To Grow into Arks

WORD 2day: Friday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 24, 2020: Jeremiah 3: 14-17; Matthew 13: 18-23

No one shall ask, "where is the Ark", says the Lord. The promise gets embodied when a person begins to build his or her life on such a promise. We are a people who stand on the promises of the Lord.  Right from the Old Testament experience we see that the Lord made promises and the Lord kept them too! The revelation of God in Christ, specially the revelation in the Risen Lord has been, and continues to be, the greatest of all hope giving promises. The Word today reminds us to grow into arks of this promise, in our very own lives! 

When we whole heartedly receive the promises from the Lord with hope, we become the ark, holding out those promises to the rest of our brothers and sisters. Gone is the need to preserve the Ark and to carry it from place to place - that belongs to the OLD testament! The New Testament call, the urgent call today and the call of the people of Resurrection is not to dance around with the Ark but to become the arks ourselves...holding out the promises of the Lord to the world.

Just look around and understand the times: so dark, so uncertain, so painful, so frightening, so helpless and so oppressive. What is going to be the message that I share with others, with those around me, with the world? One that adds to this uncertainty and anguish? Or something that will fill persons and communities with hope and positive thinking? What I have within me is what I would transmit...which means I need to fill myself with the hope giving Word, and grow into an ark of God's promises!

The very presence of some persons fills those around or the situation around with enormous hope. These are truly the Arks of the Promise, who have the Spirit of the Risen Lord within them, holding it out to everyone. Can I grow to be one among those?

What everyone longs for...

WORD 2day: Thursday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 23, 2020: Jeremiah 2: 1-3, 7-8, 12-13; Matthew 13: 10-17

There is one thing that everyone longs for ultimately in life and beyond... peace and serenity! Every time God calls us to Godself, we are promised comfort, peace, tranquility, peace and well being. These are the lofty gifts that the Lord has in store for us. These we receive not by looking but seeing, not by hearing but listening, not by desiring for riches and luxuries but for the presence of God. When we abandon God, we find ourselves abandoned; not because God has abandoned but because we have abandoned God and moved away from God.

Look at the double mistake that the Lord points out through Jeremiah: one, forgetting the source fountain and secondly creating little cisterns thinking that you will store water for ever, but even those cisterns are leaking and so weak! What a powerful imagery to understand the kind of priority crisis we have in the world today! Yes we are constantly abandoning God, to our own detriment. 

There are subtle ways of abandoning God - hearing but not understanding, looking but not perceiving, seeing but not taking to heart the presence and the majesty of God. We are after "useless idols" as Jeremiah says in the first reading. What everyone longs for, what the whole world is yearning for, is right near us for our taking. But we are too busy making our living, establishing our names and defining our own glories. 

All that we need to do is open our eyes and see, open our ears and listen, open our hearts and perceive: we have so easily available what everyone longs for, right at our doorstep - the peace and joy that the Lord alone can give!

A Passionate love for the Lord

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

July 22, 2020: Song of Songs 3: 1-4; John 20: 1-2, 11-18
Celebrating Mary of Magdala, one who loved the Lord passionately

Mary Magdalene is one character in the life of Jesus, that many are very curious about. The conspiracy theorists and apocryphal experts find in themselves a great interest to study this person more and more and come up with details that are there and even those that are not there! However they all begin with one question, which the Gospel today answers.

That Question is this: Why is it that the Lord appeared to her first and not to the other apostles? 

The Gospel answers it in such simple terms: because she was there! 

As we read in the Gospel today, she was there at the tomb early morning. Then, she ran to the apostles and brought them; the apostles saw, they believed and they left... but she was there, she stood on, she stayed at the tomb and kept weeping (cf v.11). She was there and she got to see her Master. 

She was like that widow about whom Jesus spoke of once in his parables (Lk 18) - persistent and insistent, not giving up! She wanted by all means to know what happened to her Master! She could not settle with the answer, 'we do not know'! She persisted in her heart and mind and soul. She stayed on because she just could not go! She was so passionately in love with her Master.

