COMES, BECOMES & CHALLENGES TO BECOME

The Memory, Meaning and Mission

February 2, 2020: The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2: 14-18; Luke 2: 22-40

We have been prepared during the last week towards the celebration today! The reflections on David's dedication to the Lord, the fall of Saul and the eventual fall of David...all these communicated to us the nature of our vocation as human persons: that we are called to belong to the Lord. They also brought out to us the weakness with which we have to constantly struggle in order to be faithful to this call. And finally, the feast today assures that we are not alone in this struggle, the Lord lives with us, all along.

THE MEMORY: The memory that we celebrate today is that of the Lord who comes, who comes into His temple! A beautiful moment so picturesquely presented by Luke. The expectations, the entry, the enchantment and the extravaganza that was witnessed in the Temple as Mary and Joseph bring the child into the temple premises. We celebrate this memory, the memory of the Lord coming to us, the Lord of the world entering our world. It is always so important to keep in mind that moment, those moments special when the Lord in some way encountered us - through a word that we heard, or a person we met, or a event that shook us, or an experience that all of a sudden called our attention. That moment, that memory could be an extraordinary source of meaning and strength.

THE MEANING: The memory that we celebrate has a specific meaning, that the Lord comes to be like us! The Lord chose to share this world with us in His incarnation and became like us, like us in everything, except sin, says the letter to the Hebrews (4:15). The Lord chose to suffer, the Lord chose to be tempted, the Lord chose to undergo the same struggle as each of us do! We are not alone in our struggles, and we are not at the mercies of an insensitive, arrogant boss type of a God - No, we are in the hands of an empathising God, an understanding Father, an embracing mother, a supporting brother! What else do we need? Why should we fret? Could anything really remove the rug from under our feet? Pluck up courage, stand up to yourself, keep working your way towards goodness and at the summit of it lies our union with God - that is the meaning offered to us. 

THE MISSION: The meaning of this memory, leads us to a deeper understanding of the Mission of the Lord who comes. The Lord comes to be like us, that we may become like Him. When John proclaims in his Gospel, "to those who believed in him, he gave the power to become children of God" (Jn 1:12), he underlined this specific mission of the Messiah - to make us like him! It is a 'power', that the Saviour gives us, to become children of God. And it is a 'becoming', a growth, a continual progress, a non-stop process of maturity, of clarifying our priorities, our values and our choices. The mission is life-long, because our very lives are our mission, not merely what we do at certain points of time. Our life, lived in loving union with the Lord and ever worthy of the Lord's love, and gradually becoming like the One who has called and commissioned us is our primary mission

If we have to become like him we have to first "Let Him enter" when He comes. The responsorial psalm invites us to open the portals of our heart and let the King enter. And when the Lord enters, He enters to purify us...like the fuller who washes the linen white, like the silver smith who burns the silver to purity, like the gush of water that enters to wash away all sediments of impurities, the Lord enters. At times it can be painful to be washed, to be refined, and to be flushed of our naive attachments and egoistic pleasures. But without those, there is no purification or refinement. Speaking of faith, in the Apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis says, "God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us" (n.12). The feast of Presentation reminds us of this dimension of our faith - to offer to the Lord everything of ourselves! 

The Lord becomes like us to challenge us to become like him. Jesus lived like us, but every moment of his life was a declaration to the One who sent him: "Here I come to do your will" (Heb 10:7)... that self submission to God begins in the event that we celebrate today. 

Let us pray for the Christian Parents that they, like the Holy Family, may offer themselves and their family into the hands of God, who has called them into loving existence. Let us pray for the Religious who have offered themselves to the Lord, that their consecration might ever be uncompromising. 

Let us pray for each of us, that we may welcome the Lord who comes to us, who becomes like us, that we may learn to become like Him! 

The Storm and the Calm

WORD 2day: Saturday, 3rd week in Ordinary time

February 1, 2020: 2 Samuel 12: 1-7, 10-17; Mark 4: 35-41

"It is you!" - the famous finger of God against David, is the picture we are left with today by the Word. The Lord loved David, but David slipped into godlessness; however, when God pointed it out to him, like an inamorata clinging back to the beloved after a split, David comes back with remorse and love so tenderly balanced. 

