Be Diligent

Journey to Holiness: beware, the Word judges

April 3, 2019: Wednesday, Fourth week in Lent

Isaiah 49: 8-15; John 5: 17-30

God is merciful, but God's mercy is not devoid of justice; it is a perfection of justice! Hence Mercy cannot become an escapism on my part. Can I deceive the Lord who knows me through and through? Can I escape from the Word which cuts through right till it divides the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow.

God's mercy is there for the taking! Yes, it is freely given without any conditions, but I should be in a position to make it my own, and that responsibility is upon me. The Word today points to us how the Lord is so enthusiastic about saving us and intervening into our life for our wholeness at the right and appointed time. It also adds, that we will be judged on the degree of our diligence in this regard.

How readily do we turn to God in times of tests? How early do we spot ourselves straying away from the path? How mindful are we about what we are called to do, in order to prevent unnecessary developments in life? As a way to keep ourselves from going astray Don Bosco used to say, do what you are supposed to be doing with a sense of diligence and that will take you a long way towards sanctity. 

Knowing what I am expected to do, understanding the purpose behind the calling and being diligent in carrying out God's will for me at every single moment... that is the way we live as people of the Word.

Holiness tip for today: Whatever you do, find God's will in it and be diligent in carrying it out

Be Life-giving

Journey to Holiness: Notice life flowing unto to you

April 2, 2019: Tuesday, 4th week in Lent

Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12; John 5: 1-3, 5-16

We read of the waters giving life and health wherever it flowed, in the first reading. The people and the crippled man whom we meet in the Gospel today knew about this life giving water and the man wanted to go into the water that it could give health back to him. The life giving water was just a little away from him, but he could not get into it. When Jesus came to him, hardly did he notice that the life giving water had come to him, instead of he going to it. 

Many a time, we are so too... hardly noticing the life giving water flowing unto us! Jesus comes to us, the Life-giver comes in search of us every moment of our lives and we fail to receive him with the eagerness that we should - instead we are all worried about things that do not matter at all. Just like those Jews who saw the crippled man walk with his mat and were more worried that he was carrying the mat on a sabbath than wondering how he received his health back! 

We would also turn life giving if only we notice the life giver come to us in every way everyday. Wherever we go, we could carry his presence, give life to all and make people wholesome. That is the walk of holiness we are invited to make: to receive life from the life giver and give to all, as life-givers! Let us realise and take seriously our call to be life givers!

Holiness tip for Today: Get in touch with the Life-giver, and touch some one today, making them more filled with life and happiness.

Be Yielding

Journey to Holiness: Don't be stubborn with Grace

April 1, 2019: Monday, 4th week in Lent

Isaiah 65: 17-21; John 4: 43-54

At times we speak of Grace as some'thing' to be received from God: terms like more graces, special graces, immediate graces, etc. betray such an understanding. The most Christian understanding of Grace would be the continual proximity of God. The Lord promises us to be with us and the Lord is always faithful to this promise. The challenge is that we realise this presence and feel it concretely. When we do that, everything turns new - the earth, the heaven, the life, the experience, the persons around, the problems that persist... everything is renewed! But the need is that we YIELD!

The Gospel today brings out this message very subtly. The Court Official's petition for a favour was a bit irritating for Jesus - Jesus expresses that but the official finds favour when he yields to the terms of Jesus: 'You Go and your son will live'...the man turns and walks! He wanted grace, the proximity of Jesus, but he willingly yields to experience it in the Lord's own terms. If I remain stubborn as to what I want to experience and that I must experience it in my own terms, then I restrict the great wonders that can happen around me. 

Yielding requires three major qualities of Faith: Confidence, Surrender and Humility. It is to say wholeheartedly : 'God is in-charge!"

Holiness tip for today: Take your life to the Lord, every situation that needs the Lord's presence, and surrender it to the Lord- that's the best type of Prayer.

