The Temple that you are!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

November 9, 2020: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Ezekiel 47: 1-2,8-9,12;  John 2: 13-22

The feast that we celebrate today is the remembrance of the dedication (on 9th, Nov, 324 CE) of the Basilica that stands on the property which was called 'Lateran' because it belonged to that family but acquired and given by Emperor Constantine to the Church earlier. The Church which was built was dedicated to the two great John's of the Gospel: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist! This Basilica is one of the so-called Four Major Basilicas of Rome (the other three being those of St. Peter, Mary Major and St. Paul outside the walls of Rome). There is yet another importance attached to this Basilica because this is the Cathedral, that is the Official seat of the Bishop of Rome - that is none other than the Holy Father himself. Hence THIS is called the Papal Cathedral, and not the all-famous Basilica of St. Peter! 

Temple. Temple of the Lord. Temple of the living God. Temple where lives God. That temple you are! And it is from here the Lord wants his glory to be spread far and wide, from the temple of our selves, from the altars of our daily struggles and sacrifices. The Lord's zeal for the temple flares up today and that temple is not the structure that stands in places, but the persons that we are.

Humanity is the sanctuary where Divinity resides: I need to realise that I am not merely what I see! I am more than me. There is the indwelling Spirit who resides within me. The Divinity that is within me is the true dignity that defines me. First of all, to think of it that the Lord chose to dwell within me; secondly to think of the mystery that I am made of! Both these should make me awestruck but what is happening around us today is so loathsome. 

The Robbers' den experience and the Market place experience is everywhere! But the Lord invites us specially as God's children to realise the Blessing that we are. We are a blessing to many, as Ezekiel says about the waters that flow on from the Temple which make fertile every land that it flows into! 

In simple words, we are called to be persons worthy of the Lord, communities worthy of our faith and societies worthy of the sacredness of the humanity - to realise the Temple that we are!

SEEK! AND YOU SHALL BE FOUND!

Awake, Await and Alert

November 8, 2020: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary time

Wisdom 6: 12-16; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Matthew 25: 1-13

Seek and you shall be found! No there is no mistake here...neither grammatical nor biblical. Seek and you shall find, said Jesus once. Here the Word this Sunday tells us... seek, and you shall be found! Just dwell a while on those words, and you shall understand, how true they are! The first reading has a lovely explanation to it.

Wisdom comes; it is not earned. Knowledge can be gathered, not wisdom. Information can be collected, not wisdom. Wisdom, is what you do with the knowledge you have and the information you collect. Wisdom, is the next step, the step that follows knowing. I know the earth is being destroyed by greed - that is knowledge; but what do I do about it? I know the humanity is being demolished at its core - that is knowledge; but what do I do about it? I know I am giving less and less space for God in my life - that is knowledge; but what do I do about it? Wisdom, is what is born out of knowledge, after knowledge, beyond knowledge. Wisdom is an insight, wisdom is a gift... wisdom comes! But do you think it would come, without you wishing for it, longing for it, looking for it and seeking it? 

Wisdom is God's gift - it is the presence of the Spirit of the Lord, it is the revelation of God, it is the Word of the Lord...that comes, illumines and lets us understand what we know and what we do not know! Wisdom is that capacity to live our daily life, with the knowledge we have, however limited it be, living every moment with meaning and purpose! Oh, what a gift that is... to live with meaning and purpose! That is what the Lord offers us today as a gift... to seek that Wisdom which will help us live our life with meaning and purpose. St. Paul in the second reading and Jesus' parable in the Gospel give us clue, as to what it means to live with meaning and purpose... whether we are alive, or dead, we stay with the Lord forever, says St. Paul.

Wisdom of life is to know, what really matters in life. The wealth? The positions we hold? The power we have over others? The secrets we keep from others? The so-called status and name that we earn among others? If only we think a bit harder, we know these finally do not matter. But that is knowledge; what do I do about it? Yes, we are back with that question. That is what we need to ask ourselves...what do I do about it? I need to seek to be with the Lord, to stay with the Lord, never leave the side of the Lord, even as I engage in my daily duties and chores. That is wisdom - that ability to combine the necessities of daily life and the things that finally matter. Jesus had it so clearly in his mind and he imparted the same to us - to live your daily life, but never to lose sight of the the ultimate things that matter - the Lord and our life with the Lord. Therefore we need to seek... seek that wisdom!

