The Guardian Angels and We children

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

October 2, 2019: Thanking God for the Guardian Angels

Exodus 23: 20-23; Matthew 18: 1-5,10

One of the earliest things we are taught as children is about the presence and the guidance of the Guardian Angels - whom we celebrate today! Somehow, personally, every time that I have heard of the guardian angels since childhood, I have felt a kind of childlike sentiment within me! 

However, that sentiment is not childish but childlike! Because, without a childlike simplicity, a constant presence of someone may look like an interference, an intrusion, a policing! The world teaches us this attitude, insisting on 'personal freedom', 'individual privacy', 'information security' - everything taken in a highly analogical sense today!

Instead, to look at the other as a pleasant company on the journey, a person to share one's journey with, a person to rely on, someone to have recourse to in need - these involve humility that is so natural to a child, the child would never even be aware that he or she is humble, it is so natural. 

When we truly sport a disposition as that of a child, we shall find ourselves longing for that presence of the Lord, we will hang on every word from the Lord and remain faithful to the Lord in obedience - as the Lord instructs in the first reading today! 

Unless we become like children we cannot enter the Reign of God... Recall the reflection shared two days ago, which re-echoes today's: though it may sound a paradox, let us grow up to be children, only then can we inherit the Reign. 

Towards Jerusalem!!!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 1, 2019: Remembering St. Teresa of Child Jesus

Zechariah 8:20-23; Luke 9: 51-56

Towards Jerusalem... we see the decision to go to Jerusalem, both in the first reading and the Gospel. The first reading speaks of people who would want to go to Jerusalem, to witness the glories of the God who stood by the Hebrews through their thick and thin - "let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you!" The Gospel presents Jesus who is determined to go to Jerusalem... in spite of knowing what awaits him there; to offer his life for the very people who were so stubborn as to turn their face away from him. 

Jerusalem - is not merely the glorious hill of the presence of the Lord but also a challenge to live up to that presence which demands from us endurance, obedience and primacy of God. It is not easy to be welcoming to the Lord - for when he comes he is very demanding! 

St. Teresa, whom we remember today, was aware of this challenge and willingly took it upon herself. She was ready by her heart, mind, soul and strength to remain continuously and constantly prepared to receive the Lord and remain faithful to the Lord. She died just 24, and within fifty years became a great model in the Church. While she lived, she wanted to be almost everything for the sake of the Lord's love - a contemplative disciple, an active apostle, an ardent missionary, a doctor of the Church, a martyr and even in being a martyr she wanted to be a martyr not in just one way, but in every way possible. Obviously, she was burning with love for the presence of the Lord. 

How eager and longing are we for the presence of the Lord, that is what Jerusalem signifies! Are we ready always to focus our attention towards Jerusalem - that is, do we dare to set our face towards the presence of God?

Growing Up to be Children

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 30, 2019: Remembering St. Jerome
Zechariah 8: 1-8; Luke 9: 46-51

"They shall be my people and I will be their God" - the crux of the faith that has been handed down to us through centuries, is this covenant that God made with our ancestors in faith. God has remained faithful ever since. St. Paul reminds us in his letter to Timothy, even "if we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself" (2Tim 2:13). 

Being God's people means being God's children - and that is being focused totally on God, taking directions from God, and always remaining open and docile to God's promptings, as do the children who are fascinated by their parents. This is where the Word of God comes into play - the Word that came down to reveal the fullness of God to us, is the Word that continues to come down to us, continuously even today, to make us aware and attached to the will of God here and now. But if we do not know the Word who once came down, we will not know the Word that continues to come down even today! 

St. Jerome said that in simple terms: not knowing the scriptures is knowing Christ. Not to know the Word made flesh in time and history, is not to know the Word that comes to us here and now, because the Word is a living Word, a living person, a presence that surrounds us today, here, now, in the very context where we need to make our choices, for or against something.

To be children of God, we need to grow up! It is not growing up from being children, but growing up to be children. Children who are mindful and focused totally on God and what God wants from us, that we do not give into our divisions, partisan feelings, ego trips and self-fulfillments but always remain faithful and attached to God and God alone. Growing up to be children, though it may sound a paradox, let us grow up to be children, only then can we inherit the Reign!

INDIFFERENCE - THE MOST UNCHRISTIAN ATTITUDE OF ALL

Look, think and fight!

