CRISES WITH CHRIST - Part 2

The Desert Experience and the LOCKDOWN WITH THE LORD

The Lockdown experience that is proving intolerable to a many and to societies today, has to be made sense of without fail, if our reflection on this present crisis has to be in any manner complete. There are some Biblical events that could throw light on the lockdown experience of today. The desert experience of the people of Israel, where they had no control of their own lives, their food was given to them from heavens, they could not assure themselves of the next meal, they were at times discouraged with the elementariness of the food, they had no land of their own and were at the mercy of those whom they encountered… these could be in a way a reflection of the lockdown experience. There could be also other experiences in the Old Testament – namely, the siege of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, the exile – these were the sort of lockdowns that the people of the Old Testament experienced. In the New Testament, we have the upper room experience, which was not merely the coming of the tongues of fire but the fear, guilt and discouragement that preceded that glorious event; the experience of Saul blinded on the horse, waiting for Ananias to come to him; the prison experience of the Apostles Peter, James, John, Paul, Silas, Barnabas, and most of the others, all these were in a way lockdown experiences reported in the biblical narratives. From the light of these, and from the life style that we have given ourselves into in the last couple of decades, there could be a few simple but concrete messages that a Biblical interpretation of the Lockdown can offer us today: Slow down and take stock, the call to calm down the mad rush of humanity which is hurting the real cosmic order and harmony; Evaluate, unlearn and relearn the ways of living a meaningful human life, with right priorities and right perspectives; thirdly, the call to Re-pristine out commitment to care for our common home, look out for our brothers and sisters, and set our minds, hearts, families and societies in order. 

Extending our perception into the Scripture further, we encounter numerous models that present us with their lives of faith amid crises. Consider a cowardly Gideon who took on the mighty walls of Jericho (Judg 6), or a trembling frail Esther who proved a heroine to her entire people though surrounded by such a hostile situation, or a weak and lonesome Hezekiah who cries out to the Lord in the face of an annihilation that was imminent and routed his enemies with no sword of his (Isa 37,38), or the tormented prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and others who were constantly surrounded by persecution and death, or a young and meek Mary who said a great ‘yes’ in spite of the dangers it would amount to, or the spirited first Christians motivated by the witness of the Apostles ready to lay their lives down for their faith – these are great testimonies we have of those who lived through moments of gory crises, with faith, with tremendous faith. Faith for them was their relationship with the Lord, a relationship that was founded on the unfailing relationship that actually the Lord had initiated: I shall be your God and you shall be my people. These examples and inspirations need to impel us towards looking at, facing and living through, not just this pandemic and the lockdown but through any crisis in life. Hence today, it would do good for us to take stock of our attitudes and choices towards projecting a way ahead that would distinguish us in the larger world, as persons who are imbued with the mind of Christ.

The way ahead or the life after the Pandemic should be determined by these three P-verbs:

Prioritise: the overwhelming cry of the universe and the entire humanity to every person on this planet today is, to prioritise our choices, our meaning-giving elements in life, our criteria of choices and judgements. The world is wrangling around warped priorities – money means more than meaning, pleasures in life are valued more than real values that make life human; career and competition run a person’s life to the detriment of the person’s relationships and family, things are loved and persons are used, and above all, God seems to find one of the last places in the list of valuables in life, at times even that last of places to be considered highly fortunate. After all these distortions, we still cry out saying, we do not understand why things are going wrong all over the world! Stay calm today, take time and set your priorities right. When this ebbing time of crisis flows out into normalcy, you would be ready to restart your life based on the new set of priorities!

Perspectivise: a neologism perhaps, but an age-old principle that says you understand the truth depending on, from where you see it. There are very many things going wrong in the society today – the destabilisation of marriage and family, the dehumanisation of economy, the ambiguation of international affairs, the exploitation of the weaker sections of humanity, the manipulation of ecology and many such. The reason, the overwhelming perspective of human community today, the perspective of I-me-and mine. It is high time we unlearn this perspective and relearn the fact that the only perspective that can do good to all, is that one overarching and holistic perspective: the perspective of God. The more we look at everything from the perspective of God, the more holistic meaning they begin to make. The more we begin to look at the other as God looks, as a child of God with dignity and respect, the more meaningful our relationships become. The more we look at our world as a common home we are gifted with, the more responsible we can grow. Perspectivising our life is an urgent need today and the present crisis offers an opportunity to work on it.

