THE SON - THE SHELTER AND THE STRONGHOLD

WORD 2day: 14th October, 2017

Saturday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

Joel 4: 12-21; Lk 11:27-28

I had a very interesting experience as I began the reflection on today's Word. Started reading Joel and there were so many questions that were shooting forth in my mind. The day of the Lord - is it going to be pleasant or is it going to be terrifying? Is the Lord vindictive or is the Lord truly merciful? Is this good news or a fearsome prophecy? As I read those long verses, made longer because of my ruminations, and I reached the Gospel, before I realised that I had begun to read it, it ended! Such a short Gospel for such a long reflection before: but that is the message! 

One may ask a thousand questions, or raise a hundred doubts...one truth never changes: Jesus is the Answer! The Son, is the stronghold, the shelter for the children of God. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, for the Son has made us all children of God, provided we stick to him. Let us hold on to Christ, in our words, in our actions, in our relationships and in the way we look at the entire world and its daily events. When we have the mind of Christ and look at everything in that perspective, we are sheltered and we have a stronghold, nothing can assail us. 

At times our weaknesses and our human tendencies can take the better of us, but all that we need to do is, accept in all humility our failures, get ourselves together back again and reunite ourselves to Christ, clinging on to the Lord, the Son, the Shelter and the Stronghold!

FATIMA 100 - Closing Day of the Centenary

13th October marks the sixth time that Our Blessed Mother appeared to the three children - Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, in the year 1917. How blessed we are to commemorate its 100th year today!

Let us pray a special Rosary today... Mary appeared under the special title: Our Lady of the Rosary

Click on this link for more information: 

https://www.ewtn.com/fatima/sixth-apparition-of-our-lady.asp

CATCH UP WITH THE REIGN

WORD 2day: 13th October, 2017

Friday,  27th week in Ordinary Time 

Joel 1:13-15,2:1-2; Lk  11 : 15-26

The easiest way to get rid of someone from the world is to demonise that person! This is what the Political Super Powers today keep trying. They feel like eliminating someone, they feel like demolishing another nation, the easiest way they demonise them - call them names like evil, violent, terrorists, outlaws, rebels and so on - and get the whole world look at them as being personification of evil. Then what remains is to get rid of the so-called evil. 

It happens in all walks of life. Why do you think the fundamentalist pentecostal groups keep calling the Apostolic Catholic Church names and comparing it to the Antichrist? The sad thing is, there are those who care about nothing but rules and rigour, not about true faith and real experience of God, within the Catholic Church who at times start such demonising acts,creating schismatic sentiments within the Church, opposing the Holy Father or finding fault in whatever is proposed towards more meaningful living of the Church. 

The Lord warns today: you will be lagging behind, while the Kingdom of God would have overtaken you. Catch up with the Reign. Revelation is progressive, everyday the Lord keeps revealing to us, the way to get closer and closer to the Lord. Everything that happens, all the situations of humanity are but signs of God's revelation and a call to get closer to the Reign, by becoming more and more like the Merciful Father, Observant Son and the Illuminating Holy Spirit. If we lose track of it, we shall certainly lag behind. Come on, catch up with the Reign!

AT THE RIGHT TIME

WORD 2day: 12th October, 2017

Thursday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

Mal 3: 13-20; Lk 11:5-13

Just yesterday we reflected upon waiting for the answers from the Lord and today the Word insists on the same: at the right time, everything will be set right! If I want it right now, it does not mean it is the right time. If I insist on having what I want, when I want it, where is the space for the Omniscient God, the God who has a plan for eternity. Within God's eternal plan everything will have its place. 

Our confusion regarding the thriving evil ones, our compassion for the suffering righteous ones, our helplessness before the conniving shrewd ones, our anger before the insensitive powerful ones...all these should not frustrate us, if we take the God-perspective seriously. If only we can look at everything that is happening from God's perspectives we will be filled with that serenity that God alone can give.

This serenity is not inactivity or passivity or incapacity... it is a hopeful surrender to the Lord that truth and righteousness alone can triumph because God is in charge! Nothing can ultimately go wrong, for a while some forces can be at play but the final victory belongs to the Lord. This is the hope of Resurrection and we are a Resurrection People!

PRAYERS, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

WORD 2day: 11th October, 2017

Wednesday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

Jon 4: 1-11; Lk 11: 1-4

A person approached me a few days back with a load of sadness on the face. Sharing all the difficulties that caused the sadness the person said, 'I am ashamed of myself. I ask the Lord so many questions when I have difficulties!" And I immediately said, "you need not! and you should not!" The person was a bit confused and what I shared then, seems perfectly fitting as a reflection on the Word today.