29th September, 2019 - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Amos 6: 1,4-7; 1 Timothy 6: 11-16; Luke 16: 19-31

Indifference, the worst of all vices and the most dangerous of all attitudes; it is one thing that the Lord cannot bear! Woe to those who are indifferent, warns prophet Amos. And that is precisely what Jesus presents in his parable too. It is something that God just cannot stand - God will 'spit you' out of God's presence, if you are lukewarm, reveals the Lord himself(Rev 3:16). 

Consider the example of that courageous teen, Greta Thunberg who is standing up to the cause against the exploitation of our common home, the universe (see the resonance of Laudato Si of Pope Francis here)! It is highly disheartening to see, even some Christians maligning her and calling her names! There are those who do that because this pointing-out-the-truth is so difficult for their agenda. But there are others who call her leftist and socialists' puppet - the question is: SO WHAT? "Let Truth come from any side"; learn to look at the truth in its face! One need not hail the girl as the saviour of the world or go behind her into the streets, but can one not see the truth that she is trying to highlight? Whom are we faking, not willing to face the truth? This is indifference to truth: one of the deadly qualities we can find in today's world!  

If you have a living faith, then fight the good fight of the faith, challenges St. Paul through his letter to Timothy today. 'Blessed' are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness(Mt 5:6), not those who remain in their safe havens caring nothing for anyone around. St. Paul recalls to our minds today, how Jesus bore witness to his faith and to the truth right upto his cross! "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth," declared Jesus with a courage that disturbed Pilate.(Jn 18:37). When it came to bearing witness to truth and righteousness, or feeling compassionate for those who were helpless, or reaching out to the sinners and the outcast, or speaking out for the rights of those who were oppressed - of their right to be healed as sons and daughters of God, of their right to dignity and of their closeness to the Reign of God - Jesus never hesitated; and his true disciples would never hesitate too!

Today we are living in a world that has innumerable justifications for being indifferent towards others - one's duty and family, corrupt system and government, anti-people policies and laws, legitimisation of insensitive craze for development and technology, rapid growth and advancement - the list can go on endlessly. And it is effortlessly easy to cast the blame on some else and hide behind the mask of myself being part of the 'affected' and the 'left behind'. In simple terms, the Word challenges me today to place myself in the shoes of the rich man and look at the world around me! Have I done whatever I could in my context, for justice, righteousness, dignity of all and true freedom of the children of God. If I say, 'what can I really do?' - beware, that could be the visible trace of Indifference within!

Indifference is the most unchristian quality one can have. The readings today outline the three levels in which INDIFFERENCE grows.

FIrst Level: Indifference as a fruit of Blindness - the inability to see the suffering around, the incapacity to sense the heavy burdens that persons around me carry, the failure to feel the unseen tears of those crying out for help... these are unchristian to the core. LOOK says the Lord, perceive the suffering in the eyes of your brother and sister... even if you cannot do much, atleast be there for them!

Second Level: Indifference as a sign of Selfishness - even after seeing the suffering and the pain, if I fail to be moved, if I refuse stand by someone because I could get into problem, or because I could lose my opportunity to go ahead in life, or because I could earn enemies in the bargain, I am unworthy of being called the disciple of the Lord who died for me! THINK of the others, and not solely of yourself, says the Lord. Can I think of anything other than Me, Myself and Mine? I am my brother's keeper!

Third Level: Indifference as a form of Malice - it is a sin! "Silence encourages the tormentor; never the tormented!" says Elie Wiesel an Holocaust survivor, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He continues,"the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." How perfectly Jesus would agree to these words! For, this is what Jesus meant by that parable! You just cant be silent spectators, you just can't stand by the sidewalks and see things happen, not even sit in the stands and cheer! No... FIGHT the good fight of the faith!

For the sake of the Truth, for the sake of righteousness, for the sake of justice, for the sake of the exploited, for the sake of the voiceless, for the sake of God's will on earth, for the sake of the Reign of God here and now - can I today resolve to do my little part? Do i dare to denounce my Indifference?

