HANDS RAISED

With HANDS RAISED unto the Lord!

October 16, 2022: 29th Sunday in Ordinary time
Exodus 17: 8-13; 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:2; Luke 18: 1-8

Work as if everything depended on you; Pray as if nothing depended on you, goes the popular saying. Today we have a wonderful image placed before us, as we go about our daily life. Moses on the hill overlooking the battle, with hands raised unto the Lord! The Battle belongs to the Lord... all that we need to do is keep still, the Lord will fight for us says the book of Exodus (14:14).

We are called to live our life with our hands raised unto the Lord!

Living with hands raised unto the Lord is a gesture that means to abandon everything into the hands of God. It is a total personal abandonment to the Lord, that the Lord may guide us and that the Lord may fight the battle for us! Many grow weary of struggles and temptations in life... when Moses' hands were raised, Israel won! The book of Proverbs tells us, 'the horse is made ready for the battle; but the victory belongs to the Lord!'(Prov. 21:31). When we learn to abandon ourselves in the hands of God, we will see the wonders that can happen.

Living with hands raised unto the Lord is to reach out to the Lord with all our heart. It is like the antenna that stretches to connect, to receive and to communicate. That is in short, 'prayer' - to connect, to receive and to communicate. Let us pay attention to the term that seems common in today's readings: pray without ceasing tells Jesus presenting to us the image of the widow; proclaim in season and out of season instructs St. Paul; and the first reading presents to us Moses unwilling to grow weary of having his hands raised unto to the Lord. A two fold call here: first, not to grow weary... like the widow to go on in trust, with our hands raised unto the Lord; second, when a brother or sister seems to grow weary, to rush to their side like Aaron and Hur and to be with them and to raise our hands in unison unto the Lord. A praying person builds a praying community of brothers and sisters, genuinely concerned about each other!

Living with the hands raised unto the Lord is to be filled with hope in the Lord. Like it happened to the widow, it may look like you might never get justice. Like it happened to the Israelites, it might look like you are losing the battle. Things may continuously go wrong, people might endlessly misunderstand you, nothing might seem to be going the way you wished it would..."But as for you, continue, in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it"...from Jesus himself who hoped in the One who sent him, from our Blessed mother who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken by the Lord! "Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of our hope" reminds Pope Francis.

Every day of our life, every moment of our day, let us resolve to live with our hands raised unto to the Lord in a holy abandonment, in a loving union and in an unfailing hope... so that when Our Lord and Saviour comes he will still find faith here amidst us!

The Head, the Body and the Uniter

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 15, 2022: Celebrating St. Teresa of Avila

Ephesians 1: 15-23; Luke 12: 8-12

We have a head, none less than the Son of God; We are a body nothing less than the very body of Christ; what a reminder from Paul! Let us not be lost in petty problems and needless anxieties - ofcourse someone will respond saying, 'only when you go through it, you will know which is petty and which is needless'! But in Paul's parlance and in Christ's thinking every problem is petty and every anxiety is needless. Because we have an existence, a body, a being so deeply significant! Teresa of Avila whom we celebrate today, witnesses to an experience as such!

The Head: Let us be worthy of the Head we possess. As the head directs so the body goes, atleast such is the understanding in the mechanical world. But for us as people who have Christ as our head, we have the freedom with which we can decide to act out of our personal choice - let those choices be worthy of our Head.

The Body: Let us be one body in Christ.The Church being a body of Christ is not in the hands of the Head...it is in the way the Church and its every member identify themselves to the One body, instead of claiming differences of origin, status and of everyday operations!

The Uniter: The Head-body rapport is not automatic, it is an act of the Spirit, the Uniter, the one who unites the two! It is the Spirit who relates us to the Lord and it is the Spirit who sustains us in that relationship. 

St. Teresa was someone who felt this Spirit so strong. close and active! We see in her life that she had a relationship with the Lord that was so intimate, meaningful and a matter of day-to-day experience. Her mystical writings came from a source so divine, that they disturbed and they still disturb many, challenge them and invite us to a style of life that is intimately connected to our relationship with the Lord. 

