The King in search...

WORD 2day: Saturday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 18, 2020: 1 Sam 9: 1-4,17-19,10:1; Mark 2: 13-17

The Word presents to us today two persons...one, who went in search of the asses and the other, who went in search of the sinners... both for the sake of their fathers' wish! Though the comparison is strange, the fact is that both are kings...one the first king of Israel and the latter the eternal King of heaven and earth. 

We may consider ourselves worthless and dumb as asses, but the truth is the Lord is in search of us. Many a time, we speak of the humanity that is in search of God...but how much more true it is to think of the Lord who is in search of each of us. What good it would do, if only we realise the fact that we are a bit lost, each of us in one's own way! And to understand the fact the Lord is continuously in search of us, through persons, events, and daily experiences. And finally to submit to the One who is looking for us...that we may be found, that we may be embraced, that we may be made full, wholesome, healthy and holy!

Let us open ourselves up to the Lord; invite the King into our hearts; and the King shall reign for ever in our lives and through us, reach out to many more who are lost and are searching for themselves! The message today might sound too allegorical, but it is simply this: to be forever open to the Lord, in a sense of daily conversion and repentance, ever growing to be more and more, children of God, the Eternal King.

Freedom and Submission

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 17, 2020: Remembering St. Anthony, the Abbot

1 Samuel 8: 4-7,10-22; Mark 2: 1-12

It seems to be a human tendency to look for something or someone, to which or to whom, one can submit oneself! Whether by force or by choice, a form of legitimate dependence or extraordinary obsession, habit of blaming someone or positively seeking someone's counsel... we are always looking to submit ourselves to someone or something! The point to be noted here is this: whatever be the form of submission, and whatever be its reason, it makes us dependent or subservient. 

The first reading reminds us of this human tendency and before we judge the people of Israel of those historical times, let us understand how we ourselves fall into the same category! How many persons, things, habits, attitudes keep us under their control and we willingly submit to them!

The only submission that gives us a sense of freedom and a sense of self-worth is the submission to God's authority - because God dwells in us and a submission to God, as God's children, is a reinforcement of our dignity, our self-worth and the sovereignty that God has placed within us, as human persons. Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk - that is truly a reinforcement of personal dignity that comes from God to God's sons and daughters.

St. Anthony of the desert, the third century saint we remember today, reminds us of this, in and through his life lived totally in submission to God and God's authority! He was one of those who pioneered monastic life in the Church and lived his life in a desert depending on God and God alone!

Let us realise that God has the ultimate authority over us, and thus we will experience the greatest of all freedom: the freedom of the children of God.

Do we know our strength?

WORD 2day: Thursday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 16, 2020: 1 Samuel 4: 1-11; Mark 1: 40-45

When the Israelites rejoiced at the arrival of the Ark to their tents, the Philistines shivered and recognised that the Lord was amidst them! The Israelites realised their real strength was the Lord. You are my strength, my fortress, my rock of refuge - expressed the Psalmist later. And people saw this true in Jesus too. 

If you wish to, you can cure me, said the man to Jesus, realising the source of grace and salvation is in the mighty will of God. God's will saves us, protects us and guides us. All that we need to do is allow ourselves to be guided, to be strengthened, to be fortified by the Lord. 

We need to rise from a style of life that is a mere damage-control, to a more proactive responsible living. We live life as it occurs to our minds and in a way that we could not care less about God and God's will, until when something untoward happens and we are all down in the drain. Instead, what if we lived, whether in joys or sorrows, whether in victories or failures, whether in the ebb or the flow of life, always mindful of the Lord who is the real provider!

When we realise the presence of God ever in our midst, we will live a life that is worthy of the Lord and the Lord's will; and that alone can keep us from becoming mere laughing stock among the people! Let us live up to our call, our vocation - that of being sons and daughters of God - and do that, always; not just at selective moments. Let us realise our real strength, the Lord our God!

To do good - is that really enough?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 15, 2020: 1 Samuel 3: 1-10,19-20; Mark 1: 29-39

Preaching, healing, casting the demons out - Jesus went around doing good! But he was personally conscious that doing good was not good enough! When the disciples scout to find him and the people try to possess him for themselves, he insists that he needs to move on. 

Doing good was good; but more important for him was doing what God wanted of him. We get lost sometimes in the frenzy of doing good to as many as possible... not really bothering whether we are doing really what God wants of us! Doing good for the sake of "doing" may not lead us far enough; doing good for the sake of "good", for the sake of God who is good, is what really matters!

Obedience to Eli and service in the temple was something good... but God was calling Samuel for something higher: to listen to the Lord and speak the Lord's word to the people! When doing good alone becomes our concern, a lot of problematic elements like the fame-game, the ego-trips and rat-races find their way easily in. 

Instead, if I am convinced of doing what God wants of me, I will surely find serenity even amidst the worst of situations. But for that, I need to learn to say: 'Speak Lord, for your servant is listening!'

The capacity to magnify the Lord

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 14, 2020: 1 Samuel 1: 9-20; Mark 1: 21-28

It is a spiritual capacity to magnify the Lord, to exult in the glories of the Lord! The responsorial psalm presents to us the precedent of the famous magnificat sung by Mary in the Gospel according to Luke: the hymn of praise and thanksgiving sung by Hannah, who realised the goodness of the Lord to her! 

It is a special capacity to realise God's hand in things that happen in our daily life. Even what was so apparent to the demons, who recognised Jesus and proclaimed him as Christ, was so difficult for the so called learned scribes and the pharisees to understand! Even the people, till the end they were only amazed and kept asking who Jesus could really be! 

It is a grace to recognise God and God's presence in our daily life. It may take a crisis and a way out of it, for some to recognise it. It may take an endless list of wonders and miracles for some to acknowledge it. It may take a great accomplishment or a favour received for some to exult God. But BLESSED are those who need nothing, absolutely nothing of these, to feel, recognise, acknowledge and magnify the unceasing presence of God in their lives, come what may!

When things go wrong we spontaneously look to the Lord and demand for answers. But when things remain normal and calm, how ready are we to see the hand of God, and praise the magnificence of the Lord! If we are ready to believe that there are no coincidences in life, we will witness mighty miracles on a daily basis!

What is in store, doesn't matter... Just follow!

WORD 2day: Monday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 13, 2020 - 1 Samuel 1: 1-8; Mark 1: 14-20

After a long while we are back to the Ordinary time and the very first message that the Word gives is so relevant: Just follow the Lord. 

In our life's journey, that which can grant us an incredible serenity is the attitude of Following the Lord, without being worried too much about what is in store! We are still in the beginning of this year. After nearly 2 weeks of the new year, there could be in our minds still the plans with which we began the year, the goals we set for ourselves, and the projects we fixed for ourselves.

While thinking of projects that engage our days, it is normal that many things preoccupy our minds. Samuel's story that we begin to reflect on from today, affirms to us that God has a definitive plan for each of us; as the Lord would explain the same through Jeremiah in Jer 29:11: for I know the plans that I have for you. 

The secret lies in not permitting the grievances of our past to stunt our life and at the same time not permitting the anxieties of the future eating into our todays. Let us live our life, here and now, to the full, with total confidence that the Lord has a plan that will unfold in God's own time! 

All that we need to do is what Jesus tells us - FOLLOW HIM!!!

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!