Real Prophets or Prophets for a profit?

WORD 2day: Monday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 3, 2020: Jeremiah 28:1-17; Matthew 14: 22-36

The readings today remind us of our call to be a prophets... how far are we aware of the fact that each of us baptised in the Spirit is called to be a priest, a prophet and a prince (or princess)? Of course, knowing is one thing, and being convinced of it is another; but being it, much less said, is totally a different thing.

Today we have umpteen number of preachers, prophets and evangelists... all proclaiming from rooftops and laptops, day in and day out. Especially during these moments of crisis and lockdown... there are numerous of them, everywhere in every form! Let us beware dear friends, as the first reading points out, being a prophet is not speaking things that others would love to hear from us -like the myriad of fortune tellers, prediction prodigies, healer wheelers, and prosperity preachers today who do things to woo more and more  'customers'. Jeremiah warns Hananiah today in the first reading against his false sense of prophecy! And we know the sad end of Hananiah. 

The Gospel has a symbolic message in the same lines. Jesus chides his disciples for their lack of faith, especially Peter. It might look a bit too demanding on Jesus' part to expect the disciples to remain unperturbed when they are almost sinking, and Peter to remain calm when he was almost drowning. But the point that the Master makes is that his disciples should be perturbed by nothing, absolutely nothing! 

"Let nothing disturb you", he would say to them often. In today's world so immersed in numerous kinds of concerns, with the crisis all around us, wouldn't it be truly prophetic to live a life so unperturbed! Not to be prophets for profit, but real prophets who live with a serenity that comes from knowing that 'it is the Lord' who is in charge. The Lord says that today: do not fear, It is I. 

THE FULLNESS THAT SATISFIES

Are we ever satisfied?

August 2, 2020: 18th Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 55:1-3; Romans 8: 35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21

You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing! The hand of the Lord feeds us; the Lord answers all our needs. Lovely words that we pray at the Responsorial time this Sunday. How good it would be if it were true in every sense!

Are we ever satisfied? Why all the bickering among the richest on the planet, everyday trying to outdo the other in business and trade - because they do not have what they need? Why all the political ploys and underground scheming among the rulers and the leaders - because they they lack the basic wants? Why all the craze among the richest medical facilities and pharma firms even amidst this pandemic to make the most of the people's plight - because they have to feed their empty stomachs? Why all the border disputes between already vast nations and sovereigns - because there is a matter of life and death? Even within each of us... why all the fret and frenzy in our daily life - because we have to ensure the next square meal? 

If only we pause, calm down and ask a few questions to ourselves, we shall come to know so many things about ourselves, so many things that we needlessly think about, so many decisions we unnecessarily take, so many activities that we go about without realising its futility, so many important values we dump for worthless substitutes and so many treasures that we have covered with the sludge of the so-called conventions of the society around and walk on them lamenting our miseries! 

The Word this Sunday presents us with three questions:

What is the Lack?

Recently we reflected from prophet Micah those words: you shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you; you shall put away, but not save; you shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine (Micah 6: 13-15) - does that not seem the experience of many today? We strive and strive, but are never satisfied. We struggle with all our lives, but we never feel fulfilled. But stop, think a while... what is the lack? what is the real lack? Lack of things? Lack of resources? As the Lord asks us today, why do you spend all that you have, on something that does not satisfy you? What is the real lack?

The real lack is the lack of knowledge: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge", cries the Lord through prophet Hosea (4:6). The lack of knowledge is destroying us all; it is destroying humankind; it is destroying the entire universe! The lack of right knowledge, the lack of right thinking, the lack of right choices, the lack of right priorities - this is the lack that is killing us all. Just as the Lord felt it so badly, while he was speaking to that woman at the Samarian well, "if only you knew"... yes, if only we knew! If only we knew the real lack that is in our hearts... if only we realised the real lack that is there in our families... if only we accepted the real lack that affects the society and humanity as whole today...we would be in a better position! If only, we knew what really satisfies! That leads us to the next question we need to ask.

What really satisfies?  

Fullness alone! Nothing else can satisfy us. We think "more" of something will satisfy us. It cannot. More will never be enough! More can never satisfy us. We think of increasing something, hoarding up something, stacking up, stocking in....nothing will satisfy us truly. It is fullness alone, that can satisfy us. More pleasure... will it satisfy? No, it will lead to more of it. More wealth... will it satisfy? That is not what we see, those who have more, look for more. More power... will it satisfy? Not until there is someone who still is not subdued. "Give me more," the world cries... but after that? There will only be more cry for more, and more, and more! Only one thing can satisfy...fullness. Imagine a cup immersed in a tub of water... do you think, it is filled? No, it is in fullness, it does not need to be filled. 