Wisdom has to be sought, if it has to come! Wisdom comes, to those who seek! That is why we said... seek, and you shall be found. Seek wisdom, wisdom will find you. Seek the Lord, the Lord will find you! We cannot find the Lord. We cannot arrive at the Lord! The Lord will find us ...but we need to seek. Just like the Bridegroom would arrive, but the maids had to be ready! They cannot go find the bridegroom, the bridegroom will find them...but they have to seek, to be found.

What does it mean to seek wisdom... to seek the Lord! It means, as Jesus instructs us today, with three key words: awake, await, alert. 

AWAKE. That is the first disposition asked of us. Be awake... if those so called foolish maids were awake, they could have at least thought of their oil shortage a little earlier, not at the nick of time. That is what we need to be - awake, awake to our life, awake to our surroundings, awake to our attitudes, awake to our priorities, awake to our life style, awake to our value systems, awake to our daily choices...if we sleep over them, we will catch ourselves unawares when the crisis comes. Remember when this pandemic began far away from our place, how we took it so much for fun and laughed at it. And even when it came, how we were lighting lamps to it and clapping hands to shoo it - the heights of slumber, and we are paying for it. 

Being awake is not being agitated! At times we think, being awake is to get agitated, tensed and worked up with every simple thing around. No...being awake is not being agitated...instead it is being aware, being aware of what is happening, what is developing, what is brewing...so that when time comes I am prepared to face it.

AWAIT. That is the second disposition required of us. To await... to wait on the Lord. We do not have explanations for everything the very moment they happen. We do not understand them. We are at a loss... how many people lost their dear ones these days, just from nowhere! How many families have gone through the economic struggles and psychological break downs! Why? Why, is the question that comes upper most in our minds. But a better question, a more faith-filled question, a more hope-filled question would be - What? What does the Lord want to communicate? What does the Lord want to do? What is this event communicating to me? That 'what', will come... it will come from the only place that can provide me an adequate response on that - from the Lord. I need to await.

Awaiting is not being asleep! I wait... in the meanwhile...I go to sleep! That was the mistake the maids made...being asleep. Being asleep is losing time, not acting on something that I can, postponing something that I could do it now, letting go of a golden moment and rushing at the peak hour! Awaiting is not inaction, awaiting is being prepared for the right moment of encounter...but for that I have to be awake too!

ALERT. That is the third disposition demanded of us. Being alert...is to observer everything. The so-called foolish maids, could have been alert to see that the wise maid had an extra vial with them, then they would have been alerted. Or the so-called wise maids, could have alerted the other five, to better get something to back themselves up! They cared nothing... just for that they should have been left out of the palace (alright! that is a different discourse for another time). But being alert is to know the signs of the times, to understand what is happening, to connect the dots and be prudent - it is not only about things out there. It is about me too! Yes, looking into myself, knowing what is happening deep within me, understanding the signs of my mind, my spirit, my heart...that I may be alert to the changes and to the situation I am driving myself into...so when it comes, I know, I am prepared, I am awake and I am waiting!

Being alert is not being anxious! In the name of being alert, if I get anxious, I ruin every day of my life. There have been some these days who have closed themselves up in their personal rooms, not getting out even to meet those who are there, even their family members - out of fear of infection. They might have saved themselves from the virus, but have given themselves up to depression and stress! Anxiety, can kill us alive. Being alert is being actively and wisely involved in every thing around me, with a keep observation and prudent precaution, that I may live the moment, without ruining the future.

Awake, Await, and Alert...are the key words we are given today by the Word for our spiritual lives... to seek the Lord, to seek the light of the Lord, to seek with thirst and longing... and we shall be found! The Lord shall come and dwell with us!

Wealth - the right attitude to it

WORD 2day: Saturday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 7, 2020: Philippians 4: 10-19; Luke 16: 9-15

Wealth: is it good or bad? 

Money and God...won't they go together?

Then how do we ask God for wealth and consider prosperity as a blessing from God? The Word today speak to us about the right attitude to develop towards wealth. Just three points to begin with...

