THE WORD AWAITS

Good soil: receptive, perceptive and productive

July 12, 2020 -15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 55: 10-11; Romans 8: 18-23; Matthew 13: 1-23

“The Word is active and alive” says the famous words from the letter to the Hebrews (4:12). Isaiah today, presents the same theme drawing our attention to the Word that comes from the Lord and does not return until it has accomplished the purpose for which it came! There is no doubt that the Word is active and alive, effective and efficient, powerful and purpose filled… but an indelible fact is that producing fruits depends on more than one thing! First and foremost of those conditions: it depends on the receiver, clarifies the Liturgy today. It is not that the Word will be automatically powerful and change-causing, independent of the one who listens to it. Right at the origin when the Scriptures deal with the creation narration, there is a difference made about the way the Word acted in relation to the human persons vis-à-vis the other creatures.

The Word awaits the response of the person in order to create in and through the person the desired effect. This is due to the Personal Freedom that the Lord empowers us with. The readings, the first and the Gospel, presents a beautiful analogy…the Word as Seed. The analogy is exceptional because it takes into serious account the crucial aspect of the readiness of the concerned person to respond, in order that the Word may bear fruit. The Word requires that the receiver is a Good Soil, so that the Word may have its way! What does it mean to be a good soil?

To be good soil, we have to be Receptive: Unlike the pathway that gives the seed away so easily, and does not have any room for the seed to penetrate, we need to be receptive in order that the Word may have some effect in us. The receptivity consists in our readiness to listen, our love to understand and the willingness to retain.

At times we seem to be listening, but actually we might not be listening at all. Very often in film making there is a convenient mode of story telling which is called the 'mind voice'. It is a peculiar phenomenon, where the audience are given to hear what the person on the screen who seems to be listening to the other, is actually not listening to the other, but listening to and speaking to oneself! The other person thinks that he or she is being listened to, unaware of what is going on really in the mind of the other who appears to be attentive! This can happen in our daily lives too: we may appear to be listening to the Word - we read the Bible, we listen to sermons (sometimes even preach), we recite psalms, we do umpteen number of practices of piety through which the Word comes to us - but in all these we are so filled with what WE are doing, that the Word almost ends up on the pathway and disappears in no time. What a sad situation that could be! How conscious are we about what the Lord wants to communicate to us? How receptive are we?

To be good soil, we have to be Perceptive: Receiving is not enough, states the parable. The rocky ground and the land covered with thorns did receive the seed, but were not deep enough or prepared enough to send down its roots. Being perceptive consists in spending time with the Word. Allowing the Word to sink into us, to spark insights within us and to challenge our present style of life… these are the qualities that a real listener of the Word will have. Otherwise we would be, as James warns us, fooling ourselves (cf James 1: 22-25).

Have you come across persons who are totally excited at moments when they receive a great favour from the Lord - may be a good word from some one, may be a long awaited fulfillment of a dream, may be a unexpected favourable turn of events, may be a solution to a long endured problem... yes, so excited that they cannot contain themselves. They rant and ramble of the goodness of the Lord to them and their overwhelming happiness, but only to be seen within a short while grumbling and whining at a small problem, or a confusion, or a disappointment, or a failure! They might seem to have forgotten totally all that they were exuberant about a while ago! Anyone who listens to them at that moment, might think what a wretched time the person is having all his or her life! Wonder why this extremities?  Purely because the experiences do not sink in, they remain at the periphery and get vapourised, disappear into the thin air, at the earliest! What a squandering of life's moments this could be!

To be good soil, we have to be Productive: True yearning for the Reign of God, as St. Paul refers to in the second reading is the mark of being children of God. That is, a longing for a lasting change, the eagerness to grow, the formidable energy with which the seed bores the soil to put its head out into the world. We have to moan with the pain of a woman in childbirth; we cannot be complacent with our ordinary, below average spiritual life, if we really want some change to happen within us. 

The Word challenges us towards this change. It is left to us, to our personal freedom and to our yearning for perfection, to make solid resolutions and follow it up with concrete actions. Most of the time, we may fail... that is no reason for discouragement, as long as we are ready, willing and earnest about starting all over again. The gift of life that God offers us, grants us innumerable opportunities to germinate, to grow and to produce fruit! All that we need to do is - stay receptive, grow perceptive ad live productive.