The Lord shall be our glory!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 28, 2019: Zechariah 2:5-9, 14-15; Luke 9: 43-45

Praising the Lord at the marvels that happen and thanking the Lord when everything goes the way we think - they are not too difficult though even that needs a heart that is grateful and eyes that are attentive. To be mindful of the struggles even at moments of rejoicing, being convinced that it is in those struggles that the real meaning lies, not in these momentary successes we could be taken up with - that is true Focus! This is what Jesus teaches us today.

If to be Christ's disciples is to 'put on Christ's mind', the real mind of Christ is revealed in his state of being absolutely focused on doing what God wants! Jesus was clear about his mission. Though the disciples were excited after the event of transfiguration and the healing of the possessed, Jesus gently but firmly brings them back not to get lost along with the noisy crowd and lose track of where they are bound to, towards that moment of Truth - when Jesus would prove that nothing else matters to Him when it is the question of doing the will of the One who sent Him. 

When the Lord promises in the first reading, "I am coming to dwell among you and I shall be your glory", it is not a promise of absence of struggles and testing situations; but an assurance of presence, the presence of a person who knows what we are going through, who has gone through what we are going through and who holds our hand all through, whatever be the situation we are going through! That is a promise beyond anything we need! 

Not the prosperity of wealth, not the fulfillment of your wishful dreams, not the success that your prove before the world, not the projects you get through establishing your name, not any of these, says the Lord, but I shall be your glory! If only we fix our eyes and focus our minds on the Lord and what the Lord wants of us, the Lord shall be our glory!

Rebuild my house - don't give up!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

September 27, 2019: Remembering St. Vincent de Paul

Haggai 1:15 - 2:9; Luke 9: 18-22

The Lord who commissioned us yesterday,'rebuild my house', today assures us that we are not alone on the job! "Work, for I am with you... My Spirit abides among you, fear not!" says the Lord today. 

Each of us has a mission entrusted to us - how big it is or how simple it is, are totally irrelevant questions because, big or small, it is important! In our own way, as we accomplish the life mission that we are given with, we are building the house of the Lord, rebuilding the temple of the Lord, establishing the Reign of God. We need to realise it - that is precisely the call today. 

When we sincerely realise that and accept it to our hearts, we would dare go to any extent in accomplishing it. We see that no amount of struggles or sufferings could keep Jesus away from looking into what was in store for him, with serenity and faith. He rests assured that his God would vindicate him, defend him and deliver him, as the psalmist prays in the responsorial today. 

The readings and the saint we remember today, St. Vincent de Paul, remind us that we have no reason to lose hope, no excuse to give up, even if every thing around us seem to be grim and gloomy. Let us be at our task, let us keep doing our bit to 'rebuild the house', rejuvenate humanity, and put God into a world that tends so easily towards being godless!

Rebuild my House

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 26, 2019: Remembering Pope St. Paul VI
Haggai 1:1-8; Luke 9: 7-9

"Rebuild my house" - the famous call that set St. Francis of Assisi in motion. We hear the same words today, not just from the Word today but also from the world today. Like Francis of Assisi who misunderstood that call and set about initially building the ruined chapel, it is possible that we limit this "my house" in the Word of God to the Church. Pope Francis has time and again warned us of it in these half a decade of his papacy. 

We remember today another saintly pontiff, Pope St. Paul VI, who was instrumental in taking forward the 'Renewal' set ablaze by his predecessor Pope St. John XXIII...in and through the Vatican Council II. Though Vatican II could be seen as a call to renewal of the Church, it is more a call to renewal of the Church in the world, in a world that was so rapidly changing and transforming itself. Pope Paul VI has played a giant's role in shaping the Church to be what it is today, of course aided by the Council, but above all imbued with the Spirit!

When the Lord laments, "my house is in ruins" God refers to the entire humanity - is it not for God to dwell in humanity that the mystery of Incarnation and the story of salvation was realised? Killings in the name of God, killings for money or power, manipulation of the poor and the powerless by the moneyed and the muscled, silencing of the just and righteous, destruction caused by greed and avarice - humanity, the house of God, is in ruins! 

"Rebuild my house," commissions the Lord. Am I serious about doing my bit?

Please Note:
After having posted the reflection, I realised that from the Vatican, on Feb 6, 2019 there was a directive to henceforth celebrate the feast of this great Holy Father on May 29th (His Ordination Day) instead of September 26 (his birthday). I regret for the wrong commemoration, but not for the reflection... May be the Spirit of the Lord wanted it so, in these days when there are so many so easily speaking against the Papacy! 

