Rebuilding the Body of Christ

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 23, 2021: Remembering Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Haggai 1:1-8; Luke 9: 7-9

It is important to know that the house is in ruins and more important to know the reason. The world today is experiencing that ruin in many fronts. The wounded peace, the wrecked ecology, the neglected humanity, the despised helpless, the insensitive power centres and added to all these the ravaging pandemic... these are the experiences of ruins. If we carry on our lives paying no attention to these, but trying to live our religious lives as mere ritual requirements, we will be like Herod who was more curious to see Jesus than earnest to see himself in the light of Jesus.

The Saint we celebrate today, a saint of our times - hardly fifty years ago did he die. He stood as a reminder to the world, calling attention to the ruins of humanity, the ruins of human soul, the ruins of total wellbeing. As a dedicated pastor, he vehemently opposed the hypocritical practice of religious traditions and called people to an uncompromising commitment to Christian vocation. He stands today a great testimony that challenges every Christian to question and appraise oneself and one's commitment to the Lord. He reminded everyone whom he came across that we belong to God and as one community we build up the Mystical body of Christ, here on earth.

Today, to reflect on our house of ruins is not merely to criticise ourselves or everyone else who is around, but to look at ourselves in the light of Jesus and his Mystical Body. The Mystical Body of Christ is the communion of believers, the communion of human persons, a true communion of heart and spirit. Are we building up such a presence amidst us? If not, Jesus' body, the house of God, is in ruins! It is important that we know that the house is in ruins and more important that we analyse to see where really lies the problem. 

A bit of sincerity and a lot of dedication will set this house back in order - am I doing my part in it?

Set out... restore the ruins!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 22, 2021: Ezra 9: 5-9; Luke 9: 1-6

Looking at the world today, one has enough to criticize, enough to lament and enough to detest. But that is not what a disciple of Christ could do at his or her best. The Lord invites and challenges us to 'Set out to restore the ruins'. God called in history people like Moses, Ezra and Nehemiah, the other prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus himself, Francis of Assisi and many others; just as much does God call you and me today, in our own way to restore the ruins and certainly not to add to them.

Even in and through our facebook messages, whatsapp forwards, blogposts, tweets and circulated mails we are given with opportunities and scope to restore ruins and not create more havoc. There are enough hate-spreaders, we need not add to those numbers. Our justice need not be a justice of an uncharitable self righteousness; it has to be filled with charitable holiness. Even when they reject you, move on shaking the dust off your sandals, the Lord suggests.

It is not so easy in a world so dominated by egoistic agenda, divisive mentality, exploitative mindset, vindictive perspectives and inhuman developmental processes! The majority of the world tends to play it according to the tunes of the mighty and the rebellionists find it an easy task to reject everything that the majority holds on to, spreading therefore ungodly leanings that strive to alieate human persons from the merciful God. 

Can we truly root ourselves on evangelical charity and fend for the weak, stand by the oppressed and think from their perspective? That would truly be restoration of the ruins in the eyes of the Lord.

The Call and our Response!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 21, 2021: Remembering St. Matthew
Ephesians 4: 1-7, 11-13; Matthew 9 :9-13

We come across the touching scene of the call of Matthew in the Gospel today, as we celebrate the feast of this great evangelist. The image that accompanies this reflection is by the famous painter Caravaggio...and it brings out the sentiment of the Gospel in a dynamic sense. There are a few clear messages that this episode of the call of Matthew can offer us... let us pick on just three of those:

- God hates sin not the sinners: there is no condemnation for those who believe in Christ, says the letter to the Hebrews. The Mercy of God cannot be an excuse for compromise between good and evil, sin and virtue, sinfulness and holiness. The call of Matthew is yet another splendid example to understand the fact that God hates sin, but loves that the sinners repent and get back to true holiness.

- When it comes to God's call there are no Jews and no gentiles; there are no favourites by default. We become favourites depending on the prompt response we give to that call. Many are called but few are chosen (Mt 22:14)... we are chosen depending on the response we give to the call we receive. Those who are chosen are strengthened, that they may stay on with the Lord as disciples and apostles!

- God dares enter my private home and dine with me no matter who the others are, whom I have invited. We may say, Lord I am not worthy that you should enter my home...but God enters! Should I not be prepared, ready and in a position to receive the Lord? Do I dare to let God come over, to the home of my inner self - are things in order, presentable?