‘Person’alise: a sense of awe and respect to persons and their importance in our daily life and crucial decisions, can make a world of difference to our existence. The recent events like the custodial deaths, police violence, riot mobs, border breaches, anti-people policies, political exploitation of masses… these are typical instances where persons and communities of persons are sidelined in comparison to other ends. Persons are made means to an end, which is unjustifiable whatever the end be! To bring the ‘person’ to the centre again, is not some type of a humanism that seeks to establish an anthropocentrism. It is more a personalism, which is inspired and founded on the Person of God, from whom every human person draws his or her personhood; it is looking at the one next to me, my neighbour, my brother, my sister, the other as an image and likeness of God, deserving my utmost respect, regard and response. All that I think, say or do, has to spring from this regard for persons – that would make me consider persons more important than projects, persons more important than the so-called progress, persons more important than any kind of policies! ‘Person’alising my vision of life, makes me prepared to look at the holistic meaning of human existence.

Pandemic, disease, infection, contagion, death, destruction, depression… these are daily vocabularies today, signalling the crisis that we are living through. As children of God and disciples of Christ, we who call ourselves Christians are called to stand out by giving hope to the rest of the world, not judging and pointing fingers but encouraging and empowering humanity to rise from this fire as a phoenix to new life. It is an arduous ordeal, but not impossible because ‘the love of Christ urges us’ (2 Cor 5:14) to declare, ‘we can do all things in the Lord who strengthens us’ (Phil 4:13)!

Link:
https://indiancatholicmatters.org/icm-anniversary-special-the-desert-experience-during-lockdown-period/?fbclid=IwAR0nwFdJVHjU-36hR5-GHkNr3SlNpINUmJByLCAxgVdZV3cokewH-Jl8dsc

CRISES WITH CHRIST - Part 1

Facing CRISES WITH CHRIST on our side 

Life is to be lived happily – do you agree? It seems so obviously agreeable, given the insistence of the world today on maximum comfort, optimum pleasure and absolute convenience. But looking at things from a Christian purview of life, this may not be an indubitably right perspective of life.

What then would be right? Can it be then, that life is to be suffered through? Sounds so inhuman, doesn’t it? Is the author of life, God, so heartless a Being to create and programme life as a course of bitter suffering and endless pain - and just these and nothing else? Again, a perspective that is holistically Christian cannot subscribe to such a negative vision of human life, which could lead to aberrations ranging from a naïve sadism to an ultra-rigorous asceticism.

The truth stands, not merely in the midway but, in an altogether higher plane: life is to be lived to the full. That is what the Saviour declared as the very purpose of his human advent: I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness (cf. Jn 10:10). Life in its fullness would mean, life considered in all its dimensions and facets: sufferings and joys, victories and trials, happiness and doubts, celebrations and crises! It is the adroitness with which a person is able to face both the extremes of life’s sway, that the fullness of his or her living can be judged. Not losing one’s perspective amidst felicitous moments and not fumbling for meaning at life’s staggering instances are equally signs of living one’s life to the full.

The sanitary crisis that the world has plunged into in the past half of the year and the lockdown experience that has augmented the concomitants of the pandemic and made itself a multi-dimensional crisis of humanity, revealing its ugly tentacles clutching the economic, social, international wellbeing of humanity. It is here that a Christian reflection on such an experience becomes an important Gospel that needs to be announced these days. In simple terms, how could we live this lockdown with the Lord, is a pertinent question today. In a wider vision, it has to be a reflection on how to face crises in life with Christ on our side.

This reflection cannot but begin with the Cross – the centre and the summit of all Christian experience. Is Cross a sadistic or rigouristic symbol, that the world could dub as a block to human happiness and joyful existence? Is it all about pain and death, giving up and enduring injustice? Certainly, these would invariably be an outsider’s uninformed and unschooled views on the Cross, which is veritably not merely a symbol, but an event, a watershed, a succinct summary of the relationship between God and human persons, from Christ’s point of view. But for a Christian?