Be filled and fill the world... WITH GOD

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 25, 2019: Ezra 9: 5-9; Luke 9: 1-6

Often have we heard the saying, 'God chooses not the worthy; but makes worthy the chosen'. It's true, not only regarding particular individuals, but regarding all, even the entire humanity. 

To be believers in God, to be baptised into God's household, to be called 'Christians', is no achievement of ours. It is because the one who created us, has called us! 'It is not you who chose me, but I chose you' declared Jesus. When this truth really dawns on us, apart from an overwhelming gratitude, we would be filled with docility and humility without measure. 

This is exactly what we see in the readings today: a candid realisation of being chosen inspite of our unworthiness; and a clear instruction from the Lord as to how to manifest our docility. 

Ezra, in and through his prayer, makes it so clear how unworthy the so-called 'people of God' were of that status! Not merely before having been chosen, but even later, even as they were being raised up in front of the eyes of their neighbours and enemies. Jesus, reminds his apostles what it really means to be an apostle - to 'be' an apostle first, before 'doing' anything! Most of the commands that Jesus gave them was to do with themselves, and not exactly what their task was or what the target was! 

If we truly realised how merciful and kind God has been in choosing us, we would fully comprehend the meaning of the teachings Jesus gives today. The teaching given in all detail, can be simply stated in one phrase: Be filled with God and fill the world with God!

Being the Household of God

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 24, 2019: Ezra 6: 7-8,12,14-20; Luke 8: 19-21 

'House', 'Mother', 'brothers and sisters' ... today's readings present to us terms that seem to draw a highly familiar note to our faith. It is important to look at our faith and its expression in terms of living in the presence of God, living as brothers and sisters of the Lord and as brothers and sisters in the Lord, instead of duties, obligations and rituals to be faithfully carried out. 

It is all a question of priority and clarity of the essentials. At times we get lost in the minute details and let go of a gross reality - may be this is what Christ spoke of when he said of the Pharisees and Scribes: you strain the gnats, but swallow the camels! It is not for laughing at them, but for us to question ourselves whether we are being blind to larger deformities in our Christian faith, than the rubrics, rituals and rites that we fight about. 

The basic premise of our faith has to be a loving relationship with God which makes us related to each other, and makes us persons dwelling under the same roof - every place we encounter each other becomes a 'house of God' to encounter God in the other, alive and active, warm and vibrant. Understood thus, can faith ever divide us? In spite of our faith, if we consider some 'apart' from us, 'lower' or 'higher' than us or not belonging to us, what kind of followers of Christ are we? And worse, if it leads to harming the other, will it still be worthy of the name 'faith'?

By our call and our baptism we are called to live as a household of God, a household that invites, welcomes, receives and embraces everyone as brothers and sisters! What is important is not merely being in the household of God, but being the household of God.

Holiness - beyond your history or geography!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 23, 2019: Remembering Padre Pio
Ezra 1:1-6; Luke 8:16-18

Today we come across an event which seemed messianic for the people of Israel, in fact it is said that they began to look at King Cyrus as the promised messiah, as he gave them the long desired liberty and came forward to build their ruined temple. The message the Word has today is loud and clear - your history and geography has nothing much to decide when it comes to what kind of a person you would want to be. Neither can we write a person off because he or she does not belong to the category we expect that person to be, nor can we escape our divine call citing our background and where we belong! When the Lord calls you, the Lord calls you with all your history and geography!

Being the light of the nations was a collective call given to the people through the prophets; it was also the Christian identity according to Christ - the same Jesus who proclaimed, "I am the Light of the World" (Jn 9:5), commissions us, "you are the light of the world" (Mt 5:14) and "let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Mt 5:16). Holiness, the light to this world, is not about what some people have to achieve, but what every child of God has to be.

St. Pius of Pietrelcina or fondly and popularly known as PADRE PIO, whom we remember today is a prodigy in holiness belonging to our times - a shining light today bringing so many people to glorify the Lord. It is said, he would get upset with those who made their confession to him, but without true sense of conversion in their heart. He knew that holiness, though it is called to shine as a light, lies in that secret of the heart known only to God and the person. Let us be filled with the Light, and let our light shine and reach out - to brighten the lives of people in gloom and warm the hearts of persons who have grown cold!