THE FEAST OF SELF-GIVING

He lives in me!

June 19, 2022: The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Genesis 14:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26; Luke 9: 11-17

I am the bread come down from heaven, one who eats of this bread will have eternal life!

Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Self-Giving...total self giving of the Lord who came down from heaven!

The Word has prepared us during the week towards this great celebration...

Let us reflect a little about Giving...
I can give to receive...not just a mundane reception of a return for my giving; but I can give to receive something spiritual. To receive, may be, a blessing from God , to receive an affirmation from the Divine Giver, etc. Melchizedek brought out bread and wine and Abraham gave him the one tenth... all these giving, in view of receiving the divine protection.

There was only one who gave, only to be received... notice, it is in passive! It is not giving to receive, but giving to be received!  The Lord gives, it is upto me to receive or not! But on his part, the Lord gives, to be Received. This is the element of salvation that the Lord has left in the sacrament of the Eucharist, for us to receive.

As the Lord gave the body and the blood, he said...do this in remembrance of me... note again clearly, not just to remember him but remember to do what he did, in remembrance of him... that is, to give of myself as he gave himself totally, to give in remembrance of him... He gives, to be Remembered, that he has invited me to give as he gave! This the element of gratitude that the Lord teaches us in the sacrament of Eucharist, the heart of thanksgiving.

Yes, the Lord invites me to give, as he invited the disciples to give the people to eat...'give them some food yourselves,' he said. It's only when we give the people in need, we remain the Lord's disciples. To make us learn that we need to give always of ourselves to the others in need, He gives, to Remain within us... He comes to us to transform us into Himself, to be givers, to be givers who give of ourselves to others, without passing the buck to someone else. This is the sign of charity, the bond of love that the Lord has left in the sacreament of the Eucharist, because of which the Lord abides in us forever. 

Yes, the Lord, everyday gives himself to me and so... I know, I am joyful and I believe that HE LIVES IN ME...

To whom is my allegiance?

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

June 18, 2022: 2 Chronicles 24: 17-25; Matthew 6: 24-34

Infidelity, compromises, transgressions, forsaking and tryst with the unholy...these were characteristic traits of the so-called 'chosen people', the people with whom the Lord made the covenant: I will be your God and you shall be my people. However unfaithful and treacherous they got, the Lord remained ever faithful and true to the covenant that was made. Coming across passages such as we find in today's first reading, we are prone to judge the people of Israel, but let us wait, take a minute and look at our own life!

Looking at our own life, the Lord has chosen us before the foundations of the world (Eph 1:4) and has made a covenant with us right at our baptism: you shall be my child and I shall be your God. And ever since, how many compromises and transgressions, how many moments of failures and negligences... the Lord however has always been faithful (cf.2 Tim 2:13). Yes, the story is the same even with us.

The goodness of God remains for eternity... the Lord continues to love us and be faithful to us; we continue to live our life as best as we wish, caring nothing about the call we have to belong to God always and in everything. In the light of today's readings let us raise a fundamental question to ourselves: to whom is my allegiance in my daily concrete living? And how absolute is that allegiance? Integrity demands that each of us be our own judge, analysing each and every little choice that we make and the priorities we act on! That will give us an idea of our level of fidelity to the One who has called us.

Dead before our death!

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

June 17, 2022: 2 Kings 11: 1-4, 9-18, 20; Matthew 6: 19-23

'Where your treasure is, there also your heart will be!' 'For all those who draw the sword will die by the sword!' These are foregone conclusions and bygone experiences. Still, when it comes to our choices, we dare to be foolish. Everyone knows that possession and position are by no means permanent. No one claims that he or she will carry along what one holds here on earth, when this earthly sojourn is done with. But still the craze of hoarding wealth or the avarice for power over people does not cease in any case. 

The treacherous events of the first reading reminds us of these strange human choices. Just think of the great wealthy barons of various circles today - how they go on pounding for more and more wealth in spite of the heaps that they have. Or think of those who possessed enormous luxuries but ended up pathetic at the close of their lives. Had their choices really added value to their life!

