Witness: Deeper, brighter and freer!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 10, 2021: 2 Corinthians 3:15 - 4:1,3-6; Matthew 5: 20-26

'Preach not by words, preach by virtues' - St. Anthony would often say. Just as St. Francis who would repeat, 'preach always, when needed use words'. Witness is the first form of proclamation that the Church recommends to every baptised person. A life of witness, is a life marked by the Spirit of the Lord - this is the crux of the Word today.

We cannot be mere common people, we have to become committed people. We cannot be just any people, we have to be inspiring people. We cannot be just acceptable people, we have to be challenging people. We cannot be satisfied with just a mediocre life of non-disturbance and mind-myself mentality, we have to be people who disturb the world and be the conscience wherever we are.

This means that our life has to be lived in a personal and common space that is much deeper - going to the roots of what rules and regulations mean, not just obeying them for what they are or rejecting them for the sake of it. 

It means that our words and more so our actions, should shine brighter in a world that is filled with so much fear, fear to have personal opinions, fear to have personal choices, fear to live a convinced life, fear to stand up for truth, fear to stand by those who are true.

It means that our mind, heart and our spirit is more free, looking at the right and the good, as something to be lovingly chosen and integrally held on to. Laws, rules and principles would not be then something that bind us or limit us, but would free us more and more, for truth and integrity.

All these are possible only with the Spirit who can deepen our perspective, brighten our convictions and free our spirits! The Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom!

A sure ground to stand on

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 9, 2021: 2 Corinthians 3: 4-11; Matthew 5: 17-19

What was celebrated good one day, is not considered good any more another day. What seems true today is soon proved a lie another day. A court finds one gravely guilty, a higher court acquits the same person as totally innocent! What is criticised one day, is identified as a norm another day. We are living in times of change! Can we base our life on facts as flimsy as these?

Even the covenant made with the people of the Old Testament is something that has become outdated with time, claims St. Paul in the first reading! Oh, what an alarming situation it is then! But he himself clarifies, that outdated covenant has been replaced with another covenant, that will never change or never expire - a covenant that is sealed forever by the blood of Christ! And Jesus give us another similar assurance.

Jesus refers to the only sure foundation we have: the foundation of rock, the foundation of the Word and the Holy Will of God. Nothing, not a dot, not a line shall go unfinished says Jesus. A sure foundation, an unfailing ground, a never expiring assurance, that comes in the person of Jesus, who reveals to us the true, One and Only God who is all love and goodness. In following the Lord, the Absolute love, the unconditional Good, we have a surity of peace, joy and love. When we go against what God is and what God expects from us, we have all the miseries we face in these days!

At times people place so much of confidence in persons who are around, that when they feel let down they feel as if the whole earth under their feet is giving way - just think of the famous 'break-ups', 'depressions', and other phenomenon people experience these days. We have nothing to assail us because we have a great wall of defence, a sure foundation in the Lord. 

Let us realise, we are standing on the promises of God, and that is a sure ground to stand on!

Salt, Light and an Yes

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 10th week in Ordinary 

June 8, 2021: 2 Corinthians 1: 18-22; Matthew 5: 13-16

There is a close relationship between being salt, being light and saying an Yes to the Lord! The Word today highlights it for us in a symbolic way.

To say Yes to the Lord means to be like the salt... totally dissolving oneself in the yes that is said, choosing to remain insignificant and hidden but making a difference in the entire reality! The Yes that is said, does not exclude any part of one's life, however insignificant. It is therefore a warning against any compromise... compromises which curiously disturb us in the beginning, but as days go by we get accustomed to it, and it becomes almost 'normal'...the call is to be mindful of one's Yes!

To say Yes to the Lord means to be like the light... remaining wherever one is called to be, and from there to burn bright and spread light, not counting the cost like melting oneself down or burning oneself up for the sake of the Yes that has been given to the Lord. It is about our proactive lifestyle that makes those around us, turn and take a look, stand and wonder, and even dare to come to us and ask us a question like: how are you able to do this! The call is to be enthused by one's Yes!

The first reading today places it plain and clear in front of us and adds that, it is only through the Lord that we are empowered to say an Yes to our call...it is not merely our capacity, our prowess and our goodness! It is Jesus, who was a personification of this Yes in his own life, who affirms us and makes us capable of it. Jesus was never an yes and a no! He was always yes! And that is what he wants us to be - to entrust ourselves totally into the hands of God and be an yes always! 