May we be ever open to the Spirit who conjoins us to the Head, that we may feel alive. 

God's mark of ownership: the Spirit

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

October 14, 2022: Ephesians 1: 11-14; Luke 12: 1-7

At times it remains a valid question to ask, whether people really wish to be happy or not? A person is one moment happy and the very next moment he or she is down in spirits, with concerns that they alone know. It seems like, people choose to be unhappy and choose to make others unhappy! While there are a thousand reasons to thank God for, we choose those few things that can make us feel miserable. While there are myriads of ways to create joy around us, we choose to make life so despicable for ourselves and all others around! If I need to grow into a real child of God, I need to beware of this tendency within me and of people around me with such a tendency!

A child of God does not allow worries to overpower him or her, a child of God is not anxious, a child of God is fearless. Do not fear, do not be afraid... Jesus repeatedly assures us not to be guided by fear. When we are filled with true convictions and not convenient compromises, when we are taken up with absolute commitment to the life task entrusted to us, we will be truthful to God who has created us, who has chosen us in Christ, and sealed us in the Spirit. That truth will indeed set us free (cf. Jn 8:32), and we shall be fearless.

When we live by truth, we will not fear anyone or anything. Whereas when we have teachings of our own making or forces that operate us from the dark, then we will be struggling and striving to prove ourselves and dominate others: it may look like we possess some extraordinary power and capability, but it is actually slavery that seeks the promotion of the self and not the glory of God!

We can arrive at this clarity and conviction only by the power of the Spirit, the Spirit of Ownership that God has poured into our hearts, that which we need to hold on to as the mark of our belonging to God. I need to desire and wish that God owns me completely, directs me, controls me, uses me and leads me! For that I need to become aware of the Spirit in me, the mark of God's ownership!

Before God and God alone...

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

October 13, 2022: Ephesians 1:1-10; Luke 11:47-54

It is not an impossible task to make people think that I am good, virtuous and honourable. That actually is the predominant concern for many and that has proved the root cause for many wrong decisions made and later regretted. The problem is, it matters not so much to be good and virtuous, as to be seen and ajudged so. We are not called to create images around us and bask in the opinions we construct among others. We are called to be, to be good and to be Godly.

The crux of the problem is that we have the responsibility to account for every special blessing that the Lord has showered on us. It is God who has created us and it is God who has called us, filling us with all that we need to respond to that call. The only person that we need to respond to, give account to, and answer to, is God and God alone. 

As St.Paul points it out today, it is between God and me, and public opinions and image creation will not suffice. "To be holy and blameless before God in love"... that is the task given to us and can there be make-believes when it comes to the fact that God Himself is the judge. We are called to be holy, to be blameless, to be good, to be virtuous, all before God and God alone!

Deep inside of me

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

October 12, 2022: Galatians 5: 18-25; Luke 11: 42-46

Can one be justified by faith apart from the works of law - this was, is and will ever be a point of contention. In the Old Testament times it was a contention between the 'conservative' and the 'progressive' rabbinic schools; in Jesus' times between him and the Jewish religious heads; in the times of the early Christians it was a contention between those who followed the Pauline theology and those who believed the theology of James; today it continues between the Catholics and the non Catholics!

Needless to say our point of reference is always Jesus. 'Don't put your trust in your capacity to achieve things and to gain control or dominance,' warns Jesus. 'Become like children!' That is primacy of faith! He also declared, 'when you did this to one of these little ones, you did it to me!' That is the necessity of works! Faith without works is fruitless; while works without faith can easily turn into an ego trip.

What Jesus taught against was, empty ritualism, legalistic spirituality and hypocritical religiosity! Unless we are aided by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we would never learn the meaning of what Jesus teaches us today - to have works of faith without ego and to live faith in works without losing the primacy of the relationship with God. These - the works of faith and faith in works - cannot be merely an external act or a mere religious sentiment. They have to be signs, fruits, indications and the fragrance of what is deep inside of me! 

