WORD 2day: 23rd February, 2017

Respect the justice of the Lord

Thursday,  7th week in Ordinary Time
Sir 5:1-10; Mk 9: 41-50

The WORD today is quite hard and as soon as we hear it we feel like saying, this is an old teaching, too rigorous and too bleak in hope. But as the wisdom of Sirach warns us, it can turn into an excuse for not changing oneself.

The Lord knows the ďeepest of our thoughts and the most secret of our intentions. It is not possible to fake allegiance to the Lord as people do to each other.

The Lord is not only all knowing and compassionate, the Lord is also just and righteous. We would be at fault to think that we can appease the Lord with some legalities... nothing short of a true intention and a sincere dedication in our efforts to become good in the eyes of the Lord, can make us acceptable! Let us not only count on the mercies of the Lord but also respect the justice of the Lord.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Praying for the Pope

The feast of Chair of St. Peter-  22nd February 2017
1 Pet 5: 1-4; Mt 16: 13-19

One of the Catholic traditions long taught and practiced is the practice of praying for the Holy Father.  Jesus assigned a very special role to Peter: to strengthen his brother apostles in faith and to feed His flock.

The call to pray for the pope is not praying for Pope Francis or  for any other person but it is praying for the office of the chief of the apostles... recalling how so many resent accepting it.

Today, the world wants to grow more and more detached from whatever belongs to God. The figure of the Holy Father and his role keep the Catholic Church one despite differences and united despite the variety!

Let us pray for the Holy Father in a special manner today!

WORD 2day: 21st February, 2017

To grow up to be a true child

Tuesday, 7th week in Ordinary Time

Sir 2:1-11; Mk 9: 30-37

'Grow Up!' people say, when they are upset with some people's attitudes found wanting, when people behave 'childish' and immature,as it is said. But,grow up to what? The Word today invites us, to grow up to be children. Cling on, trust, hold on, wait on the Lord...in short to be true children, true children of God. Who can wait on the mercies of the elders but a child,for when we consider ourselves grown up we crave to be independent. Who can cling on to someone else and keep trusting in their goodness, hoping that they will be led in the right path, but a child! Who but a child can look up to others and understand that he or she is the least of all who are around and helpless of the lot?

Jesus invites us - grow up to be a child... let go of your ego, learn to depend on the goodness of the Lord, allow God to take hold of your hands and you will find the true peace, the peace of a child.

WORD 2day: 20th February, 2017

Faith and Wisdom - Gifts from God

Monday, 7th week in Ordinary Time

Eccl 1:1-10; Mk 9: 14-29

Knowledge can be obtained by effort and hardwork but wisdom comes from the Lord. We may read, listen, think and increase our knowledge, but putting various pieces of knowledge together to arrive at a decision is wisdom and that cannot be acquired by purely hardwork or merely human effort. It is a gift from the Lord, because Wisdom as the first reading tells us today, belongs to God and whom God deigns to grant it, and the measure God wills to grant it. 

Belief is born from what we learn and what we understand, while Faith is not merely our lonesome job. It is our personal response to a self revealing God. If so,it is the Lord who grants us this faith as a gift and helps us grow and mature in it too. 'Lord I believe, help my unbelief"...we come across that profound prayer today. It would do a great good to us to make this prayer a regular and daily prayer, everyday in the morning asking the Lord to help our unbelief and make us truly the Lord's faithful sons and daughters! 

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?