The True Offering: the Inner Spirit

18th February, 2019

Monday, 6th week in Ordinary time

Genesis 4: 1-15, 25; Mark 8: 11-13

I remember from my childhood memories that we heard the story of Cain, as though he brought some rotten fruits and leftovers while Abel brought the best of his flock's firstlings. Maybe, it's just a bias. Notice, there is nothing said in the Word that Cain's offering was rotten;  yes, it was not acceptable, but not because it was not of international standards or of the best known quality. 

However the question from the Lord gives us the reason Cain's offering was abominable: because of the heart with which it was offered. His heart was probably filled with envy,  pride and malice and that renders even the best of gifts worthless.

The Gospel presents another scene where Jesus is upset with the Pharisees and the Scribes. While there are many instances where many had asked him for healing and miracles and he had no issues with them, today in the Word we see that people ask for a sign and Jesus is he is worked up. ..the reason is simple: what lay in their heart as they asked for it.  Feelings of animosity, pride,  envy and hypocrisy.

When we come to the presence of the Lord to pray,  let us check our inner disposition first. Are we worthy to behold the presence of the Lord? Our choices and our life have to be integral to live our daily life with our heads held high. The true offering is the inner spirit.

Imago Dei - the real core!

February 12, 2019

Tuesday, 5th week in Ordinary time

Genesis 1:20 - 2:4a; Mark 7: 1-13

Jesus had one thing that he could never bear or tolerate! Living two lives... how much ever good you may do, it does not matter as much as, being good. This is because Jesus is mindful of the real core of our being: Imago Dei, the image of God that is enshrined within us. 

God  saw everything was good as God created them one by one.  But when God had created human being, God found it very good. Because God saw Godself in the human person. The inner core of our being is that godliness that we can observe in God. When we refuse to see it within us or reject what is at the core of our selves, we become aliens to ourselves. This is what Jesus is warning us against. Get closer and closer to the real core of your being:  the image of God.

This is the true Christian spirituality, that the Word today wants us to understand. Spirituality itself is a sense of being connected to everything and everybody... and further still, Christ's, Christ-like and Christian Spirituality is a sense of feeling an obligation to love people, fend for their good, be interested in their well being and spend oneself for the happiness and well being of the other. It cannot be merely a dry or rigid performance of rituals and lifeless hypocritical obedience to rules and commandments. 

Christ's spirituality consists predominantly of love: because God is love and that is the image that is placed at the core of our beings. We are called to recognise the presence of this image within us, marvel at its majesty and strive to live true to it, come what may: troubles, inconveniences, burdens, sacrifices and carrying of crosses! If you are prepared, you are well on your way to become what you really are, in your real core - the living image of God.

To touch and to be touched

February 11, 2019 : World day of Sick Persons

Monday, 5th week in Ordinary time
Genesis 1: 1-19; Mark 6: 53-56

It did not matter whether they touched the Lord or the Lord touched them, they were healed. Both ways it is an act of faith: to touch the Lord and to allow the Lord to touch us! 'Speak Lord, but a word and my soul shall be healed,' we pray! A word, a touch, a glimpse or a gaze, a whisper...that is all that it takes for us to receive the fullness, from the hands of the Lord who has made us and continues to guard and protect us. 

We begin anew the book of genesis. What  marvellous accounts as the basis of our faith experience! God reigns... God holds everything in being... God manifests God's glory  and might in  everything. When God  said a word it was done. When Jesus came, it  was enough people touched him, mighty things happened. There was a spiritual connect between the people and the Lord. That spiritual connect  is what we call faith.

All that we need to know is to understand that we are handiworks of the Master Creator and live our lives according to the mind of the One who has loved us into existence with a well defined purpose and an eternal plan. How prepared are we to allow the Lord to touch us? How eager are we to touch the Lord with all sincerity of heart? Because, when the Lord touches, nothing remains the same; they change, they transform, they are recreated!

Today as we celebrate the 27th World day of the Sick Persons, with compassionate hearts let us pray for those who are terminally ill, those who battle with faith, those who are affected due to various sicknesses and their fallouts. And let us with the Spiritual connect with the Lord, with that ardent faith in our hearts, make an earnest prayer: Send forth your Spirit, O Lord and the face of this earth shall be renewed!

Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for us!

CALLED

An identity, a mission and a promise...

5th Sunday in Ordinary time: 10th February, 2019
Isaiah 6: 1-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; Luke 5: 1-11

We are called...by our very existence, our choices, our upbringing, our traditions, our context, our experiences, our adventures, our explorations, our convictions and our challenges... we are called! On a daily basis, we need to become aware of this call and respond to it whole heartedly! And not just aware of it, but longing for it. Because it is our identity, our mission and a promise from the Lord!

Our calling is our identity...not merely a tag! 
A tag is not our identity, it changes as often as we decide or others decide to! Our call determines our identity, our deep seated understanding of ourselves. It is not something that is attached to us, with what we do and what we take up as a responsibility or occupation - it is the very thing that defines our identity! 
We have a lot of tags attached to us: parents, children, brothers, sisters, priests, religious and so many other description of ourselves are all our tags... just like Simon, who was brother of Andrew, James and John who were sons, and all of them fishermen - their identity was something else and Jesus brings that out in his call: fishers of men!

