HOLINESS - the Identity of the People of God

19th February, 2017: 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lev 19:1-2,17-18; 1 Cor3:16-23; Mt 5:38-48

What makes one a Christian? Take a pause and answer this question within your hearts!

Is it Baptism? Yes, ofcourse, but only if it were received with a personal choice and every promise given at the proper moment is lived to the full everyday of one's life. 

Is it being enrolled in a parish? Yes, but only if the belonging to the parish makes one feel one with the Universal Body of Christ, the Church. 

That which makes of Baptism efficacious, our belonging to a parish meaningful, and makes us truly Christians is our realisation of our identity as people of God - a realisation that has to be manifested in our personal holiness and in our holiness as a community of believers.

Holiness is not a super-human quality. It is definitely not alien to being human. Because it can be seen at our very origin. God made us in God's own image and likeness says Genesis (1:27). So, holiness is our original nature, not sinfulness; Holiness is the core of our being, not sinfulness. Sin and Sinfulness have come to mar and obstruct our original nature. This is why to the chosen people, God says through Moses, "Be holy, because I the Lord your God am Holy." Because I am holy you can be holy too. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we ought to be holy because we are FROM GOD.

Holiness is our choice, a choice made not once for all, but at every moment, at every circumstance, at every crisis. It is a choice made for God, because we realise and gratefully acknowlege choice that God has made for us. You did not choose me, I chose you, says the Lord (Jn 15:16). It is the Lord who had chosen us. It is not that we loved God but it is God who loved us first, reminds us St. John (1 Jn 4:9,19). God has chosen us and God has loved us abundantly! And our response is Holiness, because we belong to God, we are OF GOD.

Holiness is not an act, it is an attitude; it is not a set of actions but a habit; it is not merely an appearance but an internal becoming! holiness is a daily effort to become more and more like God. it is returning to the image and likeness of with which we were formed in the love of God. In our words, thoughts, acts and choices of daily life we are called to become LIKE GOD.

Our Blessed Mother and the Saints are our models and Jesus is our Way. St. John traces that course for us when he says, 'we will be like him because we will see him as he is" (1Jn 3:2). We are called not to be merely good people but God's people. Every word and act of our's has to reflect God's presence to those around us. 

We are People of God and our very identity is Holiness. If we miss out on holiness we lose everything. We are from God, We are of God and We are called to become like God because we are the people of God. Because we are the temple where God chooses to dwell, we are the presence of God that the world so badly needs today! 

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

To be transfigured every day 

Celebrating the feast of Transfiguration - 18th Feb, 2017

Heb 11:1-7; Mk 9: 2-13

Faith is a call to be transfigured daily - amidst the troubles we have, amidst the things that occupy our minds on a daily basis, that moment when we raise our eyes and our hearts to the Lord offering ourselves up in total surrender becomes a moment of transfiguration, when we are able to feel a presence that is so really sustaining us.

If we are lost in the worries and concerns and dig deep into our sorrows, we are not bad people but just that we are people without that supernatural eye that the Lord graces us with, in faith.

If we possess Faith...we possess a new light for life. If we possess Faith... we have a host of people with us who have gone before us and who stand by us today, we are never alone.

If we possess Faith, we possess the Lord, who would communicate with us on a constant basis...with faith, we will be transfigured every day!

WORD 2day: 16th February, 2017

The Spirit and the Satan 

Thursday, 6th week in Ordinary time 

Gen 9:1-13; Mk 8:27-33

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us... for the Lord has created us in God's own image. We bear the name of God. The first reading today reiterates the fact in many ways - saying God  created everything for the human beings, God gave human beings an ascendancy over the rest of the creatures and explicitly stating once again God  created human beings on God's image! Peter is  seen to be filled with that Spirit of God when he rightly points out who Jesus was- The Son of God. Yes we possess the Spirit of the Lord within us. 

A fact we need to beware is that the Satan is all the time lurching around the corner waiting for a time to pounce on us and draw us as far away as it could.  Right from the first moment of the creation this enmity is on, isn't it?  But it all depends where I belong. The Spirit or the Satan - whose side am I on?

WORD 2day: 17th February, 2017

EGO - the antonym of Christian Love

Friday, 6th week in Ordinary Time

Gen 11:1-9; Mk 8:34 - 9:1

Christian definition of Love is 'wishing the good of the other' and if this is what love means, its opposite is not hate but Ego! When I begin to look at me, mine and myself, when I begin to do anything to achieve my end, when everything around me is only an object for me to use for my good and even persons are means to my ends, that is Ego.