1. Wealth is given.

It is a gift and should be treated as such. We are given and it should fill us with gratitude and not arrogance.

2. Wealth is given to be given.

It is never given for yourself...you are a custodian of what is with you. You possessing the wealth is a blessing; the wealth possessing you is a curse!

3. Wealth is given to be given to those who cannot give.

The only purpose today wealth is used, apart from fulfilment of needs, is to make more wealth. It is a sickening tendency that is the cause of the growing selfishness, cruel exploitation and demeaning inhumanities.

Wealth and power are good as long as they are instruments. When they begin to use and dominate persons, dehumanisation begins! God sees the heart, says the Gospel and everyone will see a heart that is filled with God.

The Unchanging Criterion

WORD 2day: Friday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 6, 2020: Philippians 3:17 - 4:1; Luke 16: 1-8

Prudence is a practical virtue; it is the capacity to discern the most effective option from a set of available options. At times in life, we seem to have quite many options to choose from. And a confusion is bound to arise. But today we are reminded of a fact: when we have Christ as our choice, there need be no confusion regarding what to choose and what not to! 

When Christ becomes our absolute, our standard, our criterion, then there would be no confusions nor any more options. We would have an absolute to live by, a standard to judge by, a criterion to choose by. The steward presented in the Gospel today, was praised, yes. But what was he praised for? For his shrewdness and not for his goodness! And some confuse saying, Jesus praised him! Jesus is narrating that the master in the parable praised him! 

For Jesus, what matters here again was... giving away, not getting stuck or attached, looking at everything as a way and a means to be acceptable in the eyes of the Lord. You realise you have collected dishonest wealth - give it away to the needy and get back to the Lord. You realise you are not really on the track towards your call, just shake yourself up and change your course! For doing all this you have one absolute criterion: Christ, the mind of Christ, the lifestyle of Christ - doing the will of the One who sent me, not my own!

St. Paul lived by this choice and presented the same to the others. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ ( 1 Cor 11:1) said Paul, as we read in today's first reading too. We would be judged truly and absolutely prudent, if we choose that never failing criterion: Christ! Because it is the Lord and the Lord alone who does not change. Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Heb 13:8).

In mutual seeking...

WORD 2day: Thursday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 5, 2020: Philippians 3: 3-8a; Lk 15: 1-10

The initial lines of the Gospel today say it all: the tax collectors and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus and the pharisees were complaining against it. And Paul explains it in bare terms... what really matters is not circumcision or not...but the relationship one has with the person of Christ. Enough lessons to formulate a whole lifestyle, a Christ-ian lifestyle.

Past glories, handed down traditions, legalistic requirements, ritual uprightness, fulfillment of duties ...these will not take you any far, however good and right and just they could be. However precious you may consider these, without a living relationship with the person of Christ, what will become of these? Rubbish, trash, refuse, just waste! 

What is expected of me, as a true disciple of Christ is to get nearer and nearer, closer and closer, more and more in personal relationship with God, in the Spirit, through Christ. Do you have doubts if you really can work on that? Do you think in it is difficult to create and get going a relationship with God? Do you feel it is not so easy, because I am lost in my daily chores and millions of commitments? Lost...? but do not worry... there is someone who is looking for you, seeking you!

Yes, God keeps looking out for us, just as the parables present to us in the Gospel today, the shepherd and the woman looking out, seeking! All that we need to do is become aware of our call, to be with God; to earnestly wish the presence of God in our lives; to seek the presence of God, as did the tax collectors and the sinners!

And when God sees our efforts, God doubles it up with grace! God fills us to our brim. God gives us in abundance. God comes to us with a flood of love and compassion....that is Grace. Grace, which is in simple terms of our relationship with God, in the person of Christ, by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Grace...amazing grace, before which everything else is mere trash.

Call yourself a Christian? Better be one!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 4, 2020: Philippians 2: 12-18; Luke 14:25-33

If you call yourself a Christian you better be one, says the Word today. You want to construct a tower but you don't want to procure the material; you want to fight the battle but you don't care to gather the soldiers; you want to be called a Christian but you don't want to take in all those things that make up being true to that name! What a shame!