It takes a special grace to recognise and accept it when one is convicted by the Lord. The Lord knows our innermost thoughts and even our motivations, and hence even a choice or action that seems 'good' in the eyes of those around, need not always qualify for the 'acceptable' tag in the eyes of the Lord. But it takes that illumining grace to see, understand and accept the truth.

It is another experience of grace to respond in an appropriate manner to a fault pointed out. Even when David realised he had sinned, he never panicked or never gave into guilt... he felt sorry and bounced back to the love of God, because he knew and he was convinced that the Lord was with him and the Lord loved him above anything else.

The storms may rage all around us, but we can still remain calm if only we realise the Lord is with us and the Lord loves us above all else. When Jesus woke and rebuked the sea and the storm, he did not rebuke only them. He also looked at the disciples and made them realise how foolish and faithless they were. Aren't we sometime like that, if not most of the times?

When the Lord is for us who can be against us? The Storm and the calm go side by side for an authentic Christian! Let us be calm... let us be still and know the Lord.

The Reign and the Ruin - beware both are subtle

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 31, 2020: Celebrating St. John Bosco

2 Samuel 11:1-4,5-10,13-17; Mark 4: 26-34.

Jesus today explains how the Reign of God is subtle in its presence and its growth; it does not happen with a bang but it germinates, sprouts and grows in a manner that no one notices it.  

The danger is, even the enemy is subtle in his ways! The first reading presents how the chosen one falls into the inconspicuous trap set by the enemy. One fall follows the other...one worse than the former! 

The reminder given to us is the necessity to be alert all the time, as the Word of God reminds us very often. To be alert would mean to know what the Lord wants of us at a particular time and being able to choose exactly that. More than that, it means to be careful about the deceiving ways of the evil one, who is intent on winning us over to ruin, not merely by gross blunders but more dangerously by subtle compromises, slight slides instead of mighty falls. However the ruin is certain! 

St. John Bosco, the saint we celebrate today, understood this fact perfectly. That is why he suggested that the way out of sin, is holy joy! To be thoroughly occupied with good things, that you will never have the time to sin - that was his ingenuous suggestion to the young. 'Run, jump and shout, but do not sin,' he said. Let our hearts be so filled with the Lord, that we hardly have time to think of any other. 

The Reign, no doubt, is subtle; unfortunately the ruin too could be subtle. Our dedication to the Lord has to be absolute; let us serve the Lord in holy joy!

[Note: the readings are different where the proper of the feast of St. John Bosco is chosen; Since not everywhere the proper readings of the Saint will chosen, the readings reflected on here are of the day - i.e., Friday, 3rd week in Ordinary time]

TRIDUUM TO THE FEAST OF DON BOSCO - DAY 3

DON BOSCO - THE SAINTLY FOUNDER

The Three Promises - his salvific itinerary 

Why did Don Bosco found a congregation? Was that part of his dream at nine? It wasn't. It was no where in the horizon. Not even the historical context warranted such a move of founding a religious congregation while dozens of others were being suppressed and clamped down. What was in Don Bosco's mind? Of course, the mission given to him in his dream: show them the beauty of virtue and ugliness of sin; win them over with your loving kindness. In due time, he was promised that he would understand what he was called to. 

Don Bosco began to work for a small group of young people who needed him the most and that small group grew bigger by the day! At a point of time, he realised that even without being much conscious of it, he had opened himself to a mighty big world that the Lord held before him. Those words of our Blesssed Mother in the dream, "This is your field" was coming alive in ways and magnitude that were unprecedented. Don Bosco could not be satisfied with leading a few youngsters to God, he wanted to lead all the youth from all over the world, to God and to salvation! And the Congregation and the Salesian Family was the salvific itinerary that he proposed. An itinerary that consisted of three promises, three concrete promises - Bread, Work and Heaven! 

Da mihi animas, caetera tolle - that yearning to take the young to the Lord was uppermost in the heart of the saintly founder, who considered that not only as his passion, but also the way to his salvation. He proposed the same to his followers, his sons and daughters, his family, which stands spread far and wide today as Salesian Family. And this salvific itinerary, Don Bosco made it sound so simple with his three promises!

