Know God that God may know you!

WORD 2day: 1st September, 2017

Friday, 21st week in Ordinary Time

1 Thes 4: 1-8; Mt 25: 1-13

Pagans are those who do not know God, defines Paul and according to his definition when they do not know God, they do not know what God expects of them.When they do not know what God wants of them, they will be ill prepared in their life to meet God and respond to God's invitation. When they fall short of it and get left behind the closed doors, the Lord would declare that he knows them not too! 

Struggling to measure up to the call that Lord extends is human but making a farce of it by willful and unrepentant compromises is devilish and the Lord will find himself so far away from these sort of people. 

I can say it is difficult for me to respond to the call the Lord has given me, but if I say I do not know it, I am a liar. For all of us know what the Lord wants of us - inspite of all the enormous challenges, the call is to BE HOLY and I have no other option!

WILL THERE BE LOVE WHEN THE MASTER COMES?

WORD 2day: 31st August, 2017

Thursday, 21st week in Ordinary Time

1 Thes 3:7-13; Mt 24: 42-51

The Word today speaks of perseverance in faith, until the master comes. One sign that is provided as a sign of persevering faith is that of true and sustained love for each other. Paul prays that the Thessalonians grow in their love for each other and for the entire humanity. Jesus speaks of loving service to each other as the way to be prepared, alert and awake when the Master comes. 

The cry of war all around, the recurring acts of terrorism in various parts, persecutions and inhuman treatment of human persons in the name of caste and creed, dehumanisation of masses in the name of development, institutionalisation of religions and ritualisation of faith - all these are totally not in keeping with the love that Jesus proposes as the touchstone of true faith. Infact, the way things go, we should very seriously ask ourselves, 'will there be love left when the Master comes again?'

If at all we wish that there be, we need to transform ourselves and grow into radical agents of love wherever we are.

SEPULCHERS OR TREASURIES

WORD 2day: 30th August, 2017

Wednesday, 21st week in Ordinary Time

1 Thes 2: 9-13; Mt 23: 27-32

A friend of mine once shared with me something that made me sad. He said, "I had great respects for priests, until I began to work in an institution run by priests. I could not withstand more than six months there. I wish I never went to work there!" When I asked him for a reason, he gave me half a dozen of those and they were all to do with values that were being compromised on a day to day basis. 

St. Paul challenges the Thessalonians, and even others to probe into his life and find out the true witness that he has always lived to be. That needs true courage, which comes only from an integral life. That is why I see the Word today proposing to us two imageries - Sepulchers and Treasuries. Sepulchers as we see at places, are beautiful, aesthetically adorned with marbles and designs but if we open them, they will be all full of decayed flesh and dry bones. Whereas Treasuries may look old and antique but the more deeper one gets, greater is the sense of wonder.

What does my life look like: a sepulcher or a treasury? Shouldn't I start working on myself?

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

To please God not the world!

Remembering the Beheading of John - 29th August, 2017

1 Thes 2:1-8; Mk 6: 17-29

Pleasing others - is it a virtue? To be pleasing to others is one thing, but to please others is a dangerous choice. To please the other would mean being ready blindly to do whatever is to their liking, to their desire, to their pleasure. This can give rise to a malady which can range from a mere timidity to a dire slavery. Can I do something, merely to please someone? Can pleasing someone become an absolute for me? The only person whose will or desire can never, ever go wrong is God. And therefore, if at all I decide to please someone it can be God and no other. That is what Paul declares in the first reading today: we are here to please God not human beings. 

This is the challenge that the prophets and the martyrs down the history have lived for and died for - to please the Lord. When I begin to please others, please rules for rules sake, please the society for human respect, please people for favours and recognition, I cast my personal dignity at stake. John the Baptist died because he refused to please Herod. Jesus died because he refused to please the High Priests and the Chief Priest, the King or the Governor; the only person he was ready to please was his Father Almighty. 

Let us dwell on this question today: who am I longing to please? How far will I go to please the Lord?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Conversion: Turning to God

Celebrating St. Augustine - 28th August, 2017

1 Thes 1:1-5,8-11; Mt 23: 13-22

Yesterday we missed the opportunity of celebrating St. Monica the saintly mother of the saint whom we celebrate today - Bishop Augustine of Hippo. Monica and Augustine give us a great example of a Christian Family and our call to sanctity as a family. Augustine reminds us of St. Ambrose the Bishop who converted Augustine, the effect of the Word and a conversion that was true in all its sense. 