The key is right there: if we are passionately in love with the Lord, we will see the glory of the Lord right in front of our eyes. A passionate love for the Lord seeks the Lord with a yearning so strong that cannot take 'no' for an answer. By all means, the soul, the heart, the person wants to get in touch with the Lord. That is what is to be answered first when i say, I want to encounter the Lord - how passionate am I about it? How passionately am I in love with the Lord? My passionate love for the Lord will be seen in my daily life style: nothing else will matter more to me, every person around me will resemble my Lord to me, every cry of the suffering will come to me as my Master reaching out to me, every heart that bleeds will bring my Master alive suffering right before my eyes. How can I remain indifferent then? Yes, the key is, a passionate love for the Lord! 

Mercy and Faithfulness

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 21, 2020: Micah 7: 14-15,18-20; Matthew 12: 46-50

The most concrete expression of God's faithfulness is God's mercy which is so boundless and plentiful. At times people insist on the 'anger' of the Lord and question where it has disappeared when things untoward happen or persons inhuman affect others or the society at large. Are we really right to attribute human emotions to God: the Old Testament people did it, when theology had not really developed as much as we have it today; when the revelations were yet to come to their fullness, which happened concretely in Christ our Lord! 

One attribute that can be logically justified is that of God's unlimited mercy, because we have come to know God as Love... God is Love, God is Mercy, God is Goodness and therefore to say, God abounds in Mercy, could be logically sustained. And the Gospel today clarifies, on our part the concrete way of  living our mercy is being faithful to the biddings of the Lord.

Being faithful to the biddings of the Lord would consist of being attentive to everything around me, being truly concerned about everyone around me and being open to the promptings of the Spirit within me. These days when there is so much suffering all around, there is endless uncertainties everywhere, there is anxiety on almost every ordinary person in the society... we are called to remain attentive to the Lord speaking through the other, the Lord challenging in and through the other to remain merciful...that would be the most crucial bidding of the Lord today: to be merciful.

Mercy is not about doing some charitable acts here and there and now and then. But it is becoming like God, growing in our godliness and being signs of God's faithfulness to those who are in need of it. It begins right from home - with your spouse, with your children, with your parents, with your neighbours, with your need strangers...with your brother and your sister. Be ye merciful as your Lord God is merciful!

Want miracles? Here is a project of life...

WORD 2day: Monday, 16th week in Ordinary  time

July 20, 2020: Micah 6: 1-4, 6-8; Matthew 12: 38-42

"To act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God" - Micah presents a project of life in these precise words (Mic 6:8). It is a project that he gives to the people to walk in the Lord's ways and not to weary the Lord with their unfaithfulness and stubbornness. How different are we from the people whom Micah addresses today in the first reading? Aren't we just like the pharisees and the others who were incessantly asking for signs from the Lord? 

Crying statues, bleeding icons, moving crosses... aren't they all time hits of the so-called religious minded people? And today, in the context of the present crisis... aren't we asking continuously the Lord to do something, while it has been the mean human intentions and excessive exploitation of the reality around that has led the whole humanity to varied crises thus far! Should we? 

Of course, for us miracles are a daily feature, because our God is an awesome God. But looking for some strange phenomenon, exciting events and glamorous happenings, is not the "Christ"ian outlook of a miracle. For Christ, the miracle is in the hope that we can give each other; miracle is in the love that we share for every one around us; miracle is the everyday faith in the Lord and the resultant serenity amidst all the din that we find ourselves in. 

Let's resolve to do the right, love goodness and walk humbly with the Lord and we will see miracles all around us, on a daily basis!

LORD GOD, THE JUST JUDGE

Merciful, Patient and Forgiving

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: July 19, 2020

Wisdom 12: 13, 16-19; Roman 8: 26-27; Matthew 13: 24-43

One thing that is certain about anything is that it will end. Our life too will end! However not necessarily only at the end of our life, but at every moment of our life, as we make decisions, as we go through actions, as we choose our words to speak and our opinions to make, we are liable for judgement. The one who judges us is not anyone who is placed above us or those who are around us; but Lord God, the Just Judge!

