GOD MADE KNOWN

The Star, the House and the Detour

January 6, 2019: Solemnity of Epiphany

Isaiah 60: 1-6;  Ephesians 3 : 2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2 : 1-12 

The Word became flesh and came to dwell among us; today the world gets to see its Messiah. The Son who was promised to the Hebrews through the prophets through the ages, then revealed to Mary and Joseph in their private life and dreams, is now revealed to the world - that is why the Magi from the East and East was then considered the end of the world. 

The feast of Epiphany has three important symbols carrying three crucial messages for us disciples of Christ. 

The first symbol is the Star: the guiding star which led the magi to the Lord. Stars shine, position themselves to be seen by all and remain above every thing unaffected! We all wish to be stars too...shining and glittering in the world of fame. The star of Christ or a star for Christ is called to shine too, not for personal glory but for people to be attracted. The star of Christ is called to be seen by all, not for adulation but for example! The star of Christ has to be above everything, not to insist on a superiority that is anti-Christian but to give hope to people at all moments including difficult ones. Everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ has to be a star that guides people to Christ. Are your thoughts, words and decisions shining enough to lead people to Christ?

The second symbol is the House: the star  might have been magnificent but it rested on a simple manger. The signs and events might have been grand but the Messiah was found in a stable. What we are and what we have does not matter as much as who we are! Whether simple or sophisticated, whether learned or ordinary, whether rich or poor... we are called to possess the Lord,  we are called to be one home that houses the Lord. People who come to us should be able to see, feel and experience the Lord and praise the Lord through us and for us. That is true Epiphany.

The third symbolic event is the Detour: the magi who came were asked to leave on a different way back. They had to make a detour... because they had truly seen the Messiah. Even we,  if we truly see the Messiah,  we would not be able to go back the same way that we came. We would have to make a detour for sure. That detour could be our sign of repentance,  our change of ways, our going out of our way for the sake of someone else... in short, it is our New life, because we have come to know the Lord. How many we have heard, who speak of their moment when they met the Lord! It does not matter how many years or generations you are a 'Christian', but what matters is that you encounter the person of Christ - the moment of truth when you realise the meaning and call of your life! Once you do that, you cannot but take a detour!

God is made known... it is upto us to become God's guiding stars, true dwelling places of God and people who are ready to arise and shine!

Love and See great things

January 5, 2019 

Saturday after the Christmas Octave

1 John 3:11-21; John 1:43-51

Belonging to love and belonging to evil... that is the contrast brought out in the Word today. And the world becomes place more and more for this polarisation - note it, it is not love versus hate, but love versus evil! It is as if to say, anything contrary to love is evil! That is the mind of Christ, and John captures it well. 

There are any number of opportunities and circumstances that will beckon us to belong to evil - with jealousy, treachery, obsession with wealth, craving for power, limitless greed and so on. All these are evil, leading us to hatred and destruction. 

If we wish to choose to belong to love, we have to wrestle with an entire system, the social bias, the culture of death, the urge to dominate and so on. We shall be taken for granted, we shall be thoroughly cheated; we would be drawn to courts and at times treated with scorn; we shall be called names upon and deprived of our basic human respect! When we make the choice, we have to make up our minds too... to be firm and not to give in to the evil!

The Lord says today - when you make such a choice, you shall see great things happen! You will witness extraordinary things if only you belong to the Lord, if only you belong to love! What a lovely preparation for tomorrow's feast: the Lord wishes to manifest himself to us, but we shall see the Lord only if we belong to the Lord, only if we choose love! Love and you shall see great things!

Seeing and Staying

January 4, 2019

Friday, Week after Christmas Octave

1 John 3: 7-10; John 1: 35-42

Seeing and Staying are two progressive phases after getting in touch with the Lord. The Lord invites each of us for an encounter everyday. To accept the invitation and get in touch with the Lord is already an act of faith - for that the Lord will bless you for sure!  But the invitation does not end there, it  extends much further - to see and to stay! 

