The two copper coins in time of pandemic

WORD 2day: Saturday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 5, 2021: Tobit 12: 1, 5-15, 20; Mark 12: 38-44

Half way through the first reading it should certainly strike us in these times... Tobit was blessed for his exceptional corporal act of mercy - burying the dead! An honourable and a Christian funeral these days cannot be taken for granted. Oh what times we are experiencing!

What is after all burying the dead when seen in relation to the agony and the grief that a family or a loved one goes through in having to see their beloved ones suffer and die. It is neither curing the person and bringing them back to the family, nor bringing them back to life from the dead. Yes, it is not a great remedy to the pierced hearts of people...but it is a minimum solace that is possible within the human capacity...to give a decent, holy and a minimum Christian Farewell to our loved ones.

Just as Mother Teresa said, it is not in how great a thing we do, but in how much love we put in, that our acts become truly blessed. Added to the love that they put in, those persons who involve themselves in giving a human and decent burial to the deceased due to the prevalent pandemic, risk their health, wellbeing and even life, in doing this. So many volunteers who involve in this unseen ministry stand out today in the eyes of God, just as the widow did in the eyes of Jesus.

What we can do to others and the society - a genuine good wish, a sincere good word, a selfless simple smile and whatever material outreach that we can...will be considered much greater than what sometimes even crores or millions that are donated with vested interest. So, let us never refrain from giving the other whatever we can, even if it is just two copper coins, in this time of pandemic. 

Identifying the True Lord

WORD 2day: Friday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 4, 2021: Tobit 11;5-17; Mark 12: 35-37

At times for the fun of it, with a few like-minded friends I do have a good sport reading out the predictions based on zodiac signs - be it on the dailies or on the other social network means. It has happened quite a few times that we are surprised at the pricision that emerges in some of those predictions. There arise sometimes even a kind of temptation to believe, that it may after all be true and that these constellations have a kind of influence on our personality and our eventualities. That said, the real surprise rests on the One who made all these, in such order and precision, making life possible!

True faith in God consists in seeing through all the creaturely order and logical wisdom, and acknowledging the true Lordship - the absolute and sovereign Lord, our God! Tobit sings a hymn of glory and praise to the Lord for the great things that happened in his life, for his son and for his daughter in law, and for the graciousness with which God had dealt with him and his household. 

How we wish to do that in our own lives - we see Tobit so blessed, miracles one after the other and the great assurance of God's presence and grace on his and his entire family. Today with all the troubles and struggles that we are going through, with the situation of COVID and all the repercussions that it has caused - we too wish to receive the graces of miracles, goodness, favours, protection, healing, and serene family moments! But the real faith lies in seeing beyond, and hoping in the Lord; seeing through, and trusting in the Lord.

Jesus challenges us to see beyond the apparent and identify the True Lord, who is in control of everything, That is a gift of faith that the Spirit alone can give us. Let us thirst for that grace all our life - to identify the concrete presence of the Lord with us, around us and in us!

Love - do we understand it at all?!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 3, 2021: Tobit 6:10-11; 7:1, 9-17; 8:4-9a; Mk 12: 28-34

Two unfortunate sharings I heard recently: one about a husband who decided to disown his wife a year after their wedding, because she was diagnosed with a serious illness; the second a religious who said she had not spoken for the past four years with another sister living with her in the same convent. These two and many such experiences raise a fundamental doubt: are we truly Christian? Have we, as we claim in and through baptism, really immersed ourselves into the mystery that God is? God is love and if we are born of God, we should love.

And there arises another perennial problem: what is love? Have we really understood it? How do we understand it? Have we really imbibed the sense that Jesus wants us to perceive, in love?

While the Gospel reiterates this call that each of us has received, in the first reading today we have a typical example in the person of Tobiah. Once he decides that he loves Sarah, nothing deters him from growing in that perfection. He is told how fatal it can be if he loves Sarah, but he does not hesitate. The reason is, he believed that Sarah was brought into his life by God. Just imagine, if only we look at every person in our life - our parents, our brothers and sisters, spouses, neighbours, colleagues and every one with whom we rub shoulders on a daily basis - as someone who has been brought into our lives by God, how blessed our life shall be. 

God entrusts with persons to love, in our daily life. Love is not merely a feeling; it is an act of faith. To look at every person around me and see and believe that God has given me that person, that brother or that sister, to love- that is the secret. That is true Christian love: does the world today, does every Christian today, do I today, really understand it at all?