The Word awaits such productive grounds, that it may accomplish the task for which it was sent by the Lord. A receptive, perceptive and productive person, is the good soil on which the Reign will germinate, grow and spread into a great tree where birds of all kind will come, reside and rest. Are we?

It is the Master who sends...

WORD 2day: Saturday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 11, 2020: Isaiah 6: 1-8; Matthew 10: 24-33

It is the Lord who sends; it is the Master who calls; it is the Teacher who commissions! It is not because I am worthy to be sent, or qualified to be called or skilled to be commissioned... but it is because it is the Lord who calls! As St. Paul says it in such simple terms: "those whom he called, he justified" (cf. Rom 8:29). However unworthy I am, when the Lord has appointed me for a mission, he makes sure that mission goes on through me. 

As soon as we speak of being called and being commissioned, let us not think of those in the ministry - the priests or the religious or the lay ministers or those who have some special responsibility in the faith community! The 'called', the 'sent', the 'commissioned' referred to here, are not those but every Christian who is called, commissioned and sent by the very fact of one's baptism in the Lord! 

Yes, we are called, commissioned and sent, each of us! And it is the Master who sends, the King who clothes us with his majesty and glory, adorns us with his identity and entrusts with his power. It is in the name of the Lord, that we go - not because we can go or we are competent to go - but because, the Lord, the King, the Master, wants us to!

On my part, the challenge is to be mindful of the fact that it is the Lord who has sent me and commissioned me and to be convinced that the Lord takes care of everything around me, provided I live my life faithful to the call. A thousand may fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand, but nothing will come near me, for I have made God my refuge, prays the Psalmist (in Ps 91:7).

It is the Lord who has called me and it is Lord who has commissioned me, I am accountable to the Lord and only to the Lord. In this world and to those around me, I have nothing to prove! All that I need to do, is stand in awe at the majesty of the Lord, believe in the Lord's sovereignty and submit myself in total faith into the hands of God, saying "Here am I Lord, send me!" When the Lord does, we will see the glory of God revealed in marvelous ways!

God with us - in thick and thin!

WORD 2day: Friday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 10, 2020: Hosea 14: 2-10; Matthew 10: 16-23

this sign in Indian tradition is called the Abhaya Mudra ,
the Lord assuring God's unfailing and protective presence

"Straight are the paths of the Lord"(Hos 14:10), declares prophet Hosea today. Straight, and therefore tough. Straight and therefore no compromises. Straight and therefore no confusions! Everyone knows the ways of the Lord; everyone knows what is acceptable to the Lord and what is not; it is made known by the Lord to every human person in their innermost self. No one can say, I was not aware that this is the right thing to do! Of course, every one knows it or at least has the possibility of getting to know it.

Further reflecting, the words of Jesus in the Gospel are quite frightening as we find Jesus trying to warn us against being good, against choosing the ways of the Lord and being God's disciples or apostles of the Word. He does not promise any prospects, instead persecution. He does not announce any offers, instead oppression. He says it very clearly that we will have to suffer for his sake, for the sake of the Word and for the sake of the Reign of God.

Each one knows what is good and what is right...and while choosing it, there is going to be problems and trials - unfortunately we know that too! Come to think of it: one knows saying the truth is the right thing, but doing it, he or she knows the consequences of being isolated; one knows being honest and sincere is the godly thing to choose, but he or she knows too, that it will only bring loss and lag, while the rest of the dishonest world seems to march ahead in victory and glory! So choosing God's ways seems to bring nothing desirable! 

Now listen to Jesus who assures the consolation of the Lord, the consoling and affirming presence of the Lord with us, always and everywhere. Because what we have chosen is the way of the Lord, we are certain to find the Lord present with us all the way. The way might be filled with pitfalls and climbs and hurdles and thorns and thistles... but we are sure amidst all these, the Lord walks with us, the Lord speaks on our behalf and the Lord acts in and through us. What a mighty consolation we have: in thick and thin, God with us!

Love, because you are loved!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 9, 2020: Hosea 11: 1-4,8-9; Matthew 10: 7-15

We are loved, loved by God, loved extremely and unconditionally. Like a child, without having to pay back we have been loved by God. Hosea who has been speaking to us for the past few days, brings out the compassion and love of God towards God's children in various terms, always contrasting it with our own infidelity and fickle mindedness. Today he brings out the love that God has for us in terms of a love that a father or a mother has towards a little, helpless child.

