Before you call yourself a Christian, prove it!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 23, 2021: Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18; Matthew 7: 15-20 

The Tree and the Fruits! Abraham, was a man of God, he was the father of the covenantal people! Abraham listened, obeyed, believed and remained loyal to the Lord who called him. The Covenant the Lord made was the tree and Abraham's life choices were the fruits

The eternal covenant that is made in the blood of Jesus Christ, is the guarantee of the grace and the gift of faith within us. It is the sap of the tree that we are, as God's children. While it is God's action that God has transformed us into God's children in our baptism, our daily life and regular choices have to bear fruits that will make it visible to the world and to ourselves, that we are trees of God. 

An anonymous author reminds us, 'you may be the only gospel that someone reads! So be careful with the way you live your life!' May your fruits identify who you are, not merely your self-trumpetting words. Let not your fruits betray who you really are, in spite of all the over-blown claims that you have about yourself - as a child of God, person of God, instruments of God and so on and so forth!

I am a Christian... and that has to be a fact not merely in my title or in my words and claims, not merely even in my activities, responsibilities and external duties that I carry out; but in every choice of mine, every thought and expression of it, every intention that gives rise to my word and my deeds at every moment of my life. 

I remember a question once a preacher posed during a retreat, 'if today they detain you for being a Christian, will they find enough evidence in you to implicate you?' A powerful question, extremely simple in its categorical demand that before you call yourself a Christian, prove it!

Fairness and Justice: a sense of God

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 22, 2021: Genesis 13: 2, 5-18; Matthew 7: 6, 12-14

I was impressed by a child in the train during one of my trips. She had her younger brother with her and every time the mother was giving anything to her or buying something for her from the vendors, she instantly would turn to her younger brother as if asking her mother, what about him? The curious climax was, when she returned the biscuit packet that she was sharing with her brother, to her mother with just one biscuit remaining in it. When the mother asked her why she left just one biscuit behind there, she said there is only one, how we two will take it? The simplicity of that innocent mind...just blew me away. I began wondering where has this kind of a spirit gone, in the world today!

Selfishness and greed, jealousy and competition has become the order of the day. Hardly anyone wishes to do anything if that does not bring them dividends atleast in some measure or kind. Notice the way Abraham dealt with his brother Lot. And pay attention to the golden rule: doing what you would wish others do to you. These are narrow doors. Those won't be the kind of behaviour that you can expect the mainstream humanity to choose spontaneously, especially today. However, as disciples of the Lord, our choice has to be precisely this: a choice for fairness and justice, that would be the right sense of being a person of God.

To let go!

WORD 2day: Monday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 21, 2021: Genesis 12: 1-9; Matthew 7: 1-5

We will be presented with Abraham for our reflection for the next few days. But what was so special about Abraham? From the very first moment the Word clarifies that. Leave your country and your people, calls the Lord and there he is doing it with such confidence. He lets go of everything, everything that gave him an identity.

The Gospel presents to us a similar and greater challenge: to let go... of our opinions, judgements and prejudices about people and to be open minded. At times we become so handicapped, not because of any physical or mental disability, but the spiritual incapacity to remain open, so filled with our own opinions and judgements. 

We decide on seeing a person, what kind of a person someone is - and worse, we boast about it saying, 'I can say what kind of a person someone is, at the very first sight!'. With one experience with someone, we decide everyone from that background or from the same context, will be the same and we become cautious or judgemental about them! When someone does something we are alright with it, but if someone else whom we do not have a great opinion about, does the same thing, we make a hue and cry as if the whole world is crumbling!

How many new experiences we would have lost because of our opinionated approach! How many enriching encounters we would have lost because of our prefixed judgements! How many growth experiences we would have lost because of our prejudiced mindset. How prepared are we to let go of our opinions and judgements and look at persons and realities everytime with fresh eyes? It is truly a spirituality, to let go!

WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE HAVE!

Be still, behold and be urged... 