To understand the Word and the Power of God

WORD 2day: Wednesday. 9th week in Ordinary time

June 2, 2021: Tobit 3: 1-11,16-17; Mark 12:18-27

Is this not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? - Jesus chides the Sadducees. Why was Jesus upset with the question that the Sadducees posed with regard to the woman who had married seven brothers one after the other. Jesus saw through and identified the irony and sarcasm that was at play in that question - that was what irritated Jesus. Not the doubt but the arrogance that the Sadduccees sported, that was what made Jesus give them a piece of his mind. 

Tobit feels that it would be better to die than to live on with his blindness; Sarah prays that she would die rather than hear the treacherous things told of her. But to let them die was not God's plan. The Lord of the living wanted them to live; the Lord of the living wants all of us to live; the Lord of the living has given us the Only Son of God, 'that we may have life, life in all its abundance.'

The invitation is therefore to understand the Word and the Power of God, which reside with us all the time. The Word is the very communication of God to us and the Power of God is the manifestation of this ever present God with us. Our Prayer has to help us come to grips with the Word and its Power. 

Let us begin to develop two spiritual habits, inspired by the Word today: one, let us learn and practice to pray with the Word, with the Word of God, not merely with empty words; secondly, let us realise the Power of God that resides within us - that come what may, we will remain unmoved and strong, holding on to God and God's love for us. That is where our life lies, the fullness of our lives. The Word and the Power of God, give meaning to our daily life here and now!  

To see or not to see?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 1, 2021: Tobit 2: 9-14; Mark 12: 13-17

Tobit loses his sight and lives so for four years or so. Even that did not disturb his wife much but the judgements that Tobit asks her puts her totally at unease. She questions Tobit on his charity lived thus far in life. His tendency to judge the actions of his wife, puts his entire life of charity into doubt. The question that she asks him, 'where is all your charity?', brings out the crux of the message today. 

It is truly charity that helps us see persons as they are. In charity we decide whether to see or not, persons as they are, instead of fixing them into the peg holes we have made for each of them. We are fond of categorising persons, fit them into our scheme of judgements and label them according to our mental make up! This happens much in our daily life, be it in our families, among collegues at work, or religious communites that we live in. Judgements are the first enemies of charity and that is why saintly Mother Teresa of Kolkata made that statement: if you are busy judging, you have no time to love! 

The Pharisees and the Scribes hated Jesus to the core because he was exposing their hypocrisy, their stubbornness of heart, their decision not to see, because they wanted to prove their judgement that Jesus was a fake messiah! Even after reports and experiences of the goodness of the Lord, they refused to see, or decided not to see! In fact, it is not that they did not see, they did not want to see! They wanted to be comfortable with their judgements and thoughts, more than with the real truth.

The questions raised by the Word today are very pointed: how far do you really see? does the sight-giving charity reside in your hearts? do you really want to see, or have you decided not to see?

To be reminders of the presence of God!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May 31, 2021: The Feast of Visitation

Zephaniah 3: 14-18a; Luke 1: 39-56

We celebrate the feast of the Visitation of our Blessed Mother to Elizabeth. When Mary entered Elizabeth's household, there was a sense of God that was felt, for two reasons. The first, Mary was carrying Jesus within her and the effect was felt! The second, Mary herself was transformed into the presence of God for Elizabeth!

The first reading today turns our attention to the words of Zephaniah explaining what the Lord in our midst is doing: God exults, God renews and God dances! God exults in the wonderful gifts that we are in the eyes of  God. God renews those parts of us that are not as good as they can be! God dances with joy over everything that we are able to do in God's eternal plan. Anyone who expresses this exultation of the Lord, this call for renewal and the rejoicing of the Lord for God's children, he or she is a formidable reminder of the presence of God.

In fact when Elizabeth says, 'what have I done to deserve that the Mother of my Lord should visit me!', she becomes the reminder of the presence of God to Mary! When Mary turns to Elizabeth and says, 'My heart exults in the Lord and my soul rejoices in the Lord my saviour', she becomes the reminder of the Lord's presence to Elizabeth and to the entire household!

We are called to be reminders of the presence of God, to be the presences of God to those around us. When we exult in the Lord, when we do our part to renew those around us, correcting them with care and love, when we rejoice in the goodness of others and the good things that happen to them, we become reminders of God's presence amidst God's people!

