Something greater around!

Friday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 20, 2018: Is 38: 1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Mt 12: 1-8

God deigns to do strange things for the love of those who trust in God! The first reading is one such episode. There are so many others, like the burning bush (Exo 3), the water from the rock (Exo 17), the sign of the fleece (Judg 6:36ff), and many more. These are merely to show that there is nothing or no one greater than the Lord and anything is possible with God!

When it comes to showing mercy to those who trusted, the Lord is lavish, prodigal and unreasonably generous, because God's love is unconditional and everlasting. That was a difficult message for Jesus to communicate to the law abiding, traditional and painfully legalistic Jews. Even today the Lord tries to impress upon us the same message, the message of how loving the Lord is, how unconditional God's love is and how far from judging the love of God is. 

No rule can be too big and no custom too important, than the love that the Lord has for you and me and the longing that Lord has for our total well being. When we feel the tendency to be legalistic, when we find ourselves prone to judge, when tasks at hand draw our utmost attention, let us realise: something greater is around us, something greater envelopes us, something greater sustains us - and it is, God's love, the love which became a human person and gave his life for our salvation. 

Come to me, all who are far away from me!

Thursday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 19, 2018: Is 26: 7-9, 12, 16-19; Mt 11: 28-30

The yearning of a Godless soul, the struggle of a people who have gone far away from God is intensely presented in the first reading today. The world today is treading that path indeed... trying its best to define life sans God; trying to convince everyone around that it is possible to live without having anything to do with anything called god! Worse still, the trend today advocates creating our own gods and creating gods of ourselves! 

We think we have solutions for every problem and even for those that we do not have the solutions, we create shortcuts that can keep the pain and the struggle away for the time being. Hardly do we realise that the problem persists and it keeps brewing under cover, only to explode one day beyond control. And at that point we would find no return!

The Lord invites us today to the true consolation, the real solution, the authentic peace that can give meaning to our daily life and all its strife. He does not promise an absence of yoke, nor does he lure us with a negation of burden...he promises a yoke that fits us perfectly and a burden that proves really bearable: because we live it in the Lord's company. 

'Come to me' says the Lord, because all the struggle is since you have moved away from me. Come to me...and learn of me...and you will find meaning, peace, consolation and serenity! 

All things belong to God... even you and me!

Wednesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 18, 2018: Is 10: 5-7, 13b-16; Mt 11: 25-27

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, says Jesus today in the Gospel. 'God as the author of history', has been a concept so strongly evinced by the narratives of the Old Testament. Even the super powers like Assyria and Babylonia were considered to be commissioned by the Lord to make certain twists and turns happen in history. This is the background against which Isaiah chides Assyria saying, they think they are the masters of their own destiny and the authors of their success. They fail to understand that there is someone far beyond and above them, who "sits in the heavens and laughs"(Ps 2:4) at the folly of the proud.

The Lord scatters the proud hearted and raises the lowly (cf Lk 1:51); God reveals things to mere children and sends the haughty empty! All things are God's and from God everything draws its life and its sense. If I approach life with this sense, my worries find a way out, my concerns cringe to my feet and bearing my burdens become a child's play! What a saving wisdom it would be to recognise that all things belong to God, yes even you and me, and all that we dream; everything belongs to God, and in God we live, move and have our being!

Right Faith and Right Living

Tuesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

Is 7: 1-9; Mt 11: 20-24

Unless your faith is firm, you shall not be firm. What is that which differentiates a Christian in this world - it is not the name or the external signs or identities by belonging to a group or the other; instead, it is a matter of faith, an internal disposition towards the Lord who has called you and commissioned you. 

Right faith has to create right living; right belief and right action are after all essentially dependent in so many of the religious traditions, as we know of. 

The Integrity that Jesus demands of us is basically one of right belief and right living. Sometimes circumstances and situations can force us to take decisions or make choices that are not proper to the life that we have been called to. It is not so strange to commit such a mistake. But it is not only strange, even highly unbecoming of a child of God when he or she has received all possible warnings and all possible signs of God's directions but still makes a choice that is not worthy of a child of God. Worse still, if the person justifies that choice. And worst of all, nothing can help the one who decides to remain with that choice in spite of all this.