Our calling is our mission...not merely a job! 
Mission is life long, it is a process and not merely a performance. It is our life, its journey, its twists and its turns, its ups and its downs, its ebb and its flow: it is the way we live our life! A job is temporal, it begins and it ends while a mission is a process, it begins but instead of ending it runs towards its fulfillment. Our life is a mission, a process that runs towards its fulfillment. 
St. Paul understood this perfectly and that is what he presented as his witness to the people, as we see in the second reading today. He traced for them the process that took place in his life, a process of change, transformation and transcendence. If only each of us can be mindful of the process our life takes, the various events that happen and the messages they communicate. 

Our calling is a promise...not merely the present! 
There is much to look forward to, there are things that are unexpected, there is a need to put out into the deep and just wait for a surprise! When we are able to accept our limitedness in front of the Lord and surrender ourselves totally, we shall see the Lord at work in us. If our openness is true and sincere, we shall see things that we would have never even thought of. The proof is the Church that we have, born out of the labour of those who were considered weaklings and frightened fisherfolk, persecutors and zealots!

There is one strong and final message that we have:

The Lord who has called is there all the time, let us adventure in the Spirit!

The Shepherd Divine

February 9, 2019

Saturday,  4th week in Ordinary Time

Hebrews 13: 15-17, 20-21; Mark 6: 30- 34

What do we have to worry about, when the Lord is our Shepherd! We need only to become the sheep of the flock that belongs to the Lord. The way to do that is to endlessly do good. Do good without any reason,  without any hesitation, without any expectation,  without any discouragement.

The Gospel presents a picture of frenetic activity today. The disciples are all intent on doing good, as their master himself who went around doing good. At times we can be at a loss deciding what is God's will at a point of time.  The readings today seem to suggest one simple criterion: do good to others;  do good to as many as possible;  do good to all!

Three qualities are needed by all means to do this. 

- First of all,  faith with which one accepts this challenge from the Lord. 

- Secondly, endurance with which one withstands all disheartening factors. 

- Thirdly, the sensitivity with which one knows what the other needs without the other even expressing it.

God is the shepherd who knows our needs and cares for them,  but God does it through God's sons and daughters who become shepherds in turn.  We are called to be the sheep of God's flock but at the same time to grow to be shepherds to each other,  doing as much good as we could to each other. 

Our Divine Shepherd is an epitome of these qualities... who accepted the challenge of being good, endured all that worked against it and treated everyone around him with utmost sensitivity.

Moral Code or Spiritual Integrity?

February 8, 2019

Friday, 4th week in Ordinary Time

Hebrews 13: 1-8; Mark 6:14-29

Is following a moral code enough to be a Christian? Moral codes are temporal and spatial- that is, what is wrong at one time may not be so at another time; what is right in a place may not be so elsewhere! If all of us are formed from and moving towards the same Divine Being, then can our life style be so subjective? That is why Jesus always stood by Spiritual Integrity rather than a set of moral precepts. 

Jesus is same, yesterday, today and tomorrow! No time can change what Jesus stood for. The letter to the Hebrews presents to us a set of values which are not merely moral codes but are frameworks for spiritual integrity. Spiritual Integrity is knowing what is right to be done, being convinced of it and living by it, come what may. 

Even if we have to face extinction from this life, our stand shall not change. Just as John the Baptist who was ready to give up even his life. But how do we know what we are holding on to is right? 

The Lord is our light and all that we need to do is stay in that light - never desert the Lord! When we are with God, we are in the light and the Spirit of the Lord directs us on. Just as the Lord promised us through Isaiah, we would hear the whisper of the Teacher, 'this is the way, walk in it', 'this is right, choose it', 'this is good, strive after it' and so on. (see Isaiah 30:20,21) In simple words, we need to be divinely informed, we need the grace, the help of the Holy Spirit to hold on to truly and eternally life giving perspectives.

The Urgency of the Reign

February 07, 2019

Thursday, 4th week in Ordinary time

Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24; Mark 6: 7-13

Right at the start, Jesus initiated the Reign with a sense of urgency. It was very true because Jesus was not an isolated reality or a mere solitary person. Jesus was the climax of God's self revelation to the world... the fullness of revelation and the summation of it. And in the second Reign was already there in their midst and Jesus was perfectly justified in saying: the Reign of God is in your midst (Lk 17:21). 

The Indian Church singles out a martyr from the list of martyrs that we celebrated yesterday: Gonsalo Garcia, the first Indian to be raised to the altar. He was a third order Franciscan friar and he went about in his simplicity and fervour and joined the missionaries to Japan and they were crucified at Nagasaki. All that mattered to them was the Reign and making it known to everyone!

If it were so 2000 years ago, and if it were so in the recent centuries, what do we make of today and our responsibility here and now? Do I have a sense of urgency about making present the Reign of God here and now?

Drooping hands and weak knees or faith alive?