Bread - that was the promise of the Divine Providence. When Jesus called, if you wish to be my disciple, give up everything, take up your cross and then, come follow me, Jesus was underlining the God who provides, the God who takes care of our every need! The promise of bread is not so much a promise of convenience and absence of suffering, but a challenge to a way of life that is totally dependent on God! A life of poverty that depends on God and thrives on God's providence. 

Work - that was the promise of Divine Will. Work is not just doing, it is not achieving, it is not sealing my name on everything around me, as if to say, I own them all! Work, more than doing, is the vocation to do the Will of God. The one who does the will of the Father is my brother, my sister, my mother! Don Bosco's promise of Work was born from his conviction that he was an instrument in the hands of God, and everyone who joined him became such an instrument. A life of obedience, that concerns itself with doing the will of God and nothing but the will of God.

Heaven - that was the promise of Divine Intimacy. We are a people of God, citizens of heaven, our celestial destination. But all the way to heaven, is heaven! That is the call we accept when we pray, 'May your kingdom come'. When we live a life of total dependence on God, a life totally for the will of God, that would be a life of pure and spotless love, the love that is born from the love of God, from that divine Intimacy that creates a paradise, wherever we are! 

Don Bosco's promises etch an itinerary so sure to take us all the way to that salvation that awaits each of us - the divine providence that sustains us, the divine will that guides us and the divine intimacy that sanctifies us. Let us walk with Don Bosco, profoundly certain that we are on a salvific itinerary. 

To be given more!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 3rd week in Ordinary time

January 30, 2020: 2 Samuel 7:18-19,24-29; Mark 4: 21-25

What a lovely seen to picture in our minds - David seated before the presence of the Lord and speaking his heart out! What an example we have! 

David acknowledges the amount of good that the Lord has done on his behalf, the way the Lord raised him up from nowhere. He realises too well, that to be given so much means there is much more expected of him. Though he failed in some ways, due to his weaknesses, his love and dedication to the Lord never ceased.

The Lord chose to raise David up and David proved himself worthy of that choice in spite of his weaknesses: doesn't it look like the story of anyone among us? The Lord has chosen us and we need to live worthy of that choice in spite of our weaknesses and limitations. Yes, we are given with a clear and challenging example in the Word today, and this call has two important dimensions to it.

The first is the need to realise the fact that I am called. The more I live humble and aware of the fact that I am chosen, the more I would be blessed. At times we think we are too small to be chosen, too ordinary to be called. Small or big is never the matter with God - with God every one of us is God's child and every one is chosen and called, in a very particular way.

The second dimension: the more I am blessed the more have I to grow worthy of it. I am never a finished product. I need to be always aware of the goodness of the One who has called me and negotiate all the tricky deviations and treacherous pitfalls on my journey. Weaknesses do not hurt as much as not being aware of them or justifying them! 

To be given more, means I have to grow more. What a lovely way to sanctity! 

TRIDUUM TO THE FEAST OF DON BOSCO - DAY 2

DON BOSCO - THE MAN OF GOD

The Three Devotions - his spiritual project

In the dream of the Two Columns,  Don Bosco actually speaks of three important signs; the three elements that would make up a wholesome Salesian spirituality. The Column of the Eucharist, the Column of Our Blessed Mother and then the Ship steered by the Holy Father. In some predominantly Catholic cultures, these could be taken for granted, though it is difficult these days to find such predominantly Catholic cultures. Anyway the three elements underline the 'catholicity' of a son or daughter of Don Bosco. All the three of them are so specifically Catholic and are those very core elements that are under attack from any anti catholic force, be it in history or now. 

The devotion to the Blessed Sacrament sets the sense of God's continual presence to degree extremely high and makes a person awe filled in his or her daily life. When the Church , in the year 1905, declared that a person prepared duly could receive communion everyday, Don Bosco would have screamed with joy, if he were alive. Because that is what he wished for his children even before the Universal Church could come up with it. But today, is the Eucharistic presence being taken for granted? Is it being made into a mere ritual or is the sacrament truly received as a mode of uniting oneself with the Lord?