First of all, to see what a life with the Lord means, to know and understand it, is the next phase. Let us put it this way: the initial step is to get interested in the Lord, as we are with regard to various things in life. It is like looking at a trailer, a teaser, a single of an album released. Can you stop with that, if your are truly an enthusiast. Will you not try to get to know it more, enjoy it more and experience it fully. Stopping with liturgical functions and pious practices would be stopping with the trailer or the teaser! You need to go deeper, get to know the Lord fuller, see what it means to experience the Lord in the depth.

While some of us do that willingly, going deeper into the Lord's invitation and finding its meaning in daily life, the invitation does not stop there. It goes further - to stay! This is where, the experience turns into life! It becomes part of you, it becomes you! To stay with the Lord is to be transformed in the Lord. As Paul would put it: to put on the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5); to become imitators of the Lord (1 Cor 11:1). We are called to walk in the Light (1 Jn 1:6)... we are called to Stay with the Lord! 

Our life with God is not just a race, where we touch and flee; but it is a journey, where what matters is, Seeing and Staying!

The Name above every name: JESUS

January 3, 2019

Celebrating the name of Jesus

1 John 2:29 - 2:3; John 1:29-34

There was a moment when Peter looked at a lame man who begged at the temple gate, 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk" (Acts 3:6,16) - that was the first moment of realisation as to how powerful a name we have been gifted with! 

Jesus - the most beautiful and powerful name on earth and heaven, name above every other name (Phil 2:9), a name that would bring peace and solace to the disturbed and fear and trembling to the evil minded (Acts 4:17, 18). 

Celebrating the name of Jesus can bring us three messages to remember:

1. Jesus is the name that revealed God to us (Jn 1:18)

2. Jesus is the name given to the entire love of God shared with humanity

3. Jesus is the name in which we have received the power to call God Abba Father!

Yes, in celebrating the name of Jesus, we are celebrating the fact that we have known, and we know God! As John the Baptiser proclaims with such clarity, we need to tell the world: Yes, we have seen God; yes, we know God; yes, we have experienced God, because we have known Jesus! 

God has revealed Godself to us in and through the name of Jesus. This is both a gift and a challenge to us. As John invites us in his letter, if we have known God, then we must resemble God! In our thoughts, words, deeds and every day life we are challenged to resemble God, only then can we be called children of God. Jesus is a powerful name given to us, but we need to live worthy of that  name; knowing, loving and imitating God! 

Live in Christ, live in truth

January 2, 2019

1 John 2:22-28; John 1: 19-28

The identity of Jesus as both God and Human was a major issue of controversies in the early Church. The first reading we have today is an indication to such feuds that existed. What matters, as John so rightly points out there, is not the philosophical and theological justification of who Jesus is,  but the personal experience of the person of Christ.

John warns the people against confusing what is truth and what is false! He says, if we have to know for sure that we are in truth, then we have to live in Christ. We need not wait to be told, because our anointing, our being in Christ, will itself reveal the truth to us. It did, to John the Baptist. When he had an ample opportunity to enjoy a bit of glory and adulation among the people who would have accepted him to be the Christ, he made it point blank that he was not the messiah! John knew the truth and stood for it. 

Knowing the truth, believing in it and living firmly holding on to it, are the signs of living in Christ. We have just begun a new year and we might be fresh with a lot of resolutions yet - why not think of this: living in Christ and living in truth!

HAPPY 2019

SOLEMNITY OF MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD

January 1, 2019

Let us begin the new year 2019 with grateful hearts. Here are 3 messages we can start the year with...

1. Obey the Mother; Follow the Son:

We start the year with Mary the Mother of God. She is intent always on leading us to her son...Do whatever he tells you (Jn 2:5) : that is her refrain all the while. When the Church Fathers at Ephesus, in 432, thought of resolving the confusion whether Jesus was God or Man, they thought of defining a dogma on Mary... what a way to understand the nature of Jesus through the vocation of Mary! She was called to be Mother of God and that is what she is... Mother of God, Mother of us all, Mother of the Church. Obey the Mother, and you will automatically be following the Son. Beginning the year with the mother is a guarantee of walking it through with the Son!

