Reflect: House in Ruins

WORD 2day: 28th September, 2017

Thursday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

Hag 1:1-8; Lk 9: 7-9

It is important to know that the house is in  ruins and more important to know the reason. The world today is experiencing that ruin in  many realities. The wounded peace, the wrecked ecology, the neglected humanity, the despised helpless, the insensitive power centres... these are the experiences of ruins. If we carry on our lives paying no attention to these, but trying to live our religious lives as mere ritual requirements, we will be like Herod who was more curious to see Jesus than earnest to see himself in the light of Jesus. 

Today, to reflect on our house of ruins is not merely to criticise ourselves or everyone else who is around, but to look at ourselves in the light of Jesus and his Mystical Body. The Mystical Body of Christ is the communion of believers, the communion of human persons, a true communion of heart and spirit. Are we building up such a presence amidst us? If not Jesus' body, the house is in ruins! It is important that we know that the house is in ruins and more important that we analyse to see where really lies the problem. 

A bit of sincerity and a lot of dedication will set this house back in order -let us better Reflect!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Set out... Restore the Ruins!

Celebrating St. Vincent de Paul - 27th September, 2017

Ezra 9: 5-9; Lk 9: 1-6

Look at the world today- you have enough to criticize, enough to lament and enough to detest. But that is not what a disciple of Christ could do at his or her best. The Lord invites and challenges us to 'Set out to restore the ruins'. God called in history people like Moses, Ezra and Nehemiah, the other prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus himself, Francis of Assisi and many others like the saint of today, Vincent de Paul. Just as much does God call you and me today, in our own way to restore the ruins and certainly not to add to them.

Even in and through our facebook messages, whatsapp forwards, blogposts, tweets and circulated mails we are called to restore ruins and not create more havoc. There are enough hate-spreaders, we need not add to those numbers. Our justice need not be a justice of an uncharitable self righteousness; it has to be a charitable holiness. Even when they reject you, move on shaking the dust off your sandals, the Lord suggests. 

It is not so easy in a world so dominated by egoistic agenda, divisive mentality, exploitative mindset, vindictive perspectives and inhuman developmental processes! We tend to play it according to the tunes of the majority and rationalise ungodly leanings. Can we truly found ourselves on evangelical charity and fend for the weak, stand by the oppressed and think from their grounds? Vincent de Paul stands out as a great model in that.

Build yourselves up to be God's own today!

WORD 2day: 26th September, 2017

Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

Ezra 6: 7-8,12,14-20; Lk 8: 19-21

To be God's own, to be called God's people, to truly belong to God - Jesus suggests a means: listen and live! Listen to the Lord, live it to the letter! God gives a command - build up the temple - not because God has nowhere to live, but because the people have nothing to unite them. God wants them to be united as one, under one God, under one sacrifice and under one banner, as God's own people. 

Jesus pitches for the same too: it is not about a group which is privileged, claiming honours and priced positions and hierarchical arrogance. At times in religiosity, this happens much that people of an elite group claim all the privileges and honours. The people of God are not a privileged few but the committed few, the obedient few, the dedicated few, the faithful few, the observant few, the uncompromising few - they are those who hear and practice, those who listen and live. They are those who build themselves up to be God's own. 

When we hear and practice, listen and obey that One Lord, our minds and our heart become one, we are built into one people of God. That is what we are called towards: to build ourselves up to be God's own today!

Roused in the Spirit

WORD 2day: 25th September, 2017

Monday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

Ezra 1:1-6; Lk 8:16-18

Sentiments of hatred and violence is strewn all over the news these days. Every day we rise to newer and newer challenges against peaceful life on earth. Direct killings and terrorist fundamentalism on the one side; the hidden agenda and delirious deceptions on the other side, normal peace loving human being is forced to feel out of place today. 

Do not be worried dear sons and daughters of God, says the Word today. The Lord is in control. The Lord made use of an alien king Cyrus to raise God's dwelling and God's people - the same Lord is in control even today! 

All that children of God need to do today, is be roused in the Spirit - yes, be roused in the Spirit, share the Word more and more, speak the mercies of the Lord to everyone, set the world ablaze with the love of the True God. Only then you can be called people of God. 

Be children of God, be roused in the Spirit, be lights of the world, burn bright and help people see the Truth.