June 20, 2021: 12th Sunday in Ordinary time

Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17; Mark 4: 35-41

Be Still... and you will know what a mighty God you have!

But is this so easy to do in times such as these...when all we hear is about sickness, contagion, disease, death, ICU, emergency, lockdown, second wave and third wave, virus, variant and vaccination! It seems so difficult to think of God in terms of God's benevolence and might.

Even otherwise, we are so fond of lamenting, fretting, complaining, grumbling, panting and gasping, that we fail to notice the mighty presence of God right beside us as we struggle in the daily storms of life. It takes that moment when the Lord finally intervenes and says: Quiet! Be Still...I am here, right here, in the midst of it all. Don't you see? Don't you believe? Haven't you experienced my interventions in the past? Haven't you learnt that lesson yet?

It is one of our regular unfortunate experiences - that we do a series of good, a long list of acts of love and compassion, and every duty of ours to perfection until one mistake, or one misunderstanding, or one misfired act... people react as if we have always been that way! We begin to wonder, all the good and the perfect things that I did so far, do they count at all? At times, we put God through that kind of an experience too! When things go wrong, when things are out of control, it is important to 'Be still, and know that the Lord is!'

Behold! a New Thing... the mighty God is creating it for you!

At times the turbulence that you go through may be a new thing in the making! You know how the east coast of Chennai was affected due to Tsunami. Yes, that was a big tragedy. But once going for some work to a place near the East Coast, the person who was with me commented looking at a mighty building there: if it were not for the Tsunami, we would not have this building here! Though it may sound less sensitive to the disaster and its effects, the statement triggered an insight in me. At times the turbulences that we experience in life, may lead to newer and fresher outlooks on events.

Loss of job, crisis in a work place, calamities that affect daily life, transfers, change of leaderships...these at times may look like big hurdles. But as times goes by and when we overcome these situations for good and experience a new lease of life, we would realise how through what was once thought of as a problem, we have had pleasant surprises, experiences of growth and an opportunity to live life more intensely. But if we do not reflect we would miss it all. When Socrates said it - an unreflected life is a wasted life - he did have a great sense, particularly in the spiritual sense. It is our responsibility to behold the new things that the Lord deigns to make for us. It is easy to miss them all.

Be Urged by the Love of Christ... the mightiest experience of God!

In every thing and at every moment, be urged by the love of Christ; a love that so powerfully brings the presence of God into our life. Allow God into your life, feel the presence of God and enjoy the love that God continues to shower on you - a love so immense and unconditional. If only we taste that love of God, we would become so filled with that love that we will overflow with that love. Our words, our thoughts, our gestures, our relations, our interactions and everything in us will be flooded with that love and people around us will experience it. That love will urge me to be loving; that love will push me to reach out to the other in love; that love will not allow me to remain quiet about the goodness that I have experienced; that love will make goodness so contagious and of course everything around me will be created anew! 

Yes... can we stand up and accept the challenge: The Love of Christ urges us, to be still and recognise the presence of God, to behold everything new that the Lord is creating for us and to be urged by the love of Christ, to share the same loving presence of God with everyone in need! If only we realise, what a mighty God we have! 

Sense of Sufficiency - sign of sanctity

WORD 2day : Saturday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 19, 2021: 2 Corinthians 12: 1-10; Matthew 6: 24-34

The rich and the poor, the affluent and the needy, the influential and the ordinary... they seem to be no different from each other! They wish for more and more and more. And at no point in their life they seem to have a sense of Sufficiency. People with thousand pairs of footwears, a couple or more of private jets, scores floors in more than a few apartments, are known facts today; and at a more ordinary level, people with a few cellphones and scores of sim cards, cupboard full of dresses and loads of wasted food...these are no rare sights too! There is no saying enough, for the human mind today, or has it been so for all times? 

