BEHOLD JESUS!!! THE GREATEST GIFT OF GOD

The Love, Covenant and Beloved of God

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord: January 12, 2020

Isaiah 42: 1-4, 6-7; Acts 10: 34-38; Matthew 3: 13-17

Christmas season draws to its close with the Baptism of the Lord, because the manifestation is made as clear as possible at this point when the voice from heaven thunders, "this is my beloved Son!" The moment definitively seals the greatest of the gifts that God has ever given humanity: God's only Son...Jesus the Christ, the Word made flesh! 

The gift that came down to us on that Christmas night, in the lowliness of the manger, has been gradually unwrapped these days, with manifestations - first to the shepherds, then to the wise men and slowly but strongly to Mary and Joseph, as they beheld that Son of God, in their humble hands.

Today is the culmination of the unwrapping...Jesus the gift of God is unwrapped so magnificently in the Liturgy today. We are called to behold that gift, so that the warning that John gives in his Gospel: he came unto his own and his own did not recognise him, may not happen in our case.

We are called to behold Jesus, the LOVE OF GOD. Jesus is the love of God personified. God's love takes flesh and pitches the tent amidst us... in the person of Jesus! Wherever Jesus went there was healing, life, happiness, forgiveness, in short he was the presence of God, the presence of love, love which lived among people. That is what we are called to perceive, as perceived Peter in the second reading today! 

To perceive Love living amidst us, manifest today by the very voice of God. Perceiving the presence we are called to transform ourselves into presences of love...for the same voice cries out to us today, in the suffering world, in the marginalised persons and in the exploited brothers and sisters!

We are called to behold Jesus, the COVENANT OF GOD. Isaiah proclaims those beautiful words, : I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations. A covenant is more than a contract; a covenant is more than an agreement. It is something that is etched into the lives of those who are involved. It is taking responsibility for each other, that is why the Church defines marriage as a covenant! Jesus is the sign of the responsibility God took for his children; God did not spare even God's only Son, writes the Apostle. 

Perceiving Jesus as the covenant of God, we are called to take responsibility for our brothers and sisters, we are called to concern ourselves with the blind and the deaf of our society, the poor and the needy of our locality, the marginalised and the oppressed in our contexts.

We are called to behold Jesus, the BELOVED OF GOD. The voice declares it in all clarity, as wrote Isaiah of old. "This is my beloved, in whom i am well pleased!" In declaring God's love for Jesus, the voice today declares to each of us: you and I... we are the beloved of God...in whom God takes delight! In our Baptism, God made us God's own, and we belong to God and our God takes delight in us (Ps 149:4). 

In baptism we are made sons and daughters of God...that is brothers and sisters of Jesus, the greatest gift of God, Jesus the Love of God, the covenant of God and the beloved of God...and in Jesus our brother, we are called to be in our contexts, the presence of the love of God; in Jesus our covenant, we are called to be the signs of the covenant of God with the suffering humanity today; in Jesus the beloved of God, we are called to live our lives, every day and every moment pleasing to the Lord, who longs to declare, regarding each of us, "This is my beloved son, my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased!"

Growing God within us!

WORD 2day: Saturday after Epiphany

Jan 11, 2020: 1 John 5: 14-21; John 3: 22-30

Be on guard against false gods; beware of idols, warns the Word 2day. An idol is anything other than God, that tends to replace God! There can be many such things in our lives that take away the prime place that belongs to God - it could be money, it could be our undue attachments or addictions, it could be our ego or our selfishness. It is important to identify the idol round the corner, ready and waiting to grab the place from the rightful Divine. 

The first reading repeatedly reminds us: we are born of God; we are of God; we are in God and we belong to God... It is a call to realise what we are transformed into, at our baptism. As the solemnity of baptism of the Lord nears, the discussion has turned from yesterday, to who acts in our baptism and what happens through it! 

It is from heaven that we receive our baptism, and it is the Lord who chooses us and makes us God's own. In this sense, sin would be choosing something over and above God; and that something, could be a desire, a possession, a person, a value, a thing, an ideology or a habit! Even if it may seem apparently good, nothing of these can overtake God. When they do so, they become idols, our idols round the corner. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can replace God! Therefore, every sin is a form of idolatry: God being replaced by something else! 