What does it take then, to be a Christian? 

To be a light when every one around is getting used to the darkness! Everything seems alright today - corruption, discrimination, political vendetta, development that tramples underfoot the poor and the helpless, the rocketing cost of living, the exorbitant demands of medical care, the manipulation of education system...everyone has gotten, or are getting, used to these. A light cannot but expose things around, it cannot hide unless it is blocked or blown off. 

To carry the cross with love when every one around you is waiting to shake off even an extra speck of dust on them! The Cross reminds us of the love that was involved in the pain that the Son of God suffered for our sake. The reminder is also a challenge: how much of love is involved in the way your bear your daily cross, your burdens of life, your share for the sake of others? 

To be holy and blameless while everyone around is losing the very sense of those terms! How easily we find compromises, justifications, rationalisations, that exempt us from the way of life that God has called us to. How easily we place an yes and a no together, while Jesus' style demands that an yes be an yes, and a no, no!

That is what it takes to be a Christian - to be a light in the darkness, to carry my cross with love and to be holy and blameless before God. O Lord Jesus Christ, give us the strength, the courage and the light to walk in your footsteps, carrying our crosses and and making a difference in every life we encounter. You are our light and our salvation.

Enter the dinner or not!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 3, 2020:  Philippians 2: 5-11; Luke 14: 15-24

We can find any number of reasons or excuses to keep ourselves from doing what is the right thing to do, as long as we keep doing it, as if we are doing it for the sake of some one else. It would already be too late when we realise that we have not really lived our life. Our minds will be filled with too many if's and but's to make real sense of it. 

Instead, when we know ourselves, accept this life as a gift from God and live our life understanding its sacrality, and true to the vocation given to each of us: we would be in paradise dining with the Lord already now. But it does involve, suffering and sacrifice endured in a joyful spirit of fulfilling one's vocation.

We have just celebrated two lovely days... the first day with those who have done it all and entered that dinner already; the second day with those who are on their way, and need a bit more of mercy from the Lord to inherit that grace that God has promised them, and us; and today, here we are...learning the truth once again for ourselves. This truth is nothing new - we know it so well and we know it for so long. But what matters is that we act on what we know; that we let this information, form us and transform us, towards sincere discernment and right decision making. 

And who is the inspiration, model and the ideal, for all these three categories of persons: Christ himself! St. Paul gives the picture of Christ, who lived his mission, the personal vocation that he was given and through that he redeemed the whole world - the living and the dead. In living that call and mission, in carrying out that commission and task, he faced tough times and turmoils. Right till he reached the right hand of the One who had sent him, he went on with his life and life task!

When we live our personal lives true to our vocation and at the depth of its meaning, we too will turn out to be instruments of God's salvation, to ourselves and to others. We are given the gift of life and given the invitation to live it to the full... the choice is ours: to enter the dinner of the Lord or not!

It's all about relationship!

All Souls Day: November 2, 2020

Wisdom 3: 1-9; Romans 6: 3-9; John 6: 37-40

The 1st of November, we celebrate the memory of the saints... those among us who have gone before us all the way! They shine as they have reached the destiny prepared for them. They are the Triumphant Church, radiating the HOPE that Christ brought to humanity.

The 2nd November, we keep the memory of those among us who have gone before us, but not yet all the way! They await the mercy of God, to join the band of those who share the glory of the Eternal Light. They are the Penitent Church, united with us in FAITH, the one faith in which we were all baptised, the one faith in which we have a duty to offer our prayers and suffrages. 

Tomorrow onwards we are back to our daily living, as we make our way, amidst the struggles and temptations of the daily life. We are the Militant Church, fighting our way ahead on a daily basis, with LOVE - love for God who constantly accompanies us and love for brothers and sisters with which we accompany those who are around us.

It's all about relationship... we are One Church with the One Lord, with one baptism, one call and one destiny... all of us related to each other. Even the thought of death or of the dead, does not fill us with fear or anxiety, for we are all on the same journey at different stages of the course. The three tier Church is such a holistic view of our life on earth, that it renders every bit of our life and all its struggles so meaningful. It is within this framework of relationship that we think of those brothers and sisters of ours who have gone before us, signed with the same Holy Spirit, that they may receive the eternal reward they have always longed for. But that would be an incomplete exercise, if it does not challenge us to live our life with more hope and more love, here and now that our faith may throw its light on our concrete everyday. 