India has once again ventured into the path of raking religious sentiments, pitching various groups against each other, in the name of the anti conversion bills. The latest incident of it has happened at Jharkhand on 1st August, and already two cases of violence have erupted. They call it anti-conversion bill. Are we out to convert everyone? What is after all the meaning of conversion? These are the questions we need to raise and the Word and the Feast today speak to us of it. 

Conversion comes out of prayers, tears and relationship with God from within, not out of force or compulsion from outside. Conversion is not about change of name and change of the place of worship, it is primarily all about, the change of heart, a change that takes one closer to understanding what God really wants of him or her. Conversion is not about the external practices, religious ceremonies and meaningless rituals, it is all about integral living, genuine love and humble submission to God. This is what Augustine shows by his very life, to us. This is what St Monica achieved in her son. This is what St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan imprinted strongly in Augustine's mind. This is what the Lord wants us to know too: integral living, genuine love and humble submission to God. On these counts each of us requires this conversion constantly to turn to God always. 

TO BE KEY PERSONS UNTO THE REIGN

The Role, Wisdom and Personal Knowledge of God

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - 27th August, 2017
Is 22: 19-23; Rom 11: 33-36; Mt 16: 13-20

Look around the world today - what do you observe in all fields? There are nations threatening each other to prove who is superior to whom. There are corporates clashing with each other to claim the topmost slot in the economic world. There are factions and groups in the name of religion and ethnicity and race, making of humanity a worthless value to uphold. There are those in the garb of god-men fending their own nests and exploiting every one else for it. There are politicians who pose to be liberators of the masses while they are hand in glove with every agency that goes diametrically opposed to the common mass. What is all these manipulation about? What are they trying to prove to themselves and to the world? With this as background let us approach the Word today.

One image that dominates today's liturgy of the word is the image of the Key...every person, every entity, every nation, every society, every corporate wants to be a key entity in its field. That is what we saw in the entire list of examples we just enumerated. But, in truth, becoming conscious of one's mission and situating it within God's plan is the real secret behind being key persons in the eyes of the Lord. Every prophet, we see in the Old Testament, is enamoured by the love of the Lord and surrenders totally to the Spirit shining as a key person within the believing community. I have observed in persons within some of our Christian communities that I have served, a similar urge to be key persons! Our tasks of being part of the Parish Pastoral Council, the cooperators to the animating nucleus of the Parish at the zonal or the division levels, are some key roles that people aspire for today. The call is be key persons, yes; but not unto our own glory but unto the Reign that the Lord wants us to build here on earth. 

To be a key person is to realise your GOD GIVEN ROLE: 

Being key persons unto the kingdom would mean, we understand our key role from the perspective of God. At times politics enters the religious ambit and shatters every bit of truth that can exist. Lack of focus and confusion of meanings are the outcomes of such an influx and personal integrity is left at stake. The Lord reminds us in the first reading that it is the Lord who robes one with or strips one of authority.

To be a key person is to be GUIDED BY WISDOM:

Wisdom is not merely knowing; it is knowing that one knows and knowing what is to be known at a particular point of time. It is, more than capacity, a grace! A key person unto the Kingdom should be equipped with wisdom much more than anything. To make the right decisions at the right time and to make the right changes at the right time towards an authentic growth towards being true people of the Reign, the key persons, if not all, should be guided by wisdom.

To be a key person is to have PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD:

The Gospel today gives us the ultimate criterion to be key persons unto the kingdom: it is to know God, on a personal basis. To have encountered God, experienced God, tasted God, felt the concrete presence of God is one of the fundamental criteria to play any key role in a community of faith, a community of people of God. Mere borrowed experiences and brainwashed theories cannot make one an authentic key player within the community of the Reign. 

Each of us can turn to be a key person unto the Kingdom, if we realise the God given role that we have, be guided by Wisdom and yearn for a personal knowledge of God in our lives. The more key persons there are, the more the Reign can be established on earth.