Can I question the Lord? Is that prayerful at all? 

What else is prayer then? 

It is not wrong to ask questions to the Lord. But it is important to wait for the answer. What is wrong is, we ask questions and move away from the Lord, abandon the Lord, quit the presence of the Lord. That is the problem most of us give in to. 

Ask whatever question you want to, because the Lord is your Father and Mother who loves you above all. But after asking the question, remain there till the Lord answers you, as the Lord answered Jonah today. The answer will come, now, later, much later, God alone knows when, but it will come. Because God answers prayers, that is, God answers the question your raise in prayer! God will surely answer...wait!

Praying can very well be asking questions, but only when you are determined to get an answer from the Lord, whatever time it takes! For God's is the kingdom, God's is the power, God's is the glory for evermore!

LISTENING AND DOING

WORD 2day: 10th October, 2017

Tuesday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

Jon 3:1-10; Lk 10:38-42

Is listening better than doing? What about that young man that Jesus spoke to, who came to Jesus and asked a question about being saved and Jesus looked at him with compassion and explained? He listened...was that enough? Or what about that son, in Jesus' parable, who listened to his father with such eagerness, saying 'yes' even before he could finish telling him to go to work in the vineyard? He listened too... was that enough? Today Mary is listening...is that enough?

Is Martha less than Mary for doing so many things, all for Christ? What is the problem here? Martha's doing was like the doing of the Hebrews, all for God but nothing with God! Whatever you do, do it with God... Listen and do! That is the point Jesus was arriving at. Like the people of Nineveh, who listened and acted, Mary was listening to act, listening to do, listening to transform herself!

Neither listening alone nor doing alone will make a difference in our lives, says the Word today. Listening and Doing is what we need to learn. Listening alone will make us useless. Doing alone will make us place the work of God prior to the God of work. So the right Christian attitude will be listening and doing - a doing that is born out of listening and a listening that moves us towards doing!

LOVE ALONE IS THE ANSWER

WORD 2day: 9th October, 2017

Monday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

Jon 1:1 - 2:1, 11; Lk 10: 25-37

Humanity has so many questions - why are the evil people thriving; why are the innocent suffering; why are there exploitations in the world; who is cause of the misery of the poor; why is there so much of violence and killing; what makes people turn against each other... how many questions we face in our daily life in today's world. Yes, Humanity has all these questions, but Love alone is the answer!

People may turn evil, but they were created out of love and they are called live with that love, in joy and fulfillment. When they make mistakes, it begins to affect the other, finally there will be a time when it comes back to them. Self centered exploitation of the other is a deprivation of love and violence and killings are but inevitable consequences of these. 

If Love is felt to be present around, if Love is felt in each one's heart, if Love is found to animate every relationship, if true Love of God governs the whole world, misery, violence, killing, poverty, suffering, injustice, exploitation and every shade of sadness and grief will be wiped out. Will it happen? Let us remember, to every single problem on earth, Love alone is the answer!

SALVATION BY DEFAULT?

There can be no Salvation by default!

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 8th October, 2017

Is 5: 1-7; Phil 4: 6-9; Mt 21:33-43

'Are you saved?' - this is one disturbing question that I have often witnessed and shared about, found on the lips of the non-catholic brethren, specially those of the varied denominations other than the mainline churches. That question, kind of, intrigues me at the same time that it challenges me! Let me explain myself. Salvation: as sons and daughters of Christ, we should be confident of it, because the Lord has saved us by his blood. That is why that question intrigues me! But can I take 'being saved' for granted, that whatever I may do or not do, I will be saved? That is a true challenge that this question inspires, but the answer has to be sincere and genuine; such a sincere and genuine answer will of course lead to transformation, both personal and universal! Though not in its entirety, the point that these denominational brethren try to make is the second. In today's computerised digital language, we can state it as follows: there is no Salvation by default!

It is true that there is an Auto-save Option at work - Yes, the very fact that we are the chosen children of God we are automatically saved! God has chosen us and named us after Godself, and made us God's own people. As Peter would say "once you were not a people; but now you are God's people" (1 Pet 2:10); we are made "children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17)! This is what we refer to as our Auto-save option, but for auto-saving, something should have been done which could be saved. The Lord had made us the Lord's vineyard, but have we proved to be vineyards or are we merely a plot of useless thistles? What we sow, that we reap; the Lord has sown and looks forward to see the vine; is it not justified and mandatory that we put forth our fruits? What is there will be saved...that is the auto-save option! Our efforts to live-up to our calling and our identity is what will define us.