Fullness alone can satisfy us. Jesus feeds that crowd of people, with such serenity and calmness and all their frenetic anxiety earlier wondering how to feed and where to get food for so many, just vanishes into thin air. They did nothing to remove that anxiety. They just allowed themselves to be in the presence of that Fullness. The Fullness filled them; the Fullness fulfilled them. Fullness alone can fulfill us too. How much we need today to learn to be still, to be still and know that there is Fullness around! 

Where is this Fullness?

Yes, the Fullness satisfies, fulfills, heals, calms... it is true. But where is this Fullness, some can ask. Where is this Fullness, when we are suffering; where is this Fullness when we are so battered by disease and death; where is this Fullness when we are so broken and helpless before forces that are totally out of control? It is again this lack of knowledge that makes us fret. It is a wrong question to ask, where is this Fullness - because we are in the Fullness! Just imagine that fingerling who asked her mother fish, 'mamma, but you said you will show the ocean... where is it?'  

It is such a redundant question to ask, where is this Fullness, because we are in the Fullness, we are surrounded by the Fullness - that is what the Lord said: for I am with you till the end of times. Nothing can separate us from Christ, declares the second reading, because we are part of Christ and Christ is part of us. Now, this Fullness that satisfies us, how does it do?  

Fullness invites us from within, to come, eat and drink from God's love, from God's generosity, from God's compassion. In moments of need and struggle, in moments of our crises, the Lord reminds us of Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, the Fullness who satisfies.

Fullness has chosen us from before the foundation of the world, never to part from us. Just as the disciples tell the Lord that they could send the people away, there are so many things in life that wants to send us away from the Lord... our weaknesses, our sufferings, our temptations, our wrong choices. But the Lord insists, to stay on. Yes, the Fullness remains, because God has chosen to remain with us forever. That is the covenant: I shall be your God and you shall be my children.

Fullness remains with us whether we are conscious of it or not. Nothing separates us from the Lord except our decision to keep ourselves away from Him. In our need, in our troubles, in our struggles, in our concerns...the Lord promises to be with us and provide us with every bit of care we need. Not even death... nothing except our free choice to leave God, to go against God, can separate us from God. That places the entire burden on our part to remain with the Lord.

The Fullness remains, never to part from us. If we choose that Fullness, we shall be immersed in that Fullness...and nothing can separate us: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord, the Fullness of the Image of God, the Fullness that loves us and remains for ever with us! This Fullness alone can satisfy us! 

The plight of a true prophet

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 1, 2020: Remembering St. Alphonsus Marie Ligouri

Jeremiah 26: 11-16, 24; Matthew 14: 1-12

Constant threat to life, drastic insecurities of life, total unacceptance from the rest of the so called normal people, pressures of helplessness...these form part of the usual plight of a prophet, not just in the days of Jeremiah and John the Baptist but even today. That explains why real prophets are a rare phenomenon. However, it is an undeniable and curious fact that the difference between a true prophet and a self-righteous egoist is very thin and dangerously subtle.

The first element that can demarcate the two is the FOCUS. When Jeremiah spoke to the people and the princes, he never looked for support or people who can come to his defence. His focus was determinantly on what God wanted him to say and nothing else.

The second element is DETACHMENT from the result. Though the message is definitely pointed towards a change, a result,  the prophet is not excessively anxious about it. At times a self righteous person can be on a ego trip claiming credits and proving his point. A true prophet desists this tendency naturally.

The third element is absolute FEARLESSNESS. A fearlessness that makes them hard people to handle for the authorities and the hierarchy. But that fearlessness comes from their unwavering trust, confidence and hope in the never failing presence of the Lord!

Just yesterday we celebrated a prophetic founder, St. Ignatius and today we have another: St. Alphonsus Ligouri, the founder of the Redemptorist Congregation - a great theologian, lyricist (incidentally, those who know the famous Italian carol tu scendi dalle stelle, it was he who penned it), musician, pastor, writer and thinker. He was a true prophet too and he had to pay its price. As a bishop and as a founder-leader he was a demanding prophet. We cannot judge the internal matters of the Congregation he founded, but anyway, the fact was that he was expelled from very congregation he formed and he suffered this trauma in the last years of his life. However, his focus, his detachment and his fearless love for the Lord, kept him going. 

Are we courageous enough to remain focused, and fearlessly attach ourselves to truth and the Truth? That will make us prophets, but are we ready to face the plight? 