The calling of Matthew reminds each of us of the call that we have received... how are we responding to that call, in our day to day life?

Roused in the Spirit

WORD 2day: Monday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 20, 2021: Ezra 1:1-6; Luke 8:16-18

Sentiments of grief, suspicion, hatred and violence is strewn all over the news these days. Every day we rise to newer and newer challenges against peaceful life on earth. Direct killings and terrorist fundamentalism on the one side; the hidden agenda and delirious deceptions of the dominant forces on the other side, normal peace loving human being is compelled to feel out of place today.

Do not be worried dear sons and daughters of God, says the Word today. The Lord is in control. The Lord made use of an alien king Cyrus to raise God's dwelling back to its glory and God's people back to their dignity - the same Lord is in control even today! Just as the Lord roused the Spirit in Cyrus, so shall we feel the rousing of the Spirit within, towards a new creation of heaven and earth!   

All that children of God need to do today, is be roused in the Spirit - yes, be roused in the Spirit, share the Word more and more, speak the mercies of the Lord to everyone, set the world ablaze with the love of the True God. Only then you can be called people of God. The light that is kindled in our hearts has to light up many more hearts and rouse up the Spirit in the entire community of faith, the Church. 

Here is the call for us in concrete: be children of God, be roused in the Spirit, be lights of the world, burn bright and help people give praise to the Almighty! 

CHOOSE GOOD; CHOOSE GOD!

Shunning evil and welcoming good

25th Sunday in Ordinary time: September 19, 2021

Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20; James 3:16 - 4:3; Mark 9: 30-37

Choosing God is choosing good; choosing good is being good; being good is being absolutely good! The good versus evil conflict is as old as the creation itself and we know it very well. Our origins are undoubtedly good, because it is only good that can create, not the evil; evil only destroys or evil creates only destruction! We are created by God, the ultimate goodness and we are created for goodness. Holiness is at the root of our existence - it becomes so difficult to understand, believe, accept and live by it, because of the unfortunate and miserable interplay of the evil, basically the negation of God, that is the negation of all that is essentially good. 

Choosing good, is not an easy option considering the situation we live in today and all sorts of tenedencies and forces that lie in wait to ambush our good will and our natural godliness that we find within us as humans. The socio-politico-economic troubles that are experienced everywhere, the rat race logic of individual progress, the corporate dominant globalisation of consumerism, the manipulation of science and technology by the mighty and the moneyed are not just global phenomena, but they affect even the individual human persons. The personal and interpersonal values in the society are subject to all these evil forces that destroy true happiness and joy. It is in this circumstance that we are called, by the Word this Sunday, to choose God, by choosing good. 

To choose God by choosing good, involves three dispositions in our daily life: to shun evil, to welcome good and to be good! 

Shun evil, with all your might! This is the first disposition that we need today to be people of God, because the leeway  between the good and evil has been drastically reducing through the ages and today it has reached a level that permits such a large proportion of compromise! We cannot give into this sad situation. The word today draws our attention to three types of people who get themselves associated to evil in varied degrees. The first, are those who say, "let us see what happens". They may not be the ones causing the evil, but they are still the causes as they permit evil and assent to it in their passivity, which is a classic example of compromise. There are the second type of people who lie in wait, they do not want to be identified as the causes of evil, but they rejoice in it and wait to reap all the fruits of it. And the third are those who plot, who kill, who terrorise, who destroy, who thrive on evil. All these three groups we see in the Word of God today - whatever be the degree, an association with evil is always ungodly, that is why the book of Wisdom calls them, 'the godless.' If we are to be God's people, we have to shun evil with all our might and choose to have nothing with it!

Welcome good, with all your heart! A positive and proactive way of shunning evil is, welcoming good, that is identifying the traces of goodness anywhere, not missing any scope of goodness, not being prejudiced of anyone or any situation, but being open to good from anyone and everyone. It is being attentive to the goodness in the other, recognising it, promoting it and enhancing it. Welcoming good is welcoming God. When Jesus spoke of welcoming the children, or welcoming the little ones, he was refering to everyone who had still alive, that original goodness, that innate goodness, that God-particle within each of us. Jealousy is refusing to see the goodness in the other and to rejoice in it. Ambitiousness is refusing to see the goodness within oneself, which is already present though to be perfected. It is refusing to accept who I am and striving to be someone else for the sake of proving a point, which is truly not there! Welcoming good is tending towards good, even though it is clear that it can cause inconveniences of all volumes! We are God's people when we identify good, wherever it may be, and welcome it with all our heart.

