Making the Lord known!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 18, 2021: Celebrating St. Luke the Evangelist

2 Timothy 4: 10-17; Luke 10: 1-9

The first reading today presents to us the predicament of St. Paul as an apostle, as to how he had to suffer, suffer alone and suffer until death. But amidst all these he never lost sight of his vocation: to make the Lord known! The reading also names two of the four evangelists - Luke and Mark... wonderful examples of apostles who were totally dedicated to the call that they had received: to make the Lord known! Luke alone is with me, Paul recounts, bringing to us the information about Luke whom we celebrate today, Luke who it is said, knew our Blessed Mother in person and even attempted passing on to us a protrait of hers! 

Celebrating Luke today, we are given to reflect about what it really means to make the Lord known where we are and in the times that we live. We see in the Gospel, as narrated by Luke, that the Lord sent them two by two, before him, to the villages which he was to visit, and gave them a specific message to announce. It is in that message that St. Luke gives us the key to understand what it means to make the Lord known... to make the Lord known is to make the Reign known! 

The Reign of God is near, was the message they were to announce and that was actually making the Lord known to those people. Today, our message too has to be that: the Catholic Church has proclaimed for the past five decades that it has definitively entered into the age of New Evangelisation - that is a re-proclamation of the Lord, which has to coincide with our proclamation of the Reign of God. Amidst the atrocities of the times where the poor, the weak, and the powerless are trodden upon, we are called to announce the Reign, the Reign of justice and truth, the Reign of liberty and dignity of all, the Reign of equality and mutual respect! That is truly, making the Lord known! 

HOPE - THE CALL TO UNLEARN

Beware of some fallacies of today

29th Sunday in Ordinary time: October 17, 2021
Isaiah 53: 10-11; Hebrew 4: 14-16; Mark 10: 35-45

May your love be upon us O Lord, as we place all our hope on you, we say in response to the Word this Sunday. Hope is a typically Christian value that we are filled in abundance with, when we develop a true relationship with Christ the Risen Lord. The basis of hope is faith, faith is nothing but this relationship we just referred to - a relationship that is born in recognising the Lord who communicates and in responding in the way that the Lord wants me to. When this relationship goes strong, whatever comes my way, I shall not be moved or shaken or disturbed or distressed! Nothing will ever perturb me! Because, Hope says things may go wrong for a while, struggles, temptations, troubles and difficulties might come your way, but do not lose heart - for God alone is everlasting! The final word belongs always to God, to no one or to nothing else! At times this becomes too difficult to understand or practise, because the world teaches us things that are diametrically opposed to these values. In fact the call to hope is actually a call to unlearn these fallacies of the world today.

Every Christian is an ambassador of hope, we are apostles sent into this world to hold out hope to every person on earth. Holding out hope is not an easy task... it needs a tough unlearning of certain fallacies that the world teaches its beings ceaselessly! Unlearning these first of all within oneself and then witnessing before the others is the call we have to live today, specially seeing all the tensions that are unceasingly on the rise, all over the world. Let us become aware of some three fallacies that we need to unlearn with urgency these days.

Fallacy 1: Life is all about happiness and pleasure

Fun, thrill, chill, prank, troll, freaking out, just do it... these are considered watchwords for today's generation. At times we justify everything with a statement, 'is it not to be happy after all that we do all that we do here on earth?' No! Life is not merely about happiness and pleasure. There are difficulties, there are struggles, there are sufferings that come our way and they are not just part of our life, but crucial parts of learning in life. 

Hence hope-filled personnel are those who are able to see beyond getting stuck to happiness and pleasure; there are various other values in life that Christ gives us and invites us to see!

Fallacy 2: I should be totally in control of my life

Planning ahead, programming things, forecasts and foretelling techniques: what are these but signs of desperate desire to be in control of things, of life and of everything that happens there in. But in spite of all these, there are times when we are caught so unaware and unprepared. Just imagine how this whole experience of pandemic began, and all the circumstances that have surrounded us since then. Yes, life is not totally under our control but that does not mean we are at the mercy of chance! God is in control and the more we realise this, the more wise and mature we become. 

A hope-filled person will never lose his or her cool before unexpected turns of life, because he or she knows for certain wherever life takes us, God is there with us and nothing happens without God's knowledge!

Fallacy 3: Progress is striving to dominate everyone around

In the name of success, development and progress, what the world today teaches us is that we have to look at everyone around as a competition, a threat, someone whom we have to trample upon in order to make our way! The world is getting filled with more and more insensitivity, cruelty and inhumanity. There is craze for possession and power, without even considering the possibility of living a life that is free of corruption or exploitation. There is a widespread tendency to use persons and love things, to make pleasure more important than personal dignity, to value personal likes and dislikes far more than common good and shared vision towards true happiness.  