The Word enumerates what one loses when the ego in the person grows...the person loses God, the person loses peace, the person loses the other! Godlessness, Division and Hatred - these are the three dominant viles that the humanity faces today. Godlessness that has made the human person arrogant; Division that makes the humanity broken; and Hatred that keeps tearing apart humanity on a daily basis. Jesus invites us to throw this ego behind and walk towards genuine love, pick up the daily cross for others' sake and walk with the Lord.

WORD 2day: 15th February, 2017

The Noah's Raven

Wednesday, 6th week in Ordinary time
Gen 8: 6-13,20-22 ; Mk 8: 22-26

I was reminded, reflecting on today'sfirst reading, of an expression a good friend of mine is fond of repeating. He would call some people, the Noah's ravens - when they take up a task and set about it but never return to report the progress or the lack of it. It is indeed an interesting perspective to think from, isn't it?

Anything good or healthy we take up to has a gradual progress and we need to follow it  through. Firstly, we should not be impatient as to expecting everything to happen in a jiffy. Secondly, when we set off on the task we should be resolute enough to follow it through till its very end. Thirdly, we should not forget those who are involved with us in the task... beginning with the Lord who initiates everything that is good.

WORD 2day: 14th February, 2017

From Very Good to Despicable - Beware!

Tuesday, 6th week in Ordinary Time

Gen 6: 5-8, 7: 1-5,10; Mk 8: 14-21

The narrator records in the book of Genesis that the Lord, when the entire creation was in its place little by little, felt that they were good. But when God made the human person, God felt that was VERY GOOD. Nowhere did God regret for having created the rest of the creation. But for having created the human persons, God did...and we hear that in today's Word. Human beings slid rapidly from a grade so high as 'very good' to a grade as despicable as God looking to wipe them off from the face of the earth. Thanks to Noah, the things worked out differently. 

One Noah, became the turning point for entire humanity and entire creation, as the story goes. Can we be that one person who can stand up and make a difference? If I have to be so, first of all I have to beware of the influence of sin and sinfulness which can pervade my entire being without my realisation and change my nature - as does the yeast that leavens the entire dough. Secondly, the challenge is that I need to keep my goodness growing, my light shining, that I could become that influence that can compensate for the evil around. What is my status today: anywhere between very good and despicable?

WORD 2day: 13th February, 2017

Holding your head high...

Monday, 6th week in Ordinary time
Gen 4:1-15,25;  Mk 8:1-13

If you do well, you can hold your head high, the Lord tells Cain. It is the same that Jesus demonstrates through himself in the gospel. He lived his life, his convictions, his mission so well that he had his head always held high. Jesus invites us too to live with our heads held high - with our unwavering commitment to the Reign, our undaunted spirit of self giving and an inevitable readiness to put up with inconveniences!

Entire country is smiling at the folly that is going on in the name of politics in the state of  Tamilnadu, where I live. The legislators are backing up a person who is seen by the people as involved in an unholy scheme of things. Once the stand off is over, can the legislators really come to meet their own people with their heads held high?

Our choices and our life have to be integral to live our daily life with our heads held high.

Love and Abide by the Word

12th February,2017: 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sir 15: 15-20;1 Cor 2: 6-10; Mt 15: 17-37

Choice is the central theme running through the readings today! And there is another dominant theme that qualifies this choice - that is LAW. Law for the people of Israel was the way ordained by the Lord. Law was for them the guarantee of remaining  people of God; it was their part of executing the covenant that the Lord made with them: I shall be your God and you shall be my people! To speak or act against the law was for them a serious and punishable offence. There is a discussion on two other themes- "maturity" and "wisdom" in the second reading from St.Paul. Combining all these, Jesus in the Gospel presents to us a mature and wise attitude towards LAW. He invites us to Choose LAW... that is to choose to Live and Abide by the Word. 

Faith is a Choice...

