We love, because God loves us!

January 10, 2019

Thursday after Epiphany

1 John 4: 19- 5:4; Luke 4: 14-22

Can we notice that we began this week as a preparation towards the Lord's baptism, but day after day the Word is speaking to us of love? Is it surprising? No, it is in order! Yes, baptism is all about our identity and the crux of the identity that we receive as baptised, as children of God is LOVE.

To love, is not an extraordinary quality for us sons and daughters of God who is love; love has to be our essential nature! The fundamental question is not whether I am ready to love or not; it is whether I am a Christian or not! If I am a Christ-ian, then love has to be my second nature. Where there is no love, there is no God...where there is no God, there is no Spiritual life! True spirituality is true love.

The correlation of two readings bring out to us an all important point: to love is a charism given by the Spirit to each of us; to love is a commitment on behalf of my neighbour. That difficulties and sacrifices are involved, is a matter of fact. But that in no way can take away the call that I have: to love. 

And why should we love? Not because it is easy to do. Not because it gives us pleasure, as the world miscalculates today. Not because it creates a situation of peace and tranquility, then we are using love as a means. We love because God loved us, God loves us and God always loves us! When we don't love the other, we not only hate them, but we conceal ourselves from the love of God, which flows freely towards you and me! Yes... it has to be our nature to love. We love because God loves us!

God's love surrounds us!

January 9, 2019

Wednesday after Epiphany
1 John 4: 11-18; Mark 6: 45-52

It was a long time ago, but the experience has not left my mind. A child, hardly 2 years, had a tumour on her face,which had grown so big that it had covered the eyes and the child could not open her eyes. Admitted in the hospital the child was crying incessantly, firstly due to pain and then due to fear, remember she was not even able to see whether there was someone standing around her. Every time the mother put her hand into the hands of the child or on the tiny body of the child, the child would calm down and sleep; but the moment the mother took her hands off or left the side, the child never ceased crying! 

The Word today reminded me of that scene: with the Lord around, it does not matter what kind of a situation, we can go through it with calm and quietude. In the absence of the Lord, even a mole hill would appear to be a mountain and a gentle breeze a storm! Let nothing perturb you, saints repeatedly say. 

The love of the Lord surrounds us! Let us live our moments caressed in the love of God and become signs and bearers of that love to those around us. Even those who are in the thick of darkness, unable to see anything around, would feel calm and strong, if we bring alive to them the presence of God's love in those moments of their lives. God's love surrounds us, in fact in it we live, move and have our being. If we are mindful of the love that surrounds us, we shall be invariably led to love each other. If we love one another, God remains in us!

God is love; who are We?

January 8, 2019

Tuesday after Epiphany
1 John 4: 7-10; Mark 6: 34-44

The image of God image among the people of God people was continuously evolving... first they thought God was a demanding task master, but later understood God was loving too; first they thought God was an angry God but later they found God slow to anger, abounding in love; first they thought God was an uncompromising God but later they understood he was merciful too! The progressive revelation finds its climax in Christ, who reveals God as absolutely compassionate, profusely loving, immensely forgiving and unconditionally accepting! 

Knowing God to be such a person, is in a way a great news for us; but at the same time a big challenge. A great news because we are cared for and protected in that unbelievable love. There is nothing we need to worry or fret about. Our needs, our concerns, our desires and our hopes are all lovingly taken care of. 

It is a challenge too because, if we are children of God, we need to be defined by who God is. Our God is love; hence we are called to be children of love! From the way we live our life, the world should be able to understand the kind of God we believe in. This is what is called the integrity of faith: the correlation between our faith and our living!

Now that Jesus in his compassion and in his mercy, has revealed God as love, let us ask ourselves, who are we?   

To belong and to proclaim

January 7, 2019

Monday after Epiphany
1 John 3:22 - 4:6; Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25

We have just celebrated the Epiphany of the Lord and this week the Word begins to orient us towards the Baptism of Jesus, which is the next major event we would be soon commemorating. Preparing to celebrate the Baptism of Jesus and thinking of our own baptism we have two key elements to reflect on. Those are the very elements that the Word today speaks to us: Belonging to God and  Proclaiming God! 


Belonging to the Lord and Proclaiming God are the two fundamental marks of identity that we possess as baptised, as Christians; to belong to God and be God's children and to proclaim God and invite everyone to a life worthy of God who has gifted that life to each of us.

The order is important too: that we first belong and then we speak up. That is why we see Jesus first withdraw into loneliness and ascertain his belonging to the One who had sent him before he began to go around proclaiming the Good News! When John the Baptist was killed, Jesus knew the time for his mission had arrived and he begins his proclamation, but before that makes a choice to remain in solitude with the Lord and become conscious of his belonging to the Father.

Belonging without proclaiming would make us dead weights burdening the faith community; we would be contributing nothing to further the very cause of the faith that we have received and that we share. Whereas Proclaiming without belonging would make us false prophets and hypocrites, those that John refers to in the first reading. 

Needless to say, the resonance between the personal life of belonging to the Lord and the life of commitment to ministry (ministry at various levels: family, parish, congregation, community of faith etc...) is the fundamental integrity that Jesus demands of us, his disciples.

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!