The Face of an Angel

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

April 27, 2020: Acts 6:8-15; John 6:22-29

The readings today remind us of our vocation and gift. 'What are we called to?', that was the question that the people meant when they ask Jesus in the Gospel today, "what can we do to accomplish God's works?" "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent": that is our vocation, that is our gift! 

Vocation, because it is our life task, to know the Lord, love and accept him as our personal saviour and testify to him unto death. Being a vocation, it is a task at all times, notwithstanding whether they are good or bad. More precisely, specially at trying times, because it is a challenge to remain faithful to the Master!

It is a gift, because in doing it, we become children of God (cf.Jn 1:12). It is a state of grace where we turn into co-heirs to the Reign (cf Rom 8:17), and we acquire the face of angel - as it is said of St.Stephen in the first reading today. 

Our faith and our commitment to faith adorn our face with a light and beauty that makes it look 'angelic'... let us realise our hidden face of an angel; let us preserve and persevere in growing to the full stature of the angels - close to God and ever at God's service!

GOD REVEALS... AND WE?

Receive, Realise and Respond

April 26, 2020: 3rd Sunday of Easter

Acts 2:14,22-33; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35

Christ is the fullness of Revelation of God. What God has been revealing through various means and varied persons, God finally revealed in fullness through God's own Son and there is no other revelation that is fuller than this. However, Revelation has not ended with it. It goes on even today, it continues, it progresses! What is most important is what we do in the face of this continuous, progressive revelation.

There is an entire mindset and disposition that comes into play when we reflect on this aspect of revelation! First of all, one has to believe that there is an ongoing revelation from God - that God speaks today, here and now! Not that everything is said and done, recorded and sealed and there is nothing new to know! God reveals, in and through each and every thing that happens to us and around us. At this point of time there is a global happening that is filling the minds of every one invariably... the health emergency that the entire planet is facing. Apart from the great sadness and suffering that it is causing to persons and communities, there is a revelation here in too...this is where our eyes of faith have to become sharper to observe and understand, look and learn, spot and personalise.

Secondly, when we say God reveals in situations, it is not that God creates a situation so than it could be revealed... let us not give into that naive interpretation that is doing the rounds (in fact every time a so-called natural disaster strikes this interpretations is revived). It is so unintelligent and unChristian to say God sends some disasters to remind the human beings how they have gone astray! The term so-called natural disasters is purposefully used here, because how many of these natural disasters are really and literally "natural"...if only we analyse them enough, we would see that ultimately they were human-made, the cause be greed, exploitation of the resources and insensitive approach to the common home, the planet earth and the universe. It is never that God sends disasters... God sends reminders and messages through persons who speak up and protest and call the attention of the world. But we are so negligent of these sign right upto the moment when the disaster breaks open! How blind are we to neglect the induced climate change that is ticking the globe's way to annihilation. How hard headed are we to believe that using an extra automobile or cutting an odd tree in a locality or polluting a little rivulet in the vicinity would do nothing to the global wellbeing! 

Having these reflections at the back of our mind...let us listen to the Word giving us three commands this day: Receive, Realise and Respond to God's Revelation - only then shall you be truly considered God's own people! When God reveals Godself and the essential truths to live by in our daily life...

...We receive. The disciples as they walked, when the Lord offered to walk with them, they accepted it, they received him. When Jesus began to speak to them about a lot of things that have happened they listened with patience, they received it. When they found Jesus had something divine to offer them, they invited him to stay with them, they received him in their house. Today as the Lord offers us revelations, we need to be in a position to receive, to welcome the message, to really listen and truly see what the Lord wants to communicate.

...We realise. Once Jesus broke the bread, they realised it was the Lord. Once we experience a unique sign from the Lord we would realise that it is the Lord who is at work. The Lord communicates himself to us, we need to realise how great we are to receive it and realise how wonderful it is to have the Lord with us. We need to realise our own frailties, faults and most of all the responsibility that we have right now, right here - to do whatever we can, however small it might be!

...We respond. The disciples as soon as they realised it was their Master, they could not wait, they left and returned to where they started from, to meet the apostles. They didnt mind the distance they had covered, nor the effort or the tiredness, they wanted to respond wholeheartedly and they did it. Responding to the revelations of the Lord, many a times, will demand much from us and we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared to put ourselves into some inconvenience, some suffering, some challenge and some call to reach out and to change our ways.

Even today, in and through the proclamation of the Word, through the experience of people shared, through the events that take place around us, through the majesty of the nature and power of the miracles, the Lord keeps revealing Godself to us. Let us not give into naive interpretations and fictional narratives! Let us get truly in touch with the Lord and sit at the Lord's feet, ready to receive, realise and respond to God's self revelation with love, faith and hope.