Faith is not a blind leap, it is a conscious Choice! As Lumen Fidei n.3 affirms, faith cannot be associated with darkness, instead faith is a light that enlightens one to choose, to choose believe in God, to choose to see God alive in one's life. The first reading presents to us the same perspective today, we have the choice between water and fire, between good and evil, between true joy and fleeting pleasures, between the right and the convenient, between conviction and compromise, between life and death! The choice is ours! We cannot ride on the shoulders of tradition and custom, and justify our acts and habits. We have to grow up! Our maturity has to be seen in the wisdom we possess. It is God who gives us this wisdom, as St.Paul reminds us. Jesus embodies that wisdom and presents the same to us in his words: I have come not to abolish the law, but bring it to its fulfillment. 

A Choice beyond the Law...

Jesus declares that his disciples should make a choice not against the law but beyond the law! He gives a new meaning to law, and presents the way to go beyond, to transcend a mere slavish legalism and reach the heights of saintly perfection, through love and compassion. The words of Jesus, "You have heard that it was said,...but I say to you", heard repeatedly in the Gospel today presents Jesus as the New Moses, and describes the community of disciples as the New People of God! "See I am making all things new," declares Jesus by this (Rev. 21:5). The new law...today how do we understand that new law, the law beyond the law... L - to Love, A - to Abide, and W - the Word. To love the Word and Abide by it...is the new law that Jesus gives. The Word presents to us a guarantee to sanctity. To know the Word, to reflect on it and understand it, to love it and strive to abide by it, is the sure way to be real children of God, worthy people of God. Our life does not comprise merely of avoiding evil, it is much more profound and meaningful. It is to live, to love, to relate, to do good, to mature, to be happy, to make others happy and thus together as a community of God's children, to renew the world and fill it with joy.

To Obey the Law...

Jesus teaches the people today not to go against the law but to understand what it really means to obey the law. For Him, to obey the law was not to obey the word of the law but to obey the Lord of the law! It was so for the people of Israel; they obeyed the law as an act of obedience to YHWH. But when the Lord of the law was with them, and they did not realise it. The Word lived and moved among them, but they did not comprehend it. The danger for us too is the same: that we may be by definition the best of Christians - missing no Sunday Mass, regular with reading the Bible and reciting the prayers, strict with our fasting and abstinence, visiting as many pilgrim shrines as possible - but let us beware, we may be missing the point. These are good but not good enough - the Word instructs us: Love and Abide by the Word... to love the Word, and to live by it; not being merely hearers of the Word  but doers(Jam 1:22); to say YES to the Word and mean it, to face all the consequences of that Yes and live through it. Our YES to the Word has to be our choice, our choice to go beyond the Law and obey the Lord of the law, to live and fill the earth with love and compassion; to challenge the present standards of the world towards a new world, new heaven and new earth!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Promise and the Fulfillment

Celebrating the Miracle of Lourdes - 11th Feb, 2017

Gen 3: 9-24

The Compassion of the Lord repays a mistake not with merely a punishment, but along with a promise. The Lord promises a sinless one, who would bear the Saviour and the promise is personified in our Blessed Mother. The Fulfillment of this promise has been manifested in manifold ways - one such in the recent times is the Miracle of Lourdes!

Lourdes, came as a fulfillment. It was in 1854, that the Church consolidated its centuries of experience regarding Mary and defined the truth: Mary was conceived immaculate! Soon within four years, Mary appears to a peasant girl, who knew nothing of the alphabet nor the alphabet of the dogmatic teachings - but the message that the peasant girl gave surprised everyone, not just then but even today. Bernadette said, 'The Mother said, I am the Immaculate Conception' That was a verification, a confirmation of the faith experiences just consolidated. The Immaculate Conception - the one whom the Almighty willed from eternity! 

May our Blessed Mother keep us ever mindful that we are children of Promise!

WORD 2day: 10th February, 2017

To open or not to open...

Friday,  5th week in Ordinary time
Gen 3: 1-8; Mk 7:31-37

If  you eat of this fruit your eyes will be opened, said the Satan and they ate... their eyes were open and they lost the paradise! The Satan deceived the couple to believe that they were blind and ignorant and were nothing, telling them they were yet to become like God while they actually bore the image of God. After they ate the fruit they realised their folly, because they were not blind, they just had to open their eyes to the fact.

Jesus orders 'be opened'...and the ear opens and the tongue gets loosened. Now the confusion is... which of these opening takes me closer to God?

To be open or not to be open... that is plainly the concern. Be open to all the words and signs from the Lord; be open to the reality around; be open enough to observe the folly that goes around so that you are not deceived yourself.

Let the Word open our eyes and our hearts!