LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #11

To love is to give; as the Lord gives

Monday, Second week in Lent - 13th March, 2017

Dan 9:4-11; Lk 6: 36-38

God gives and forgives without reserve or measure, we know! Though the Lord does not expect anything in return, the Lord expects that we receive and give; that we be forgiven and forgive. 

The measure we receive and the measure we give, be it forgiveness or love or compassion or understanding... it should be balanced. Our readiness to bear everything and share love, should be more than the ordinary people, who do not identify themselves with God and god's own people.

Love has to be shown in concrete reality: the Lord shows God's love through forgiveness and through God's motherly providence. Likewise does Love invite every one who is loved by God, to love everyone around, to forgive and build up communion, that we will build up the Church and ultimately build up the Reign of love, the Reign of God.

TO LOVE IS TO CHANGE

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

Sunday 2: 12th March, 2017
Gen 12:1-4; 2 Tim 1:8-10; Mt 17:1-9

God's love is on demonstration today and we are invited to behold that true, genuine, authentic and matchless love in the name of Jesus our Lord and Saviour! The Love of God invites us to change, for to love is to change!

Change is a task: observe that God's love gives us a task...a task to give! Are we ready to give? Yes...a bit of our changes in the pocket, a few of our currencies in the wallet, some of us a little more...may be our enjoyment of a movie or two during the season of lent, or our stylish make overs or things of that sort! But Observe, calls the second reading today: observe the love that God has for us. Because of that love, God gave, God gave Godself, God's own son, the only Son, the Word who was One with God. 

Change is a growth: understand that God's love makes us grow...from death to life to immortality. We understand from our daily experience that growth is fundamentally a change, a change from simpler form of existence to a more complex form of existence. The reminder today is that every change has to be a growth. Just a couple of days back Ezekiel spoke to us of a change that is not acceptable in the eyes of the Lord - a change where a righteous person falters from his righteousness. That's definitely not the change that is expected of us.

Change is a challenge:  God's love that challenges us to change is not merely a love that gives but a love that gives everything, gives all that God is...The Gospel reminds us of that: Jesus shows us and his disciples, what he has given up for the sake of the love he had for us! The first moment we find it, we feel like holding on to it. The apostles wanted to remain there...Jesus reminds us: "No... your call is to give, to grow, to give all, to give of yourself; that is my love!" The fundamental challenge here is accept God's love into our heart: to fill our hearts with God's love! Abraham was ready to leave everything and walk because he was ready to accept that challenge. Gradually he was filled with God's love and in a little while he was ready to give up his only son for God's sake. By then he had experienced what God's love means and what change it can bring about in his life. That is why he did not consider anything on par with God's love. In our life to, if we believe in God's love, that has to be seen. It has to be seen in our lives, our day to day relationships, our choices and our responses to events. To behold God's love is to be held by God's love and hold out that love to all whom we come across! 

May our lives be transformed, changed forever, by God's love into God's love!

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #10

Love for the sake of loving

Saturday, First week in Lent - 11th March, 2017

Dt 26: 16-19; Mt 5:43-48

You ask a loving pair, 'why do you love the other', and if they manage to give you a ready reason... that is not true love! Curious? Strange? 

If you have a reason, the danger is, it is merely a liking and not truly loving. What if the specified reason disappears? For instance, one loves the other for the sake of the good looks...what if something happens by way of an accident - will the love too disappear? Or one loves the other for the reason that the person is very kind...what if there is some change in the situation and the person loses his or her calmness and gets irritated - will love disappear? Reasons are conditions, when conditions change does the so-called love too change? That is what is happening in today's society.

Does a mother need a reason to love her child? Does God look for a reason to love you? God loves us because God loves us. And just like Godself, God wants that we love each other without expecting anything in return. Loving is growing in godliness in our lives that we accept the other as God-given person to love and wish their well being, do our best for the same and make sure that they are happy. Loving for the sake of loving, no reasons should bar us from loving the other and reaching out to the other, if we wish to be authentic disciples of Christ.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #9

Love sees the intention not the incident

Friday, First week in Lent - 10th March, 2017

Ezek 18: 21-28; Mt 5:20-26

I remember when we were doing our college, it should be so even now, there would be three internal assessments and they would take the better two of the three for the final tabulation. This comes very close as an imagery to explain the message of the Word today.