A 'Go' that binds

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

April 25, 2020: Celebrating Mark the Evangelist

1 Peter 5:5-14; Mark 16:15-20

Certainly the words of St. Peter in the first reading will speak immediately to the situation today: you will have to suffer only for a little while: God of all grace who called you to eternal glory in Christ will see that all is well again; he will confirm, strengthen and support you (5:10). A message of hope! But that is not the crux of what we celebrate today; it is Mark, the evangelist. 

Mark comes out as a dedicated young man convinced of his call and enduring in his response. The apostles and disciples were extremely different from each other in their calibre and character. But what bound them together was the 'Go' that they received from the Lord. It was the commission from the Master that kept them  going. We see generations of them following each other in responding whole heartedly to the project entrusted. 

To Go, meant to go to the unknown lands, to meet unknown people, to get into unknown territories, to get out of one's comfort zones. This is exactly what the Holy Father keeps insisting - a Church that is on its move, a Church what has hearkened to the command of its Head, a Church that is continuously trying to make newer sense of this world and of living life to the full. 

Mark becomes the representative of the generation that immediately followed the 12 and Mark leaves indelible trails by his commitment and dedication. He was the first one to record a written account as a Gospel, say the researchers and he did this mostly from the teachings and sermons of Peter, the elder brother among the apostles. 

The call is to the young today: can you dedicate yourself to the commission from the Lord... to Go!

Gamaliel and the Miracle of Multiplication

WORD 2day: Friday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 24, 2020: Acts 5:34-42; John 6:1-15

Gamaliel proved a true God-fearing man and his words become a miracle. Try and notice the beautiful connection made in the Liturgy of the Word today: there is the multiplication of the loaves reported in the Gospel but we see that unfolding in reality in the Acts, in the form of the multiplication of the Christians. From a mere handful, the people of the Way begin to grow in leaps and bounds. 

More than the miracle itself, what led to the miracle claims our attention here. The miracle happened because of the following three reasons:

- the Apostles and the band kept God and God's Word above everything else, even above their own lives. They were ready even to lay down their lives, instead of giving up on proclaiming the Word. They openly declared they would obey God, even if that meant their lives!

- the Apostles and the people considered it God's mission and not their own enterprise; they gave the entire credit to God. This is what is proved by Gamaliel's statement. If it were their own making and their own plan, it would have crumbled in  no time. It was God's plan and they persons involved recognised it and readily accepted it, the consequence being the great fruits they saw in such a short time.

- the Apostles had no other hidden agenda, for instance their own glory, making a living, or creating a following for themselves. They surrendered themselves totally to the Lord and they were multiplied, multiplied far beyond their own expectations. 

God's Word, God's plan and God's glory - these are the sources of invincible strength that one can have in life... and a Christian with these is indeed a great witness unto the Lord.

We and the Holy Spirit...

WORD 2day: Thursday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 23, 2020: Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36

The presence and coming of the Spirit and witnessing to the Lord and his resurrection, are very closely knit and that is what the Word brings out today. If we have to witness to the salvation that we have experienced in the Lord - firstly, it is possible only with the Spirit: for no one can proclaim that Jesus is Lord except through the Spirit. Secondly, it is the Spirit that makes the witness efficacious. 

When we submit to the Lord, the Father fills us with the Spirit says Jesus today in the Gospel...and that is what is needed utmost in our lives. It is happily surprising to see the way the Apostles looked at, understood and related with the Spirit... in the Word today we have an interesting and inspiring episode. 

The Apostles declare, 'We and the Holy Spirit are witnesses to these things!' It was not so easy for them to witness to the Lord until a particular point of time in their lives, when everything changed. There was something within them, with them and around them, that made them extraordinarily strong, fearless and passionate about the Lord. It was so clear for them that it was the Spirit. Indeed, for them the Spirit was someone who lived with them, within them - just like anyone of them. That is why they spoke of the Spirit as one who lived with them, to be taken count of: we and the Holy Spirit.

Today, our Christian witness would go a long way in bringing the Lord to the people and bringing the people to the Lord, if the Spirit becomes our constant life companion, as someOne who lives with us!

Conformity or Conflict? Conviction or Convenience?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 22, 2020: Acts 5:17-26; John 3:16-21

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light; whoever lives the truth comes to the light! Light is given as an imagery of openness, transparency, outspokenness, integrity, conviction and courage. Darkness is hiding, double play, people pleasing, hypocrisy, convenience and comfort seeking.

The world contains four categories of people in relation to right things. 

The first category are those who do the right - they are people of Light, courageous and convinced. The second category are those who assist those who do the right - they are people for the the Light, convinced and seeking the truth! 

