The ultimate peace - in those arms alone!

 THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 7, 2021: Second Tuesday in Advent

Isaiah 40: 1-11; Matthew 18: 12-14

As individuals, as communities or society and as humanity as a whole, we are constantly in search of something; either we are in search of, or we are made to be in search of! It is sad when a person is constantly in search of something which he or she thinks can give happiness in life, but repeatedly comes to realise that it really does not give that happiness that was longed for. The more sad part is this: that some are made to be is search of, by the mainstream society, the so called majority...but slowly they forget the fact that they are pushed into that predicament, but begin to fully immerse themselves in that inutile search. 

We search for things that we think will give us that peace and joy in life, but in the bargain we lose ourselves! Someone has to come in search of us! The Lord does search for us - through sacraments, seasons and special moments of renewal. We are searched for, but do we let ourselves be found by the Lord... if we are lost, we shall be found; but if we hide ourselves, we would not be found, isn't it? 

When will I really let myself be found by the Lord...only when I realise that I am running behind things that will not last, things that may not give me exactly what I am looking for, that unending joy! Indeed that eternal joy, that sense of fullness, that ultimate peace can be attained in those arms alone!

The voice that speaks of peace - Get up and Walk!

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 6, 2021: Second Monday in Advent

Isaiah 35: 1-10; Luke 5: 17-26

The Word of the Lord is voice that speaks of peace, and the Lord comes to heal and save us, giving us peace and integrity. And that is why the psalmist exclaims that mercy and faithfulness have met, justice and peace have embraced,  and we have peace that follows our steps! The first reading too, brings us so many hopeful promises of peace and tranquility, serenity and prosperity that comes from the God who comes to meet us. But what are we to do?

We need to take the paralysed humanity to the Lord, just as those men carried that paralysed men to the Lord who was waiting with words of eternal life: your sins are forgiven, Get up and Walk. There are three things we are focus on: 

First, to Get up...never to be bogged down by the struggles, difficulties, crisis, hardships and sometimes, even losses! We cannot let these situations get the better of us, instead we need to get up every time we are pulled down.

Second, to Walk...to keep walking with our hand in the hand of the Lord; the Lord is aware of all that we are through on a daily basis - we need never to doubt that! With all the things that weary us out, let us keep walking!

Third, to carry to the Lord...just as those men carried the paralysed to the Lord, with so much faith on which the Lord himself marvelled, so are we called to do. The Lord is ready to tell us too: Get up and Walk, but first we need to learn this great way to cope with challenges in our life (as that famous hymn suggests) - carry everything to God in prayer!

PEACE - THE FRUIT OF TRUE COMMUNION

Integrity, Justice and Faith

December 5, 2021 - Second Sunday in Advent

Baruch 5: 1-19; Philippians 1: 4-6, 8-11; Luke 3: 1-6

After the week of hope that we celebrated, today we initiate the week of Peace! Peace be with you, was the constant salutation that the Prince of Peace preferred to use at most of the moments... and Shalom was an expression very close to the biblical people, even during Jesus' times, and it remains so, for us too! We are indeed awaiting and preparing these days for the prince of peace, the highest good and happiness that we can ever think of!

Peace... how much we lack in the world today! With the anxieties of every day that one witnesses we find peace far far away, not in the light of any vicinity. At all levels, personal, interpersonal, communitarian, social and global, peace seems to be an endless dream that eludes invariably everyone! In the season of expectation and wait, the Word today offers us a lesson on what true peace is all about! 

Peace is fruit of Communion! The Lord is the Prince of Peace, because the Lord who comes is the God of Communion! The perfect communion that exists between the persons of the Trinity, is the communion that is placed within the core of the human being. When the human being can discover the worth of that core, humanity will find its true meaning and there will be peace everywhere! All that is happening these days, the human greed and craze of materiality, the social problems and mutual exploitations, the international conflicts and warmongering... all these keep persons away from that possibility of communion that exists within themselves!