We are all related - in the Lord, in the mysteries that believe in, in the death that await us and above all, in the life that we possess in the Spirit! Yes, we are all related. Let that be the message that the day offers us. Let us march on with love, with hope and with faith towards the eternal joy prepared for us.

BEING SAINTS

The ABC of being Saints!

November 1, 2020: Solemnity of All Saints 
Revelations 7: 2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3: 1-3; Matthew 5: 1-12 

There is an ever loved and oft quoted anecdote about this sweet little boy who was taken to a traditional Cathedral for the first time by his mother. The boy was tremendously impressed with the splatter of colours on the floor due to the rays that shone through the stained glasses on the walls (remember those classic cathedrals, don't you... and they are becoming endangered specimen these days, with some of them converted to mosques and some others to public halls and themed restaurants!). Coming back to the boy, there for the first time, seeing all the splendour in glowing natural lights, he with his eyes wide open looked at those stained glasses and asked his mother...'mamma, what is this?' So used to his constant questions, the mother pointed to those stained glasses and replied in short, 'Oh... they are the saints!' The boy could not take his eyes or his mind off those pictures on the stained glass. That stuck to the boy's mind, not merely until he returned home but even further. And the next day at school when the catechism teacher asked, who are saints... he shouted out in excitement, "yes I know them." And when the teacher happily turned to him, he continued, "saints are those who let the light shine through them!"

I think that's the best definition for a saint by far. A saint is the one who lets the light, the light of the Lord, shine through him or her. The colours and the shades are exotic, but the light is from the Lord. The shapes and contours are all varied and impressive, but the source is one and the same, the light of the Lord! What a lovely image we have today, of all the saints standing in one choir, as one family, as one community of brothers and sisters, giving praises to the Lord! A grand day and a proportionately important reminder to each of us: you are called to be one of them, you are called to be a Saint!

The Word this day, read attentively, can provide us with a fundamental understanding of what it means to be a saint. They get us thinking, not only about all the saints we have out there, but also about the saint that we have to nourish and nurture within each of us. The Word furnishes us with an ABC of being saints, in our daily life, here and now!

A saint is one who ACKNOWLEDGES the supremacy of God, allowing God to take charge of one's life. This seems to be the most challenging task for human beings as centuries get past us. Human beings, as individual persons and as communities of persons, wish to become more and more autonomous, from everything and every one, even from God, considering God as someone who could infringe on our freedom, our decision making and our authority on our own lives. But all it takes is just a simple recollection of what has happened to humanity in history due to pride and self glory, to understand we are wrong to think of keeping God away from this world. We will be drastically failing. 

The responsorial psalm today invites us to reflect on this absolute supremacy of God. Everything takes its existence from God. How can we ever think of doing away with the Master, as long as we hold on to what the Master has made and programmed and keeps sustaining? The first ever attitude that can bring us towards true sanctity, obviously, is acknowledgement of God's authority over everything, and specially, over my entire self. The more we acknowledge the primacy of God, the more grateful we become; the more grateful we become, the more holy we grow - that is the secret of being saints!

A saint is one who BELONGS totally to God, placing God at the centre of his or her life. Certainly, it does not suffice to acknowledge the authority of God over everything and over me, there is something more to it, when it comes to being saints. In simple terms, it is feeling close, feeling intimately connected, feeling totally grafted on to God - a bond which is like that which exists between a mother and a child, that connectedness that is not merely peripheral, but something that penetrates my very being! I am connected to my God, at the core of my being, at the depth of my soul, at the essence of my spirit, because it is from God I take my life, my image, my entire existence. I belong to God, totally.

In the second reading, John reminds us of who we are - we are children of God, that is what we are! Whether the world acknowledges or not, whether we acknowledge or not, the fact remains that we are children of God, and God will never renounce us, even if we do! God has loved us in to existence and loves us from all eternity. This love was manifest in the incarnation, when Christ came to show us whose image we bear, and to what image we should liken ourselves to. We belong to God who created us, the Lamb who has washed us and the Spirit who consecrates us into children of God, treasured possessions of God, images and likenesses of God, here on earth! The more we realise to whom we bleong, the more we understand who we really - that is the way of being saints!