The devotion to Our Blessed Mother was for Don Bosco the most human form of tasting the love of God - in and through the love of a Mother, the Mother of God. Jokingly said, that Don Bosco found a short cut in Mary, to arrive at what he wanted from the Lord and Saviour, it could but be all meaningful. Mary is the short cut, the direct manifestation, the immediate proof of God's grace within human nature. That was the inspiration that Don Bosco had in growing to the full in his nature and grace - our devotion to the heavenly mother, has to make us more like her, ultimately more like her Son.

The devotion to the Holy Father, as sons and daughters of Holy Mother the Church, is a guarantee of remaining true to our identity: the identity of children of God. What would have Don Bosco done, in times like the present? People trying to form factions against the Holy Father, those trying to mislead the Papacy, those vying to destroy it and those trying to misinterpret it unceasingly? Times actually are not too different - in Don Bosco's time there was a great criticism of Pius IX and what was Don Bosco's stand: he said categorically: "it is better to go to heaven with Pius IX than to be right with those who criticise the Pope." We are beloved sons and daughters of the Church, and hence of the Holy Father! 

The call that we have today, the second day of the triduum, is the spiritual project that Don Bosco presents to us. It is a call to renew our awe and love for the Eucharistic Lord, to learn from our Blessed Mother and to resolve to stand with our Holy Father, as true and worthy children of God. 

The Word made sense

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 3rd week in Ordinary time 

January 29, 2020: 2 Samuel 7: 4-17 Mark 4: 1-20

The Word comes to us every time with a specific call and life changing challenges. We would make it dead if we do not make the real sense out of it. But in the name of making sense of it, there are those who try to twist and turn it and interpret it to their own benefits! Do you think the Word of God can be so twisted and turned? Obviously, these would be running a great treacherous risk!

The Lord himself provides us the possibility of making sense, in our daily life. Only that we have to be ready and open, we would be shown what really the Word has to offer or challenge. Open with out eyes, open with our hearts, open with our ears and open with our minds that persons, events and experiences can provide us with that key to decode the Word for our concrete lives. 

We see David so open and eager, as Samuel makes sense of the Word to him. The disciples ask Jesus to make sense of the Word to them and Jesus does it so impressively. We may go in search of meaning and messages too - but the danger is that we are looking for something that we want to see, something that is pleasing to us, while all the time the message from the Word has been right in front of our eyes.

Receiving the word and making sense of it should lead us to concrete changes in life. If not, the Word would be dead as the seeds picked by the birds or scorched by sun or suppressed by the thorns. Openness is the only way to be spiritually fertile, giving fruit in abundance.

Dancing to God's tunes

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 28, 2020: Remembering St. Thomas Aquinas

2 Samuel 6: 12-15,17-19; Mark 3: 31-35

David danced before the Ark of the Covenant - we come across this famous phrase from history. David apart from his rule as the favoured king of Israel, is known for the psalms he has given us and now for the dance he performs before the presence of the Lord. Moving away from all the literal significance of these facts, let us look at what David wants to communicate to us: it is, giving full vent to what you have within you, to what you are within you, before the Lord, that really matters. He cared nothing what the world cared as image!

Thomas Aquinas, whom we remember today was a great 13th century theologian who has contributed to the most clear and classical theological explication of the Catholic Church till date. He wrote an extensive theological work consisting of 3125 articles with such clear argumentation, that it is called a Philosophical Theology. But he left the intended third volume incomplete, because on Dec 6, 1273 he had a Divine vision after which he seemed to have declared, "All that I have written seems like a straw." His disciple had to complete it, after the death of Aquinas (Mar 7, 1274). All his great intelligence and proficiency seemed nothing in front of God, just like David considered his kingly splendour a rubbish.

Jesus says that in different terms - it does not matter you are a great powerful kind or a proficient intellectual giant; what matters is being in the presence of the Lord, listening to the Lord and doing what God wants of you. Losing ourselves in the Lord, being totally taken up with God's will...that is what being a child of God means. In David's terms, it is dancing to God's tunes! 