UNDERSTANDING GOODNESS

WORD 2day: 26th August, 2017

Saturday, 20th week in Ordinary Time

Ruth 2: 1-3,8-11, 4:13-17; Mt 23: 1-12

Goodness is Godliness. Last week had been marked by various acts of terrorism in places like Spain, Ireland and so on. And today I am looking at news coming in from India, the riot that is claiming lives and properties, riots against the verdict convicting a rapist, just because he claims to be a god-man. The Word reflected from this background raised a fundamental question within me - how do we understand goodness?

Is goodness the external appearance of a person sporting conventionally respected images - as a god-man, or a social worker, or a poor-lover, or a cause-believer...these externals do not suffice. And not all are deceived by it, ofcourse some are!

Is goodness all about the deeds and functions? People who wish to create a public image that they are good, try to buy up people by their good deeds and heroism. But is that enough sign of true goodness? Hidden behind the good deeds and acts of people there are agendas and schemes that no one even guesses. 

Goodness is all about the basic nature in a person, that is not even seen by the others. Then of what use is it, one could ask. It is nothing to prove to anyone, it is just being good at the core of one's being. That will never change, even if the situation around and the persons around change, for the worse or for the better.

Keeping these in mind, can I really judge who is good and who is not? No one can. I can only say whether I am good or not. But it is so important to ask myself: Am I really Good?

LOVE AND BELONG TO GOD!

WORD 2day: 25th August, 2017

Friday, 20th week in Ordinary Time
Ruth 1:1,3-6,14-16,22; Mt 22: 34-40

Approaching today's readings with the question, 'how does one become a son or a daughter of God' - today, there is an example and a theory! The example is that of Ruth and the theory is presented to us by Jesus himself in the Gospel. 

Ruth, a moabite, who lost her hebrew husband but still becomes a part of God's salvation plan and becomes one of the few women referred to in the long history of the Israelites. How does it happen? The answer is, true and selfless LOVE. Love is the only way one can become a child of God, as John puts it so simply in his letter - 'Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God' (1 Jn 4:7). John learnt it from his master and beloved friend, Jesus who dared to synthesise the whole of the law and the prophets (that is, the whole of Hebrew Scripture) into two directives, which actually amounted to just one command: LOVE. 

Let us love one another and be God's children.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Will you be found under the fig tree?

Celebrating St. Bartholomew the Apostle - 24th August, 2017

Rev. 21: 9-14; Jn 1:45-51

One of the 12 foundation stones, that is, the 12 apostles rooted firm in Christ, is St. Bartholomew whom we celebrate today! Jesus gives him two compliments - one, that he was a person who had no guile in him and second, that Jesus saw him under the fig tree!

Sitting under the fig tree, had a very special significance in that context and Bartholomew is interested and curious how Jesus got to know about him and his tryst with truth.  Sitting under the fig tree would mean (as we see in Micah 4:4), meditating on the Word of God, on the things that God expects from one, and on the way one relates to his or her world. Jesus has noted it. That was surprising for Bartholomew. Jesus is ready to surprise us, are we ready to be surprised? 

Will Jesus find us under the fig tree? How much importance do you attach on a daily basis to remaining in sacred silence... or to the reading of the Word of God... or to meditation on the Word... or simply to remain in that disposition to connect to the Lord... that is why the question, when Jesus wishes to, will you be found under the fig tree?

THE LORD WHO APPROACHES

WORD 2day: 23rd August, 2017

Wednesday, 20th week in Ordinary Time

Judg 9: 6-15; Mt 20: 1-16

We can find something that is common in the two readings of today, and that is the clue to the message that is offered. The first reading narrates a parable of trees approaching various trees to rule over them. Jesus narrates a parable in the Gospel, about the land owner who approaches people at various moments of the day for work. The key is here: the Lord who approaches.

In various ways the Lord approaches us - what a marvel and what a privilege that we are approached by the Almighty. It is not that the Lord cannot do without me, but the Lord chooses not to do without me. The Lord invites me to be on the Lord's side. The Lord approaches me to be at Lord's business. Three dispositions that I should necessarily have to respond to the Lord who approaches me: Listening, to the Lord's call and heeding to the Lord's directions; Obedience, to carry out the wishes of the Lord despite the difficulties and delusions; and Selflessness, to do whatever I can for the purpose of the Reign and for the people of God, but never expecting anything as a recompense, never comparing the good times of the others with mine and doing everything for the other, for the society and for the God who wills them all.