St. Paul today explains the importance of the attitude of saying enough, the sense of sufficience and considers it a sign of sanctity. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul considers himself 'blessed' with a sense of sufficiency, in plenty and in want (Phil 4: 11,12). In our families, in our personal lives, in our social life, in our religious communities... where does this virtue stand?

Be it Indian spirituality, Western monastic spirituality, Eastern yogic spirituality... everywhere there is a strong point made for detachment, possessing less and learning to live with the minimum! Where do all these spiritualities go, in spite of the highly religious people who live! And the so called people of the religion, are precisely the ones who goad wealth, create a culture of promiscuity and indulge in frivolities unheard of. 

And above all, the sense of sufficiency comes from and is a fruit of gratitude, a sense of having received enough and in abundance from God. Gratitude is a sign of a sense of sufficiency that one feels with God; and this sense of sufficiency, is obviously therefore, a sure sign of sanctity. 

The heart, the eye and the lesson!

WORD 2day : Friday, 11th week ìn Ordinary time

June 18, 2021: 2 Corinthians 11:18,21-30; Mathew 6: 19-23

Jesus speaks of the heart and the eye and the importance of these to a being. St. Paul presents himself as a madman who is putting himself through so many trials. He knows more will be coming but remains ready to risk them all. We have hosts and hosts of martyrs who have died for what they believed in, Saints who lived for God and God's purposes till the last breath of their lives, and people who continue to risk their lives for causes they commit themselves to.

Where lies their strength? In their heart and in their eye, says the Gospel today. Heart refers to their Priority and eyes to their Perspective! 

When God becomes my priority, nothing else would matter to me more than being Godly. Not my career, not my comforts, not my social status, not the conventional success, not the power and the position that everyone clamours for...nothing can deter me from living my life for God and God's purposes. That is my heart...and where my heart is there my treasures will be too!

When God becomes my perspective my whole world changes, because I begin to see everything the way God sees them. The jealousy of God that St. Paul spoke of yesterday is nothing but the way God looks at us: as God's own! Hence it is only right and just that we consider ourselves God's own too and in every way make ourselves so - that is becoming like God, in the way we see, think, judge and make choices. That is our eyes...and the way we look at others and at the world, will decide to whom we truly belong.

What is expected of us thus is, we form our hearts and our eyes, that we ascertain our priority and clarify our perspective. May the Spirit of the Lord help us to become aware of our heart, our eye and the lesson that the Word gives us today.

A God who relates - cordiality and difference!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 17, 2021: 2 Corinthians 11: 1-11; Matthew 6: 7-15

St. Paul wishes that the believers stand in front of the Lord as brides and Jesus proposes a parent-children relationship between God and humankind. There is a common denominator that dominates this vision of the God-human dynamics, a vision that can be identified as a typical Christ-ian vision. 

A Christian vision of God would refer to God in terms of the relationship that believers have with the Divine, rather than in terms of a power or an impersonal being. Be it the marital covenant or the parental commitment, the Word abounds with metaphors that call for a personal relationship with God, as God's beloved children. 

But let us go a step deeper in analysing this relationship that is characteristic of our faith - this relationship should be characterised by two indispensable elements: Cordiality and Difference. 

Cordiality would be the closeness a person feels with the Divine according to one's experience and need. This is the Bhakti tradition that the Indian religious mind so well comprehends - a deep seated personal love for God, as a result of a similar love experienced from God. However, cordiality or this closeness alone would not suffice. At times it becomes so personal and subjective that it can be suspected! And that is where the second characteristic comes in.

Difference would refer to the difference that the relationship makes in one's life - in one's thinking, choices, attitudes, priorities and in decisions. Because a genuine cordiality has to necessarily lead one to a concrete difference in one's life and in those around. This balances the subjectivity that is seen in cordiality and leaves a person committed to testimony, witness and example. Look at St. Paul who is able to say with such audacity, 'be imitators of me, as I am of Christ!' 

A truly Christian life would be filled with meaningful relationships as we carry within us, in our core, we are images of a God who relates!