Let us remember... as children chosen to belong to God, we should be convinced, that always in our life, God should increase and everything else should decrease! The call is this: Growing God within us, that we decrease and God increases, that we disappear and God appears in us, that we may show the world, we belong to God!

Water, Blood and the Spirit

WORD 2day: Friday after Epiphany

Jan 10, 2020: 1 John 5: 5-13; Luke 5: 12-16

The Liturgy today and tomorrow prepares us towards the beautiful event we are moving towards...the Baptism of the Lord. The reflection begins with the sanctifying elements of Baptism. 

First, the waters of baptism that cleanse, as Jesus cleanses the person with leprosy in the Gospel. Water is very material and refers to our humanity. Even at the Eucharist when the priest adds the drop of water to the chalice of wine to be consecrated, he says it symbolises our humanity. It is our humanity that we bring and the Lord sanctifies it and empowers it. Let us thank God for our humanity.

Secondly, the Blood of Jesus shed on the Cross once and for all, which saves us from eternal damnation and promises us eternal life. Blood of Christ is the Divinity that God was ready to shed for the sake of our salvation; it is the Blood of Christ that makes us people of God - the Blood that is shed for us and for all, for all who accept that Blood and be connected to the Lord. Let us adore the Son of God for the Blood he shed for us. 

Thirdly, the Spirit of the Lord that is given to us, poured into our hearts as a seal of God's love for us, that which makes us children of God! Spirit is that which brings the water and the Blood together - on the Cross when from the side of Christ flowed water and blood, we received the Spirit which brings humanity and divinity together, making us realise that we are truly made in the image and likeness of God. Let us receive the Spirit within our hearts.

We have the Son, always for us and with us, and so we have the eternal life that God promises in the Spirit. The Lord has made us His own, at baptism, in the cleansing water, in the saving blood and in the sanctifying Spirit and we joyfully belong to the Lord!

A crash course on Love: Lesson #3

WORD 2day: Thursday after Epiphany

Jan 9, 2020: 1 John 4: 11-18; Mark 6: 45-52

Love is power, the real, true power that can change hearts, change things, changes times and change the world!

Looking around today, the so-called 'love' seems to be governed by a sense of pleasing, a sense of nurturing the ego, a sense of give-and-take that works on the logic of business, gain and expectation! It is filled with insecurities, doubts, jealousy and exploitation...each of which is a varying degree of FEAR within the relationship of love that persons claim to be sharing! 

But as apostle John says, there is no fear in love - perfect love casts out fear; because perfect love is founded on God. We can love, because we believe in the love that God has for us! We are called to love because God loves us! We will not have fear of anything...because God loves us and God is with us and repeats to us the words that Jesus says in the Gospel today: "Take heart, it is I; have no fear!" 

The presence of God with us, is a power. The assurance of God's love poured into our hearts is a power, with which we can take on the whole world! Love, the greatest of all powers, be with us always!

A crash course on Love: Lesson #2

WORD 2day: Wednesday after Epiphany

Jan 8, 2020: 1 John 4: 7-10; Mark 6: 34-44

Love is a concrete Life style - love is not just a feeling; it is not just a sentiment. 

Love is a decision; a commitment; a life-style. It is a life style because we are loved into existence; our very origin is love. God loved us first and we are therefore expected to love; if we do not love, we do not understand our own nature! And no one can call oneself, spiritual, faithful, holy, religious, or pious, if he or she does not love his or her brother or sister. 

Faith, Hope and Love, these three remain; "but the greatest of these is Love" (1 Cor 13:13), because God is love (1 Jn 4:8). And this love has to be seen in the concrete day to day choices... the choice of words, of actions and of priorities. As we reflected yesterday, love is giving of oneself without expecting, and this self-giving has to be seen in concrete action, not in just a wishful desire or an utopian dream. Love is the power of being children of God; Love is taking the side of the needy and the suffering, the last and the least, the exploited and the desperate. When we make that concrete choice in or way of life, there will always be means to do even the impossible, as we see Jesus in the Gospel today - feeding the crowd with just nothing in hand. 

Love is a concrete life style that makes present God, here and now, for all, especially those who need the most!