February 6, 2019

Wednesday, 4th week in Ordinary time 

Hebrews 12:4-7,11-16; Mark 6:1-6

God is all powerful except before our free will... it is not that God is incapable but it is an integral quality of God to make human freedom totally out of reach of any manipulation or infringements. God had chosen to implant that freedom which is part of God's own image and likeness within us. At times we may feel we are afflicted but we are not without the means to withstand them. 

We have within us the necessary strength to stand up to these. At no time are we faced with a trial that is more than our capacity. That is the promise of the Word (Read 1 Corinthians 10:13). But at the heart of the moment, that is, being caught up in the eye of the storm, it seems to appear that there is no way out! But, No! it just cannot be so. Even if I were to accept an untoward incident in my life or even if I were to face a situation which I detest to, I cannot do it because I have no other go; I have to do it with a trust that in every thing God works for the good of those who love God.

Hence, not the problems or the difficulties, but that which drives us to despair is this... the drooping hands and weak knees... drooping hands symbolise my lack of faith in the capacity God has placed within me; weak knees symbolise the lack of dependence on God. When these happen, I find myself helpless, because I do not perceive the Lord, who is so close to me and so concerned about me - just like those who were not able to see Christ in Jesus, in spite of all the goodness!

What do you choose:  drooping hands and weak knees or a faith alive?

Who is your Hero?

February 4, 2019

Monday, 4th week in Ordinary Time

Hebrews 11:32-40; Mark 5:1-20

The Letter to the Hebrews lists today a set of heroes, heroes of valour and vigour, heroes in history on whom the people pinned their hopes! But they were all gone in the way of their fathers. Today we too have our own heroes - persons or role models or absolute values or needs or priorities - heroes of various kind. It is important to ask ourselves who is our hero? 

With what Jesus did to the people of Gerasenes, they should have made him their hero. Jesus solved their years of problem in a moment. He just sent the legion of demons away from their living quarters...but did Jesus become their hero? No! They asked Jesus to leave - may be because they felt their loss (of the swines) was too much! And probably, they had some other things as their hero. 

The world  today has too many things to contend with the Lord being its hero! Even drawing people to God, there are many who propose material well being as a source of attraction. Come to the Lord, you will have all the prosperity you can think of. Come to the Lord and you will have your dreams so miraculously fulfilled. How many times we hear these jargons and can we get sillier than this? 

Jesus taught them that to have him meant losing a lot of other things. It was hard for them. Because the well being that Jesus proposed had a different meaning altogether - it was being free from demonic possessions, slaveries that do not let humans be humans, fears that prevent persons from living their lives to the full. It is all about what our choice is. The crucial question is: who is your hero?

THE CALL

2 be or not 2 be

4th Sunday in Ordinary time: Feb 3, 2019
Jeremiah 1: 4-5,17-19; 1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13; Luke 4: 21-30

Every reality has at least two sides... and the reality of our call too has two sides and the readings invite us ponder on a few twos today...

God gives us two reminders today: 

God says, I have called you, called you before you were formed in your mother's womb, called you to be mine, called you to carry my message to the peoples, called you to be the light of the nations, called you to be my signs and bearers of my Word, called you to bring good news to the poor, called you to speak my Words...MY Words to the people, as I want it to be spoken, called you to go to the nations...to all the people of the world and tell them I love them all as my own!

God also says, when you do this the very people will come against you, they will plot against you, they will consider you a disturbance, they will condemn you to be ostracised, they will find ways and means of throwing you down the cliff - but do not worry, I shall be with you! I shall be your stronghold, your protection, your refuge, your hiding place, your consolation and your way forward!

The Word faces two responses always:

When you, O prophet of God, proclaim God's Word - there are those who find it so gracious and give praise to God, there are those who accept it with joy, there are those who  long for more of it, there are those who love it with all their life, there are those who will admire and support! But are they all?

When you go with the Word, O prophet there will be those who will be offended, those who will oppose you, those who will deride you, those who will find fault with you, those who will take you to task, those who will raise their eye brows in suspicion, those who will malign your name, those who will question your credibility, those who will impute vile intentions to your acts, those who will criticise you on your face, those who will calumniate behind your back... Are you ready to respond to it all, with love in your heart?

Love poses two challenges constantly:

God's call is to love, to go out to others in love, to reach out in love, to speak to others the Word of God in love, to bear God's love to everyone specially those who have not experienced love in life, to pull up others in love, to care for the true and integral well being of others in true Christian love. That is the challenge of a servant of God, of the true people of God! But do you think your love shall be just reciprocated anytime? 

God's call is to love, and when we go out with love, there are those who try our patience, those who take our kindness for granted, those who discriminate, those who insult, those who willfully offend, those who speak noting but legalities, those who cheat and those who say lies... anyway we are called to love, because love is patient, kind and gentle; it never looks for its rewards!

The call is challenging, the call to be the Messengers of the Word is a call to be signs and bearers of God's love to the others, to the world, to the people - whether they listen and accept it or not, whether they love you in return or hate you to death - I have to decide: to be or not to be - God's light to the nations!