Hope filled persons shall be counter witnesses to this situation, placing persons before things, relationships before comfort, love before success and peace before progress. They are around not to be served, but to serve; not to succeed but to live meaningfully; not to climb high but to live deep.

Overcoming these fallacies and unlearning the teachings of the world today might seem difficult, at times even absurd! But this is precisely what Christ calls us to... and he has been in every situation that we find ourselves in and he has lived a life as a perfect example of how we should. Let us look up to Christ our Hope, and stand firm in the way of life that he has taught us! Let us be hope filled persons, and fill the world with hope today, here and now!

Faith that speaks and acts

WORD 2day: Saturday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 16, 2021: Romans 4:13,16-18; Luke 12: 8-12

Jesus assures us, true faith speaks for itself. We need not hunt for ways and means of explaining and defending our faith. In fact, faith has to be self evident and self explanatory. We don't need mighty big formulae to hold on to our faith or to expound it... all we need is the realisation of the constant and unceasing presence of the Lord with us.

When I am convinced of this presence I can hope against hope as Abraham did. Such a faith speaks on my behalf, clarifies things for me and others and acts in my favour in the ultimate analysis - because it is the light that is shed upon my life, significance of my life and the purpose I have in life. 

There is a beautiful insight that we hope none of us miss from the readings today, taken together. While Paul speaks of God as one who raises the dead to life and calls to life those which do not as yet exist, Jesus speaks of that one sin that cannot be forgiven, the sin against the Holy Spirit. They both are referring to the same, while the former cites a positive explanation, the latter provides a note of clarification. The sin against the Holy Spirit is the lack of Hope, which is a concrete expression of lack of faith leading to a life that lacks any love! 

If I am really a person of faith, there could be nothing that perturbs me, as the Saint of yesterday reminded us! Let our lives shine out, filled with a faith that speaks and acts!

Faith and what follows!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 15, 2021: Celebrating St. Teresa of Avila

Romans 4: 1-8; Luke 12: 1-7

Faith is a gift, a gratuitous gift from God! My part is to grow in it. The more I grow in it, the more I realise how undeserving I am of it. Abraham was granted this gift and he grew tremendously worthy of it. Paul was granted this gift and he fought a brave fight to become worthy of it. Jesus accuses those who throw those pearls of faith to the swines of their ego and self centered thinking. If I have received this gift of faith, should I not be grateful for it and mindful enough to keep growing in it. Can I be boasting about it and mindlessly acting contrary to it? Jesus is warning us about something that would not look apparently like an aberration of faith, but in fact leads us gradually away from what true faith is all about - 'the yeast' of the Pharisees, that Jesus mentions in the Gospel today.

Taking my faith to be a reason for my pride, judging everyone else who does not partake of it; calling names at people who have a faith different from mine merely because of the difference and treating them with despite; making faith a means to make my living instead of making it my life and journeying genuinely towards my eternal life...these are somethings that I need to be on the guard about! Faith is a gift given to me and I need to grow in it every day, every moment.

St. Teresa of Avila, invites us to look within us and observe the greatness that is treasured within us, and from there we can shine forth to the world: through a thorough soul searching and a realisation of the indwelling Spirit within us! For we may be unworthy clay jars, but exactly in these has the Lord placed the priceless treasures (2 Cor 4:7) of faith! Now that we are gifted with faith, what follows?

One God and the Bloodshed!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 14, 2021: Romans 3: 21-30; Luke 11: 47-54

There is only one God... so finishes the first reading of today! We beleive in One God! Belief in one God seems to be a disturbing fact for many who think it is a point of contention - that those who believe in One God, have a point to prove against those who believe in a God different from theirs. But is this so? The Word today gives us a totally different perspective of belief in One God.

First of all, this perspective is more catholic than divisive! Believing in One God is a catholic perspective... not the technical term refering to the Catholic Church - but the literal meaning of the term 'catholic' which means 'all-embracing'. Believing in one God, challenges me to embrace everyone who is around me, because I firmly believe my God invites me to love all, because every one is created by the only God that I beleive in. I cannot look at a person as divided from me, however different his or her faith could be.

Secondly, this perspective makes me believe in universal brotherhood and sisterhood... as every one is my brother or sister, given to me by my God to love and share my life with. I cannot find in the other a rival or an alien or a stranger, much less an enemy!

Thirdly, laws and regulations, legalities and formalities, red tapism and border controversies, cannot stop me from being merciful and loving to the other. Believing in one God means I believe in the same God who is sovereign over all, the same God who loves all, the same God who cares for all. 

And therefore, due to any reason, worst of it being the reason of faith or religion, if I cause or condone the  bloodshed of a brother or sister of mine, I shall be the worst of hypocrites here on earth and the least in the Reign of that One, Supreme, loving God whom I believe in. 