Reflecting on this communion that the Lord is, the communion that the Lord brings and the communion that the Lord offers us, we are given with, three key terms to understand the peace that the Lord offers.

Peace is fruit of communion, communion within oneself: we call that integrity! Where there is balance and equanimity within, there is peace. Between my wants and my situation, between what I think and what I speak, between what I say and what I believe, between what I am and what I do, when there is a consistency and coherence, it results in peace. This is personal integrity, a core characteristic of God. As long as I am torn within myself between conflicting tendencies, I cannot find peace, not only within me, but nowhere in the world. This is one reason why some persons, wherever they are, in whosever company they are, in whichever situation they are, they always find themselves in the midst of conflict and tension - may be the problem is within! I need to mend my ways, fill the pitfalls and level the mounds of pride and that will my personal integrity. Where there is integrity, there is peace!

Peace is fruit of communion, communion with each other: we call that justice! It is not merely  compassion or mercy, it is not some individual virtue or goodness that is at the fount of mutual communion. It is justice! Being just is a key element of Divinity...and that justice invites and challenges me to be just in my ways, in my ways of thinking, speaking, acting and the ways of making decisions. The more I am in communion with the other, the more I contribute to common peace. Individual mutual relationships are the schools at which we learn universal harmony. Without the former the latter will remain always a wishful thinking! Justice is respect of the other; it is valuing the significance of the other and pledging my role in the well being of the other... in short it is promoting the true communion with each other, thus promotion of peace.Where there is justice, there is peace!

Peace is fruit of communion, communion with God: we call that faith! Peace seems such a costly and rare experience to create for oneself and offer for others, because it springs from the relationship that I have established with the source of my being - my Creator. The world today seems to be making the utmost effort to wean itelf from its Creator! It wants to do away with faith; it wants close the churces down; it wants to put an end to all spiritual affiliations that the society has had throughout history - simply because times are changing and we are growing! But there is an increased restlessness and inquietitude in the human soul, for it shall never rest unless it rests in the Divine, who is the source of its very being and meaning. The Candle of Bethlehem that we have lighted this week, reminds us of two persons who were totally in communion with the Lord and because of which the great mysteries of heaven came down to earth: Mary and Joseph...the most perfect couple who  on earth. Their faithfulness to the Word, their faith in God brought salvation not only to their family and their people, but to the entire world, to the entire human race. Only when humanity learns to give the space and honour due to its Creator, ultimate communion would be born; where there is faith, there is peace!

May the call to prepare the way of the Lord, be a strengthening of our commitment to respond to the Lord of communion, to promote communion, and thus give peace a chance!

Our Hope towards Fullness - In the Lord and Lord alone

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 4, 2021: First Saturday in Advent

Isaiah 30: 19-21,23-26; Matthew 9: 35, 10:1,5,6-8

Happy are they who hope in the Lord - just imagine what happens when we hope in someone else or something else!

When we place our hope in the powers and authorities of this world, we know how we shall be taken for a ride! Just look at the way the world is going today...so battered and confused, taken for granted and exploited to the core. When we place our hope in money and riches, we know the dismay we would bring on ourselves, possessing things but so far from serenity and true joy.

In the Lord there is compassion and love. The Lord wishes my good, and gives me freely. The Lord comes in search of me, offering me the fullness in life which I do not ask, I cannot ask, or I do know know to ask for. Cures, healings, signs and miracles are just indicators to the fullness that God wishes to offer me! How prepared am I to receive them?

When will I receive this fullness that God has prepared to give me: on two counts. One, when I place my hope in the Lord and surrender myself totally to the Lord and Lord's ways! Second, when I become the bearer of this hope to others. The harvest is plentiful, the need is tremendous, the work to be done is so much... but there are very few who are ready to join hands with Jesus. This part is the concrete expression of my faith - that is where I reach the fullness of life; in every good we do to the other, with an unassuming sense of gratitude to God, we progress to that state where we hope in the Lord and Lord alone.