As the book of Deuteronomy (30:15,16)) tells us: there is open before us the choice for life or for death. None of us can sincerely say that we are absolutely unaware of it when we choose something bad! The choice is always ours. The Lord has given us the Spirit and the wisdom of the Spirit, the eye to see, the light within us to be illumined, which instruct us the right way at every step of ours, as Isaiah tells us (Is 30:21). It is our responsibility to be attune to the voice, the whispering that guides us. 

It is our task to resist the temptation of making the wrong choice. And it requires maturity of faith to accept this responsibility. When we fail to accept it, or when we yield to the attractions of the temptation, we make a choice - a choice for death and not life, a choice for destruction and not prosperity. In those choices, however successful we seem to be, we are dead long before our actual death!

Prayer of the Persons of God

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

June, 16, 2022: Sirach 48: 1-14; Matthew 6: 7-15

Elijah and Elisha - these two personalities have been churning our minds these days! Wondrous deeds, challenging words, and above all, demanding prayers! Yes, you heard it right. Demanding prayers, not in the sense of demanding from God, but prayers that demand a way of life from those who are involved in praying. There is a characteristic difference in the prayers that persons of God make and that is what Jesus tries to teach us today. 

Prayer is not about begging God for things that we badly need! That makes the relationship so far from the question of dignity and self-respect. Instead, prayer is discussing with God my Father and Mother, the concerns that fill my mind at a point of time. It is a moment of colloquy, a sharing of concerns, an entrustment of care. That is what a Christ-ian prayer is all about.

The Our Father is one such prayer, a prayer of a person of God; a prayer that puts God at the centre and not my needs; a prayer that is bothered not so much about receiving the blessings as about being blessings to others; a prayer that does not seek a secure life but a sincere life, a prayer that does not concentrare on the results of getting something, but pays attention to and builds relationship! The prayer of a person of God, is born out of one's life and renews one's life at one and the same time.

Prophets are persons of God, par excellence. They stand for God, they speak for God and they challenge us on behalf of God. Jesus was a prophet too, and that is why he calls us all to be prophets like him. Let our daily life be in imitation of these prophets; let our daily prayer be a prayer of the persons of God.

To stay clear of trivialities

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

June 15, 2022: 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

The only condition placed before Elisha, that he may receive a double share of the Spirit possessed by Elijah, was that Elisha should see Elijah being taken away by God. The challenge here is simply, not to miss what is central to whatever we are involved in, being distracted with the trivialities. This is a very current message for any age!

Because every age, every culture, every age group, and any context is made of a number of simple things that form the entire whole. At times, the maturity of a person or of a community in question is manifest from the capacity to differentiate between what is trivial and what is crucial, between what is negotiable and what is substantial, in short, what really matters and what does not! 

The Gospel places the same condition before us. The actions that we do will have their true value depending on the fact whether the centrality of the right element was ensured. Praying, fasting and almsgiving are three fundamental actions mentioned in the Gospel today and they together epitomise the entire religious practice of a Jew. However, the point here is: not to miss what is central to it in getting distracted with the trivialities of human recognition and immediate rewards. Prayer, fast and almsgiving - why do I do it? Because it has become my second nature, or because I have some other agenda behind it?

In our relationship with ourselves, with others and with God, we are invited to pay attention to the most central of all concerns: to do what is most pleasing to God at a given instant. Any other concern is only a triviality, however good and practical it could be. The spiritual prudence that Jesus teaches us today is to stay clear of the trivialities and place God at the centre and at the core, of our life, of the world, of everything!

The Father's Perfection

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

June 14, 2022: 1 Kings 21: 17-29; Matthew 5: 43-48

Coming to the end of the Beatitudes, Jesus today summarises the beatitudes into just one evocation: be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. And what does that perfection consist of? The essence of it is Love, an unconditional love, a limitless love, a non-judgmental love, an impartial love that respects the inner self of person and persons' true intentions!

The first reading is an extreme type of an example for God's love and mercy. As the psalms and other books in the Old Testament describe, God always manifested Godself to be slow to anger, abounding in love, ready to forgive and longing to remain in relationship with humanity. Though Ahab's acts were so gruesome, the mere fact that he repented for those and felt sorry for his foolishness, turned the entire issue upside down. Ahab finds favour in the eyes of God, Ahab becomes lovable all over again.