BEING CHRISTIAN IS BEING CHRIST

Listen, Learn and Live

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 24th September, 2017

Is 55: 6-9; Phil 1:20-24,27; Mt 20:1-16

There is a colleague of yours who is very close to you, spends a lot of time with you and enjoys much of your favours. You come to discover that the person is spreading rumours against you and calumny against you. What would you do?

Every one in your locality consider you and your spouse, as the the best couple around. They speak highly about you. But both of you know, only both of you know, that you are not really happy with each other. What would you do?

Everyone in the ambient where you work are corrupt. They are in one way or the other people who either directly involve in corruption or indirectly promote corruption through an assistance or silence. You find yourself in the thick of this situation, what would you do?

What would you do? 

The Word today wants us to say: I would think, decide, act and live as a Christian. I would be a Christian. What does that mean: To be a Christian means to be Christ! For me to live is Christ, to die is a gain, declares St. Paul today!

I would change things, revolutionise the world, challenge the society, transform the world...these are easy statements to make. But "how" is the million dollar question. To be Christ today, the Word invites us to listen to Christ, learn what it means to be Christ and live to be Christ.

To be a Christian is to be Christ - that is the call. Limitless Forgiveness and Compassionate Challenge, Authentic love and Sincere Relationships, Integral Living and Uncompromising Values - these are the need of the hour - this is what it means to be Christ, to be Christ wherever we are, to be Christ in whatever way we can, to be Christ to the extent we can. How can I do that?

First, I need to listen to Christ, listen to Christ who invites me, listen to Christ who calls me, listen to Christ who tells me "go" into my vineyard! The Lord comes seeking for me and I need to pay heed to the Lord. The situations of difficulties, the situations of temptations, the situations of challenge are situations through which I am being called to enter into the mission of Christ, to transform the world. If I give excuses and stand by without listening to the Lord, I am already failing in my duty. It doesn't matter how much difference I make, all that the Lord wants is I make a difference. It doesn't matter how much I achieve, all that the Lord wants is that I remain faithful to whatever I can, because as Mother Teresa said, I am called not to be successful, but to be faithful.

The second is to learn to be Christ, to learn the way Christ would look at things, to learn the way Christ would approach an issue, to learn the way that Christ would act in a given situation. Seek the Lord when you still have time, says Isaiah in the first reading today. Seek the Lord means, seek to know and understand the Lord, seek to get closer to the Lord and the ways of the Lord, seek to know the difference between the ways of the world and the ways of the Lord and make the Lord's ways mine.

The third call is to live to be Christ...to say like Paul, for me to live is Christ. To live to be Christ is to have the mind of Christ. To live to be Christ is to think like Christ, to speak like Christ, to love like Christ, to suffer like Christ, to be ready to give our life for the sake of the will of God, just like Christ. It is easy for us to set this aside and say, this is too much or this is impractical. But let us also understand, in doing that we are telling ourselves, it is impractical to be a Christian, it is too much to be a Christian. All that the Lord wants to see is our sincere effort to be Christians, not merely nominal Christians but Christians true to our name - to be Christian is to be Christ!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Living in Christ and Living for Christ

Celebrating Padre Pio - 23rd September, 2017

Gal 2: 19-21; Lk 16: 24-27

Padre Pio is a prophet of our age. A man who who died just 49 years ago and was canonised just 15 years ago, he is an exceptional witness to the powerful presence of God amidst today. Padre Pio was known for his extraordinary sense of belonging to the Lord, which he wanted to instill in everyone he met. 

The readings that are chosen for his feast express this total insertion into the reality of God. Padre Pio lived for Christ, as he brought thousands and thousands to the way of the Lord and he continues to do it even today. The Saint also lived in Christ, so much in Christ that he experiences the Stigmata, the wounds of the Crucified Lord for 50 years in his life, from 1918 till he died. His life in Christ, transformed him into a living Christ, bearing in his body the wounds of Christ and in his soul the thirst that the Crucified Lord had for souls. 

Padre Pio was a great champion in winning souls for God, be it in the confessional or outside. Let us be inspired today, to save our own souls and to do our best in the salvation of souls.

THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH

WORD 2day: 22nd September, 2017

Friday, 24th week in Ordinary Time

1 Tim 6: 2-12; Lk 8: 1-3

Many today follow a hit and run policy with regard to sufferings and struggles, but wish to call themselves strong, mature and rational. At the most they agree that they are rebellious, but they fail to understand their weakness, those who question God during their difficulties but do not stay on long enough to get the right answers. Coincidentally, or miraculously, a person approached today telling me that it has been long since the person has left the Catholic Church, because the person  lost a dear friend just around 25 years old. The person had raised questions such as, Why this person? Why now? etc and left the Church in rebellion against God. I gently asked the following question - 'you raised a question unto the Lord, did you wait for an answer at all?'

There is nothing wrong in raising questions to God, we should be ready to wait for the response. Wait long and wait hard - that is what we mean a fight, a good fight of faith. There will a response, an answer from the Lord - but you should be there to behold that response.Then you would be in a position to say: I have fought the good fight of faith! Until then there is one thing we are called to do: to Follow the Lord wherever He leads.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The Call to be ONE

Celebrating the Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle - 21st September, 2017

Eph 4: 1-7,11-13; Mt 9: 9-13

One Lord, One faith, One baptism, One God...Paul stacks up the meaning of the feast today, in describing his own wish for his children. Yes, every time we celebrate the feast of an apostle we are celebrating our call to be One! The division within the Church is because the sense of this Apostolic succession is lost somewhere. That is an ecumenical point of view and important. But more important is a socio-existential point of view of the Church today. The Feast of Matthew and the reminder from the scene of his call, give us this message with an enviable clarity: are we ONE?

How many categories we have created for ourselves to stand divided - denominations among churches, divisions within churches based on rites and languages and even caste, the worst of its kind! Matthew, when he was called, left everything on the table and followed him. A lot of things were at stake for him when he made that choice - he cannot turn back, he will have people on his back, he will have to answer so many people, he will be criticised by many, he will be branded by the world as 'out of his mind', he would be going behind a person about whom he can only pretend to know until the person himself reveals with clarity - how many things against that choice that he made! But still he made that choice - to leave everything and follow Christ. 

Can I today, leave everything, my desires, my identities, my attachments, my clingings, my holdings, my support system...everything! Can I leave them all, and follow Him?

WATERING DOWN FAITH

WORD 2day: 20th September, 2017

Wednesday, 24th week in Ordinary Time

1 Tim 3: 14-16; Lk7: 31-35

At times we dwell in petty arguments regarding faith - to do this or not to do that, who is greater and who is less, what word to use in prayer and what not, which is the most fit time to do something for the Lord, which language is the most sacred language fit for liturgical celebrations, which rite is more prone to reach God faster... are not these like the lamentations of the children Jesus refers to in the gospel today: we played the flute and you did not dance; we played the dirges and you did not moan!

Paul reminds us in the first reading today, that the mystery of our religion, or the truth of our faith, the crux of our Christian life is much deep indeed. Let us not water down our faith to some rituals to be undertaken, some conditions to be fulfilled or some obligations to be respected. Out Christian faith is an entire life to be lived, in all its details, in its very depth. It is not so much what we do but what make us do what we do. It is not so much what we refrain from, but what is that which matters more, that makes us refrain from something else. 

Our faith is not about our apparent behaviour and habits, but the deep seated convictions that give rise to such behaviours and habits. 

WOMEN AND MEN IN GOD

WORD 2day: 19th September, 2017

Tuesday, 24th week in Ordinary Time

1 Tim 3:1-13; Lk7:11-17

Yesterday, I had reflected upon the leaders who are actually absent today in the world - and someone commented in return to me, 'is it not applicable to the Church and leaders in the Church too?'. And I responded saying: 'when I meant leaders, I meant leaders'. Yes, it was about leaders at all levels. And today we have a special instruction on being Christian Leaders or Leaders of a Christian community. It is not enough to be People of God, that is women and men of God, some are called to be a bit more!

Being women and men of God is one thing, which all of us baptised are called to be. Some are more intensely called to be women and men in God, that is people who are so soaked in God that they act like God, think like God and represent God to the rest. It is a call within a call - you got to be attentive if you have that call. These are the true leaders.

There are three important qualities pointed out and elaborated in details, in the readings today. These can form a set of criteria, a touchstone for true Christian leaders. The three qualities are: Personal Integrity (it all begins there!), Selfless Service (that is the crux of it all) and Limitless Mercy (it all moves towards that, for that is the image you imbibe when you are in God).