The Cross stands for faith in love. For God so loved the world, that God sent God’s only Son to die on the Cross, that everyone who believed in him could be saved (cf Jn 3:16). The Cross or the sufferings of Christ were born out of love that God the Father and Mother had for humanity, that is, for God’s children. Secondly, the Cross stands for love that is manifested in self-giving. The life, suffering and death of Christ were his manifestation of his love for his brothers and sisters, those whom he wanted to reconcile to the One who sent him. After all, did he not declare, ‘there can be no greater love than one laying down one’s life for one’s friends’ (cf Jn 15:13)? Thirdly, therefore for Christ-ians, the Cross stands out as a reminder of the call to a life that is lived in the Lord. St. Paul summarised that in his testimony: for me to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil 1:21). These perspectives on the Cross throw an enormous light on the way we live our life these days with the crisis at our doorsteps, for some unfortunately right within the household!

Pope Francis’ words, recorded into a compilation recently published titled, Life after the Pandemic, recalls to us: “if we act as one people even in the face of the other pandemics that threaten us, we can make a real impact […]. May we find within us the necessary antibodies of justice, charity and solidarity. We must not be afraid to live the alternative civilisation of love […]. In this time of tribulation and mourning, I hope that, where you are, you will be able to experience Jesus, who comes to meet you, greets you and says, “Rejoice” (Mt. 28:2). And may this greeting mobilise us to invoke and amplify the Good news of the Kingdom of God.” Truly hope giving words from the Pontiff who made the whole world turn its eyes to the empty Square which was filled that rainy evening with the joys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the entire humanity! The world has tried to move on from there, but has not succeeded to a great extent in it. The crisis seems to persist and its aftereffects seem more threatening than ever. The Pandemic still hanging around, how do we handle it, in a Christ-like mode?

The term pandemic seems to contain within it a related reaction: panic! It seems a natural and immediate reaction, but to say the least: the most un-Christ-ian at it! Where does panic come from? From fear; fear which is absence of security, absence of knowledge, absence of light, absence of clarity – in short, fear which is absence of love. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love, says John in his epistle (1 Jn 4:18). Let us not give into the temptation of judging the so-called preachers and evangelists, who dare so doltishly to interpret this pandemic as a punishment on humanity and its wiles. Steering clear of those credulous claims, we need to remain calm, but vigilant, during these moments of disease and danger, because we have the Lord with us, come what may! The storms may blow, the arrows may fly and thousands may fall all around us, and some even on us, but the presence of the Lord is always with us and if we truly love the Lord, we have the assurance: ‘all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose’ (Rom 8:28). To panic is to doubt, to abandon the ever-present love of God.

Another related outcome, again alliterative with pandemic, is pandemonium! This is by far what is created by some, who unfortunately find themselves in the driving seat of the societies today! Pandemonium is simply a lack of order, a confusion, a chaos, an anarchy that arises out of a lack of logic! Stigmatising socially those who are infected with COVID-19, refusing burial grounds, overreacting to news and numbers regarding the disease, believing in myths and illogical rationale, promoting false propaganda with no proper grounds, blame game of the governments and officials, callous oversimplification of serious issues involved – have we not seen all of these in the past months? Apart from demeaning the rational capabilities of the homo sapiens and questioning the very existence of common sense, these have been from a Christian point of view, lack of compassion and horrendous acts of denial of human dignity! While we are reminded to never tire ourselves of doing what is right (2 Thes 1:13), these are diametrically opposed to what is good, what is true and what is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord (Eph 5:9-10). Creating or giving into a pandemonium, can never be a Christian response to a crisis in life. Where Christ is, there is light! Where can one find a possibility for pandemonium here?

Link:
https://indiancatholicmatters.org/icm-anniversary-special-facing-crises-with-christ-on-our-side/

KEY PERSONS UNTO THE REIGN

The Role, Wisdom and Personal Knowledge of God

August 23, 2020: 21st Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 22: 19-23; Romans 11: 33-36; Matthew 16: 13-20

Look around the world today - what do we see? Crises, confusion, uncertainty, conspiracies, controversies, cries of agony, protest and grief, unrest and dissatisfaction. Even amidst all these, there are nations threatening each other to prove who is superior to whom; there are Corporates clashing with each other to claim the topmost slot in the economic world, not hesitating to exploit even the health crisis that is around; there are factions and groups in the name of religion, language, ethnicity and race playing havoc, making of humanity a worthless value to uphold; there are those in the garb of god-men fending their own nests and exploiting every one else for it; there are politicians who pose to be liberators of the masses while they are hand in glove with every agency that goes diametrically opposed to the common good... What is all these manipulation about? What are they trying to prove to themselves and to the world? They want to identify themselves as the key persons, or key groups, wherever they are! Aware of this background let us listen to what the Word has to tell us today.