The third type are those who hinder anyone doing the right, these are people tending towards darkness and they stand for spreading that darkness. There is the fourth category, and the worst - they are those who are involved in doing the evil directly and acting against any light! We find all the four categories referred to in the readings today. 

The primary call we have today is to analyse our choices, our preferences and our priorities and see for ourselves, sincerely, to which of these four categories we would belong. Secondly, there is a lesson for us today, that while we strive to be people of the light and do the right, we can come across persons of all the four categories. What would our reaction be? What would guide our response in situations such as these... 

Conformity? or Conflict? or Conviction? or Convenience? 

Life in the Spirit

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 21, 2020: Acts 4:32-37; John 3:7b-15

Unless you are born in the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God...but how do you see that one is born in the Spirit? It is only through the life that is lived. There can be no space between belief and life... we are expected to live what we believe and what we believe has to be translated into our lives. That is the essence of a Christ-like life, the formula for life in the Spirit. 

What do you call those who claim to be people of the Spirit but have their selfish interests, hidden agenda and connived plots? How about those who consider themselves 'very religious and pious' who panic at the earliest pressures, lose heart at the easiest of burdens and give up at the first of trying situations? How do you understand some one who is deemed by the society as an atheist or an agnostic, but is ready to even give his or her life for the wellbeing of the other and for the common good? Isn't there a paradox involved here? That paradox is the secret... the Spirit is like the wind that you know not where it comes from and where it goes... but you feel it, your experience it, you sense it!

Life in the Spirit has to be verified on a daily basis. As Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruits; so the signs of our life in the Spirit has to be seen in our day to day choice for love, our capacity for sharing, our willingness to give up for the sake of the Lord, our readiness to think of the other before ourselves and our sense of oneness in the Risen Lord!

Let us examine our daily choices: do they reflect a life in the Spirit? Or are we living a life born from below? Let us be born from above, let us be born of the Spirit! Let us continuously grow in our life in the Spirit.

Let the earth be shaken up!

WORD 2day: Monday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 20, 2020: Acts 4:23-31; John 3:1-8

With Christ having risen from the dead and the disciples having realised its effects, history opens to the next phase! The people of God who were made into Easter people, now get ready to put on another identity as the people of the Spirit... "a Spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline" (2 Tim 1:7). 

It is like asking the believers to grow up and take charge, not to live in the shadow of fear and timidity but to speak up with courage the Good news of the Lord. It is like we are challenged today with this crisis: how are you going to rise up from here? what is this contagion and the resultant suffering and anxiety going to do to you? Is it going to dominate you and make you a totally defeated person or are you waiting to spring back to joy, optimism and renewal? 

If we have to come back with new life, that needs a transformation - a real, total, concrete personal transformation leading to a transformation as a believing community. The courage and the conviction of faith of a true believer will shake the earth, describes the readings today. People have to look at us and wonder, how do they manage it: optimism in the face of suffering, hope in the face of anxiety, love in the face of all the turmoil that could come their way!

Let the earth be shaken up today, because of our convictions. Let the humanity which seems to be on a down-slide with regard to its spirit, and more regard to its values and morals, be shaken up because of our Spirit-filled lives. Let us not be overcome by evil; but let us overcome evil with Good (cf. Rom 12:21).

MERCY - THE MARK OF A CHRISTIAN

The Identity, the Source and the Embodiment

2nd Sunday of Easter: April 19, 2020
Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20: 19-31

This Sunday is liturgically called the Low Sunday which marks the end of the Easter Octave. "A week later" or "eight days later", indicates the Gospel today; it was a week later that Jesus appears to all the eleven, including Thomas and patiently, mercifully and lovingly leads them to true faith. The feast of Divine Mercy was instituted and fixed for this day by the  Pope Saint John Paul II, who was very much attached to this devotion, inspired by the Polish saint Sr. Faustina and her visions.  The central message of this Sunday is - MERCY!

The first reading speaks of how the early community of Christians becomes a mighty witness to the Lord. They were the epitome of the command that Jesus gave, 'be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful'. Mercy becomes their way of life, or rather their renewed way of life. As a mark of being a Christian, mercifulness to each other specially to those in need, becomes the point of attraction for many...and as the reading goes - the Lord added to their number everyday! Mercy is the high point of Christian identity. We do not gainsay that in anyway, but what matters most is how it is lived on a daily basis. It begins with our life at home: with our dear ones, elderly parents, sickly loved ones, troublesome children, rebellious youngsters... how is our relationship? What level of patience and acceptance do we manifest? These days with the lockdown and the quarantine, our patience must have been tested to its limit... what have we discovered about ourselves, about our levels of mercy, towards ourselves and towards others?