Or let us consider another imagery - that of a person who wins a gold medal in an event at one occasion and he or she lives on with that glory for all his or her life. 

A Christian version of Righteousness is not such as the above titles - you do your best now and then and they are picked and chosen for your reward, or you peak at a certain moment in your life and you think you can live in that glory for all your life. There are two elements that bring about that difference. The first one is, consistency of one's goodness, which determines the authenticity of the righteousness.

The second and the more important element is the fact that love does not value so much what is done as  why it is done. if love is capable of forgiving faults against it, it is because of this truth. Love rejoices in the interior goodness of the person, who might sometimes falter, more than the external acts of goodness which has intentions of a different nature, What matters most is the intention - even the best of acts done with an intention that has a tinge of evil in it cannot go well with true love; while even a simple act but with the noblest of intentions will be considered precious, because love sees the intention and not the incident.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #8

Taking refuge in the LOVE of God

Thursday, First week in Lent - 9th March, 2017

Esth 4:17 ; Mt 7:7-12

The World is trying its level best to hide God. They don't want to attribute anything good to God. Creation, they wish to attribute to some irrational coincidence; life, they try hard to attribute to some invisible process that they cannot explain; and all scientific development, they wish to attribute to the human mind that created itself or evolved all by itself! It is in this dark scenario that we as Christians are called to bear witness to God today. 

Esther was a capable woman, who had used all the assets that God had given her for the good of God's people. But inspite of her capacity and commitment we see her totally surrendering to the Lord: taking refuge in the Lord. 

Jesus looks at the people and says, "Ask, Seek and Knock"...humble yourself and place yourself at the receiving end at least a while in you life and you will see the blessing. The Lord promises, "if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and save them, and will forgive their sins and heal their land" (2 Chr 7:14) 

Jesus invites us - ask, seek and knock to prepare ourselves towards us taking refuge in the lOVE of God.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #8 

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #7

Love - the Power to Transform!

Wednesday, First week in Lent - 8th March, 2017

Jon 3:1-10; Lk 11: 29-32

Jonah was given as the sign to the people of Nineveh - but what was the sign? The sign was that the Lord loved the people of Nineveh, however sinful they might have been. Ordinarily they should have perished and that is what Jonah wanted - that the sinners perished. But with the Lord that is never a solution because God is love, and love alone has the power to transform. Jesus comes as the personification of that love, to transform the world and make us children of God. 

Secondly, Jonah was intent on going away from the plan of the Lord, not because of malice but because he feared that the people of Nineveh will escape from the punishment that was their due. But the Lord's love and insistence transforms Jonah's heart and Jonah takes the message of the Lord to the people. Love awaits to transform each of us and set us up as agents of transformation for the people around us. Are we filled with that love which is the power to transform? 

LOVE-LENT - THE WORD IN LENT #7

LOVE-LENT 2017- THE WORD IN LENT #6

Prayer - A loving rapport with the Lord!

Tuesday, First week in Lent - 7th March, 2017

Isa 55: 10-11; Mt 6: 7-15

There are various definitions and explanations for prayer. Over and beyond all these explanations, the importance of prayer is something that is known to everyone. Prayer is also presented as one of the most fundamental elements of the Lenten practices. If so, this lent calling our attention to love, what does it say of prayer?

A simple and inevitable understanding of prayer is, perceiving prayer as a loving rapport with the Lord. Having a loving rapport with the Lord would mean, first of all to label that relationship - who is God for you: Mother, Father, Friend, Guide, Protector...? That rapport would ensure an attitude of respect and intimate connectedness, praising God and doing everything worthy of God's glory and dominion. The loving rapport ensures that all our needs are met, like a mother would do for her child. The rapport does not stop with the Lord but is made meaningful only in loving rapport that I have with my brothers and sisters, inspite of their weaknesses and limitations.

Our prayer when it is truly a loving rapport, it can do marvels! Yes, as the Lord assures that God's Word does not return until it has accomplished its purposes, so should our prayer be! Love is an energy that makes things possible. Love makes life possible, love makes care possible, love makes forgiveness and acceptance possible - when we say prayer can accomplish anything, it actually means the loving rapport with the Lord will illumine every situation here on earth - because prayer is nothing but the loving rapport that I have with the Lord.