One image that dominates today's liturgy of the word is the image of the Key...every person, every entity, every nation, every society, every corporate wants to be a key entity in its field. That is what we see in the entire list of examples we just enumerated. But, in truth, becoming conscious of one's mission and situating it within God's plan is the real secret behind being key persons in the eyes of the Lord. Every prophet, we see in the Old Testament, is enamoured by the love of the Lord and surrenders totally to the Spirit shining as a key person within the believing community. We do observe in persons within some of our Christian communities that we are part of, or youth groups that we belong to, or an association or sodality we take part in... a similar urge to be key persons! For example, the tasks of being part of the Parish Pastoral Council, the cooperators to the animating nucleus of the Parish at the zonal or the division levels, are some key roles that people aspire for today (of course the lockdown has locked down even all these possibilities!). We are indeed called to be key persons, yes! But not unto our own glory as we see all around but unto the Reign that the Lord wants us to build here on earth. 

To be a key person is to realise your GOD GIVEN ROLE: 

Being key persons unto the kingdom would mean, we understand our key role from the perspective of God. At times politics enters the religious ambit and faith communities, and shatters every bit of truth that can exist. Lack of focus and confusion of meanings are the outcomes of such an influx and personal integrity is left at stake. The Lord reminds us in the first reading that it is the Lord who robes one with, or strips one of authority. 

We have heard the phrase, God writes straight through crooked lines, all that we need to be is those straight strokes, for God to straighten those crooked scribblings of human selfishness and greed. If I am not available there will always be someone within God's eternal plan, but I, on my part, will totally miss the purpose of my life! And I need to be very attentive to the inbuilt purpose that my Creator has for me!

To be a key person is to be GUIDED BY WISDOM:

Wisdom is not merely knowing; it is knowing that one knows and knowing what is to be known at a particular point of time. It is, more than a capacity, a grace! A key person unto the Kingdom should be equipped with wisdom much more than anything. To make the right decisions at the right time and to make the right changes at the right time towards an authentic growth towards being true people of the Reign! The key persons would be those who are guided by Wisdom.

At times right discernment is hindered by the overshadowing selfish thinking, overpowering greed for dominance and overflooding desire for momentary pleasure. Key persons cannot be led by these...they need to pause every now and then, take stock of their internal motivations and innermost purposes and remain always on the side of Wisdom, which comes from the Spirit of the Lord.

To be a key person is to have PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD:

The Gospel today gives us the ultimate criterion to be key persons unto the kingdom: it is to know God, on a personal basis. To have encountered God, experienced God, tasted God, felt the concrete presence of God is one of the fundamental criteria to play any key role in a community of faith, a community of people of God. Mere borrowed experiences and brainwashed theories cannot make one an authentic key player within the community of the Reign. 

Knowing Christ is knowing God. The person of Jesus Christ, his life and teachings, his values and priorities, his choices and decisions, are the parameters for any person of God, anyone who wants to belong to the Reign, anyone who wishes to really be a child of God, making God present wherever he or she is. That is what Jesus did - made present God and God's Reign as he moved around among the people. Key persons are those who know Christ, understand Christ and put on the mind of Christ.

Each of us can turn to be a key person unto the Reign, if and only if we realise the God given role that we have, be guided by Wisdom and yearn for a personal knowledge of God in our lives. The more key persons there are, the more efficacious the Reign can be on earth, here and now. 

The Handmaiden-Queen: Prototype of Servant Leadership

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 22, 2020: Celebrating Mary, the Mother and Queen

Isaiah 9:1-7; Luke 1: 26-38

The Entrance Antiphon of this day's Liturgy reads:
Christ the King crowned his Mother as Queen of Heaven; Come Let us adore him

"Queen of Heaven, Rejoice", we pray in the days following the glorious resurrection of Christ our Saviour and Lord, because the triumph that Jesus won, was shared first and foremost, and most deservingly by his beloved Mother and our blessed Mother, Mary most holy. Exactly a week after we celebrate that mystery of Christ sharing his Easter glory with his Mother, we celebrate today another singular privilege that Mary was granted - being presented to us as Queen of Heaven. Until 1968 this feast was celebrated on May 31, from which year the commemoration was moved to this day, to follow the celebrations of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother, with body and soul into the presence of God, a fitting recompense given by God to God's most beloved daughter.