A crash-course on Love: Lesson #1

WORD 2day: Tuesday after Epiphany

Jan 7, 2020: 1 John 3:22 - 4:6; Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25

Just done with the intense Christmas mood with the Epiphany just past, the Word offers us a crash course on love, beginning today, to set the tone for the New year at our disposal. 

Lesson #1: LOVE is giving, a giving of oneself, a giving of oneself to the other without any calculations of gain or profit. 

The first reading reminds us of the fact that God gave everything even God's only Son... because God is Love! The Son gave everything even his divinity, because he was Love personified! Jesus was filled with compassion for the people and He reached out to each of them in love, in boundless and unconditional love. The Holy Spirit lives on within us, because the Spirit is the mark of God's love for God's children. 

Let's be ready to GIVE, not just from what we have but from what we are...to those around us...beginning with the family, the brothers and sisters who live with us, on a daily basis. Let us learn to give without anyone asking, let us learn to give without calculating, without looking for returns, without asking whether the other merits or not... that is the Love that comes from God!

To whom do I belong

WORD 2day: Monday after Epiphany

January 06, 2020: 1 John 3:22 - 4:6; Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25

The first reading is full of terms like - to remain in God, to belong to God, to be God's children and so on! All these are possible because of the "one who lives in us" (1 Jn 3:24). Hence the first and the most crucial call we have is to accept and realise the presence of the one who lives in us! As John the Baptist wanted to ascertain the presence of the Messiah and so sent his disciples from the prison to Jesus, so are we to make concrete efforts to experience the presence of the Lord - amidst us and within us!

Once we know, accept and realise the One who lives in us...our priorities will be affected, our choices will be influenced by that conviction. Look at John and Jesus in the Gospel today... they were so utterly convinced of the One who was living within them that one did not mind being arrested or executed; and the other did not mind taking over the mandate and continuing, once he came to know that other could not do it anymore! 

The things that we do in life are secondary to what we are, it is very true! But it is also equally true that what we really are would determine what we decide to do, what we choose to embrace. What we are, consists mainly of the question of our 'belonging': where and to whom we belong? If we belong to God, our choices will be godly, come what may! 

Jesus had an ample cue as to what awaits him, with the example of what befell of John the Baptist! But still Jesus chooses to go forth and proclaim the Reign of God - because he knew where and to whom he belonged! I have come to do the will of the one who sent me: that was his conviction. The choice of our actions and our attitudes depends much on, to whom we belong to!

CELEBRATING THE SELF REVEALING GOD

THE FEAST OF EPIPHANY: January 5, 2020

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

The only possibility of knowing about God is through God's own self revelation! God is no simple object to be discovered or invented; God is a person whom we should get to know. Knowing God is possible only through the self revelation of God in history, in the Word, in our day to day experiences and in ways known only to God. 

Today we celebrate that one event, that one life, that one person - JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, in whom God revealed Godself fully, completely, definitively and super abundantly! The revelation has been going on even before Christ, through prophets and judges (Heb 1:1), through chosen men and women. The revelation goes on even today in our everyday life, through the Word and the traditions, through day to day experiences, through holy men and women who have gone before us and those of our times. These revelations find their fullness in the Paschal Mystery, that is: the birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God.

The feast of epiphany is a celebration and a thanksgiving to the Self revealing God who deigned to reveal Godself in the person of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. This feast of revelation reminds us of three realities of our faith:

SEEK... to know God: One has to seek, to know God; there should be a yearning within, in order to encounter God. The wise men from the east got wind of something special that was in store and they sought to know what it is. They were wise men, but they wanted to know more and more! 

Faith has to be deepened; there should be a yearning within us to grow more and more in our relationship with God. It is true that the fullness of revelation dwells in Christ, the Son of God...but I have to seek to personalise it, to encounter that revelation and relate to it in first person. I cannot rest with second hand experiences and age old narratives, I need to seek to experience this revelation of the Lord in first person, and truly behold it myself!

SEE... to find God: One has to see, to find God; God is always present with us, all that we need to do is see! 'Lift up your eyes round about, and see' says the first reading. The wise men found the star, they saw an invitation in it. They found the way and the saw a direction there. They found the baby, and they saw someone special that God was preparing there. 