Hearing what I want to hear???

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

July 31, 2020: Remembering St. Ignatius of Loyola
Jeremiah 26: 1-9; Matthew 13: 54-58

Have you been to a Hearing Test centre? Get in touch with a technician there, and the person would explaining to you: there are different kinds of deafness... mild hearing loss, moderate hearing loss, moderately severe hearing loss, severe hearing loss and profound hearing loss! At times spiritually too these hearing losses can be calculated in a similar fashion, but we need to add one more crucial type of hearing challenge. That is, Selective Hearing Loss! 

Thanking God for a great saint today - St. Ignatius of Loyola, we are are reminded of something that was very close to his heart: Discernment! Discernment of what to do, what to choose, how to decide and how to live! It is hardly surprising that the present Holy Father, a Jesuit himself, insists so much of this - accompanying the young on their path of discernment. One of the deadliest enemies of a sincere discernment is the same as what we have just spoken of: Selective Hearing Loss.

It is nothing but, hearing only what I want to hear, or refusing to hear what I do not want to hear merely because it causes me inconvenience. This is the syndrome that we see the people are in, in both the first reading and the Gospel. When Jeremiah spoke to them about the impeding danger and their need to return to the Lord, they deemed him liable to death. When Jesus spoke to them on issues that really challenged their daily life, they looked at him with suspicion and despised him for the "ordinariness" from which he hailed.

The Word of God keeps rushing into our hearts. It would cleanse it, refresh it and fill it with life, if only we allow it to. If we are guarded, biased and suspicious, we would break no ground towards perfection. On this day when we remember Ignatius, a tough man who made tough choices to do everything for the greater glory of God, let us allow the Word to melt our hearts and inspire us to work out of this syndrome of 'hearing merely what we want to hear'! Let us hear the Word and accept its challenges, on a daily basis!

Doing it God's way

WORD 2day: Thursday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 30, 2020: Jeremiah 18: 1-6; Matthew 13: 47-53

Have thine own way Lord, 
have thine own way

Thou art the potter, 
I am the clay

Mould me and make me, 
after thy will

while I am waiting 
yielded and still.

What a beautiful prayer it could be for us to make this day, inspired by the passage from Jeremiah... to accept the Lord as the potter, who makes me, moulds me and uses me to behold the glory of the Lord and share it to the world! If only this is always the case, that we are in the hands of the Lord and that we do just what the Lord wants us to do - the world will be a paradise, the Reign of God here and now. For is that not what we pray: May your will be done, here on earth, as it is in heaven!  

In the parable that Jesus tells us today about the Reign of God, he brings out a fundamental element of either belonging to the Reign or not belonging to it. The angels will separate the good from the bad; the wicked from the righteous; the docile from the obstinate; the obedient from the rebellious; the discerning from the naive. Yes, the criterion is: doing the will of the Father, being clay in the hands of the Divine potter, not rebelling, not disobeying, not trying to act too smart!

Have you heard it said, that the anthem in heaven is, "I did it God's way"; while in hell it is, "I did it my way." The secret is here: doing it God's way! Living our life, God's way!

The Lord with us

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 29, 2020: Remembering St. Martha

Jeremiah 15:10, 16-21; John 11: 19-27

I am with you to save you and to deliver you...says the Lord in the first reading today. At times we battle with thoughts similar to what we hear from Jeremiah and we wonder if the Lord has abandoned us or abandoned this world all to itself! When things go wrong and so drastically out of control, as it is being experienced today world over, we feel like complaining as did Martha to Jesus, "if you were here, my brother would not have died"... 'if you were really here, these things would not be happening to us!' 

Just as Jesus challenges Martha to journey further in her sense of hope in the Lord, today the Lord tells us: I am with you to save you and deliver you! Do you believe that? It is like what St. Paul says about Abraham in Romans 4:18, that Jesus invites Martha to hope against hope - and us too! 

Martha's confession about Christ has nothing less short of the confession of St. Peter! The faith that Martha had in Jesus was so profound that she believed when Jesus was around nothing could go wrong. Jesus acknowledges the trust that Martha had in him, but invites her to go a step ahead and trust that even if things went wrong, she had nothing to fear for the Lord was with her always!

It is simple in times that are pleasant, to trust in the Lord; it is not that very simple to trust in the Lord "always". Even when things go wrong, or especially in such situations as today: disease, death, fear, panic, anxiety, uncertainty... we are called to be calm but vigilant; seeking solutions but not begging remedies. 