It is also true that there is an Auto-Recovery Option at work - at times we fail, we hang, we crash, we shut down without warning! But we need not panic. There is the auto-recovery option that is on. "For you did not receive a spirit slavery to fallback into fear" (Rom 8:15), and that is why St. Paul advises us, "do not worry about anything" (Phil 4:6)! Everything will be recovered, everything will be brought back, reconciled in Christ our salvation; he is the auto-recovery option that is on (cf. Col 1:20). But if something has to be recovered, it should have been there! Again our efforts to belong to Christ (cf. Col 2:20), our efforts to bear fruit, to make most of the short time we have (cf. Eph 5:15,16)... all these count. What truly counts is our sincere and persevering effort.

That is why, though auto-save and auto-recovery are options, salvation is never by default! We have to work it out, on a daily basis! "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", says St. Paul (Phil 2:24). We are called to live in a situation that is surrounded by all sorts of choices; what choices do we make? A tree will be known by its fruits, it is said; what fruits do we put out? 

As Christians, what identity do we manifest? The Christian families: what identity do we have, living amidst others? What are those which mark us out as being different, being models, being examples and being witnesses? We are weak, we are limited and we have our shortcomings - no one can deny that. But in spite of these, are we prepared to "overcome evil with good" without being "overcome by evil" that is around? (cf.  Rom 12:21). We need to show it by our efforts and by the fruits, however small, that these efforts produce. We have to be transformed into the image of the one after whom we are fashioned. 

Salvation is never by defalut; it is by our choice (of what is true, what is honourable, what is just, what is pure and so on), and by our faithfulness to the call that we have received. Let us take stock of our daily living and be transformed into true vineyards of the Lord.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Rosary: a Childlike Prayer

Celebrating the Queen of the Holy Rosary: 7th October, 2017

Celebrating the feast of the Holy Rosary,  we can dwell on three reflections highlighted by the occasion. 

1. The Simplicity of the Prayer:

One of the prominent reasons this prayer has swept the heart of so many down the centuries is the simplicity. Not merely the repetition that is involved, but even the concentration that repetition enables, is a help for those who are not experts in praying to make a reasonable effort to pray. At times, personally I feel the presence of our blessed Mother so mysteriously close as I pray those beads...am certain this is an experience of many.

2. The Profundity of the Prayer:

The simplicity not withstanding the profundity of the prayer draws our attention. Pius V would summarise Rosary as the Synthesis of the Gospels. In fact, in meditating the four mysteries - the joyful, the luminous, the sorrowful and the glorious - we contemplate the entire salvation plan of the Father. The love of the Father comes so overwhelmingly filling our hearts as we contemplate each of those decades.

3. The Prayer of Victories:

The history of the Holy Rosary has a clue for us to understand the prayer better. This feast that celebrates the victory gained over enemies through prayer, was initially celebrated as Our Lady of Victories. Within a short while it was renamed the feast of Our Lady of Holy Rosary. The Holy Rosary is a weapon of victory over the enemies, especially the original enemy the devil, who wishes to win us over from the Eternal Love. 

Blessed Mother of the Holy Rosary, pray for us.

INTEGRITY OR SHAME

WORD 2day: 6th October, 2017

Friday, 26th week in Ordinary Time

Bar 1:15-22; Lk 10:13-16

Anyone has always the choice to make between Integrity and Shame. There is a tendency among people that it is more important to be careful than to be right. People choose to be right not because they are convinced of being right but because they do not want to get into trouble. Be it obeying traffic rules, or paying tax returns, or keeping to the social agreements or carrying out one's assigned duties, in everything people choose to do things in order to avoid consequences than to be true to their selves.

Can we follow the same logic with the Lord who knows our innermost thoughts, our unsaid words and our hidden motivations? Hence comes the whole concept of integrity: being right for the sake of being right, doing something because it is right than because it is acceptable, living out of conviction than in view of convenience. Obeying God has to come out of conviction, that is integrity. If I make use of the name of God and the practices pertaining to God for social acceptability or for my hidden agendas, I am far from integrity and the ultimate consequence will be shame. I live either in constant pressure of pleasing others or in constant fear of shame. Integrity frees me of this because truth will set you free! Look up to the Lord and you will never be put to shame!