We find so many around us... but we need to see the face of God in them: in our brothers and sisters; in those who are suffering and toiling; in those who are exploited and crushed; in those who are treated with disdain and burdened with pain; in those who wake up every morning not certain of the next; in those who have so many worries and concerns in life that they can never think of living the present moment! We need to see God, in the innocent love of a Child; in the tender touch of a mother; in the brimming eyes of a caring person; in the everyday miracles of life. Once we see God in these, we will surely find God concretely present in the Church, in the celebration of the sacraments and in our prayer moments. 

SHINE... to show God: One has to shine, to show God; we are called to become instruments of revelation ourselves. 'Arise! Shine!' calls the first reading. St. Paul speaks of how the Lord made him an instrument of revelation to the people! When we seek God and manage to see God, we begin to shine. That is why Isaiah says, "then you shall see and be radiant"...the very seeing makes us radiant, makes us shine! 

Our Faith is not something merely to be understood and believed, but it is to be lived and be shared. Revelation is at one and the same time a grace and a challenge. A Grace, because it is gratuitous and comes from God. A challenge because, once we get to see God, we have to shine; shine and announce God; shine and share God; shine and show God to the world, to all who are in darkness, sadness and gloom! Especially today, when the world is eager to celebrate anything that is not God and wants to do away with anything that is connected to God... if I believe in the Lord, I have to shine, I have to shine to show God to the world.

The Self revealing God invites us to SEEK, SEE and SHINE. To accept the invitation is an act of FAITH; a beginning of a journey, a journey that lasts the whole lifetime - every day of which we are called to Seek the Lord, See the Lord and Shine for the Lord!

They went, they saw, and they stayed!

WORD 2day: Saturday, January 4, 2020

1 John 2:29 -3:6; John 1: 29-34

Come and See, invites Jesus... just as one of the psalms invites us to 'taste and see, that the Lord is good' (Ps 34:8). Don't just seek for second hand information and interpretation of experiences. You come and you see, challenges the Lord.

'Come and See', refers to a call and a choice! Jesus calls us - COME. It is our choice - TO SEE. To see the Lord leading us everyday, to see the Lord directing us on our way; to see the Lord acting on our behalf and to cooperate with the Lord's will in every way... that is the choice we have to make! 

It is a radical choice - a choice of black or white, light or night...there can be no compromise with the Lord - it's righteousness or sin; ultimately, an yes or a no to God! If we choose God, we choose righteousness; if we do not choose God we choose sinfulness. 

Of course there could be moments of temptations and weaknesses, but the choice is fundamental. It defines my daily life, every word I say, every decision I take and every move I make. The disciples, heard the call and they made their choice. They came to see what Jesus was about, they saw and they chose to stay! The same challenge is extended to us at the very beginning of a fresh new year.

We have come to the Lord; we have seen the marvels of the Lord; now the question is, are we ready to STAY forever with the Lord!

JESUS - the name above all names!

WORD 2day: Friday, January 3, 2020

1 John 2:29-3:6; John 1: 29-34

'There is no other name under heaven...by which we shall be saved,' says Acts 4:12. 

Names, in the Biblical tradition are not merely nominative, they are descriptive and definitive! Abraham, Moses, were names that defined the history of the person; Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, were names that defined the very role of those who bore them; John was given the name even before he was conceived, just like JESUS, the Saviour; Emmanuel, God-with-us! 

The Name says it all - You are to name him Jesus, we see the Angel instructing Joseph in Matthew 1:21... Yeshua. The reason for the name is declared immediately the Angel: for he will save his people from their sins. The Saviour, the liberator, the deliverer. How does he save, deliver, liberate? With some magical intervention from afar? No! The Lord saves, by becoming one among us. St. Paul tells us (2 Cor 5: 21): For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. He became poor (2 Cor 8:9), He became like us (Heb 2:17), He became one among us, and came to dwell with us - to save us, lift us up, take us to himself! That is what we have just celebrated - the Incarnation.

The true purpose of Incarnation was not to demonstrate the grandeur and the omnipotence of God, but the closeness of God with those whom God loved. Emmanuel is the title that explains best the love that God has for us...For God so loved the world, that God gave up everything even God's own Son; and the Son of God gave up even his Godhead and came to be one among us! 

The Word was made flesh and dwells among us..here and now... and its name is, JESUS, the name above all names!