Faith which is not translated into right living and a living that is not guided by right faith, are totally alien to a true child of God. Even if the simplest of signs is given, a child of God will acknowledge it, make sense of it, hold on to the light that the Lord provides and and shape his or her life according to God's will. Where do I stand in this regard?

The Challenge of Orthopraxis

Monday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 16, 2018: Celebrating Our Blessed Mother of Mount Carmel
Is 1: 10-17; Mt 10: 34 - 11:1

What Hosea spoke last week, Isaiah speaks this week...they both underline the importance of Orthopraxis! True Christian life does not consist only of worship and of adoration, it consists of justice and charity as a concrete translation of worship and adoration into action. The action that goes well with a balanced love for God and for one's brothers and sisters is called the Orthopraxis, in simple terms. 

It may sound simple but it is tough in two senses:

I may feel out of place when I begin to take this 'orthopraxis' seriously, because the rest of the crowd seems to be busy doing what they believe to be 'normal' or 'ordinary'...and I alone seem 'out of the ordinary' or in plain terms, 'a stranger'. Even those who are with me, those who surround me at close quarters may not approve of what I live by.

Secondly, it is certain to be tough because orthopraxis demands that I mean what I pray... that whatever I do on a daily basis does not go against anything that I say in my so called 'prayer'; that what I do by way of 'prayer' may find its continuation in the rest of the things that do during the day.

As we celebrate the memory of our Blessed Mother of Mount Carmel, it is opportune for us to look upto her as a model of Orthopraxis - there can be none better than her to have lived this orthopraxis absolutely after the heart of her Creator!

Let our prayer transform our daily life and may our daily life inspire our prayer! Thus will be born orthopraxis in our lives and let the world be inspired by it!

GOD CHOSE US

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 15th July, 2018

Amos 7: 12-15; Eph 1: 3-14; Mk 6: 7-13

To begin with, God chose us! We did not choose God! So, deserting God, or switching allegiance, looking for greener pastures, blaming monotony,  seeking thrills and demanding signs are totally unbecoming of a chosen one. Situations that are trying, opportunities that are attractive, offers that are tempting might often come our way, but the one who endures till the end takes the crown. And God chose us in Christ. Amos in today's first reading makes it clear: it is not in our greatness or in our credibility or in our self worth, but in Christ did God choose us. The reason I am chosen is because, Christ died for me!

Secondly, when did God choose me? In baptism we were buried with Christ says St. Paul (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12). Were we chosen at our baptism? But Isaiah says before I was born, while I was still in my mothers womb, the Lord called me (IS 49:1). So was I chosen when I was in my mother's womb? Jeremiah explains, before the Lord even formed me in the womb of my mother, the Lord knew me, called me and has a plan for me (Jer 1:5), to set me up as the so-called light of the world and prophet to the nations. So was I chosen, before I were being even formed in my mothers's womb? St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesisans, beats it all: God chose us before the foundations of the world. Right from the earliest moment that one can think of, I belong to God!

Thirdly, if the Lord has chosen me, for what has He chosen me: to be holy and blameless in love. To be in love, and through that being holy and blameless - that is the plan that God has for me, that is the invitation that the Lord offers me. Love and do what you like, said Augustine. When we live our lives in love, we are sure to be holy and blameless. There is no other criterion as fool proof as love, to be considered chosen or not. By this they will know that you are my disciples, by the love that you have for one another (Jn 13:35). It is only love that can make me whole. It is only love that can lead me to a life that is absolutely blameless. It is only love that can lead me to be holy! 

It's the Master who sends...

Saturday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 14th, 2018: Is 6: 1-8; Mt 10: 24-33

It is the Lord who sends; it is the Master who calls; it is the Teacher who commissions! It is not because I am worthy to be sent, or qualified to be called or skilled to be commissioned... but it is because it is the Lord who calls! As St. Paul says it in such simple terms: "those whom he called, he justified" (cf. Rom 8:29). However unworthy I am, when the Lord has appointed me for a mission, he makes sure that mission goes on through me. 