TRIDUUM TO THE FEAST OF DON BOSCO - DAY 1

DON BOSCO - A SALESIAN EDUCATOR

The Three Pillars - his educative proposal

Was Don Bosco a Salesian? A curious question indeed! Though Don Bosco was a diocesan priest, when he founded the Congregation and to his great joy and satisfaction when on May 14, 1862, the first group of 22 Salesians made their first triennial vows to the Lord, as religious members of the newly founded Society of St. Francis de Sales, Don Bosco himself says, he too made his profession to the Lord, committing himself in perpetuity to the Religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. This we see in the seventh volume of his Biographical Memoirs. However, our point here is not so much about that, as it is about the 'Salesian' that Don Bosco was at heart - that is, a person who followed the life, example and spirituality of St. Francis de Sales, the saintly wise pastor. 

One of the great inspirations that Don Bosco received from Francis de Sales, and passed on to us his sons and daughters is the style of the accompanying persons in their growth. That was the fount from where Don Bosco drew the principles of his own educative proposal - the three pillars: Reason, Religion and Loving Kindness. He writes in his famous account of the Preventive System: "this system totally rests on reason, religion and loving kindness." We see the gentleness, the kindness, the tenderness of Francis de Sales and at the same time him firmness in guiding persons to sanctity. 

Religion would be the total surrender in faith to the Lord who has granted us the great gift of life and all the opportunities to grow to the full. That would be the sense of vocation with which we live, and invite the young with us to live with. That is the conviction that no one here on earth, finds oneself here by chance. There is a purpose to life and that purpose has to be discovered on a daily basis.

Reason would be the trust and and hope we have in the inherent goodness of the other, a goodness that reflects the image and likeness of the Divine that is placed within us. It is appealing to that goodness that one can challenge oneself or challenge anyone to values of great honour and dignity. We do not need any external reason to be good, we have an integral reason to be good and holy, because are we have it deep-seated in the core of our being. 

Loving Kindness is the intense experience of God's love and sharing the same with the others to whom we are sent. It is being signs and bearers of God's love to the young! It is the source from where one could derive for oneself or for those in need, all the necessary strength to face every kind of situation in life - good or bad, joyous or sad, challenging or discouraging - for we have a God who accompanies us with love, an unconditional unlimited love.

The call today for us on the first day of the triduum to the feast of Don Bosco is to make this educative proposal our own, in every way. Let us surrender ourselves in faith to the Lord and invite the young under our care to do hold on to God; let us hope in the goodness of every person around us and counter the culture of negativity that threatens the world today; let us abide in the love of God and share the same with every one whom we encounter that God's love can continue to live amidst us every day and every moment!

Becoming One people of God

WORD 2day: Monday, 3rd week in Ordinary time

January 27, 2020: 2 Samuel 5: 1-7, 10; Mark 3: 22-30

The call of the people of God is still the theme of the Liturgy... it continues from last week and the reflection on Sunday. The first reading presents to us the scene of the people of Israel being consolidated into One under David, the chosen one of God! The Gospel presents to us Jesus' longing to gather everyone together into one fold as children of God. Elsewhere, in the Gospel according to Matthew we would see this longing of Jesus when he says, "how often I have longed to gather you together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." (Mtt 23:37) 

Oh, how much our insensitive and self centered attitude renders our Christian life meaningless, pointless and a farce! We judge people, demonise their good will, begrudge their well being, and as a consequence ruin the others' happiness and our own inner peace. It's high time we learn to see God in others, instead of demonising them; that we begin to love people instead of judging them; that we see the glory of God in the well being of the others. 

We see the attempts to demonise Jesus by the hypocritical religious leaders to keep the people from following him. Jesus dialogues with them, tries to put sense into their pride filled, egoistic minds... how would he succeed when they  are not really ready to open their hearts! Our hearts need to listen to each other, only then we can become ONE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

Even if we do not approve of another person's thoughts and actions, we need to at least give them a patient hearing, open listening and a genuine chance to present themselves. That would be truly Christian - and when we do these, surely the faithfulness and the mercy of the Lord will ever be with us!