Righteousness, Self-righteousness and Judgements

WORD 2day : Wednesday, 28th Week in Ordinary time

October 13, 2021: Romans 2: 1-11, Luke 11: 42-46

God has no favourites, says the first reading and Jesus demonstrates that in the Gospel. Neither in being close and accompanying, nor in providing a sense of righteousness (corrections and directions), does God differentiate between persons. The differences arise only in the way we receive or not, what the Lord wishes to communicate to us. In none of these are we judged by God - we are judged by our own judgements! Judge not and you shall not be judged said Jesus. And we hear today, Paul saying its corollary: judge and you shall be judged too, with the same measure and rigour!

Jesus spared no one - whether it was the pharisees or the lawyers or the chief priests or Herod or Pilate - everyone got their share! As much as Jesus was compassionate with the sinners, the publicans and the samaritans, he was stern with the Pharisees and the Saducees - was it a bias? Certainly no! They were in no way judgements passed on those people, but they were an appeal to their conscience to change their ways towards righteousness. It was done with concern for their salvation.

Understanding the discourse between the religious bigwigs of his time and Jesus, we see there were two things involved: Righteousness that Jesus insisted so much upon; and the Self-righteousness that Jesus detested in them! The thin line between Righteousness and Self righteousness has to be trodden with diligent care. 

Judgements arise from self righteousness, where I consider myself one-up and sit on the tribunal looking down on others. While righteousness makes one just and loving, non-judgemental and compassionate,  humble and impartial, and above all, lovable! It is God's righteousness that makes God the most lovable of all persons we can think of. And the love that we have for God, challenges us to grow towards that same Righteousness, from our tendency to self-righteousness. 

The Light of Integrity

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 28th Week in Ordinary time

October 12, 2021: Romans 1: 16-25; Luke 11: 37-41

The terminology used by Paul today sounds very practical, warning us that there are no excuses one can give for not recognising the hand of God in and through the immensity of the reality around. And added to that when it comes to me and God, I don't need to have proofs and justifications and evidences that I believe in God or not. Because God knows the innermost thoughts of mine and I need not be bothered about my presentations and formulations. This is the fundamental element of what we call 'integrity'...Having the least discrepancy between my inner self and my external behaviour, between my convictions and what I engage myself in on a daily basis, between what really matters for me and what I present myself as to others!

Jesus uses simple terms for that in the Gospel - inside and outside! Let both be clean he says... I can have no excuses when it comes to my inner self, for I stand convicted before God who knows the innermost thoughts. The question  which is more important - inside or outside, is a psuedo question! Jesus says when your inside is pure and holy, automatically your outisde begins to glow, like a light lit on the hilltop.

The many saints that we celebrate as our examples and intercessors, were people like us, but they were incomparable in their integrity. They were ready to give of their whole self to God - not just part time and not just a stage show or a dramatic performance. When I do all that I do, with true consciousness and sincere acceptance of why I do it, I am on the first step towards integrity. I need to constantly purify myself towards that integrity that will reveal God's image within me.

In spite of the beasts of this world, the attractions and the pressures that surround me, help me Lord to grow in my personal integrity!

The Call and the Reminders

WORD 2day: Monday, 28th Week in Ordinary time

October 11, 2021: Romans 1: 1-7; Luke 11: 29-32

The first reading today speaks to us about our call to belong to Christ, our call to be holy and our obedience of faith. At times we forget this fundamental call as we live our daily life  and all its responsibilities, getting lost in programmes and daily chores. We get so used to our life as Christians or as Religious, that it doesnt make any concrete difference in us! Gradually we lose track of our fundamental call, and go after things that matter nothing to our salvation, some of them even detrimental to it. We become so callous to our failures and disorientation that we do not even realise we are going farther and farther away from our destined goal: our sanctification.

One thing we are aware is that we can never justify our act, our choices or our priorities when they go against this call that we have received. First of all because we are given reminders after reminders, through persons, situations, events and experiences. Secondly because  the Lord comes to us in person to remind us that we belong to him, that we have a whole life journey to make with him on our side.

The Gospel offers us models by way of the people of Nineveh and Queen of Sheba, people who were so attentive to these signs and reminders that they instantly picked up the message that God was giving them. They recognised the voice of the Lord and Word that was brought to them, took the utmost effort to respond to their specific call.

That is the reminder given to me today: to know how much have I grown in responding to the call that the Lord has given me personally, the call to belong to Christ, the call to be holy, the call to my personal sanctification!

THE PRIMACY OF THE WORD

Between Godliness and worldliness 

28th Sunday in Ordinary time: October 10, 2021

Wisdom 7: 7-11; Hebrew 4: 12-13; Mark 10: 17-30

The Word this Sunday is on the primacy of the Word. The most categorical criterion for a Christian life in this world is the Word, and nothing can define more what a Christian has to be in this life and what awaits him or her in the next. 