The Lord alone can judge, for it is the Lord alone who knows our innermost thoughts and fundamental attitudes. When the Lord judges, the Lord judges not the action but the attitude, not the decision but the disposition, not the choice but the underlying intention and priority. Nothing can escape from the all knowing, ever present God who knows us through and through. That is both a challenge and a grace: a challenge because we cannot deceive God; a grace because the Lord never judges us rashly - the Lord is a Just Judge.

The Just Judge is Mighty but Merciful. The book of wisdom, in the first reading, so beautifully brings out the fact that the Lord is mighty but merciful as a judge. The Lord knows everything and sees through everything, but treats us with mercy and kindness. As St. Paul expresses in the second reading, the Spirit of the Lord knows us and inspires us from within. 

At times we fail repeatedly in our daily life, with tendencies that overpower us and with temptations that make us fumble. The Lord knows it all, but the Lord's mercies never cease! The Lord has perfect control over us and can decide to pull out the weeds at anytime, but that is not who God is! God is merciful and loving, slow to anger and abounding in love! The Lord gives us all the possibilities that we need, all the time that we need and all the strength we need to make the right choices, the right decisions, the right moves. Does the Lord not assure us through the Apostle that we are never tested beyond our capacity? (1 Cor 10:13) The Judge is mighty, powerful and capable of pulling us out, but at the same time, the Lord is merciful, compassionate and totally respectful towards us.

The Just Judge is Particular but Patient. The Lord is not satisfied with any mediocre life. The Lord is particular about the way we are to live our life. The Lord has set an ideal as acceptable way of life and wants us to live up to that. Nothing short of perfection is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord; but the Lord is patient. The Lord endures the wait. The Lord walks with us, step by step as we proceed towards this perfection. 

When we lack in perfection we actually are not testing the patience of the Lord, for the Lord's patience is endless, but we are running the risk of not being "gathered into the Lord's barn" (Mt 13:43). There is no end to the Lord's patience, but our possibilities are limited and it is we who have to feel the urgency! One thing that we need to understand is, the Lord is compassionate but never compromising; patient but never permissive. Yes, we do have all the time to make the right choice and the right decision, but is it so difficult to understand that the sooner it is, the better? Not for the Lord's sake, but for ours. The farther we get from the Lord, the harder it gets to return to the Lord, doesn't it? 

The Just Judge is Firm but Forgiving. The Lord is demanding but absolutely understanding. The Lord's firmness never lessens the readiness to forgive. The justice of the Lord is guided by love, the absolute love that characterises the Lord alone! Firmness of God is in the very nature that we have inherited as sons and daughters of God. We know what is right, what is true and what is holy! We know we are called to live by these...at times there are so many things around us that try to suppress this clarity, just as the weeds do to the plants.

We are called to be plants, giving fruit, blossoming flowers and putting forth the yield, because we are children of God. We would belong to the Reign when we give fruit, however small or negligible it be: just a small mustard seed can give rise to a tree that houses hundreds of birds, a bit of yeast can leaven a bunch of dough. The Lord gives us chances but never relents from the demand to bear fruit. Forgiveness is never a compromise, it is always another chance to start anew, firm in conviction to reach the perfection.

The Lord is a just judge, loving and merciful, patient and kind, understanding and forgiving! Yet it is our duty to realise our call and bear fruit, grow into plants and not into weeds!

Choice... the choice of God!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 18, 2020: Micah 2: 1-5; Matthew 12: 14-21

Jesus was living dangerously. But he chose to do so, for the sake of the Reign of God. He stuck his neck out for the poor, for the oppressed, the marginalised, the ostracised, the exploited, the forgotten in the society. He believed that the Reign of God belonged precisely to them. His life was a hope to the least, the last and the lost. 