Hope is Change - but change is personal!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

December 3, 2021: Celebrating St. Francis Xavier

First Friday in Advent: Isaiah 29: 17-24; Matthew 9: 27-31

The first reading today presents a hopeful picture for the people who were so much in suffering and oppression. Today this reading can really mean a lot for a world that is so burdened under pain, stress, suspicion and fear! Would this present situation of crisis and confusion change? The first reading tells us, it will! But in the Gospel Jesus, asks a question: do you think I can do it for you? 

What would be our answer to that question of Jesus: do you think I can do it for you? They, those persons with vision impairment, said, "Sir we do, we do believe that you can do it!" That is the sign of hope! Do we really believe that God can do it for us! There are more and more voices of hopeless despair who keep repeating things like - things are never going to be normal again; this is the end of everything and so on! What is my disposition? Hope is Change! 

Hope is Change! When they said they do believe that the Lord can change, the Lord can cure, Jesus said: 'let it be done to you according to YOUR faith'... Jesus seems to say, "Yes, hope is change; but change is personal! It begins from you!" If at all we wish to see a positive change in humanity, in the world and in the universe, it has to begin from every individual. The first reading too lays that down: the erring spirits will learn wisdom and the murmurers accept instruction!

This is what is witnessed to by St. Francis Xavier - a man who changed himself, who transformed himself from an ambitious young man to a passionate soldier of God. That conversion, that change was translated into hope for multitudes, specially in Asia, who came to know the Lord through him. Hope is change, but change is personal. It depends on each of us, what becomes of the world around us. Are we ready to take that responsibility upon ourselves?

Enter the gates - if you are founded on the Rock

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 2, 2021: First Thursday in Advent

Isaiah 26: 1-6; Matthew 7: 21, 24-27

There are two words that link the first reading and the Gospel, and they are the key to understand the message of the Word today.  The two words are: to enter, and the Rock!

To enter the gates, to dwell in the house of the Lord, to inherit the Reign of God - that is our destiny. All that we do here on earth and all that we wish to accomplish with our lives, however short or limited they may be, is to prepare ourselves to enter into that eternal communion with the Lord; nothing else matters more! The desire to enter and the dream to enter is expressed in the first reading while the Gospel explains how! How to enter those gates, those gates which are narrow but ever open! How to enter them? 

Being founded on the Lord, our Rock, is the only way to enter those gates, not merely crying out Lord, Lord. Our so called prayers become empty words if we do not have a lasting relationship built with the Lord. When we have a loving and passionate relationship with the Lord, every thing we say or do, becomes a prayer; even a simple sigh becomes an extraordinary communication with the Lord, because we are founded on the communion with the Lord! Calling out 'Lord, Lord' may not be needed, because we shall feel the Lord ever present and so near! 

This is the simple and strong message that the Word gives us today, as a directive for advent preparation: Trust in the Lord your Rock, listen to the Lord and do what the Lord wants you to do, and you shall find yourself in front of those gates, the beautiful and brilliant gates of heaven, which shall be opened to you by the Lord your Rock! 

Hope and Promise - In the presence of the Lord

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 1, 2021: First Wednesday in Advent

Isaiah 25: 6-10; Matthew 15: 29-37

This is the Lord, our God in whom we hoped! The Lord is the only one in whom we can hope! For hope is not merely the passing away of a troublesome experience here and now. It is not the disappearance of the difficulties we have at a given moment. Hope is about the sense of eternity; it is an experience of salvation; a dwelling forever in the house of the Lord. 

The promise of the Lord to prepare a banquet of rich food and fine wines, is not merely a promise of food and drink. As the Acts of the Apostles clarifies the mind of Christ to us: Reign of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In short, it is Shalom! The fullness, the sense of tranquility, the sense of no-want, the sense of stillness where there is no anxiety of looking for one's needs, where there is no suffering of having to go through experiences of hurt and pain, where there is no craze to prove oneself or dominate the other for the sake of hogging limelight.

