming of Christ making the words of the Lord come true and Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a great boon given to our burdensome life!  The Lord is with us and that makes our life extremely beautiful come what may. We may not be worthy but the Lord designs to visit it's.  How blessed we are!

WORD 2day: 7th September, 2016

Never lose the Focus

Wednesday, 23rd week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 7: 25-31: Lk 6: 20-26

The first christian community in fact expected that they would see Jesus around in his second coming already in their time... they were preparing for it intensely. The moment they began to realise it was getting delayed, they began to grow lax in their life of virtues! It is in this context that Paul writes to them...about celibacy, purity and single minded dedication to the Lord. His call was: never lose focus, for everything will come to pass in no time!

The second coming may be at an appointed time which the Lord alone knows and we wait for it, with patience and focus. But, if we believe that the second coming is a moment of judgement, that moment is here and now... for our choices every moment determine the judgement that is going to be! Every time I choose something or avoid something, I am bringing upon me a judgement by myself. That is what Jesus tells us in the Gospel: I make myself blessed or unfortunate! I need to be informed, alert and categorical about my choices - they determine what I will be judged to be. The crux is that I never lose the focus, even as I am involved in hectic activity!

WORD 2day: 6th September, 2016

Life lived on the Shore

Tuesday, 23rd week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 6: 1-11; Lk 6: 12-19

We have seen people playing on the sea shore, or we ourselves would have done it. There is so much of fun with the ever active waves and the quick moving sand. But that is not what the sea is all about, it may just be a tiny fraction of the reality called the ocean. At times looking at the way life is lived today, it gives us a feeling of the activity on the shore, merely the shore. Is life truly lived in its depth? So much of uneasiness and boredom, jealousy and envy, fights and frictions, greed and competition, hatred and indifference...what does it all indicate? A life lived on the shore, not in its depth.

One of the chief elements of a life lived in its depth would be discernment - taking time to understand what is the right thing to be done at the right time. If only a person takes a few moments every day, or before every important decision, a few moments to go into oneself, understand the situation around, empathise with the persons involved, take stock of the true issues that are at stake and then decide on the best of the options available, that would make a huge difference for oneself and for every one around. How many people we see today, apparently ruining their own life, living in total unhappiness and misery, all because they are satisfied living their life merely on the shore!