Holiness: GROWING THROUGH PROMISES

Milestone: The PROMISED LAND

March 31, 2019: Fourth Sunday in Lent
Joshua 5: 9-12; 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21; Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

On our journey to holiness, after understanding the milestones of the desert, the mountain and the holy ground, we arrive at the next in line: the Promised Land. This is the foundation on which our Christian life is built; the foundation of hope!

I remember it was during our Novitiate year, we were suggested to follow a spirituality of identifying ourselves with one of the plants or trees that stood in our campus and observe its growth and reflect on our own growth in relation to it. Looking out of the window from our study hall, there was a  tree which was almost dead, its bark dry and dark. But I had chosen that tree, because I was drawn by the small little shoot that jetted out right on top, tender and green! I was so happy to see how life can come out of such tough situations! The very next day I saw someone had cut the tree and the tree lay down flat on the ground! I was so grieved and feared what sign the Lord is giving! When I spoke to my Spiritual Director, he said not to lose hope and to look out for another plant or tree. But I had made up my mind never again to try this exercise on myself anymore. After a fortnight or more one fine morning as I sat in the study hall and just casually looked out, my eyes widened as I saw the dry bark of the tree on the ground, but a new leaf that had just sprung up from that so-called dead bark! Oh what a message of Hope that was: trusting in the magnificent promises of the Lord!

Behold I make everything new, the Lord promises! The Lord is continually making things new. Our task is to Trust in the Lord! The First reading speaks of the trust that the wandering people of Israel had and how that Trust did not fail. They eat the produce of the land they were promised! The Manna stopped that was not sad...because there was something better given to them. To trust in the Lord even amidst discouraging moments of inhumanities that we find around or in spite of the sinful tendencies we identify within us, is a special ability. It is this trust that inspired the prodigal son to gather courage to come back to his father.

The Manna stopped yes, but they were to Taste a different bread, the bread of the Mercy of the Lord. They tasted and they gave praises to the Lord: Taste and See that the Lord is good.That was something new and far more greater than what they had tasted till then. The younger son had truly tasted his father's love, that he knew how great it was and returned to that taste. 

Tasting the never-failing promises of the Lord is a tough call. At times we fail, due to our arrogance, impatience and insensitivity and trample upon the life-giving promises, not really mindful of the fruits they can produce within us. Look at the elder son in the parable narrated by Jesus today: he is no different from the younger son; in fact he is far worse than his younger brother. The younger son was physically away, but the elder son was spiritually so far away from the Father: he had been calculating, expecting, comparing, grumbling and grudging all work! How sad, that he was so near the Father yet so far. He was trampling down the life giving promises of his father... just like we do, when we do not taste the mercy of the Lord enough to freely and generously share it with others, with everyone else, laying conditions and clauses that would exclude all those whom we intend to. Would that really help us grow? Growing through the promises of the Lord means, trusting in those promises and tasting them so much that we would never trample them under the foot of our arrogance or indifference, but always grow worthy of them.

On our journey to holiness let us trust in the promises of the Lord and grow through them, tasting them and inviting everyone else to taste them in and through us.

Be Spiritual

Journey to Holiness: it is to grow more and more loving

March 30, 2019: Saturday, Third week in Lent

Hosea 5:15 - 6:6; Luke 18: 9-14

Being Spiritual at times is confused with being self-righteous! Being self-righteous involves a large dose of judgement of the other. When you judge, you do not love. So being self righteous you begin to love the other lesser and lesser, and yourself more and more! It is a kind of narcissism (a pitiable condition of excessive self love). Whereas today the Word invites us to love, more than to sacrifice; to get to know who the Lord is and who we are in relation to the Lord, than making our spiritual efforts mere rituals. 

Being Spiritual truly should mean growing more and more loving. More loving towards God and more loving towards those around us. Growing more loving means, that we grow more and more open, to sincerely appreciate the other in their goodness, to sensitively confront the other in their shortcomings, to readily accept my own limitations with gratitude when pointed out, to reach out to the other in whatever way I can even if it costs me a bit.