Not looking for any immediate and ready made solutions anxiously, but daring to remain patient with the issues of life, is a clear sign of total trust in the Lord, that the Lord is with us, that the Lord will never abandon us, that the Lord is there with us to save us and to deliver us! 

Time to return to the Lord - today and now!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 28, 2020: Jeremiah 14: 17-22; Matthew 13: 36-43

Rescue us, O Lord, for the glory of your name - the response for the psalmody inspires us to pray today, words that would mean so much in today's context. Tears, fears, death, sickness, hunger, unemployment, migration, terror, wickedness, enmity, slandering, sledging and all that is happening all around us - how tiring it has become to live our human existence today! Who has been the reason for all this: is it true that God has abandoned us? Or is it that we have abandoned God, and God's ways?

All that God sowed into our lives has been good and nothing but good; where does this hatred, exploitation, greed, manipulation, violence, vengeance and the rest of the evils come from? All from within us; from our evil thinking, from our evil tendencies, from our evil choices, from our abandoning of God. And if we want things to be set right, there is only one way out - that we leave this way of the evil one and return to the Lord, in hope, faith and love!

And when do we do this? Wait for the last minute possible? It is fine so, if we are ready to face and endure all these evil till that last minute and remain still strong enough to cling to the Lord. That is what the world seems to think today: there is time; there is time for thinking about God and all that pertains to God. We can always make it up to God, there is no hurry - people think - because God is loving and merciful and at anytime that we turn to the Lord, God will receive us into God loving mercy! 

Yes, it is true...God is loving and merciful, ready to forgive and ever willing to reach out to us in embrace. That is on God's part. But imagine, if I go so far away from God that it would be so difficult for me to return to the Lord! In my thoughts and choices, attitudes and actions, decisions and priorities, if I am so far away from God... even if I decide to turn to God - it would be a herculean task to return. That is the experience of so many today, people wriggling under the pains and slaveries that they wish to get away from, but unable to. Should we wait for that last moment? Is it not time to return to the Lord, today and now? 

The God of Small things!

WORD 2day: Monday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 27, 2020: Jeremiah 13: 1-11; Matthew 13: 31-35

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor 1:27-29). 

Jesus is fond of presenting his Father as the God of small things! He thanks God for keeping the secrets from the elites but revealing them to children (cf. Lk 10:21) and compares the Reign of God to a mustard seed and to a pinch of yeast. He invites us to learn of his meekness and humility (cf. Mt 11:30) and mediates the salvific love of God through his sheer obedience (cf. 2 Phil). Mindful of this, St. Paul sighs, "what do we have that we have not received?" (cf. 1 Cor 4:7).

Let us remind ourselves of our smallness before God! It is nothing more than a realistic understanding of what we are in front of the majesty that God is adorned with. It is better to be a small little thing in the presence of God than a mighty big being without God. Just being mighty and powerful... do you think It would make any sense; certainly, not forever! 

The foolish man says in his heart, 'there is no god' - derides the Psalm (14:1). The secret lies in keeping it simple and being grateful for every small thing that we have; for our God is a God of small things!

WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE?

God's Choice - strange and ultimate!

July 26, 2020: 17th Sunday in Ordinary time

1 Kings 3: 5, 7-12; Romans 8: 28-30; Matthew 13: 44-52

Have you lived these moments:

- Someone defrauds you and takes away from you whatever you have, though it might not have been much, but that is all what you had! You let go of it, for you have no other go.

- Someone requests you for a help and you render it most willingly, only to later come to know that the person never deserved that help, or the person actually has been exploiting you! You shrug your shoulder and go your way.

- Someone is in dire need and you very generously lend a hand; but as soon as the person got to a better state of affairs, the person turns indifferent to you. You begin to wonder, why on earth in the first place, did you choose to help! Anyway, you did what you did, you would do it further too.

- Someone whom you know is against you or has no corner soft in his or her heart for you, but you continue to do good, help out and remain charitable, however feeling bad that nothing returns. You keep doing it anyway.

Have you lived an experience of this nature? Can there be a rational explanation for these ...however hard you try they will only remain empty excuses. But the world considers foolish what these persons consider valuable whereas, that which matters the least to these, matters the most to the world. 

It is all about Choices! The choices we make determine who we are! And the who we are conditions the kind of choices we make. Yes... you read it right. They are one and the same. The choices make persons! That is why today we see the insistence, be it in the first reading or in the Gospel, about the radical choices we need to make for God and things that pertain to God - the reasons are two: one, because that is how we become persons of God; and second, because God has made a choice for us (as St. Paul reminds us in the second reading). 