LOVE-LENT 2017: THE WORD IN LENT #6

                                      

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #5

Love - Giving the other their due!

Monday, First week in Lent - 6th March, 2017

Lev 19: 1-2,11-18; Mt 25: 31-46

If you love me...many begin their demands this way today...those who are in love, those who are married, the parents to the children and vice versa and even friends. Love is not mere words, it is not merely some feeling, but it is a way of being, a mode of identification for a true Christian. 

The fundamental truth that has various forms is that to love is to give! Giving the other their due without grudging. Love is not looking to receive; it is always looking to give, give with cheerfulness, give with generosity and give without calculation. Violence or war, abductions or protests, litigations and demonstrations ...where do they come from? From a person, or a system or a mechanism that refuses to give the due to the right person! Let us refill this world with love, meaning to say, let us give each one their due and the world will be a better place.

LOVE-LENT - THE WORD IN LENT #5

TO LOVE IS A CHOICE

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

Sunday 1: 5th March, 2017

Gen 2:7-9: 3:1-7; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4:1-11

Why did God make the tree, if God wanted them never to eat of it?

Why should that fruit be there first of all, if God knew it would not help them?

These top the list of FAQs that arise from today's Word. This lent we are called to look at this reality from the point of view of love. What stands out is the fact that to love is a choice!

God chose to gift us with the capacity to choose, yes Choice is a gift. If we get to see, it is this capacity to choose is the fundamental element of human dignity. Freedom and Autonomy are two things that define a human person. When they are missing there is a breach of human rights, loss of human dignity and a crisis of very humanity. This is what is happening in many a places today where this freedom and autonomy is not given, or controlled or hunted out. God made us human persons out of love; in love God has given the capacity to choose!

God made a choice to love us and gave us a sign of God's love in that choice, yes Choice is a sign. Choice is a sign that we love, that we give importance to someone. The Word today establishes how God made a choice to love us and gave us a sign of that choice through Jesus Christ the only Son of God. For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son that the world may have life. A Sign of God's everlasting love is the fact that God chose to love us regardless of what and who we are.

God invites us to take up the same call to choose to love authentically, yes Choice is a challenge. The world claims it loves, but it loves things and uses people. The true love that the Lord teaches us is to love persons and use things. But that is a choice, a choice which is a challenge. We need to make a choice to be authentic come what may, we need to forego of our ego, we are called to put the Other and the others much before me and mine. 

Yes...to love is a choice...a choice which is a gift from God; a choice that has been given s a sign from God. a choice that challenges me to put God and my neighbours before myself. May this season of Lent help us to grow in this love.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #4

Sabbath - Taking time to Love!

Saturday after Ash Wednesday - 4th March, 2017

Is 58: 9-14; Lk 5: 27-32

Sabbath for the Jews, we know, was sacred and there was a beautiful lesson within it. People are busy making a living, that they forget truly living their life. Jesus did not despise Sabbath, but brought strongly home the lesson behind this observance. Jesus teaches us : Sabbath is the time taken to love - to love God and to love neighbours! It is a time to forget about me, mine and my job and look at the Lord, the persons around me and spend time with them. 

Today in our hectic lives, we are so busy running after our work, our so-called progress and our career that we lose sight of so many beautiful things in life - like a filial relationship with God, a loving relationship with our families, a rejuvenating time with our friends...even these have become some corporate affairs to be planned and executed, lacking its spontaneity and warmth. Recently, when I had rung up to a caterer asking for a meal to be arranged for a big group of persons on a Sunday - he bluntly told me that he cannot, because it was Sunday. "It is enough you arrange it later during the day", I insisted. But he replied with the same determination and clarity of priorities, "I go to Church in the morning and the rest of the day I spend with the family, I don't take up orders". He is not one of those top notch business persons to forego an order so lucrative, but he was clear about his priorities - he was absolute about the time set apart for God and for his loved ones.

We would do good to look at Sabbath not as a legal requirement or the Sunday obligation but as Jesus insists, as does Isaiah - taking time to be with people, to spend time with persons, to share love and be rejuvenated. Sabbath therefore is not one day, or certain days; it is a mindset, an attitude, a love with which we give importance to the Other and to the others. Just as this season of Lent, Sabbath should be a time taken regularly to refill our lives with love. 

LOVE-LENT - THE WORD IN LENT #4