Being Spiritual means to understand within me what the Spirit wants of me and to lead my life in the Spirit's path. The Spirit of the Lord wants us to grow more and more loving and less and less judgmental. The Holy Father seems to be repeating this time and again and in fact this quality is the crux of Christian love.  

Holiness tip for today: Relate lovingly, become conscious of your tendency to judge and grow more and more loving!

Be Loving

Journey to Holiness: the typical Christian life style

March 29, 2019: Friday, Third week in Lent

Hosea 14: 2-10; Mark 12: 28-34

The twofold love that Jesus speaks of today is a message that we are used to hearing so much - Love of God and love of the neighbour. But what makes the difference here is the first reading which provides a slightly different context in which we read the commandments from the Lord. What is the context: Hosea speaks of returning to the Lord. 

The whole of Lent is a time we reflect on returning to the Lord, repentance and reforming our lives. Jesus seems to suggest, be truly loving and you would have returned to the Lord much faster than you imagined! Loving God and loving neighbours is the Christian lifestyle and it provides the fundamental way to reach the Lord. Here we can make two statements and that will explicate the teaching clearer:

You make all your sacrifices, give all the alms that you can, spend all the time that you find in prayer and adoration, speak about God and be passionate about your religious duties, but if you do not love your brother and sister, beginning with those in your family- you are far from a truly Christian life.

Instead, you find it so hard to fast or so difficult to mortify yourself, you find it difficult to find even half an hour together to sit in front of the Lord and you find it so difficult to go to Church... but you love your brother or your sister genuinely, with a sincere heart and godly sense... you are so close to the Lord and the Lord's way of life!

Holiness tip for today: Be loving - in your thought, word and deed, love everyone whom you meet, offering it up to the Lord consciously.

Be Judicious

Journey to Holiness: do not take goodness for granted

March 28, 2019: Thursday, Third week in Lent

Jeremiah 7: 23-28; Luke 11: 14-23

One of the dangers that we run into in our day to day life is, taking the goodness of the Lord for granted. The Love of the Lord is endless and immeasurable. Yet there is every chance that I may deprive myself of this boundless love - yes, it is I who deprives myself of it!

What do you think: A pot kept on an open terrace, after a full day of heavy rain, will it be filled with water? Though there might have been a heavy shower and for such a long time, yet it depends so much on the pot - whether it was kept open or closed, whether it was kept upside down or in its proper position! This is how it is with the merciful love of the Lord. It is there for our taking; but if we miss it, we are depriving ourselves of it.

At times in our priorities and choices, we relegate the aspect of staying worthy of the Lord's mercies to such a despicable position that we go far far away from God and have our own existence, independent of God. The fact is that we cannot go too far, for wherever we go, the Lord is with us. Yet, we take that presence, that love and that mercy for granted and in fact, a painful experience of rejection do we give the Lord. Is this not what the Lord shared already through Hosea (in chapter 11), 'the more I called them, the more they went from me'; 'my people are bent on turning away from me'...what an expression of pain from the Lord!

Holiness tip for today: Let me evaluate my priorities in life and pray for those who are bent on turning away from the Lord! 

Be Blessed

Journey to Holiness: obey the Lord and receive life

March 27, 2019: Wednesday, Third week in Lent

Deuteronomy 4: 1, 5-9; Matthew 5: 17-19

Life is a gift, it is not something that we earn for ourselves! If it is a gift it is received; if it is received it is given! Life is given; if it is given, it is given for a purpose! The most loving sign of God's care for us is expressed in God's words through Jeremiah: 'For I know the plans that I have for you!' (Jer 29:11). 

God has a plan, God has a purpose, all that I need to do is just walk in the way that the Lord shows! There are times when the way shown agrees with my wishes and I am enthusiastic about it. But when the way shown does not agree with my whims, I begin to whine and complain! How childish of me!

