REFRAIN FROM BLOODSHED

WORD 2day: 19th October, 2017

Thursday, 28th week in Ordinary Time

Rom 3: 21-30; Lk 11: 47-54

One is justified by faith apart from the works of law - this was, is and will ever be a point of contention. In the Old Testament times it was a contention between the 'conservative' and the 'progressive' rabbinic schools; in Jesus' times between him and the Jewish religious heads; in the times of the early Christians it was a contention between those who followed the Pauline theology and those who believed the theology of James; today it continues between the Catholics and the non Catholics! 

Needless to say our point of reference is Jesus: 'Don't put your trust in your capacity to achieve things and to gain control or dominance, in violence or in silencing people through your vilifying judgementst', warns Jesus. All these are blood shedding..., not only literally killing people by the sword. Your words and your judgments can kill people long before they actually die. You will be demanded to account for this!

What Jesus taught against was, empty ritualism, legalistic spirituality and hypocritical religiosity, that allows one to compromise between inhuman behaviour and an unbelievably pious image, the coexistence between unjust thought process and a sweet religious conversation, the unholy alliance between dirty politics and pompous spirituality. St. Ignatius of Antioch, whom we celebrated a couple of days ago would say, "it is not that I want merely to be called a Christian, but to actually be one. Yes, if I prove to be one, then I can have the name."

Let my faith and my works go together, only then can I truly refrain from bloodshed!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

THE CHOICE FOR GOD

Remembering the Evangelist St. Luke - 18th October, 2017

2 Tim 4: 10-17; Lk 10: 1-9

Luke alone is with me...writes Paul. One salient feature that is often pointed out about St.Luke's gospel is the contrasting images that he uses in his narration...the beatitudes and the woes, Martha and Mary, the prodigal and his brother, the rich man and Lazarus, the good thief and the bad thief... these are typical to Luke! Today's Gospel too highlights one: a person of peace and a person who is not of peace; those who respond to the Lord and those who do not.

The message is obvious: Luke challenges his readers with absolute choices - for or against the Lord; with or away from the Lord! A value that he seems to have dominated his own life - he chose to remain with Paul in his difficult ministry! The radical choices that a disciple has to make according to Jesus in the Gospel today, were very clear for Luke and he made those choices his own! 

The memory of St.Luke invites us to make an absolute choice for God: on a daily basis, at work and at home, on the streets or in a public transport; in company or alone - we are what we choose to be! Let us fearlessly choose to belong to the Lord, always!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

No Excuses... Just Integrity! 

Remembering St. Ignatius of Antioch - 17th October, 2017

Rom 1: 16-25; Lk 11: 37-41

The terminology used by Paul today sounds very practical, warning us that there are no excuses one can give for not recognising the hand of God in and through the immensity of the reality around. And added to that when it comes to me and God, I don't need to have proofs and justifications and evidences that I believe in God or not. Because God knows the innermost thoughts of mine and I need not be bothered about my presentations and formulations. This is the fundamental element of what we call 'integrity'...Having the least discrepancy between my inner self and my external behaviour, between my convictions and what I engage myself in on a daily basis, between what really matters for me and what I present myself as to others! 

Jesus uses simple terms for that in the Gospel - inside and outside! Let both be clean he says... I can have no excuses when it comes to my inner self, for I stand convicted before God who knows the innermost thoughts. 

The saints like the one whom we remember today, St. Ignatius of Antioch, were people who were incomparable in their integrity. They were ready to give of their whole self to God - not just part time and not just a stage show or a dramatic performance. When I do all that I do, with true consciousness and sincere acceptance of why I do it, I am on the first step towards integrity. I need to constantly purify myself towards that integrity that will reveal God's image within me. 

In spite of the beasts of this world, the attractions and the pressures that surround me, help me Lord to grow in my personal integrity! 

THE CALL AND THE REMINDER

WORD 2day: 16th October, 2017 

Monday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Rom 1: 1-7; Lk 11: 29-32 

The first reading today speaks to us again about our call to belong to Christ, our call to be holy, our obedience of faith. At times we forget this fundamental call and live our daily life in the way we like, giving into our whims and fancies. We lose track of our fundamental call and go after things that matter nothing to our salvation, some of them even detrimental to our salvation. We become so callous to our failures and disorientation that we do not even realise we are going farther and farther away from our destined goal: our sanctification.

We can never justify our act, our choices or our priorities when they go against this call. We are given reminders after reminders, through persons, situations, events and interventions. The models given to us today: the people of Nineveh and Queen of Sheba, are people who were so attentive to these signs and reminders that they instantly picked up the message that God was giving them. They took the utmost effort to respond to their specific call. That is the reminder given to me today: how much have I grown in responding to the call that the Lord has given me personally? The call to belong to Christ, the call to be holy, the call to my personal sanctification! 

A FITTING FAITH FOR TODAY

Festive, Focused and Firm!

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 15th October, 2017
Is 25: 6-10a; Phil 4: 12-14, 19-20; Mt 22:1-14

Faith is the way we live our daily life in relation to God. It would be a dry and futile understanding to look at faith as a set of doctrines or principles to be known, learnt, memorised and repeated on occasions. Faith instead has to affect every day life and every moment of it. Faith, in theological terms, is explained as one's personal response to the self revealing God. But to make it simple we can just understand it as the way we live every moment of our life, within the perspective offered to us by God who created us and has called us to a specific vocation in life.

Today, the readings invite us to a clear understanding of what this faith is all about. The faith that the Lord invites us to, is a specific way of life, a mode of organising our life worthy of our call to be children of God! Here are three adjectives that the readings offer us on a Fitting Faith for today:

Faith is Festive: a life of faith is a call to celebrate. God has set up a feast and invites us to come and celebrate it! God has created us a wonderful world, filled it with persons to love and let us enjoy it all in freedom and cooperation. But what do we do? We choose to see the negative things that are around, we choose to take them in and be filled with them, we choose to have and spread negative feelings, we choose to hate, envy and ruin each other's life; in short we REFUSE TO CELEBRATE. We refuse to attend the feast, that the Lord has prepared! If only we live our life in relation to God, that is, with the perspective of God, we will find out how much we can celebrate. When St. Paul says, he knows to live in want and in plenty, he is not boasting of his capacity to endure; it is more about that mindset which looks at everything from the perspective of God. 

Faith is Focused: a life of faith is a call to fix our eyes on God. Pressures, stress, problems, confusions, struggles, misunderstandings, competitions, disappointments, distractions, temptations, tears, treason...these are experiences that come our way sometime or the other. What would our point of reference be: luck, skills, human efficiency, proving oneself? 'Behold our God to whom we looked to save us', presents Isaiah. God will provide everything declares St. Paul. Our focus has to be on Christ. Look to Him and be radiant says the Psalm (34:5). 

Faith is Firm: a life of faith is a call never to compromise. Today, the culture is such that there is a big confusion whether there is anything that is unacceptable. Every thing seems permissible and every thing seems 'alright', if not 'normal'! There is a justification for everything. It is growing to be a culture of 'what-ifs' and 'why-nots'...but faith provides us with a firm foundation, firm criteria to make our choices. "My friend, how is it that you got in without the wedding garments?"..."My friend how is it that you expect to be with me without making a choice for me?"..."My friend, how is it that you had chosen something, but lived totally another life?"...we have to be prepared to face these questions, if at all we compromise! Our faith is an 'yes' that we say to the Lord, which would involve a number of small yes'es and no's... and any compromise in it will make us unfit for the Feast of the Reign. 

On a daily basis...let us evaluate our life and our choices...are they truly festive? fully focused? and really firm on the way to God? 

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!