In this choice Jesus was making present the God of the Old Testament who sided the oppressed, who stood by the just in their struggles and who kept watch over the persons who strove to live according to God's will. The first reading points out the choice of God, the choice for the poor and the suffering. This predilection on God's part distinguished Jesus and the choices he made. His choice was, the choice of God. 

There were apparent and real dangers, and Jesus knew it well. Nothing could stop him from proclaiming the Reign of God for he knew he had come precisely for that, to establish the Reign of the God of Truth, the God of the suffering, the Lord of the least, the protector of the lost, the hope of the last. 

Look at the world today - the poor are the last to be thought of, if at all they are considered. The weaker sections are totally forgotten when it comes to economic development and national identities. A nation can execute decisions that would affect entire life of people, in hours' time and nothing is thought about what the homeless and helpless will do! They are almost non entities. What can we do for that, we may ask. If we remain silent we become equally culpable and our choices do not truly reveal our identity as people of God or people of the Reign. 

Our identity has to be our Choices, may they be forever in keeping with the choices of God!

Something greater is around!

WORD 2day: Friday, 15th week in Ordinary time 

July 17, 2020: Isaiah 38: 1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Matthew 12: 1-8

God deigns to do strange things for the love of the one who trusts in God! The first reading is one such episode. There are so many others, like the burning bush (Exo 3), the water from the rock (Exo 17), the sign of the fleece (Judg 6:36ff), and many more. These are merely to show that there is nothing or no one greater than the Lord and anything is possible with God!

When it comes to showing mercy to those who trusted, the Lord is lavish, prodigal and unreasonably generous, because God's love is unconditional and everlasting. That was a difficult message for Jesus to communicate to the law abiding, traditional and painfully legalistic Jews. Even today the Lord tries to impress upon us the same message, the message of how loving the Lord is, how unconditional God's love is and how far from judging the love of God is. 

No rule can be too big and no custom too important, than the love that the Lord has for you and me and the longing that Lord has for our total well being. When we have a tendency to be legalistic, when we find ourselves prone to judge, when tasks at hand draw our utmost attention, or the situation of stress and crisis tries to overpower us, let us realise: something greater is around us, something greater envelopes us, something greater sustains us - and it is, God's love, the love which became man and gave his life for our salvation. 

Our Blessed Mother of Mount Carmel

Dear Blessed Mother of Mount Carmel, Pray for us!

July 16, 2020

For inspiring details on the feast and 
the tradition of devotion to Our Blessed Mother of Mount Carmel...

visit... https://www.franciscanmedia.org/our-lady-of-mount-carmel/ 

Now... Come!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 16, 2020: Isaiah 26: 7-9, 12, 16-19; Matthew 11: 28-30

The yearning of a Godless soul, the struggle of a people who have gone far away from God is intensely presented in the first reading today. The world today is treading that path indeed... trying its best to define life sans God; trying to convince everyone around that it is possible to live without having anything to do with anything called god! Worse still, the trend today advocates creating our own gods and creating gods of ourselves! 

We have been thinking for long that we have solutions for every problem and even for those that we do not have the solutions, we could create shortcuts that can keep the pain and the struggle away for the time being. Hardly did we realise that something can bring the whole world to a standstill for such long, persisting time! We are at a point where we do not know whether we would find a return or whether things will be again the way they have previously been!

This is not to frighten or threaten us, nor to discourage or dishearten us! The Word today presents to us the situation and the Lord's response - yes, you have gone far away from me, and caused so many grievous situations for yourself. But do not panic; do not fret; I have all this time been beside you just waiting for you to freely choose to come to me. Now, Come!

The Lord invites us today to the true consolation, the real solution, the authentic peace that can give meaning to our daily life and all its strife. He does not promise an absence of yoke, nor does he lure us with a negation of burden...he promises a yoke that fits us perfectly and a burden that proves really bearable: because we live it in the Lord's company. 'Come to me' says the Lord, because all the struggle is since you have moved away from me. 

Come to me...and learn of me...and you will find meaning, peace, consolation and serenity!