Obeying the Lord will not be a grudging act, if only I understand it is the Lord who gives me life and God alone knows what I can make of it. Once I begin to absolutise my wishes in life, set up my own races, create my own pathways, hold on to my own goals as if nothing else matters in life, I am bound to undergo frustrations and failures. But the moment I surrender my life in the hands of the Lord and wish to live the way that the Lord leads, seek after goals that the Lord sets, achieve purposes that the Lord offers me, then I will have life, in all its fullness. It is in obeying the Lord that I find the fullness of my life.

Holiness tip for today: Listen to the Lord, hear his commands, obey them and you will have life, life to the full!

Be Grateful

Journey to Holiness: A grateful heart is a holy heart

March 26, 2019: Tuesday, Third week in Lent

Daniel 3: 25, 34-43; Matthew 18: 21-35

One fundamental quality of people who are evil, who plot the ruin of others or who do not love others enough, is ingratitude. Showing mercy to others will be a natural and spontaneous outcome, if a person is mindful of all the good that he or she has received. St. Paul would ask a very poignant question: 'what do you have that you have not received?" (1 Cor 4:7) If we have received so much good and we acknowledge that we have received them all, will we not be considerate that we have to reciprocate the same to others around me: that is the connection between being grateful and being good.

The parable that Jesus narrates today is such a beautiful depiction of how we behave at times: receiving in such abundance but so calculative while giving! The man was forgiven an amount that was equal to 15 years wages while he refused to forgive one day's wages someone owed! What a contrast Jesus presents here... Be mindful of how good the Lord is to you and your goodness will be augmented. In the first reading we see a cry for help to the Lord but even in that dire situation we do not see or feel any desperation on the part of the one who is making the invocation. There is only trust that stands out. That is a heart that was so mindful of the good that the Lord had done till then. 

A truly grateful person will grow easily to be holy. Gratitude is, never to take anything for granted: once a person acknowledges every small good that the Lord does to oneself, the person will grow conscious of how indebted one  is. That is the beginning of the commitment to repay the goodness of the Lord: can we really do it? The starting point of holiness has to be this: because God is so good, I have to be good; because God is so forgiving, I have to forgive; because God is so holy, I have to be holy!

Holiness tip for today: Thank God, thank God every moment of the day, for we can never thank God enough.

Be Obedient

Journey to Holiness: Dare to submit do God's will

March 25, 2019: The Solemnity of Annunciation 

Isaiah 7: 10-14, 8:10; Hebrews 10: 4-10; Luke 1: 26-38

Obedience can take various degrees to it: the first is, doing what is said. Doing what is said is not entirely easy, unless a person is so dull headed that he or she has no idea or nothing to do on one's own. Obeying commands, keeping the rules, fulfilling the requirements - these fall under this category.

The second degree is that of doing what is intended. This goes a bit beyond the first, in as much as the person who wishes to obey, is interested in knowing what is intended by what is asked of the person. It is not merely obeying rules but understanding the intention behind the rules; it is not merely fulfilling the requirements, but knowing what the purpose is behind the requirement; it is not merely carrying out what is said, but being interested in doing what is not said. This is more meritorious than the first and basic degree of obedience.

What Jesus teaches us and what we celebrate today in our Blessed Mother is the third degree of obedience. This is not merely doing what is said or what is intended, but living one's life according to what is wished, willed and planned by someone who wishes your good. This is the most matured obedience in the Spirit: a will and choice to submit to the will of the One who has created and called and commissioned me with this life. At times I would not even know what is expected of me, most of the times I may not know what would be the real outcome of it, but in spite of all these, I make an absolute choice and say: 'I am yours; I come to do your will; be it done unto me according to your Word'. That requires an assistance and strengthening from the Spirit of courage and childlike trust.

The Solemnity today affirms that this obedience leads to Salvation, salvation which means fullness of life, fullness of joy and fullness of meaning. 

Holiness tip for today: Dare to submit to God's will, obey!