THE SAINTS AND THE WORD

The People of the Word

Tuesday, 1st Nov, 2016

Rev 7: 2-4, 9-14; 1Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12a

The seal, the scroll and the Word - the signs of the people of God presented in today's Word. The seal denotes the sovereignty of God which the saints totally acknowledge. The scroll signifies the plan of God that exists from all eternity. The Word is the life of the saints, the true children of God. 

Children of God are those who deserve that name by their life and works...not merely for namesake! Let your light shine, the Lord has challenged us.  Those who listen to my father and do what He says are those who deserve to be called children of God. 

Saints are fundamentally children of God who are recognised so because they had lived a life worthy of that title. We are given the title too; our daily duty is to grow more and more worthy of it. 

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

The Family of the Apostles

Celebrating Simon and Jude: 28th October, 2016

Eph 2:19-22; Lk 6:12-16

You are no longer alien, no longer strangers, you are part of the family that the Apostles belonged to, the family that was initiated as the starting point of the Reign of God. This familiarity is the greatest gift according to Paul, as he insists that we could have been no people, but God made us God's people through Christ. That is what we are, God's people!

Of Simon and Jude who we celebrate today, Judas Thaddeus, is said to be close to Jesus in his family ties and in his appearance. However, Jesus would not have made a big issue of it - for him those who listen to God's word and put it into practice are more familiar than anyone else! There is tendency even today, when we have the possibility of doing some favour to someone, how do we pick and choose as to whom to extend that favour to! 

Simon and Jude, as all other apostles, teach the lesson that Jesus wants us to learn: it does not matter which tribe, or clan or caste I belong to - the only thing that matters is I belong to God, I form part of the family of God, the family of the Apostles!

WORD 2day: 27th October, 2016

Fearless with the Armour of God

Thursday, 30th week in Ordinary Time
Eph 6: 10-20; Lk 13: 31-35

Even those who act and show themselves as bold and courageous  at times of slight troubles betray their fear and trembling.  Moments like disease, debts and difficulties lead people to despair when they lack firmness in faith.

Jesus was fearless,  as all prophets always were! The prophets' fearlessness came from the fact the Lord was with them. They felt guarded by the armour of God, the armour that Paul enumerates today.

The call is clear today:  to live fearlessly in the Lord, with the armour that the Lord provides.

WORD 2day: 25th October, 2016

Being in Christ is all that matters

Tuesday, 30th week in ordinary time
Eph 5:21-33; Lk 13: 18-21

The other day I was speaking to a group of young couples regarding the attitudes spouses should have towards each other... when some tough statements came around,  one of them jokingly remarked. 'these things coming from Paul,  it's difficult to accept,  given the fact that he was an unmarried man!' And immediately another one added looking straight at me, 'Paul writing it  and you quoting it... both are difficult to accept'. There was a big roar of laughter.  That aside,  there can be heated debates on issues that Paul speaks of today-  who has to be subordinate to whom!  That is not my focus. Whether I am subordinate or  head,  I am called to be IN Christ - that's the focus.

Whether I am a subordinate or a head,  or an apostle or a servant, a renowned person or a so-called nobody... I am called to be  in Christ. Being in Christ,  even if I am just a mustard seed I can grow into a mighty tree.  Being in Christ, even if I am just pinch of yeast I can make a difference for entire dough.  Being in Christ is all that matters.

WORD 2day: 24th October, 2016

Being children of Light

Monday,  30th week in ordinary time
Eph 4:32 - 5:8; Lk 13: 10-17

There are a set of values that the Word proposes today, to be considered children of light. 

Personal purity that makes one shine amidst darkness.  The endurance that keeps  one from any compromise merely for the reason  that they are not seen is foundational to this.

Interpersonal simplicity that makes one godly and does not give into to complications such as ego, discrimination and revengeful rancour.

Spiritual ìdentity that makes me convinced of my link to the Lord,  so convinced that I am always conscious that it is  the Lord's image that I carry and manifest.

With these,  personal purity,  interpersonal simplicity and spiritual identity, we are challenged to be children of light. Are we growing to be?

EMPTINESS - WHERE GOD ENCOUNTERS

23rd October, 2016 : 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sir 35: 12-14,16-18; 2 Tim 4: 6-8,16-18; Lk 18: 19-24

You cannot fill a cup that is full ...

God is not partial, God knows no favourites says the first reading but all the while speaking of a God who takes his stand by the poor, the widow and the orphans, the oppressed and the lowly. There is no paradox here, neither is there a partiality. It is natural that water flows where it is low. Isn't it true that we can fill only that which is empty! 

Today we are reminded of the Spirituality of Emptiness! Emptiness, is not merely an absence of things. Emptiness is not merely a state of something not being there. If it were so, it is so easy to reach that state - all that you need to do is remove what is there! Instead, emptiness is a positive reality. Emptiness is where God encounters us!