In the Gospel Jesus gives a practical demonstration of what happens when we really understand and experience this love of God, so free, so unlimited and incredibly unconditional. When we receive the love from the Lord, we cannot hold it within us - because of two reasons: we receive it undeservedly and we receive it in such immense measures! That is why he sends his disciples far and wide, and asks us today, to go and to take the loving message of God to every nook and corner of the earth.

Experiencing God's love makes me by nature loving. The more I experience God's love truly, the more loving I become. The corollary is revealing: the less loving I am, the less have I really experienced the love of God. Hence all those hypocrites who spread hatred in the name of God, are despicable beings that have really not experienced the true love of God. Isn't that a challenging perspective to think about?

If we really experience the love of God, drink deep from it, we cannot but give it because our cup overflows! We give because we are filed with it. We give because we are given. We love because we are loved!

God's instruments of love

WORD 2day: Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 9, 2020: Hosea 11: 1-4, 8,9; Matthew 10: 7-15

The Word today presents to us yet another intimate dimension of God's love and compassion: the love of a loving parent, the love of a father or that of a mother. The very same compassion that Yahweh had towards the people of Israel, Jesus exhibits towards all. The longing of the Lord to hold us close to Godself, the yearning to be close to God's children and assist them in every bit of their difficulties, the readiness to understand their uneasiness and provide them with solutions of true and eternal joy and give them an experience of wholeness... the heart of God goes out to God's people in compassion and love.

There is an added dimension in the Gospel, when Jesus tells his disciples whom he wishes to send among the people ahead of him... to go to heal, to listen to, to empathise with and to be there for the people, specially those who are suffering. Look at those manifestations of God's presence indicated by Jesus: healing, listening, empathising and being there for the suffering! God, God's word, God's message, God's messenger have to bring to the world exactly these and not division, hatred, hurts and rancour.

Jesus seems to say, God wants to endlessly show God's love to the people and you are the instruments through which God will accomplish that desire! It is here that the wonderful prayer of Francis of Assisi becomes so meaningful and precious: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace! To sow love, mercy, forgiveness...that is the mission of a person of God.

Let us realise today that we have a specific mission wherever we are: let us not look for love, let us give it; let us not look for understanding, let us live it; let us not look for mercy, let us be merciful. Let us be God's instruments of love.

The passion to be compassionate

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 7, 2020: Hosea 8: 4-7, 11-13; Matthew 9: 32-38

The Word today presents to us two contrasting realities: the obstinate sinfulness of the people and the absolute compassion of the Lord. A contrast that fills the pages of the Salvation history, right from its beginning up until now, until our own days and our own lives!  

In the first reading, Hosea points out how despicable the people were getting. The dwindling faith, the blatant compromises, deliberate choices for what is ungodly, absolutisation of human autonomy, justification of a lawless economy... wait! are these not the experiences that the society is grappling with even today?

Is there a way out of these? Surely no, as long as the idolising tendency of the human person does not disappear. Today we make idols out of money, possessions, our own ego, power and position, status and social image, sometimes so ironically, even of our own religiosity, forgetting the actual epicentre of true meaning of our existence! How many values, persons and principles we sacrifice in the bargain! As if that is not enough, the society is ever ready to demonise those who stand for justice and truth, those who speak up for God, those who stand for God's people. The so-called mainstream society ostracises those persons as anti-socials, conservatives and anti-progress individuals. 

Jesus presents himself to us as a motivating role model, inspiring us to stand for God and for the values of the Reign, inspite of the world that threatens us. Jesus is absolutely compassionate even when he finds that the people were not ready to understand him totally, some of them in fact were calumniating against him. Nothing would perturb Jesus... and it was so because, it was his passion to make people feel the compassion of God. Yes, the theme we reflected on yesterday...being the compassion of God and being compassionate with suffering children of God. The challenge today is, can we be still compassionate, even though we find those around, not really worthy of it!

To be the compassion of God

WORD 2day: Monday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 6, 2020: Hosea 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22; Matthew 9: 18-26

We begin to listen to prophet Hosea from today... and Hosea brings out an intense dimension of God's love towards us. He offers the analogy of a spousal love to the relationship between God and God's people. A reminder to us, of the how compassionate God is towards us God's people. The central call is that we realise the Comapassion that God is.