On my part the challenge is to be mindful of the fact that it is the Lord who has sent me and commissioned me; to be convinced that the Lord takes care of everything around me, provided I live my life faithful to the call. A thousand may fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand, but nothing will come near me, for I have made God my refuge, prays the Psalmist (in Ps 91:7).

It is the Lord who has called me and it is Lord who has commissioned me, I am accountable to the Lord and only to the Lord. In this world and to those around me, I have nothing to prove! All that I need to do, is stand in awe at the majesty of the Lord, believe in the Lord's sovereignty and submit myself in total faith into the hands of God, saying "Here am I Lord, send me!" When the Lord does send me, I will see the glory of God revealed in marvelous ways!

God with us!

Friday, 14th week in Ordinary time 

July 13, 2018: Hos 14: 2-10; Mt 10: 16-23

"Straight are the paths of the Lord" (Hos 14:10), declares prophet Hosea today. Straight, and therefore tough. Straight and therefore no compromises. Straight and therefore no confusions! 

Everyone knows the ways of the Lord; everyone knows what is acceptable to the Lord and what is not; it is made known by the Lord to every human person in their innermost self.

The words of Jesus in the Gospel are quite frightening as we find Jesus trying to warn us against being good, against choosing the ways of the Lord and being God's disciples or apostles of the Word. He does not promise any prospects, instead persecution. He does not announce any offers, instead oppression. He says it very clearly that we will have to suffer for his sake, for the sake of the Word and for the sake of the Reign of God.

But there is one thing that he assures: the consolation of the Lord, the consoling and affirming presence of the Lord with us. Because what we have chosen is the way of the Lord, we are sure to find the Lord present with us all the way. The way might be filled with pitfalls and climbs and hurdles and thorns and thistles... but we are sure amidst all these, the Lord walks with us, speaks on our behalf and acts in and through us. What a mighty consolation we have: God with us!

God's Instruments of Love

Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 12, 2018: Hos 11: 1-4, 8,9; Mt 10: 7-15

The readings today present to us yet another intimate dimension of God's love: the love of a loving parent, the love of a father or that of a mother. The very same compassion that Yahweh had towards the people of Israel, Jesus exhibits towards all. The longing of the Lord to hold us close to Godself, the yearning to be close to God's children and assist them in every bit of their difficulties, the readiness to understand their uneasiness and provide them with solutions of true and eternal joy and give them an experience of wholeness... the heart of God goes out to God's people in compassion and love.

There is an added dimension in the Gospel, when Jesus tells his disciples whom he wishes to send among the people ahead of him... to go to heal, to listen to, to empathise with and to be there for the people, specially those who are suffering. Jesus seems to say, God wants to endlessly show God's love to the people and you are the instruments through which God will accomplish that desire! It is here that the wonderful prayer of Francis of Assisi becomes so meaningful and precious: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace! To sow love, mercy, forgiveness...that is the mission of a person of God.

Let us realise today that we have a specific mission wherever we are: let us not look for love, let us give it; let us not look for understanding, let us live it; let us not look for mercy, let us be merciful. Let us be God's instruments of love.

Faithfulness - a matter of everyday living

Wednesday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 11, 2018: Hos 10: 1-3, 7-8, 12; Mt 10: 1-7

Faithfulness to God and a contrary tendency, this is the theme that runs entirely through the book of Prophet Hosea. He insists on the need to remain faithful to God, or in case of a fall, to renew our faithfulness and cuddle up back to God's love. The worst thing that can happen in a relationship is not an accidental breach of faith, instead a deliberate choice of treason, and an obstinate repetition of the same.

The Gospel reminds us of our special calling, the call to belong to the Lord and to follow him; a call by name! The reminder is made specific as the Lord instructs the apostles to go into the lost flock of Israel and not outside. The point is for us to understand that we as people of God, chosen children of God, we are the first one's who need to be converted. As the teachings of the Church insists upon with such clarity, the evangeliser has to be first evangelised; one who proclaims the Word has to first challenge oneself against the background of the Word!

Our faithfulness is not only a matter of life and death, it is primarily a matter of simple, ordinary, day to day decisions and choices. It has to be exhibited in our day to day priorities and be lived on an everyday basis. Faithfulness is better understood as a matter of everyday living, rather than an overall project of life.