Value Added Deeds

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 16, 2021: 2 Corinthians 9: 6-11; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

I know a person, a good friend of mine, who is a trainer. He does the training of the younger cadets of the organisation that he was trained in. He distributes training kits and accessories on his own cost to those young trainees and does not receive any payment for his services other than the train ticket for his travel up and down! This is going on for quite a few years now and I have not revealed his identity because he will not like it absolutely!

Thinking of Giving...there is so much of talk today of 'giving'... the donations and funds collected today to help those affected by covid, the funds that are collected during natural calamities, the scholarships distributed...all these have a big label attached to them. At times what is spent on making known what is given, is more than what is actually given! The cheerful giving that St. Paul speaks of today, is certainly not this type of a giving, instead it is the type that was narrated earlier! 

Our doing good, is good! But to be truly Christian, the doing has to be of a specific nature! It cannot be just a philanthropic, that good of the other or just the common good. All these are good, but there has to be another value added to these... the value added good deed!

The true value of whatever we do depends more on why we do than on what we do. What we do will vary according to our ability and the context provided possibilities. But the why will never change whether what I do increases or reduces. What I would wish to reap I will reap; if it is popularity or publicity that I wish, exactly that I will reap! If it is true satisfaction and divine interior joy that I wish, precisely that the Almighty will grant! These are truly the Value added deeds!

God: a poor businessman!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 15, 2021: 2 Corinthians 8: 1-9; Matthew 5:43-48 

Among us friends we have a good laugh whenever we think of an elderly religious (of happy memory), who was put incharge of the farm in one of our religious communities. Every year at the annual audit he was used to repeating a remark, in his own inimitable modulation: "what put I get, what I get I put...no profit, no loss, no problem". 

If we look at the love that God had lavished upon humanity, he would not have certainly got back even a tiny fraction of what he has put in! 

Incarnation is just one of the many mighty investments that God had made on our behalf (cf. 2 Cor 8:9)... but consider the dividends! God seems to be such a bad business person and the strangest part of it is, Jesus invites us to follow God's logic! Knowingly to invest in a losing business, who ever will oblige today?

You are almost certain what you give will not come back to you... still you are called to give! You know by forgiving a person that person is not going to in anyway become better or convert for good, still you are called to forgive! You know the one in need right in front of you, has been someone who has done so much damage to you in the past, still you are called to reach out with compassion and do the needful. What kind of a logic is this? Will anyone rational really accept this kind of a reasoning? 

If you do not accept this logic, you risk not being part of the band of Christ. This lifestyle may look illogical, but nothing else is fitting enough for being truly God's children. Let's love without counting the cost; Our Master, is undoubtedly a poor businessman!

Be compassionate - right here and right now!

WORD 2day: Monday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 14, 2021: 2 Corinthians 6: 1-10; Matthew 5: 38-42

The best is the enemy of the good, is a statement attributed to Don Bosco, they say in the context of doing good to the other. Even the better, sometimes is a formidable enemy. What do we mean by that? We mean, thinking of better options and the best prospects, we can easily miss out on the opportunity and the possibility of the good that we can do at a given time. Is this not a common experience?

At times I have caught myself lamenting the times and the conditions instead of doing whatever little I could to express my true compassion. If only I were someone else or if only I were somewhere else or if only I had such and such a possibility... these are the yearning for the better that neglects the good that is already available.

The Gospel today invites us to go out of our way to express our compassion to the other. The first reading emphatically  adds: now is the time and now is the hour for it, just go ahead do whatever good you can! We may not be able to give or do great things for those whom we come across in dire need, but we can always be compassionate, caring and respectful towards them, wherever we are! Does that need a special condition or time?

Hence what we do and how we do, do matter a lot - but how much love we put into these, matter much more! And that is where compassion comes into play. When we are compassionate we are godly! However righteous we could be, if we are not compassionate, we are nowhere close to being godly! Let us strive to be compassionate - right here and right now!