The Word on this commemoration invites us to reflect on the itinerary that Mary followed towards this glorious title - how did she become a Queen? Through great conquests or incredible feats of valour and victory? No! Not through feats but through her fiat; yes, through her 'yes' to the Lord of the Universe: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word. And it is in that fiat, that she is chosen to be the Mother of God and the Mother of God's people, the beloved Handmaiden of God and the splendid Queen of God's people. Her Queenship is all about her identity as handmaiden, as a servant - yes, a handmaiden-queen!

From her life, we gather where the young Jesus growing up learnt his mode of leadership - let the one who wants to be first among you, be the last; let the one who wants to lead, serve the rest - the Servant Leadership Model. She was, all her life, at the service of the Will of God to which she submitted herself, at the service of the Word who was made flesh in her and had to be nurtured into the world, at the service of fellow beings coming to their aid in their lack, at the service of the Salvific plan of God on the road to calvary and under the Cross, at the service of the early Church strengthening the apostles and others to stay firm in hope and courage during dark moments - all her life, at service! She remains the prototype of the Servant Leadership that Jesus proposes to us and presents to us in his own life and teachings. 

Apart from thanking God for this lovely handmaiden-queen we have, let us take to heart the servant leadership model that Jesus proposed, that we think seldom of power and position, but always of love and service!

The Dry bone Syndrome and the Hope Therapy

WORD 2day: Friday, 20th week in Ordinary time 

August 21, 2020: Ezekiel 37: 1-14; Matthew 22: 34-40

The world is experiencing a time that is strange in all its sense and meaningless in  its totality - an experience that can easily be called the Dry bone Syndrome. Everything seems suspicious, mechanical, lifeless, insensitive, dry, boring, meaningless, devoid of joy... coping with life seems a herculean task! There is a nostalgia spread all over, whether the so-called 'normalcy' of the past would ever return, and how soon! In all these there is the section of people who are worst affected - the poor, the migrants, the daily wagers and all those who are left without hope, exploited and targetted, denied their rights, robbed of their dignity and incessantly dehumanised. There is the entire lot of the people who are wondering what would happen next and what turn would events take tomorrow... the result is frustration, despair...the dry bone syndrome!

The only possible therapy to this is Hope Therapy... the few who still hold on to the right sense of values and priorities, appreciating life and the goodness of the other, with respect and dignity dealing with each other and caring for each other, refusing to be bogged down by conspiracy theories but at the same time not ignoring the genuine dangers that surround, they are the prophets that the Lord appoints today to prophesy to the dry bones... instill hope in the drooping humanity. They can do this because they are filled with genuine love - not with ego and the urge to prove oneself - but with genuine care for the other and sincere wish for the good of the other and of the humanity. That which we call love... that is the hope for the times! 

Hope will never deceive us, says St. Paul. Beyond holding on to the hope given by these good-hearted, love-filled few, we are called to join that band - as hope givers!

God's holiness in us!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 20, 2020: Ezekiel 36: 23-28; Matthew 22:1-14

God wishes to display God's holiness in us... what a realisation if only we understand what God wants to communicate by this. At times we reduce our human nature to sinfulness and wickedness, jealousy and egocentrism, lawlessness and insensitivity. 'I am only human, I am just a man or a woman', we tend to justify all our shortcomings and failures. 

The truth is not that. It is not true that we human beings are evil and miserable. The real truth is that we possess within us the holiness of God, the splendour of God, the glorious and majestic image of God. If only we realise it! When we understand our true nature and the spirit that dwells within us - the spirit from the Lord, our world view will be entirely different and our perspective holistic. That wholeness is Holiness, and that holiness is God's splendour within us. 