Can we be today, Reminders of God's presence wherever we are!

COMMUNION THAT COMMISSIONS

God who communicates, chooses and commissions

May 30, 2021: Trinity Sunday

Deuteronomy 4: 32-34,39-40; Romans 8: 14-17; Matthew 28: 16-20

We celebrate today one of the fundamental truths of our Christian faith and experience: the truth and the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Triune God, who is the Communion that Commissions each of us, to be God's children and God's people. The Revelation of God as Trinity, come right from the beginning of creation and that is why the reference to the Creator-God in the first reading today, comes right in place. God created, through God's Words as the Spirit was moving on the waters; the reference to the Wisdom of God and Word of God active in the care and guidance of God's people is another experience of the Trinity and finally, the Christ-event where Christ declared that he came from the Father and would go back to the Father, sending us the Spirit as advocate and counselor, is the ultimate revelation of the Trinitarian God, we live, move and have our being in. 

How do we come across, see and experience the Triune God in our personal lives - the Word today invites us to reflect on this fact and create within us convictions that can inspire our lives. 

God who communicates: The first experience is that of God who communicates! Moses today reminds the people of God how God had been communicating to them, continuously and for their good. The commandments were not to be looked at, even now are not to be looked at, as a control exercised on us by God, but as a communication of God's will to us, so that we can feel always liberated and godly. Communication, is the key here! What does it mean? It means making something common, making something shared, making something commonly understood. God makes us understand what is expected of us and makes it very clear to us...making it a common place knowledge, so that we can go ahead live our lives to the full. 

The first implication of the communication of God, is that we are made God's children, that is those who share the identity with God, those who belong to God, those who form part of the common heredity of God. The call is here that we are called to communicate, to be communicators, those who make things common, those who create that common space where all of us feel as one people of God, one family of children of God. This is also the second experience of the Trinity.

God who has chosen us: The second experience of the Triune God is that of being chosen! We are chosen...God has chosen us, signifies that we are empowered by the Spirit! The Spirit makes us children of God, inspiring and enabling us to call God, Abba Father! We are made heirs to God, co-heirs in Christ, by the Spirit! It is the Spirit who enables us to understand our true idenity, as chosen people of God, which is certainly a privilege, but a privilege that comes as a package - with the call to share in the sufferings of the sole Heir, with whom we are co-heirs. The sufferings of Christ, is our way to becoming children of God; the sufferings of Christ is our guarantee of the title as people of God. 

The implication here, of the fact of being chosen by God, who has chosen us by name: is that we imitate Christ, inspired by the Spirit, that we stand for the values that Jesus stood for, the lifestyle that Jesus promoted, the relationships that Jesus treasured, the searching mentality that Jesus had, the total submission that he expressed to his Father, the fundamental yearning to bring the flock together as one people of God, as one family of chidren of God. Are we following the footsteps of Jesus... doing so, we shall become his heirs, if not, we shall miss that golden opportunity.

God who commissions us:  The third experience of the Trinity is God who commissions! God communicates, chooses and, sends or commissions us to be God's ambassadors in the world today, wherever we are and in the times that we live. Jesus, the missionary apostle of the Father, makes of his own apostles missionaries too: go to the ends of the world, he commissions them. Go and do what? Baptise...in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...that is go and unite the world into one family, into one people of one mind and heart...it is not about bringing everyone into one mould, but making everyone belong to one fold...people who think of the other, people who think together, people who care for each other, people who love each other genuinely, as God does. Love one another as I loved you, he said.

The implication of this commission, is that we go, go as ambassadors of God and of God's peace, love and unity! We need to be people who bear God to others, specially in these moments of crisis that is making people suffer personally, in families, in the society, as nations and as a global community. Can we meaningfully communicate God! Can we really live up to our identity as chosen people of God! The commission, or the call, we have received lies there, where we really become persons and children of God who can make God present to the afflicted, to the suffering, to the bereaved, to the broken, to the depressed, to those in agony and anxiety, to those who have lost familes, to those who are at a loss where to go from here! We are called to make God present to them, because the Lord has promised us: I am with you till the end of times. 

The Holy Trinity is an experience, the experience of a God who communicates, chooses us and invites us to communicate... in order that we may create one big family of people of God, creating the Reign of God present here and now!