Jesus brings out the same compassion in his own way, his heart goes out to the woman with the suffering and his tender love reaches out to the girl on the death bed. The readings present to us Jesus, as the compassion of God and in doing so has an underlying commission to us. As we are given to understand and acknowledge Jesus as the Compassion of God, we are called and challenged to be the compassion of God in our own way, wherever we are and in whatever we do.

In a culture that is widespread today where the very meaning and implication of love is misunderstood or insensitively neglected, when faithfulness and mutual commitment in family living is more and more under crisis, when possessions and positions mean much more than persons... the message is truly challenging. It gets more challenging, with the crisis the world is going through right now, questioning all the securities that we have been always dreaming of and relying on.  

Today, let us be conscious of every moment when the Lord gives us an opportunity to be God's compassion to others in our own way, beginning from within our families and our lockdown set ups. Though little deeds, they might go a long way in making the day blessed for us and for the others.

THE POWER OF MEEKNESS

Towards a sensitive, egoless, counter culture

July 5, 2020: 14th Sunday in Ordinary time

Zechariah 9: 9-10; Romans 8: 9, 11-13; Matthew 11: 25-30

To be powerful, to be the leader, to be dominant, to be in command, to be the super power, to be economic world leaders... these are the dreams people always grow with and crave for. The world advocates it as "normal" ambition of "normal" persons. How would you look at a priest, for example, who when he comes to any Religious community, invariably would go to the kitchen and eat his meal with the cooking staff who prepare the meals for the community? Or if you come across a person, a multi-millionaire in fact, who runs an orphanage and every time sits with his orphans to have his meals everyday. Not imaginary, these are choices, choices for the weak, the meek, the humble, the powerless and it is here that there is real power! 

The choice of Yahweh in the Old Testament was for such people. God was, God of the poor, the God of the oppressed, the God of the suffering. The concept of 'Anawim Yahweh', that the prophets speak of: the vulnerable, the suffering, the poor, the bowed-down, the people in submission - the Lord stands by them; they are the privileged people of God. The definitive choice of God is seen absolutely in the choice that God makes, to become a human person, go through all that a human person goes through and accept death, even death on the cross (cf. Phil 2). The First reading says the Lord comes not on great splendid chariot or with the power of the horses or powerful weapons. The Lord comes on a colt! "Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart!" 


The Word today present us with three challenges, in order to be considered worthy people of God: 

The first is, the challenge to create a counter culture: the people of the Reign are called to be prophets who challenge the present order. The Lord repeatedly instructed during the past week through prophet Amos: Do not be conformed to the world! Challenge the culture that justifies domination and subjugation. Challenge the world that idolises wealth and power and prominence. Do not succumb to the culture of craving for power.

A Counter culture is the most indicative reality of the Reign of God. It is the critical stand point that evaluates all that is considered normal and customary, appreciates what promotes the good of everyone and questions those which discriminate, divide, and deprive someone of their due! It could be in terms of economic, social, personal, emotional or whatever well being, in everything and in each of these, a person and every person in a society has the right to his or her due. That is what the Reign of God is all about: harmony, brotherhood and sisterhood and peaceful living together. In a culture that opposes all these, Reign of God has to be identified, without doubt, as the counter culture.

The second is, to challenge one's own ego: the more you do away with your ego, the more you give space to the spirit of the Lord within you, says the first reading today. It is very logical, the less space I give to my ego, the more space I can give to the other; the more space I give the other, the more space I am able to set apart for God.

An Egoless personality is that kind of a person who knows who he or she is, rejoices in one's own gifts and talents, acknowledges one's own limits and shortcomings, and does all that is possible to live one's life to the full, without absolutising oneself in relation to the other, without making oneself the centre of everything, and without manipulating everything and everyone around towards one's own good and well being. A person with an egocentric attitude, cannot see the other or the other's needs, nor the way out of a self-centred perspective of the world and the entire reality. How much we have given into the craze for power, popularity and pleasure! Are they not filling myself with myself? How will there be place for God there?

The third challenge is to create a society that is meek, humble and peaceful. The Lord promises, all those who are tired and heavy laden, 'come to me and I shall give you rest'. But in the very next verse, he says: take my yoke upon you and learn of me - and you will find rest! The conditions placed for the real rest, is taking the yoke from the Lord and learning from the Lord to be humble and meek. 

