Fighting on the side of God

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 20, 2021: Romans 6: 12-18 ; Luke 12: 39-48

Make every part of your body into a weapon figting on the side of God - oh what a powerful spirituality that St. Paul proposes! Yes, fighting for God is a spirituality, a way of life, a mode of living our Christian call. How can I make that spirituality mine? There are three ways of life, or modes of operation, that would indicate that we are fighting on the side of God.

Firstly, that I am fighting on the side opposed to sin! My choices have to be absolute, deliberate and specific. There can be no compromises... I cannot take a neutral stand when it comes to choosing between sin and virtue, choosing between good and evil, choosing between truth and untruth, choosing between life and death! If I am for God, I have to be against sin, evil, untruth and the culture of death.

Secondly, that I am fighting! I need to fight, I cannot give up, nor lower my guard! I need to keep fighting, come what may. In my day to day life, I am a soldier of God. I need to fight ceaselessly. Even a moment of distraction or disengagement, can lead me to falter. Moments of temptation, moments of confusion, moments of delusion are bound to be there, but a soldier of God would never cease fighting.

Thirdly, I am fighting with God! When am I going to grow up? Yes, our help is in the name of the Lord, but can we go on all our life asking God to fight on our side, help us, strengthen us and so on? Is it not important that I grow in my faith, that is, grow in my relationship with the Lord to the extent that I am able to tell that Lord - Lord, I offer myself totally to you, you have given me life and you have given meaning in this life and I shall fight on your side! Your Kingdom come!

From those to whom God has given more, more will be expected... God has invested so much in us, should we not find ourselves, wherever we are, fighting on the side of God?

 

Forever ready and prepared!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 19, 2021: Romans 5: 12,15,17-21; Luke 12: 35-38

Death entered through sin; everyone in the human race has been subject to death because everyone has sinned - these words of the first reading set us thinking. It further excites our minds when it says, through one man's obedience and sacrifice we have been liberated from the reins of sin! There are three facts that we are called to reflect on and pay attention to:

Firstly, that there is a very strong connection between sin and death. Sin is death. Sin is choosing evil over God; it is rejecting God the source of life - hence sin is death. When we choose sin, we choose death. That is one of the prime reasons why Pope Emeritus warned us of the culture of death that is prevalent in today's world - people are fond of choosing sin, knowing well all its ill effects!

Secondly, the death that St. Paul refers to here is not the chronological expiry of life that every being on earth is subject to. He is refering to a death that is eternal damnation, an eternal loss of life. Therefore, what Jesus offers us, that is eternal life, can be offered only by him and by the One who sent him. Jesus in his life, death and resurrection, has made this eternal life possible for us: the choice is ours now!

Thirdly, the choices is an everyday experience. It is not some kind of licence that we can get at the end of our life, or at a point when we think it is convenient. It is a matter of daily life, in every thing that we are involved in, in our priorities and in our day to day decisions, we have to make a choice, an absolute choice for righteousness and truth, for justice and love - then we shall inherit the Reign of God. 

When we are clear about our choices every moment of our life, we need not worry when the world will end or when my end would come - I am forever ready and prepared!

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!