2. Open your hearts; Begin with God:

Happy New Year we wish each other: just look around and tell me, what is new? Same old house, same old people, same old things and same old problems... aren't they? There was this kid whom the Parish priest met a week after Christmas and found him very sad about Christmas... and he asked the kid why? Did your parents not give you gifts? No they gave, he said. Did they not buy you new clothes? Hmm..that is the problem, he said. They bought... but the same colour as last year! We cannot help smiling at it and say to ourselves: how often we think as that kid did. We are so adamant not to see things in a brighter light. Every time we have something that would stop us from being happy. We are so judgmental with everything, specially with people, that we cannot see anything new. As Mother Teresa would say, we are busy judging and so we do not have the time to love. Look at every person every time with a new open heart and you will see life will be much more blessed. 

3. Own up; Give Peace a Chance:

Today is also 52nd World Peace Day celebrated by the Church. Pope Francis declares to us this day, "Good Politics is at the service of Peace"! It is easier to read this message with the politicians and leaders in our minds; if we are that, we better take this message seriously. But for the majority of us, it might sound not connected to, if we are not diligent enough to see through the message! Calling us to be at peace with ourselves, with others and with the entire universe, Pope Francis means by 'politics', a much greater reality than merely party politics or even governance. It is the call and commission we have to live as responsible citizens of the world, loving fellow persons to the entire humanity and a grateful part of God's amazing creation! That is the key to peace. We cannot do anymore with threats and pressures and sanctions at various levels; it has to become a conviction and a challenge to each and every one of us, to take up the cause of peace and give peace a chance, wherever we are and in whatever way possible!

Happy New Year 2019! May God be with us, accompany us and grant us peace!

To be Christ amidst Antichrists!

Mentality of the Last days...?!

The last day of the year 2018

1 John: 2:18-21; John 1: 1-18

As you go through the readings of today, do you get a feeling of tearing the last leaf of the calendar, or turning the last date on your diary or opening the last page of a novel... that is very dramatic! But the truth is, life goes on! It is good to end something and start something anew. That should begin from our mindset. 

Today as we look back at 2018, we find so many events and happenings that in a way disturb our minds - the political roller coasters, the economic manipulations, the legal tragedies, the social calamities, the religious inhumanities... all of them pose a big question in our minds : is the end near? Yes, the end is here, for the year; but yet another will be born anew. And nothing will change if our mindsets don't. 

John speaks of the antichrists who have already come - there is no doubt about it. It is no useful task for us to start investigating who is the antichrist that has come. What matters is to believe and to make it true that the Word has become flesh and has come to dwell amidst us. In and through us, the Word has to live on, even amidst the antichrists who are possibly all around us. That is the call: each of us, to be Christ amidst the antichrists in the society. It means a challenge, a personal, social, communitarian, ecclesial challenge for us to make Christ present here and now. That alone will amount to the mindset of the last days, not fear nor recklessness. With discernment and determination let us resolve to be Christs amidst the antichrists today.

WHAT MAKES YOUR FAMILY HOLY?

Humble, Obedient and Loving You

December 30, 2018: Feast of the Holy Family
1 Samuel 1: 20-22,24-28; Colossians 3: 12-21; Luke 2: 41-52

The Feast today presents to us the model of the Holy Family... especially at a time when the Church, led by the Holy Father, keeps reflecting so much about the vocation and mission of Christian families in the world, we have a clarion call: to grow to be like the Holy Family. 

The Question is, what makes your family HOLY?

It's Humble, Obedient and Loving You that makes your family H.O.L.Y.

The family will not become holy by itself... it is YOU who has to make your family holy! Rarely do we take that onus on our own selves. We look for someone who is failing in his or her duties, someone with some weakness to shove all the responsibility, and go ourselves burdenless. 

Humility versus Blame Game

Humility is the first ingredient of holiness. Humility is all about truthfulness and there can be no holiness without truthfulness. Humility is to understand the reality that is me and accept it as it is. It is neither overrating myself nor trampling myself. Joseph and Mary, stand out in this  humility, as they knows exactly what their role is as parents in the holy family and play just that. They never overdo, nor do they shirk in anyway their responsibility.