There is a craze for wealth and pleasure, comfort and ego, in this world and this is what we term, 'worldliness', a tendency to give importance to the conventional standards of the  world. This is what St. Paul warns against, when he says, 'do not conform to the world' (Rom 12:2). The other pole that is more proper to a follower of Christ, a disciple of Christ, that is a Christian, is the path of Godliness - where God matters the most, God's ways become the criteria of decision, and God's people become a point of sensitive concern. Every person who is active and wishes to live one's life to the full, will certainly be confronted with this dilemma, a tension between Godliness and worldliness. The Word this Sunday, wishes to reflect on this and offers us the clear cut criterion to go by: the primacy of the Word, the Wisdom of God. 

The tendency towards Godliness: There is a natural tendency towards Godliness that every Christian possesses - owe it to the baptismal grace, or the upbringing of the family, or the influence of the faith community or atleast the effect of indoctrination that happens right from the early ages of a person. That tendency is what keeps faith going amidst all crises that exists in the world...but is that enough? The first reading speaks to us of the longing for Wisdom, the yearning for the presence of God, the wish to belong to God and be possessed by God. This is a grace and we cannot squander it. And as a community of faith we have the responsibility to nurture it and nourish it in the upcoming generations. There is a call in that lovely passage to develop within us an intimate love for God, a soul-stirring yearning for God and a passionate search for what pertains to God in any concrete circumstance that we find ourselves in. For example - finding myself in the pandemic situation, what has been my predominant sensibility: aggressive self-preservation? or fierce rebellion? or insensitive indifference? Can't we today reflect and judge for ourselves, what has been our tendency? When we do that we can measure pretty well the level of our tendency towards authentic Godliness.

The tension from worldliness: Many a moment, the yearning for Godliness that we have within is confronted with the worldliness that overwhelms us from all around. The society and the so-called world keeps bombarding us with the terms such as. 'success', 'achievement', 'wealth', 'power', 'influence', 'trending', 'fashion', 'advancement', 'development', and so on. What are we to look up to: the God who calls us to sacrifice and self-giving or the world which clamours after self-fulfilment and self-actualisation? This tension increases even as we tend to encapture the meaning of our life in terms of what we do and what we achieve, rather than what we are and what we are created to be! For the true followers of Christ, this tension reaches its peak, when the Lord calls us 'to go sell everything. give it to the poor and then come and follow him!' We try to compromise that statement and say, it has to be interpreted in context and it has to be understood with the circumstances in mind! But the Lord continues to harp on the same values: self-emptying, reaching out, and finding meaning in the Lord and in the Lord's ways! When we call ourselves Christians, when we say we are followers of Christ, when we say we are living our Christian call here and now... how true is it? The Word is the judge!

The Word, our Judge: The Word in the foundational principle of our Christian life. It is the Word that makes all the difference for the choices we make. It offers us all the wisdom we stand in need of to live a life that is meaningful. The Word is our Judge, practically because the Word gives us the criteria to live by. When those criteria are met we are affirmed; when they are not, the Word holds us on a tribunal... it can scan through our heart and our mind, isn't it! The Word is the treasure that gives meaning to our Christian life. Once we grasp the Wisdom that the Word is, we would come to the conviction that it is worth giving our life in the service of the Word. Just as so many saints who have gone before us, saints whom we have known, those who we do not know, and those who have been living may be right next door to us... we need to respect the primacy of the Word, deciding to live at the service of the Word. And at the service of the Word, whatever we give up comes back manifold.

The Son - the Shelter and the Stronghold

WORD 2day: Saturday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

October 9, 2021: Joel 4: 12-21; Lk 11:27-28

Do an exercise, why don't you? Start reading the passage prescribed for the liturgy today: start reading Joel and you will come across in your mind so many questions. The day of the Lord - is it going to be pleasant or is it going to be terrifying? Is the Lord vindictive or is the Lord truly merciful? Is this good news or a fearsome prophecy? As we read those long verses, made longer because of our ruminations, and reach the Gospel, before we realise that we have begun to read it, the passage ends! Such a short Gospel for such a long reflection before: but that is exactly the message of this whole exercise, the central theme of the liturgy today!

One may ask a thousand questions, or raise a hundred doubts...one truth never changes: Jesus is the Answer! The Son, is the stronghold, the shelter for the children of God. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, for the Son has made us all children of God, provided we stick to him. Let us hold on to Christ, in our words, in our actions, in our relationships and in the way we look at the entire world and its daily events. When we have the mind of Christ and look at everything in that perspective, we are sheltered and we have a stronghold, nothing can assail us.

At times our weaknesses and our human tendencies can take the better of us, but all that we need to do is, accept in all humility our failures, get ourselves together back again and reunite ourselves to Christ, clinging on to the Lord, the Son, the Shelter and the Stronghold!