Meekness is not weakness. It is in meekness that a person is truly strong; it is the mighty weapon that Jesus has taught us to use to the best of results. Creating a peaceful world, creating a warless society, creating a just and egalitarian society, the change has to begin from within: having a heart that is founded on the balanced ground of the Lord; developing within, a spirit that is unscathed by jealousy and rancour; nurturing a soul that is sweet and filled with love! This sweetness, love, forgiveness, mercy and serenity is the real power of meekness!     
 
Only this power of meekness can create a culture that is egoless, sensitive and peace-loving. As long as we look at meekness as an inability and vengeance as real power, as long as we look at our ambitions and goals as the absolute and persons and processes as secondary, as long as we keep our eyes fixed on the so-called victories and trophies and forget to see the hearts that we are trampling on, we cannot create a counter culture, that is we cannot make the Reign present, here and now! If we truly wish to be people of God, the people of the Reign, let us strive hard to rediscover in our daily living, the power of meekness!

The Reign Perspective!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 4, 2020: Amos 9: 11-15; Matthew 9: 14-17

The times are dull and dreary, the situation is grim and gloomy, the future seems uncertain and bleak, people start talking of a so-called new normal and not returning to the normal at all, there are popular predictions and scholarly forecasts all of them disturbing... these are the kind of feelings that fill our days today... the same are presented in the readings too! But a truly Christian hope is that, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. The last word is always the Lord's. 

Amos, who has been pronouncing such vehement warnings all this while, at a point comes out with a hopeful projection of the future. In fact, some scholars say, that this part of the text could be actually an interpellation into Amos' text. However, the readings today point to the fact that things can and will change for the better. There will be plenty, there will be justice flowing like river and righteousness like an overflowing stream, in short, there will be the Reign of God established for sure!

The call on our part is that, we should be prepared for it. We should be prepared to have a new mindset, a totally new perspective, an absolutely different value system! Cosmetic changes will not work...patchworks will not be sufficient...little additions here and there, simple deletions at places will not suffice... these adjustments will only make the situation worse, more confused and totally disoriented. What will help is only a radical transformation in Christ. It is what St. Paul would say, 'do not be conformed to this world, instead be transformed in Christ Jesus' (cf.;Rom 12:2); 'those who are in Christ are a new creation' (2 Cor 5:17). And for this we have put on the mind of the Christ (cf. Phil 2:5) and that is a radically new mindset, a totally new perspective, new thinking for the new times, new wine in new wine skins, an absolutely different value system: namely, the Reign perspective!

Doubts or difficulties... till death, with the Lord!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 3, 2020: Celebrating St. Thomas the Apostle to India
Ephesians 2: 19-22; John 20: 24-29


The Feast of St. Thomas could leave us with three lessons to ponder...

1. We are One Church built on the Apostles.
The feasts of every apostle is a reminder of the essential unity that has to exist within the Church. As Paul so vehemently opposes (cf. I Cor 1:10-13), right from the earliest times division has always been a dreaded scandal within the Church. This reality notwithstanding, the divided body of Christ today drains the Church of its witnessing power and evangelical authority. A divided Church is the worst scandal that we can give the world, the Magisterium has repeatedly declared. Instead, a Church with persons of single heart and mind, brothers and sisters who live in harmony, is the highest form of testimony we can offer for the Reign of God. 

2. The Church in India has a special responsibility.
The Church in India, boasting a direct handing over of faith by an apostle, has a special responsibility towards establishing the Reign of God on earth. It is unfair to claim privileges but refrain from the duties that come with it. Every person who has received the gift of faith in this country of ancient heritage and culture, has to stand firm in witness to the Gospel thus received challenging the society towards a holistic transformation, ushering in the Reign of God here and now - through justice, peace, equality and sincere compassion for every other.

3. Doubts don't matter as long as the Lord remains close to us.
Thomas is easily identified with the doubt that he raised about the Risen Lord. He was not only the one who wanted to touch the wounds that nails made and put his hand into the hole on Jesus' side, but he was also the one who said, "let us also go, that we may die with him" (Read Jn 11:16). His personal attachment to Jesus covered up for his obstinacy in not believing readily when the rest of the apostles reported Jesus' resurrection. In our lives too, when doubts assail, when clouds gather over our heads and we tend to be overwhelmed by them, the only thing that can sustain us is our personal relationship with Jesus! Doubts or difficulties, we decide to stay all our life, right till our death, with the Lord.

May St. Thomas show us, and especially the Christians in India, the most fitting way of living out the Gospel in the given context, so that we may be authentic ambassadors of the Reign of God, here and now.