Be good, come what may! Doing good is good, but not good enough. The call is to be good, from which goodness, comes all the good that we do. At times people may look to be doing good - be it in the world at large, or in our societies, or in our families or communities - but beneath all the good that they do, there could be a tint of selfishness, jealousy, competetiveness, ambition and other hidden agenda... doing good here, does not necessarily come from a spirit that is good! Hence the admonition to stay clear of all hypocrisy and manipulation. That will lead to harmony within a person, harmony among persons, harmony in a community, harmony in a society and harmony in the world over. Peace in the world cannot come from broken persons or split persons; it is a gift that only a person of integrity can offer to the world. And that integrity is goodness in the core of one's being. Being good is the seed from where all peace and joy can sprout and spring into being. As people of God we are called to be good, come what may... being delivered into the hands of evil, being tormented with pressures, being threatened to death...nothing can stop us from being good. Being good is being godly, because God is good all the time. 

Choosing good is choosing God, and it involves shunning evil with all our might, welcoming good with all our heart and being good at the core of our being, come what may! May the Spirit of the Lord, the eternal wisdom, grant us the grace to choose God and choose God above all.  

To see and perceive and to listen and understand!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 18, 2021: 1 Timothy 6:13-16; Luke 8:4-15

Jesus draws an important difference between seeing and perceiving, and between hearing and understanding. And he offers us an explanation that is so practical and down to earth. We can refuse to see; or hardly manage to see; or see but do not really perceive; or see, perceive and behold!

The times are such that there is so much talk about the end of times...the pandemic, the vaccine, and various others discussions relating to it. Though it is true that every now and then in history, there are times like these when the theme of end of times has emerged strong, it cannot be a mere matter of light headed comments. It should set us thinking how important a theme it is but how flimsily understood and handled. Today Paul speaks of it too, to Timothy. 

For all that we may believe, Christ is not going to "come", as if he is not here! He said I am with you always. Christ, who is already here with us, will be revealed in fullness of glory, in God's own time. Till then it is our duty and our call to see and perceive Christ in every person suffering and every person in need; to hear and understand Christ speaking in every cry for justice and every groan in pain. 

If we have to behold the Lord when the Lord is fully revealed... we cannot refuse to see; it would not help if we hardly manage to see; and it would not be sufficient if we see but fail to really perceive. We need to live in the presence of God, be conscious of that presence of God and draw inspiration from that presence so much that, we grow in our capacity to see and perceive, to listen and understand, when the Lord is finally revealed in all God's glory!

Keep fighting his fight!

WORD 2day: Friday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 17, 2021: 1 Timothy 6: 2-12; Luke 8: 1-3

The Word today establishes that to be a follower of Christ, it does not matter whether you are a man or a woman, a jew or a gentile, of noble birth or from a sinful past, all that matters is from the moment you decide to be Christ's follower, to manifest that in your normal conduct and your everyday choices. Christ should make such a difference in your life that you look at everything in a way different from that of the rest of the world. Especially at times when sufferings surround you and crises engulf you, you need to manifest yourself as disciples by your constancy, different from the world that looks for instant solutions and immediate outcomes.

Yes, most in the world today follow a hit and run policy, with regard to sufferings and struggles, but wish to call themselves strong, mature and rational. At the most they agree that they are rebellious, but they fail to understand their weakness -  of questioning God during their difficulties but not staying on long enough to get the right answers. Once a person approached a pastor saying that it has been long since the person had left the Catholic Church, because the person had lost a dear friend just around 25 years old. The person had raised questions such as, Why this person? Why now? and so on and left the Church in rebellion against God. The pastor asked a gentle question to him: you raised a question unto the Lord, did you wait for an answer at all?'