A saint is one who COMMITS oneself to God's cause, to God's people, to God's will, on a daily basis! That we come from and belong to God, is truly a privilege, a great honour; but it is at the same time, a great challenge too, a call to commitment. As children of God, as people of God, as persons who acknowledge God and belong to God, we are called to manifest that in our daily life, in the ordinary choices we make and in every major decision we take! You will be criticised for it, calumniated against, painted as a threat, called names, jeered at, pictured as an outdated fool, useless misfit...yes! But can you give up? You just can not! There will be mighty forces lining up against you - the economic forces that tend to reduce everything to numbers and currencies, the political forces that are ready to do absolutely anything for the sake of power and position, the anti social forces that take joy and pride in disrupting peace of the people, the immoral forces that perpetrate corruption of everything including the souls of human persons...all these are mighty and they will stand against you! But can you give up? You just should not! Because you are from God, you belong to God and you are the Blessed of the Lord!

The Gospel outlines a way of life that is so surrealistic...that is indeed our roadmap to true holiness. Today, as Pope Francis repeats to us so very often, holiness does not consist in keeping ourselves aloof as refrigerated beings, we need to get down into the slush, get ourselves dirtied, fight our way, stand for the truth, march for justice, rise for the oppressed, reach out for the marginalised, voice out for the voiceless, live for peace, die for love and finally, shout for joy! We are blessed, we are blessed children of God, we are blessed family of the saints, we are blessed followers of the slain Lamb, we are blessed witnesses to God wherever we are! We are on our way to heaven, and we need to get our roadmap right. We need to be in their numbers - in that throng that is in eternal communion with the Lord. That is what we have been created for, that is for what we have been washed and made clean in the Blood, and that is what we are challenged towards in the Spirit - and that is the challenge of being saints!

Let us get this ABC of Being Saints, clear in our minds today... that we Acknowledge God, Belong to God and Commit ourselves to God's cause and we shall be counted in their numbers, in the number of All Saints!

Between death and life, there is living!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 30th week in Ordinary time

October 31, 2020: Philippians 1: 18-26; Luke 14:1,7-11

Paul speaks to us of a popular dilemma that all of us are caught between - the dilemma between death and life! At certain points in our life, this dilemma is strong, at other points it is mild, but it never ceases to exist, given the nature of the certainty of death and the uncertainty of its time or mode! These days with the global health crisis and the frequent news about sickness and death, brings this dilemma more to the limelight.

Which is better... to die or to live? Truly life is a gift! We have it and we treasure it. But there are times when troubles come, unnecessary concerns cloud our days and necessary burdens weigh us down. There are moments, invariably in every person's life, when he or she, at least for a fraction of a second thinks, of what use it is to live! At the same time there is an insatiable anxiety within us to live, to live on and to live forever.

God has given us a gift of death too! Though many do not look at it that way, that is, death as a gift, it is in fact true. Imagine, there were nothing called 'death'? How many problems and how many queries to fend for! Death, in the Christian parlance (in another day. we shall be beginning with the month dedicated to faithful departed), is the gate through which one has to pass to encounter the Lord, for that ultimate face off. Can there be any other reason more exciting and inviting than that? 

We know all this,  that life is a gift and death is equally a gift, but we find it hard to accept it- be it for our own sake or for others. Paul clarifies that dilemma to us today: his statement simply is, that it is a wrong question to ask which is better, life or death - because it is neither death nor life, instead, what comes between the two: living! How we live our life - that is truly what matters. 

There are three clues to living that life: one, from the hands of God: living our life from the hands of God, realising the gift that it is, and striving to realise all the time its true purpose - be it immediate purpose or ultimate purpose; two, living with our eyes fixed on God: that God may call us back anytime and God alone is the author of life and God alone can instruct us about what is best for us at any given moment; three, living for the glory of God: that God be glorified in everything I am and I do!

Between death and life, there is our call to live, our commitment to live to the full, and our opportunity to live for the glory of God. When we do that, we would be able to say with Paul: for me to live is Christ, to die is gain!