We are called to be holy...holiness here is knowing the right perspectives of life and living with right priorities on a daily basis. The Word today seem to underline the urgency of responding to the invitation of God. We claim to have accepted the invitation, but if we do not have this balanced perspective and wholesome priorities, we are doomed to be cast out from that presence of the Lord. For it is no holiness that does not result in concrete wholeness!

A warning and a lesson - be compassionate!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 20th week in Ordinary time  

August 19, 2020: Ezekiel 34: 1-11; Matthew 20: 1-16

The careless shepherds and the sensitive land owner: the readings today present to us a dynamic contrast. It is a warning and a lesson offered together, to every person who has in some way or the other, care over others. It could be pastors who have care over the whole flock of the faithful, or the parents who have the care of children, or the teachers who have the responsibility towards their wards, or friends who have a natural ascendancy over their peers, or employers who have a say over their employees and so on.

The warning is: You are not indispensable and you are answerable! The ascendancy you have is a service required of you. Jesus would instruct those given charge not to lord it over the people (Mt 20:25) and St. Peter would perfectly learn it from his master (1 Pet 5:3). It is a service of love and a task entrusted by the Lord, to be compassionate towards those under our care.

The lesson is: Treat persons for what they are and not for what they have to give you! Whether it was the one who came into the field at the dawn of the day or the ones who came close to the dusk, they were persons in need and persons who had stomachs to feed. The land owner saw what they were and not what they gave him in the form of labour. He gave them all, what they needed at the end of the day to live life at peace.

In both, the warning and the lesson, the Lord underscores a heart that is compassionate. Indeed, that is the identity of the Lord himself. If you really wish to belong to God, be compassionate!

Absolute Centrality of God - the Jesus Style!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 18, 2020: Ezekiel 28:1-10; Matthew 19: 23-30

The Rich and the Poor: how do we differentiate them? It might seem a naive question. In fact, it is. Rich are those who hold wealth and the poor are those who do not. It is fair and clear. But today, the Lord invites us to go a little deeper and understand what it means to be "poor in spirit". 

Often, being rich and a sense of arrogance is considered to be naturally linked to each other. Though its authenticity could be questioned, an arrogance arising from the wealth one possesses makes one totally ungodly - that is an undeniable fact. 

The second category are those who are rich but act discretely, but are all the time conscious that they are so discrete and decent. They consider that a great favour they do to the rest of the society, punctuating all the time the fact that they have chosen to be so considerate towards everyone! 

Yet another category are those who are rich but are humble and grateful, acknowledging everything as a blessing from above. They are conscious not only of what they have, but from whom they have it all. As St. Paul asks, 'what do we have that we have not received?' Isn't that the attitude that we need to cultivate?

Hence the real difference is not whether one has or not, whether one is rich or poor, whether one is affluent or afflicted! There is something that Jesus teaches us - the Jesus style of life. The Jesus style of life is simply an attitude of absolute centrality of God, where it does not matter whether one possesses wealth or not, whether one has abundance of riches or not; a centrality that leads to a childlike dependence on God, with total trust and absolute confidence in the provident love of God. This is being poor in spirit; and that is how I can inherit the Reign of God.

Knowing is one thing; but living with God...

WORD 2day: Monday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 17, 2020: Ezekiel 24: 15-23;  Matthew 19: 16-22.

A scene from the movie, "I am Gabriel": the messenger from God, who is the protagonist in the movie. tells a person to make prayer mats for everyone in the town. And a day later, the person happily shows all the prayer mats made and the messenger replies calmly but sternly, "making the prayer mats is one thing but what is more important is using them!" The readings today seem to give us a message similar to that.

Knowing what is right is one thing, but the more important thing is to live by it. Ezekiel is presented a sign, to make the people realise how thoughtless they were growing about God. They were fulfilling their daily duties and keeping the so called "law" or the religious duties. But whether they were really in touch with the Lord, is the true concern. 

The rich young man, who encounters Jesus in the Gospel, knew the laws and lived the laws, but missed the point as to why he was doing all that. He was keeping the law, because he was taught to. He performed all prayers, because he took them very seriously. He carried out all his duty because he knew those were the rights things to do. All these were fine - but he forgot why he was doing all these: to make God the centre of his life. At the end of it all he was lost. Maybe he felt, 'I have been doing so many things, but finally what have I achieved? I am still lacking something, something so substantial; some thing so crucial.'