Living a life of discipleship requires an authentic mind, a humble spirit and a patient self. There is nothing wrong in raising questions to God, but we should be ready to wait for the response. Wait long and wait hard - that is what we mean a fight, a good fight of faith. There will be a response, an answer from the Lord - but you should be there to behold that response. Only then you would be in a position to say: I have fought the good fight of faith! Until then there is one thing we are called to do: Follow the Lord and Keep fighting his fight!

More loved... more powered!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 16, 2021: 1 Timothy 4: 12-16; Luke 7: 36-50

It is not that she loved more and so she was forgiven more, but that she was forgiven more and so she loved more and more. It was not because Timothy was more powerful that he was entrusted with the people of God, but because he was entrusted with the people of God he was made power filled, by the one who chose him. 

People of God, are all chosen, chosen to belong to God, chosen to possess the power of God and chosen to inspire each other and entire humanity, towards everyone growing into the image and likeness that they have been created in. It is not because we, as people of God, are better than the others or more worthy than the rest of the humankind. The fact is, because we are chosen, we need to strive to become better, more worthy and ever conscious of our need to work for our own salvation and for the others'. 

Thinking and living this way, every person called in the name of Christ becomes a leader, an inspirer, a light on the top of the hill. And these leaders and inspirers are powered more and loved more because they love God and live for God and for others. Our lives need to become more and more salvific - for ourselves and for others around us. 

May every day help us to grow up to be more and more conscious of how much we are loved and empowered... that we may be more and more loved and powered.

The first one to Behold the Cross!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 15, 2021: Remembering the Sorrowful Mother of God 

1 Timothy 1: 1-2,12-14; John 19: 25-27

If yesterday was the glorification of the Cross, today is the remembrance of the one who beheld that Cross, standing at its foot, for the first time! The Cross was not anything new. It was a common punishment for the offenders. But for the first time, its significance changes when the Son of God takes it into his loving embrace. Suffering for humanity is nothing new, but it all depends how we behold it, in our own lives. Mary stood by that Cross, and she did not realise what it really meant. What we celebrate today is not the theological interpretation that Mary gave to the Cross - No! She knew nothing of it.

We celebrate today, three important attitudes that we see in our Blessed Mother:

The surrendering love due to which she was able to accept anything that came her way after that 'yes' she said - the struggle without a place to give birth to her son, the exile to Egypt and back, the society that did not accept her son and everything that followed.

The enduring hope with which she believed in every word that was spoken to her by the Angel. She was blessed because she believed that what the Lord promised would surely be fulfilled. Even at the foot of the Cross or after the body was laid in the silence of the tomb, she stood firm in her hope.

The unwavering faith which led her to remain silent until every sword had pierced her heart - she knew nothing can take her away from the Lord. She waited until her son won over death and made her the sign of our ultimate victory over death. Mary shines as the beacon that illumines our lives and makes us understand, the ultimate victory belongs to the Lord.

May the sword that pierced her heart, make us meek, humble and obedient unto the Lord.

Rising to Glorify the Lord

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 14, 2021: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Numbers 21: 4-9; Philippians 2: 6-11; John 3:13-17

The Word today is filled with terms related to raising and lowering - being raised by God, being raised by people, self-lowering...and everything points towards the element of making God the priority and making God's will the absolute criterion, in our daily life. God has a design and that design is the original and the absolute good that is in creation. When we tamper with it, there is a mighty big ruin that we cause. This is the rationale behind be it the ecological crisis we face today or the pandemic that we are suffering from.

We know it is important for the cocoon to break itself open and the creature inside to squeeze itself out - only then will there be a creature so beautiful, colourful and subtle to fly around. We know it is important for the seed to bury itself in the ground, get suffocated under mud and force itself out of the ground to yield its multifold fruit.

At times in spite of all the love that we have for God and despite all the goodness we possess, we find it so difficult to accept pain - pains of different kinds - psychological, physical, spiritual, relational or social. The moment we are able to subject ourselves to pain with serenity, the moment we are ready to go through a bit of the darkness of the unknown, the moment we are prepared to grope a bit in the shady regions of our life... and do all these with complete trust that the Lord is certainly around, I begin to rise! 

When I rise, people will certainly begin to look at me, giving glory to the Lord, the Lord of the Cross! This is after all the exaltation of the Cross we are called to celebrate today and not merely some cult towards the crucifix! Let our daily lives become a perennial exaltation of the Holy Cross, from where comes our salvation.