Jesus who multiplies the bread today to satisfy the people with him, does not consider it as some kind of an ultimate good that he is doing for them. He does it as a matter of fact... he cured the sick, he consoled the suffering, and he fed the hungry! For him all these were important...not just the food which mattered a lot to the people! That is why Jesus had to chide them once: do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life. He had to instruct them, time and again: a person does not live by bread or food alone! But these signs and miracles were exactly signs, signs that pointed to a reality more profound that Jesus wanted to introduce them, and wants to introduce us to.

The ultimate reality towards which the Advent preparation guides us, and the only lasting reality that can make us really fulfilled, is the eternal dwellings of the Lord - that is precisely where our hopes lie and what the promises of the Lord consist of... the promise and the bountiful grace of the Presence of the Lord.  

A Lesson from St. Andrew's Cross

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 30, 2021: Celebrating St. Andrew the Apostle

Romans 10: 9-18; Matthew 4: 18-22

We celebrate St. Andrew today! Though it could be a digression from the Advent journey that we have begun, still it offers us a special occasion to reflect on our life of discipleship and apostleship! St. Andrew is known in the Gospels for two important things - firstly for being the younger brother of St. Peter, and secondly as a person who brought people to Jesus (in fact John records in his Gospel, that it was Andrew who brought Peter to Jesus).

Apart from these, Andrew is known for his Cross - the Andrew's Cross. Incidentally, both the brothers had a similar request to the persecutioners  - Peter asked to be crucified in an inverted cross and Andrew asked to be crucified in a saltire cross (or a X shaped cross); both of them had the same reasoning: that they are not worthy to die on the Cross, just as their Master and Saviour did. 

By the way the inverted cross which was traditionally referred to as St. Peter's Cross, nowadays has come refer to the Cross of the Anti-Christ - this is totally false, ambiguous and absolutely a misrepresentation of facts! Certain antichristian occult groups use it with disdain against the people of God. Now coming back to St. Andrew's cross, we can have atleast two messages to learn from therein.

The first lesson is the absolute dedication and total submission that the apostles had towards their MAster Jesus Christ. They were ready to suffer to any extent - as the Acts of the Apostles reports, when they had to suffer more for Christ, they were more joyful! It reminds us of the immeasurable abyss that lies between the way we reflect and theologise on suffering and in the way we face them in our concrete experiences! 

The second lesson is the true spiritual humility that governed the Apostles' way of following Christ. Today when Pope Francis speaks so much against clericalism, against the so-called Christian faith sans compassion, against closing ourselves within the Church as a fortification instead of opening up the vistas, the Holy Father is challening us towards finding every means of witnessing to the message of Christ, in all its fullness, among the most incredulous of persons.

May St. Andrew who brought so many to Christ, help us to be instruments in this modern world to bring hearts to the One Saviour and Lord.  

The Advent Journey - walking in the Light!

THE WORD IN ADVENT 

November 29, 2021: First Monday of Advent
Isaiah 2: 1-5; Matthew 8: 5-11

We have begun our Advent journey for this year... come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord! That is a perennial call that we have as people of God: to go up to the mountain of the Lord. Lord who can climb your mountain, who can dwell in your tent - those who walk blamelessly and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart, says Psalm 15:2.

We begin this journey as said yesterday, with hope on the promises of the Lord. The Lord's promises are consoling: I will come myself and cure, says the Lord. It is the centurion who said those inspiring words, which we repeat everyday - Lord I am not worthy to have you under my roof, but only say a word and the healing shall take place! That is Hope! How beautiful to become aware of the promise and the hope!

A beautiful imagery that the Centurion speaks of today: the imagery of the servants who carry out the will of their master. That is what we are - servants of the Master of the Universe, humble children of the Father of all creation, the One who created us and calls us to be God's children, in our image, in our likeness, in our life and in our very beings. That is a hope and a promise together: the hope that the Lord is there with us telling us what to do and when to do! It is our duty to promise our obedience, that this hope will lead to the fulfilment of God's promises, that one day we will find ourselves on that Holy Mountain of the Lord!

Let us accept this call, pledge our obedience and begin our journey with hope, walking in the light of the Lord!