The Second reading speaks to us of the Source of mercy, God the father of Jesus Christ who in mercy sent the only Son for our salvation! The Mercy of God is given to us as an example and a scale to measure our "genuineness of faith"! Preaching and believing in high ideals of love and compassion, if we but hate people and divide families, envy others and detest their wellbeing... we are far far away from God, the God of Mercy and compassion. This is one of the loudest messages that Pope Francis wants the entire world to hear - you cannot call yourself a Christian nation, or Christian society, or Christian community and speak of war, division, discrimination, exploitation, retaliation and so on. What a shame to call ourselves 'Christian' and still stick to these terms of thinking and acting. Do you think blaming it on others who provoke such act or attitude, would justify this tendency in anyway?

Jesus' encounter with the disciples after his resurrection manifests a special quality of mercy... it is an encounter that is full of unlimited forgiveness and unconditional love! There is no demand that the disciples have to render an account for having abandoned Jesus at the crucial moment of suffering, for having betrayed him or having denied him!  There is no accusation that they refused to believe in Christ and his resurrection in spite of the numerous times and ways in which they had been taught about it. There is no taking to task Thomas and others who were stubborn in their unbelief even after multiple testimonies! All that Jesus does is, tell the disciples that he was always with them and invite them to be his witnesses throughout the world. That is the Embodiment of the mercy of God in the incarnate Son, the mercy which dwelt among us in flesh and blood and dwells among us today in the Spirit. Mercy, hence, has to be lived today in forgiveness and love; there can be no place for grudge and grievance, envy and slander, cheating and stealing, killing and enmity. 

In a world that is weighed down by exploitation of the weak, domination of the powers, threats of the arrogant, indifference of the affluent, selfishness of the elite - Mercy has to be exercised and manifested in our proclamation of the true Gospel: the liberation of the captives, the consolation of the suffering, the restoration of the exploited and the dignity of every human person. The Joy of the Gospel has to be announced to the whole world, calling the exploiting lot to justice and the exploited hearts to God's goodness.

At a time when persons are used and things are loved, relationships are strategised and families are sacrificed, marriages despised and commitments belittled - Mercy has to take the form of daily forgiveness and authentic love for persons, mutual acceptance of weaknesses and humble admittance of mistakes, loving care of the affected and reaching out to the weak: that is what a family is all about. It is in families that the Mercy of God has to be first infused today. The Joy of Loving each other has to fill this world with the presence of God and the real mercy that upholds personal and interpersonal dignity.

Amidst crisis that we are going through at this moment, let us not forget the various other crises we were fighting already before this COVID-19 episode began - the depleting water resource, the escalating pollution, the fossil fuel issue, the extinction of beings, the imbalanced accumulation of wealth, the deprivation of the powerless and so many others - Mercy has to take the form of loving the creation, every aspect of it, from the perspective of the Creator, the attitude of giving praise to the Lord by caring for our common home... that is true and practical Mercy.

As we celebrate the Divine Mercy of Jesus... let us understand and accept Mercy as our mark of identity as God's own children, the distinctive character of persons who call themselves Christians! Let us be merciful as our heavenly father is merciful, every day of our lives.

To be recognised as his companions

SATURDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

April 18, 2020: Acts 4:13-21; Mark 16:19-15

"They recognised them as companions of Jesus", says a verse (13) in the first reading today. From the things that happened around them, from the words that the disciples were proclaiming and from the life that they were living, 'they recognised them as companions of Jesus.' 

Mark summarises the week after Easter in the passage that we read today in the Gospel. Again, the crux is to speak of, to announce, to proclaim Christ, whom they have experienced. Mary of Magdala 'went and told his companions'; the two of them 'returned and told'... Finally the Lord gives us the command: Go and Proclaim!

The two fold call that we have today is... 

First, to identify ourselves as companions of Jesus, to know that we are walking everyday with the Lord, that we are not alone on our life's journey and that all that happens in our daily experience has a tremendous impact on ourselves and others; that we need to be attentive to every little thing that is happening and see what the One who is with us wishes to communicate to us in and through them - specially in experiences like what we are going through these days. 

Secondly, the call is to 'proclaim'...to begin with, through our mindsets, attitudes and lifestyle and then explicitly through our words and speech. Look at the statement of the apostles at the Sanhedrin, "it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard!" It was so strong in them that they could not but talk about it - if we do not speak of God, or manifest our attachement to God, could it be that we have really had no strong experience with God? It is an important element to think about. 

Here is the point: have we seen and heard, that is experienced Jesus personally? How compelling a need is it for me to speak of Jesus to others? Are we really filled with the zeal to stand for Christ and speak of Christ todayy? Only if we feel that strong bond with the person of Christ, will the world ever recognise us as his companions, his friends, his associates, his disciples, his ambassadors.