Emptiness can be due to a lack! The first reading speaks to us of the oppressed, the widows and the orphans...persons who lacked, who lacked their rights, who lacked someone to lean on, who lacked people who cared. God encounters us in that state...that is a condition! A condition in which one knows that one lacks, when one knows that he or she is not complete. In our inabilities, in our lacks when we turn to God, and accept God as the one who can fill me... God fills me! 

Emptiness can be a lifestyle! One can have, one can possess, but still can decide to live in a state of emptiness, not giving into attachments and bonds that can cripple one's existence. God encounters him or her there, in that emptiness. That is not a condition, but a choice! St. Paul, speaks in the second reading of how he had emptied himself for the sake of the Word, for the sake of the Lord, for the sake of the Lord's people. It is a lifestyle ... a mindset...the mindset of Christ... For he did not consider equality with God as something to be held on to,...but emptied himself (Phil 2: 5-7) - the lifestyle of Christ, the Son of God! Emptying yourself is a choice to allow God to fill you!

Emptiness is liminality! Liminality is a word that is used to mean, 'to stand at the threshold', a state of passage, a state where one is changed from what one was, but has not yet become what one is yet to become! One is not complete yet, but he or she is well on the way to being complete. We can be reminded of the words that St. John writes, 'We are children of God, what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is' (1 Jn 3:2). When we empty ourselves, we are moving towards being complete. When we are too conscious of being so complete and perfect, we actually are closing ourselves in and we become dead. The more we empty ourselves, the more God fills us!

O God, who alone is complete...

behold my emptiness, and make me ever conscious of it,

that I may be filled, filled by you, 

to become complete, just as you are...

... so ready to empty myself for the others, 

that I may be once again be filled by you, who alone is complete!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Living by truth and in love

Celebrating John Paul II - 22nd October, 2016

Eph 4:7-16; Lk 13: 1-9

The downfall of others is not a justification of our selves. The difficulties that we face are not curses we experience. Everything that happens in life has to be seen from the perspective of God, and the holistic plan of God and the obedience or breach of God's will and its consequences. When people struggle and live life in unbearable conditions we are tempted to say that God has taken them to task - is this truly a Christian attitude? 

John Paul II who was a long reigning Pontiff of the Church and a person whom we have seen in our own times, was a great witness against such kind of thinking. Those who have seen the last years of Pope John Paul II, would vouch for the strength of will that this great person possessed. With his Parkinson ailment and his age, he was losing that strong traveller image that he had built up in his tenure for two decades and more. But he did not mind it, he put his trust in the Lord who was leading him and went on with endurance till the end. He never gave up - not just this but even his stand as the conscience of the world - he was firm on living by truth and in love! No one or nothing could stop him from that. That is the challenge to us today: to live by truth and in love in order that we grow into Christ... Are we ready?

WORD 2day: 21st October, 2016

The sign of being ONE

Friday, 29th week in Ordinary Time
Eph 4:1-6; Lk 12: 54-59

Looking at the situation around filled so much with hatred and violence, vengeance and treachery, gruesome competition and heartless development...should we not easily decipher what our call is as people of God? If we add to the number of those who perpetrate such a situation or even if we remain silent without questioning their logic, we are 'hypocrites' as Jesus calls today! We are challenged to stand up to the situation and give the world a sign that we can be ONE, One people, One heart, One mind, One society, One humanity, One family...united by the ONE LORD. In our own simple ways we are called to bear witness to this fact, beginning from our interior mentality and the inner circle of the family.

WORD 2day: 20th October, 2016

The Spirit, the fire and the division

Thursday, 29th week in Ordinary Time
Eph 3:14-21; Lk 12:49-53

We are children of one Father... the Father from whom we all receive our identity.  The father places a mark and a condition.  The mark is  the Spirit and the condition is the fire... that we live for the Lord in union with each other not in competition with each other.  The division that the gospel speaks of today is standing away from any kind of consideration that militates against the Spirit. It should be marked with the fire within us,  for the Reign of God.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

18th October,  2016
Celebrating St Luke the evangelist

2 Tim 4: 10-17; Lk 10: 1-9

Luke is an evangelist with a difference.  Luke's speciality consists,  they say in very many things,  but certainly in the following three elements.

The Gospel of the Mother:  Luke has some special portions for our blessed mother in his narrative.  The anunciation, the visitation,  the Magnificat and the blessed mother with the apostles.

The Gospel of Mercy:  Luke 15 is the compendium of the mercy of God as proclaimed by Jesus.  Apart from this chapter Luke has some very special and prophetic pieces of the teaching of Jesus about the mercy of God, the least to say Lk 6:36.

The Gospel of the Meek: Luke's would be considered the gospel with an absolute choice for the poor,  the meek, the lowly,  the gentiles and the sinners! Luke manages to capture the compassionate heart of the father to the best.

The call is... let us be human, compassionate,  merciful and loving;  that's a true Christian living.