HOPE: THE PROMISE THAT DEMANDS

Promise, Project & Prophecy

First Sunday in Advent - November 28, 2021

Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12 - 4:2; Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36

 

A very happy new year! May the new liturgical year that unfolds today, bring us closer to the Lord, in and through an ever-increasing love for the Word, the Word become Flesh, the Word become human, the Word who wishes to dwell not only amidst us, but within us! That is the promise; a promise that leads to the hope that everything will be reconciled in the Word; a promise that is consoling but at the same time demanding!

The Word and the Liturgical significance of this day, give us three key terms to reflect on: promise, project and prophecy!

PROMISE: The first reading brings to our mind, the theme central to the new liturgical season that we begin today. Advent is all about promise! Blessed is the one who believes in the fulfilment of what the Lord has promised. The book of Jeremiah, just as any other book of the prophets, enshrines within itself the promises of the Lord, and Jeremiah as one of the latter prophets underlines the imminence of the promises of the Lord.   

The promise of Salvation comes from the Lord of Integrity, the Lord who values truth and justice more than mere pacifying sacrifices and empty rituals. That is where the promise gets exigent – because I am challenged to measure up to the Lord who has created me and who has called me. The Lord promises salvation to me, salvation that comes with my dedication and commitment to integrity; that quality which makes my faith and my daily life one and the same, my words and my works coherent with each other, and my expectations from the other and my disposition to them corresponding to each other. The promise attains fulfillment only in as much as I am committed to the process in the core of my being.

PROJECT: A promise is an element of hope, in as much as it sets in motion a project! The Lord has not given me only a promise, but a project as well. The second reading from the letter to the Thessalonians, reminds me of this project that the Lord has initiated in me. The project of becoming holy and blameless in the sight of God, is a life-long project and on it depends so much the fulfillment of the promises given to me!

The project of holiness, involves love – loving each and every one, the entire humanity, and especially those who do not have anyone who could give them this love! That is the type of life that we are called to live – ‘make progress in the kind of life that you are meant to live’, says St. Paul. As people of the promise, we have a life that we are meant to live, when we fail in living up to it, we fail to be people of the promise! We can have a myriad of reasons – that everyone out there is so selfish and greedy, that everyone is trying to plot and exploit, that no one deserves my love, that no one really loves genuinely as each one has a hidden reason to all the goodness they manifest… none of these reasons can stand their ground before the love of the Lord who has given us the promise and who has given us this project. Because the Lord loved us even when we were sinner; and when we were still sinner, God deigned to send God’s only Son, that we may be saved and loved forever. That is the source and the summit of hope: God’s love.

PROPHECY: Apart from the Word, the liturgical significance of the day today, adds a splendid element – the prophecy! We have lighted the candle of the Prophets this week, and it suggests that the event we are preparing to celebrated was not one isolated event that took place on a particular cold night in Bethlehem. No, there lies a long history, in fact the entire story of humankind, behind that event in that starry night.

The prophecy of the Coming of the Reign, requires that we stay alive, active and alert! That we watch ourselves, our words and our works, our choices and our priorities, our wishes and our prayers! When we pray, ‘your kingdom come’, what do we mean? Do we really mean what Jesus meant: that we be protagonists of the Reign and not those who are surprised by its coming! When problems arise, crises spring up and injustice seems to have its sway, we are called to remain alert to notice it, to remain ardent to denounce it, and thus remain apostles of the Reign who propose a counter culture. By our very lives and our daily choices, we are called to propose a counter culture to this world, and not helplessly and slavishly conform to this world. It is there we see the coming of the Reign and out lives become a prophecy. That is what Advent calls us to: to live lives of prophecy that would announce to the world that is tired and wearied, that the Lord is coming; that the Lord of salvation is coming; that the Lord of integrity is near!

We are called to be prophets of hope today, persons and communities who behold the promises of the Lord, who live by a project of life from the Lord and who hold out a prophecy to the world, that the Lord and our salvation is near! Come Lord Jesus, may your Kingdom Come!