Obedience versus Ego Trips

Most of the times the fights in a family are not about what is right and what is wrong, it is about who is right and who is wrong. Authority is what is contended here... who has the final word? Should the wife always obey the husband? Or is it fine to have an henpecked husband? The solution is not wife obeying husband or husband obeying the wife; it is not about children obeying the parents or parents complying in everything with children; it is about husband, wife and children all obeying God! Knowing exactly what God wants of me, and doing that in peace and unity. It is important to be on our Father's Business!

Love versus Self Seeking

Whether Mary or Joseph or Jesus, there is something that dominates the picture - true and genuine love. Love never seeks its own good! Love is always concerned about the other: Joseph about Mary, Mary about Jesus, Jesus about the people... it is always about the other, not about oneself! The less I concern myself with my self, the more loving I become. Jesus who is Word made flesh, Joseph who takes charge of the holy family merely because God wanted him to, Mary who said that yes without even calculating the risks involved... all the three are epitomes of the love of God. 

The feast of today has a special invitation to us- to grow into holy families... each of us holy unto the Lord, each of us into a humble, obedient and loving persons, forming families that represent love, families that bear the name of God!

Light and darkness, love and hatred!

5th day in Christmas Octave

December 29, 2018: 1 John 2: 3-11; Luke 2: 22-35

This is a sand art, which is made at
the Vatican St. Peter's Square as Crib for this year

Christmas is not over yet, we are still in the Octave! There is a gradual revelation of the Son who has come into the world - Simeon today identifies the Light that has come into the world: a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for Israel (Lk 2:32). The light, which makes us see the right facts, the light which helps us understand the real meaning of our life, the light that Christ is, the light that Christ brought into the world - that is LOVE: whoever claims to be in light but hates his brother or sister, is still in darkness (1 Jn 2:9)...they have still not seen the light, the true light, the Christ, the Son!

Being in the light is love and any form of hatred is a groping in the dark. It may seem so clear that you are getting rid of your enemies, overpowering the weak and establishing your own dominion! Soon you shall realise your folly and come to know that love alone can truly rule. Every thing else is fear and threat, which shall find its own destruction. God is love and the world today seems to more and more consider God a superfluity, some even consider God unnecessary. The choice however remains before you and me... the light or the darkness? Love or hatred?

Light and darkness, Love and hatred...everything is around us today in every situation. What is our choice - to accept the light and to behold the Christ? or to abide by the world and remain in darkness? Light is love, hatred is darkness. Amidst the vast crowd that does not mind being in darkness for reasons known only to them, let our light shine - because we have beheld the Lord, because we have seen Love!

Innocents - Massacred even today!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

December 28, 2018: Feast of the Holy Innocents
1 John 1:5 -2:2; Matthew 2: 13-18

Innocents - those who are unaware of anything wrong, those who are unaware of the evil that surrounds them, those who are untouched by the sinfulness that threatens to swallow them. The feast today is a remembrance of millions of innocents who are sacrificed even today on the altars of selfishness, licentiousness, irresponsibility and insensitivity! The Church remains so strong with regard to abortions, because of the inviolable dignity that life possesses, right from its very beginning. 

The world is running swift into a dungeon of selfishness and cruelty, which does not even think of the others, leave alone wishing the good of the others. There are persons and systems which work together to exploit the innocent and the ignorant. As a people of God, we need to stand against such systems and uphold the inalienable rights of every child of God. 

When the Church comes up with a stand for life, there is a select group of people (with all possible 'isms' as their tags) who come against it making a hue and cry in the name of rights. Whose rights are they talking about? Their own. Then what about the right of the affected? Isn't that selfish? Yes, let us not deny the numerous cases of child abuse that is brought against certain sections of the Church - without doubt these are to be detested too! Nothing, absolutely nothing can go against the innocents!

People of God cannot be against life, specially the life of the innocents, because life belongs to God and God stands without doubt with the innocents! Innocents are sacrificed  today in the name of modernity, development, forward thinking, rights and what not! Can we take a stand here and now? Can we open our eyes to the innocents who are massacred even today!