The message is pretty clear. For us too, the merciful Lord awaits and awaits with an ever burning love, to get us all back into Lord's own embrace for eternity. But this getting back will not happen automatically. It needs more attention to basics through developing traits such as personal integrity, spiritual identity and a profound sense of belonging to the Reign. One of the signs that we can really behold this immense love of God, is our tendency to love each other, just as the Lord loves us. 

This is the reason why Jesus instructed us: love one another as I have loved you; the world will recognise you as my disciples through this love that you have for one another! Yes, it is in love that we become disciples of Christ, sons and daughters of God, true people of the Spirit. For it is love and love alone that is the epitome of Christian living: Love, the Father's Perfection!

That extra mile...

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

June 13, 2022: Celebrating St. Anthony, the apostle of the Word

1 Kings 21: 1-16, Matthew 5: 38-42

Jesus presents to us the most impractical of all his teachings... showing the other cheek, giving more of what you are deprived of, and walking that extra mile with the one who tries to take advantage of me. This was in fact the teaching that inspired great personalities and movements in history, be it non-violent movement of Mahatma Gandhi or that of Martin Luther King Junior. St. Paul paraphrased it well when he wrote to the Romans: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21). St. Anthony, with his Franciscan heart lived this to the full and has left us an example too!

The first reading pictures for us the exploitative element that is always present in the world, in fact it  presents us with the opportunity to practice our virtues and attain our salvation. At times the evil around us threatens to take the better of us, but the Word today reminds us of a fundamental attitude we are called to - never retaliate but to repay evil with good! 

That we can identify ourselves as disciples of Christ, we are expected to be spiritually prepared to allow ourselves be taken for granted without letting the goodness within us go down the drain; we are called to be who we are regardless of what others are! We are called to concentrate on the Lord who lives within us, instead of the evil one who attacks us from the outside! The more focussed we are on the inner nature that the Lord has given us, the more capable we shall be to confront the attacks of the evil one, as we see in the life of St. Anthony. 

However, this lifestyle of doing good to all and being good at all times, in spite of what is done to us, is ofcourse difficult and demanding...but that alone can make a difference in this world - that extra mile!

WE ARE TRINITY

Created and called in the image of  God

June 12, 2022: The Solemnity of Holy Trinity

Proverbs 8: 22-31; Romans 5: 1-5; John 16: 12-15

The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity is not merely a celebration of the Mystery of what God is, but it is a reminder of WHAT WE ARE! We are Trinity! We are the image and likeness of God... We are created in the image and likeness of God and we are called to be the image and likeness of the Triune God...for the world today.

To be the Image of the Father: is to live by FAITH. 

It is to reflect God's PARENTHOOD in the stewardship we show towards the creation and the care we extend to each other as brothers and sisters! Each of us has this in our very image - God cares! We were created and called almost immediately to care for the rest of the creation and for our brothers and sisters. Humaneness comes from here. Being human consists of being caring, that is the difference that God made while creating and we are called to care, like the Father and Mother that we have in God.

To live by faith is to possess the PATIENCE that God has had with us - creating us, making a covenant with us and being open and merciful every time we break that covenant! As human persons we are called to practice that same patience that we have been given with. Forgiveness sprouts here. The more conscious we become of God our Father and Mother, the more forgiving we shall become, that is our call in our family, in our surrounding, in our society and in the world, in our daily lives. 

To grow in the likeness of the Son: is to live by HOPE. 

It is to live with the OPTIMISM of a child, to see in all that happens and despite all that happens around us, the mysterious presence of God! Jesus did that. He had such a deep trust in his Father, that whatever happened he remained calm and collected. Serenity springs here. Being the children of God, consists in having a unwaivering  trust in the One who cares for us.

To live by hope means to submit in OBEDIENCE like a real disciple; for one who loves obeys the commandments as Christ obeyed the Father! I say nothing on my own, I do nothing on my own, Jesus would say. Every word that he spoke and everything that he did, was after the will of the One who had sent him. That is why at his point of death, he was able to say, into your hands O Father, I commend my spirit. Salvation sprouts here. The capacity to surrender to the will of the Father, is the likeness of Christ that we are called to put on. In obedience, in trust, in humble submission to the will of the Father, we become truly children of God, brothers and sisters of the Jesus Our Saviour. 

To become the temple of the Holy Spirit: is to live by LOVE.