Jesus, the Word and Wisdom

WORD 2day: Saturday, 8th week in Ordinary time

May 29, 2021: Sirach 51:12-20; Mark 11: 27-33

The Second person of the Trinity is the Word; the Wisdom which is personified as God's guiding presence for the people of the Old Testament. The readings taken together give us a twin perspective of Jesus and Jesus' relation to the figure of Wisdom! 

1. Jesus has Wisdom: the Gospel presents to us the way Jesus tackled the trap that was laid for him by the shrewd pharisees and scribes. Jesus proves that he had the Wisdom, a great gift from the Lord. Wisdom is fundamentally knowing what to say and what not to say at a particular point of time and saying what is to be said in the best way possible with the choice of the right verbal or non verbal language! Now that was Jesus' forte. Be it in the event we come across in the Gospel today, or the incident of the woman caught in adultery, or the case of the Samaritan Woman, or the discussion with the disciples asking for power and position... everywhere, we see that Jesus knew the right thing to be said at the right time. Above all, even when Jesus had to point out some one's fault or be critical about someone, he chose the right sense of doing it. He had wisdom in its fullness, even as a human person in daily experience.

2. Jesus as Wisdom: the way the first reading presents Wisdom, we come to clearly understand what the Old Testament speaks of as Wisdom is not merely a quality or a faculty, but a person, a personal presence of the Almighty! When Jesus lived and moved around, people readily and without much difficulty saw the Wisdom that he was. Jesus was, and is, the Wisdom that fills us with light and shows us the way. 

If only we accept the Wisdom of Christ in contrast to the folly of truth claims of the world, we would find that joy that is complete, that joy that Christ alone can give.

Being Godly...

WORD 2day: Friday, 8th week in Ordinary time

May 28, 2021: Sirach 44: 1, 9-13; Mark 11: 11-26

The readings today speak to us of an essential dimension of human life: being Godly. If we can showcase some indication of difference between human beings and the so-called 'lower' beings, it has to be the dimension of being Godly. Because, it is only when God created the human persons, does God say, 'let us create human beings in our own image'. 

However these days the social network seems to present us with cases of many of these animals, the so called 'lower' beings, with qualities and actions much more edifying than those of the humans - feeling for the other, caring for the suffering, mourning for the dead, helping those in need, and so on! They seem to excel in their show of love and affection too, some times! Aren't we therefore obliged much more to manifest this Godliness in our lives, as human persons?

The Word today outlines 2 signs of being Godly...

The first is, being rooted in God - finding one's solace and fulfillment in nothing less than God, finding the hand of God in every bit of one's well being, being grateful for and conscious of the good that God continues to do, standing by to find out God's will and accompaniment in daily journeys of life. ..these are signs of being rooted in God.

Another sign is, bearing forth God's fruits - one who bears forth God's fruits will bear it forth for others and not make a living out of it as it was happening in the Temple; he or she will bear it forth in season and out of season, in abundance and always mindful that the fruits belong to God.

Let us become more and more aware of the fact that we are created, to be Godly!

The splendid gift of seeing

WORD 2day: Thursday, 8th week in Ordinary time

May 27, 2021: Sirach 42: 15-26; Mk 10: 46-52

To truly see the nature and observe all that it points to, to truly see the creation and the creatures and all the marvels they possess, to truly see the process of change and rejuvenation inbuilt in the nature and drink in their splendour, to truly see all that happens around and sense the lessons that they offer... it is a splendid gift! Not all do possess it.

The pandemic we are suffering and the waves it is making...is it something that happened just over night? No it has been something that has taken its time to get itself formed and fortify itself and cause this havoc to the entire humanity! If only all of us had been attentive to indications from nature, if only all had been concerned about well being of all and entire humanity, if only even now everyone is worried only about the common good...it could have been averted or it could be better handled. It is the case with many so-called natural disorders too...if only we see things in time and truly understand what is being communicated to us!

Today, we can without exaggeration join Bartimaeus and ask the Lord that we may see, see truly, observe clearly, listen intently, understand deeply and find the splendour of God's presence with us and within us. Without God's grace we cannot see God's presence and receive God's directions for our daily life. 

To see a teary eye and read the helplessness in it; to see the troubled spirit and hear the cry for understanding; to see the disturbed minds and understand the yearning for true love, it is an essential and lovely gift that we can ask God for. At times we speak, we write and we forward lofty ideals, but we are so concentrated on ourself and our own concerns that we fail to see the need, the feeling, the yearning of the one beside us. 

How we need to ask today from God the splendid gift of truly seeing!