God's Choice: We are faced with so many situations in life, when we have to make the right choices. The entire discussion on what is the right choice and why we have to make the right choice, finally boils down to one fact: we have to choose to do the right thing, because God has chosen us. God chose us long ago, predestined us, called us and has justified us, waiting to share God's glory with us - our task is to remain worthy of that glory. That is why we are called to choose the right things at the right time. The foundation, the motivation and the  criterion of our choices is, naturally, God's choice, that is the fact that God has made a choice for us!

Strange Choice: The sad fact is that our choice for the right, might some times look strange for the others and a sadder fact is that we are conditioned by this and we prefer not to look strange. We unfortunately decide to go with the flow, ride with the wind, float with the current and conform to the world - but the Word gives us a statutory warning: do not conform to the world (Rom 12:2). Of course, a choice like those of what Jesus speaks of in the parables he narrates today, might look strange for an outsider - the man deciding to sell everything and buy the land he was tilling, the other who sells everything to posses one pearl that he found... those looking at it from the galleries will sometimes even laugh at it, but the one who is immersed in the reality will know exactly what he or she is making a choice for. That is how it is, if only we have tasted the Lord, and if only we long for the Lord, we would not mind making strange choices, we would not mind appearing strange beings! Nothing really matters, when we know we have the Lord with us!

Ultimate Choice: All the individual choices we make in life are destined towards the ultimate choice, the choice for God! The choice of Solomon, was something like that. When God asked him to choose something, he chose to ask God for the grace of making the right choice! Discernment, is the capacity to make the right choice, the capacity to think right, the capacity to look at everything and understand them all from the perspective of God, which alone is the right knowledge. Solomon's choice was the ultimate choice, that is why when he made that choice, he had everything that he could have! The ultimate choice is the choice for the mind of God. When St. Paul invites us to put on the mind of Christ, he is in fact inviting us to a way of life that is ordered after the mind of God - the right choices at every situation we find ourselves in, in spite of the biased judgments that might pressurise us from all around. The Ultimate choice is the choice for God!

The choice of Solomon, the attitude that St. Paul speaks of and the acts of the persons speaks of in the parable, they are of this kind. They seem to be losers in the eyes of the world. But in fact they gain something that the world knows nothing about. It is based on these choices that they will be sorted out at the end of times. 

Certainly, we have heard the story of that girl who was asked to choose whatever she wishes in the palace of the king. Whatever she touched, it was told, would belong to her. While everyone else with her was running helter skelter touching what they could imagine was precious, this girl stood her ground filled with thoughts. They asked her, 'haven't you made your choice?' She said, 'in fact I have' and walked up to the king and held his hand. What could be more precious than the king in the palace of the king - she became the crown princess! 

We may have everything, but if we lack God on our side, soon we will feel the emptiness all around. When we choose God we choose everything! What do you choose? 

Jesus' School of Servant Leadership

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 25, 2020: Remembering St. James, the Major
2 Corinthians 4: 7-15; Matthew 20: 20-28

Feast of any Apostle reminds us of the wonderful words that St. Paul utters today: "we hold this treasure in earthen vessels". Every apostle has his own weakness, nevertheless the gift that they are and that they possess, surpasses everything as God's power and might is revealed in it.

Feast of St. James (with the Gospel that we are given to reflect today) reminds us of this more strongly and adds another specific teaching, a teaching from Jesus' School of Servant Leadership. In Matthew's and Mark's versions of the Gospel, we find every time that Jesus foretells about his passion, he follows it up with the discourse on servant leadership (as we see in Mt 16:24ff; 18:1ff; 20:20ff). 

The world today asks without fail, in doing anything, "what is there FOR ME in it?" The tendency to look for a gain in everything, doing only those that will bring something in return for me, doing everything in a manner that things will turn in my favour, or doing things with a mind to manipulate them in order that I gain the most given any situation - these are some competences that are advocated by the society today and everyone is expected to grow in this expertise. Jesus' school of leadership, has a totally different mindset to offer. 

James and John took some time to realise that the only thing they could inherit from Jesus was his identity as Suffering Servant! That is what Jesus repeatedly taught them - you serve and in serving you become a person of God! Once James and John understood it, they understood what it meant to be a true apostle of Christ.

Eventually they wanted to drink the cup that Jesus mentioned and that is what they did. James led the community of Jerusalem... humble and service minded as the Master himself; and his blood shed like the Master's (Acts 12:2). Let us praise the Lord for the apostle St. James and be prepared to witness to the Lord till our last breath, in our humble service!