With all the various things that we do we may know what is to be done at a given point of time: the rites and the rituals, the rules and the regulations, the laws and the demands therewith. But let us beware, it is completely another thing to realise why do all that we do! To make God the centre of our lives, the foundation and the meaning of our lives. That would mean 'selling everything', 'giving up' and 'loving everyone genuinely'; for in love is God revealed. Living with God means, living in love!

GOD'S SAVING LOVE...

History, geography and memory

August 16, 2020: 20th Sunday in Ordinary time

Isaiah 56: 1, 6-7; Romans 11: 13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15: 21-28

Will those who do not believe in God be saved? Will the Hindus or Muslims be saved? Will those who belong to this particular church be saved? - Haven't we frequently heard these questions? But these, we need to understand, are questions asked by those who have not truly understood the omnipotence and the mercy of God, and the relationship between the two. God wills that all be saved, declares St. Paul (1 Tim 2:4). The Universal Salvation of God has been effected once and for all, from the Cross. What is left for us is to claim it for ourselves from the Lord, in Lord's Mercy. 

Is it on our merit that we can claim it? Or are we left so desperately at the mercy of the Lord that we live till the last moment of our life with intense insecurity and total obscurity? Both these options are out of place when we remember the SAVING LOVE OF GOD. I can never merit it for I do not deserve the love that the Lord showers on me. I am not desperately left in obscurity for I have the hope in the fact that Jesus has given me the power to become a child of God (cf. Jn 1:12). The readings today highlight this salvific act of God's love on my behalf. 

God's saving love knows no history. As the second reading points to us, the salvific love of God does not depend on what history I share and with whom? It does not keep in mind the account of the undeserving acts, in which case I would be damned to eternity. The appeal that God's love makes to us, is made afresh every day and every moment. It is in every single moment of choice that I make, that I have to receive this love, so freely and so generously given.

As the Lord would point out through prophet Ezekiel (18: 21, 24) - we need to grow very critical of common views expressed like, the sins of the previous generation would affect the present, that our past sins condition who we are and what happens to us, and so on. It has become a fashion even for Christians and catholics to speak in terms of 'karma'... aren't we missing something so deep and profound here? Our life and life conditions cannot be let at the mercies of some dumb principle - the Lord's saving love is much greater and deeper than anything that can ever affect the meaning of our life. 

God's saving love respects no geography. As the second reading and the Gospel point out to us, God does not love us on the basis of the background that we come from, the family that brought me up, the institutions I got educated in and the ministries that I have carried out. No, there is no geography in God's salvation because the whole earth, what is within it and what is around it belongs to God. Lord God is the Lord of the universe! And that is precisely why God's salvation is universal.

Today, there is so much made about where a person comes from - the global north versus the global south; the first world and the rest of the world, the regions with their language and cultures... even the value of what is said is gauged depending on from where he or she hails. This regionalism, sectarianism and factionalism has no sense in the sight of the Lord - the only favouritism that the Lord shows is towards the lost, the least and the neglected, there is no geography beyond it.

God's saving love holds no memories. I need not despair at the bitter past that I have had, nor need I make such great acts of reparation to appease my God! They are in no way related to the love that my God has for me. The love that the Lord has for me is so absolute and boundless that nothing on earth or beyond the earth can separate me from that love in and through Christ Jesus. That love of God does not keep count of my faults or my failures; all that counts is the choice I make at a given moment, a choice lovingly made, and a choice absolute for God and for everything that belongs to God. 

Memories, records and revenge seem to have become the rule of life not only to 'many' persons but to the society on the whole, the nations and the entire humanity. There is so much of bad and bitter memories at work, and deciding what we should feel, experience and make of our lives in today's context. The worst affected are the innocents, the weakest in the society, the helpless and the those who have absolutely no power to decide or choose for themselves. This is a logic that is diametrically opposed to God and God's saving love! God wishes the salvation of all, the fullness of life for all, a holistic humanity... this is salvation. In Jesus' terms, this is the Reign of God. 

In summary, the Word today tells us that our salvation is assured on the part of God; but on our part we need to grow into our salvation: through our daily choices and everyday commitment. We need to think beyond history and geography; go beyond our memories and experience the salvation of God, becoming ourselves signs of that salvation, promoting a humanity guided by compassion and a universe filled with love.