Responding to that call, requires an enormous faith and relentless hope, filling us with a matchless love for God and God's ways. We will do well to pray for this grace every single day!

Encouragement: A Spirituality of memories and promises!

WORD 2day: Monday,  10th week in Ordinary time

June 7, 2021: 2 Cor 1: 1-7; Mt 5: 1-12

Fear not, Take heart,  Be firm... these are some exhortations that we find in abundance in the Word of God. St. Paul explains to us today, why it is so.

As people of God and in union with God we are constantly encouraged,  that is filled with courage for times that can be trying, filled with an inner peace even in the face of troubles, filled with hope even at the so called times of despair. This is so because of a past that is so filled with care and concern on the part of God and a future that seems so heavenly.

Memories and Promises, play a great part in our faith experience, in our identity as people of God. But there is also a tendency that has to be avoided for a holistic spirituality ...the tendency to a selective memory of negative things and selective amnesia of so many positive experiences; and the tendency to make faith moments a series of foretelling and soothsaying. Instead memories should be of the gracious moments of the past and promises should be a childlike surrender to the will of God. 

The Word today draws on the past and the future to instruct us that a life that is filed with God, the memories of God and the promises of God,  will be a life of Courage and Commitment.

WITH US, IN US & FOR US

Covenantal Presence, Corporal Union and Concrete Commitment

June 6, 2021: The Solemnity of Body and Blood of Christ
Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrew 9: 11-15; Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26

The Feast of Corpus Christi reminds us of a drastic decision that God made in our favour - With Us, In Us and For Us - God loved us, God came amidst us and God came to stay within us! The solemnity that we celebrate today explicates this decision inspiring in us a similar attitude as we live our daily life. 

WITH US: That decision to stay with us is a Covenantal Presence... As St. Paul writes to Timothy, even if we are unfaithful, God is faithful forever. God has made a covenant with us throughout the ages, and finally God had sealed it and convalidated it with the very body and blood of God's Son, and that covenant is, to be with us forever! The Covenantal Presence of God with us is the highest form of security and protection that we can feel. It gives us the sense of sonship and daughterhood. 

The call here is to be WITH OTHERS, specially when someone suffers, struggles, grapples and fights to live meaningfully. In the time of this crisis, with the terrorising Pandemic, how much are we able to assure persons who are affected, that we are with them. With the quarantine and social distancing, are we also emotionally and spiritually isolating and distancing ourselves from the others, specially those who are suffering? 

IN US: The decision to stay with us is a desire for Corporal Union... Our Lord and Saviour becomes one with us, unites in our bodily existence too, enabling us to say, It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. It is a decision to be in us forever. It is a decision to purify us from within us, it is a decision to infuse sanctity within us, it is a decision to make us whole from within. 

The call here is to be IN THE LIVES OF THE OTHERS. Just like the Son of God becomes one with us, we are called to empathise with others with whom we share this common home: the World. It is crucial with whom we side: with those who really need empowerment or with the dominant rows. Aren't we tired to see today those in governance and public administration, thinking predominantly in terms of economy and development, ready to stifle and set aside the poor, the weak and the economically insignificant of the society? It is ready to criticise them...but very important to examine our own inner most logic. 

FOR US: The decision to stay with us is a Concrete Commitment that the Lord takes on our behalf; that we may be saved, sanctified and brought back to God. It is a call that Christ gives us to offer ourselves entirely to God, in every thing we are and everything we do. This is my body; this is my blood which shall be shed for you, says the Lord. It is a concrete commitment the Lord makes to be forever for us. 

And the call is obvious: to GIVE OF OURSELVES FOR THE OTHERS. A truly Christian life is a life that is lived for Others, for it is in living for others that we live for God. The Others here would begin from one's immediate family, the faith community, the universal brothers and sisters, specially those who are weak and oppressed. Giving should remain an extraordinary act of goodness, but our very nature of being Christian. 

The Body and Blood of Christ that we celebrate is a living reminder of the extraordinary love that God has to be WITH us, IN us and FOR us! Let us heed the invitation and become persons with others, in others, for others!

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?