It is to be filled with COMPASSION, to burn with love for the other, leading to action that manifests the faith and hope that is within us! One cannot claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit when he or she is not concerned about the other, about the needs of the other, about the sufferings of the other. Mission begins here. We are moved by the Spirit to respond to the other in compassion. That is where care comes from - it is not projecting ourselves in all that we do and feeding our ego in the name of service, but true compassion focusses on the other, just as the three persons of God who focus on the Other and create a perfect union. 

To live by love is to create COMMUNION of hearts wherever one is, fighting against all selfishnesses, against all sources of division, discrimination and discord! The compassion of the Spirit, and the spirit of compassion creates communion. People of God are born here. We can rightfully claim to be people of God, when and only when we are persons who promote the good of the other, the good of all and the common good of the entire humanity. Our God is Trinity, that is communion and harmony, relationship and love! And therefore, war and conflict, division and discrimination cannot be within my frame of mind, if I am a reflection of that Trinitarian God and if I really belong to the people of God. That is being the temples of the Holy Spirit. 

Let us pay heed to the call we have to grow to be images and likenesses of the Trinity! May the Triune God make us exemplars of faith, hope and love, in our daily life! 

All glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, Now and forever. Amen.

Being Sources of Encouragement

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

June 11, 2022: Celebrating St. Barnabas, the Apostle of Encouragement
Acts 11: 2b-126, 13: 1-3; Matthew 10: 7-13

The spirit of the Reign is a spirit of encouragement and empowerment, it cannot be merely cynicism and critique. Barnabas stood for this spirit of the Reign, and that was the reason the apostles named him so - the term meaning 'son of encouragement' (cf. Acts 4:36). 

Some characteristics that stand out in Barnabas are his relentless passion for proclamation, his courage to brave all odds, his capacity for being sincere even to the extent of having confrontations with his close friend, Paul (Acts 15). What mattered to them, be it Paul or Barnabas, was the Message of God be announced and the Reign of God be made present; neither their personal likes or dislikes nor their ego demands affect their mission in anyway!

Reflecting on the great apostle we have today to celebrate, we have some lessons that he gives us:

1. Build up persons, that is the way to build up the Reign of God. Look at the way he brough Paul to the other apostles and stood by him and other messengers of the Lord.  

2. Be faithful to the Lord, with a firm heart, that is the way to belong to the Reign. The life of Barnabas shows the way he renounced everything for the sake of the call that he had received - a firm heart that remained ever faithful to God. 

3. Rejoice in the matters of the Lord, that is the way to invite people to the Reign. We can observe the amount of satifaction that Barnabas has when people converted themselves and were prepared to accept the salvific message of Christ. 

Be encouraged, and be an encouragement to the others... that is the crux of the message today. May the apostle of encouragement we celebrate today, St. Barnabas intercede for us that we may be filled with the Spirit of encouragement and empowerment, thus being ourselves sources of encouragement wherever we are. 

The Lord in the Gentle Breeze

WORD 2day: Friday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 10, 2022: 1 Kings 19: 9a, 11-16; Matthew 5: 27- 32

The storm went thundering, the fire went blazing, but the Lord wasn't there! The Lord of surprises manifests himself in the gentle breeze and gives us the most powerful of all messages: "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10). 

Knowing God, experiencing God and manifesting God is not a matter of accomplishment, but a sense of simple acknowledgement. It is above all a simple, ordinary, daily life, lived in its eventlessness and monotony. It is easier to go by feasts and solemnities, special events and exciting happenings, but what matters is the silent, everyday life that can be at times boring and discouraging!

On the other hand, this fact is a reminder that our daily life has to be a life of simple commitment to the Lord in all its sense. The tasks we undertake, the relationships we enter into, the commitments we accept on ourselves, the daily duties we perform, the normal cares on our shoulders and our minds (personal, familial and communitarian at times): these are all ways to our sanctity, provided they are done with a purity of intention that befits the Lord who has called us to all these commitments. 

Moving far away from the craze for popularity and excitement even among the so-called Religious Ministers (or especially among them), what the Lord wants from us is a gentle, silent and recollected way of Christian commitment wherever we are, because the Lord is the Lord in the gentle breeze. Yes, this Lord in the gentle breeze invites us to personal integrity, simplicity of commitment and purity of intention... are we ready?