Faith, Love and Christ

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 11, 2022: Celebrating Pope St. John XXIII
Galatians 5: 1-6; Luke 11: 37-41

When the Pharisee invited Jesus to come home, Jesus did not mind at all going over and dining with him. In spite of feeling honoured by his invitation having been accepted, the Pharisee was more worried about Jesus washing or not washing his hands, rituals followed or not, circumcision or no circumcision, laws and fulfillment of laws...Jesus gets upset over it. The happiness of having a guest is lost in the judgements that the host was passing on the guest.

The joy of togetherness is lost in the the insistence of legality. The true sense of love is lost when one picks and chooses whom to show his or her love. Paul redifines faith in Jesus' terms - it is to acknowledge that Christ has set us free! We are not under any yoke anymore. Nothing can bind us except the love of the Father made manifest in the Son and poured into our hearts through the Spirit. Why do we want to give into that yoke again by equating our faith to 'doing' something, 'performing rituals' instead of relating to God with a free heart. That freedom is born only out of love.

Pope St. John XXIII brought this very strongly into the Church. In celebrating him we celebrate a great experience of the Church in the recent times. 

- He was the one who convoked the Vatican Council II to ensure that the Church lives upto what Jesus said: what I want is mercy and not sacrifice. And today we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Commencement of the great Council.

- He was a loving person, known as a loved bishop and a smiling Pope! He was mercy personified and in his personality he upheld faith and love, and thus upheld Christ. And that is what Pope Francis is insisting upon in this era, that the Church should become the mercy incarnate in the world.

- John XXIII was someone who showed in his life what Church is called to do...he stood by the poor, the marginalised and the working class, as a Bishop and later as a Pope and called the Church to go to the periphery and to the margins of the human society.

Pope St. John XXIII has for long been an inspiration to Pope Francis, right from the time he was a seminarian Mario Bergoglio. And ofcourse today we could pray for the present Pope as we thank God for the historical Saint-Pope. 

Freedom is not free!

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

October 10, 2022: Galatians 4: 22-24, 26-27, 31 -5:1; Luke 11: 29-32

Freedom, is not an all sweet gift. It was Jean Paul Sartre who made that provocative but profound statement, "we are condemned to be free". Freedom comes with the duty attached. We are free, free to choose and the responsibility of the choice is laid entirely upon us. It would be childish to clamour for freedom but shy away from the responsibility that entails. 

We are free children of God, declares Paul. With that freedom comes the condition that we are to be held responsible for all the choices we make. Let us raise a question to ourselves: who decides whether I should be happy or not? Yes, it is our choice, or rather our choices. We could decide to be happy or not; we could make that choice despite the conditions that surround us, whether favourable or not. 

Secondly, the free choices we make amount to the consequence we face. The Lord grants us the greatest gift of freedom, and leaves us with the responsibility for our choices. That is why, when we choose not to see the presence of God, when we choose not to find the moments of grace, when we choose not to realise the opportunities to do good, when we choose not to identify our brother or sister in the person next to us, we are choosing to rush towards a state that is so sad and so inhuman. 

We are free children of the promise (cf. Gal 4:22-24); yes we are given the great gift of freedom. But Freedom is not free; we have to pay for it with our personal responsibility!

GREAT ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

The touchstone of an authentic spiritual person

28th Sunday in Ordinary time: October 9, 2022
2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

Spiritual life is made of a set of attitudes that make up who we are! The touchstone of an authentically spiritual person lies in the virtue that the Word of God speaks to us of today: the great attitude of Gratitude... gratitude for every goodness that one experiences, gratitude to the Source of all that one has and one is: God! "What do you have that you did not receive?" asks St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:7).

Gratitude is born of a Humble Recognition of God! Namaan was asked to dip in river Jordan and he felt offended because his pride ruled his will. But when he listens to that word from the Man of God, humbling himself for that moment, he recognised the presence of the Mighty God. It is only when I am humble, I recognise God and that recognition of God makes me more humble!

Gratitude is expressed in Grateful Submission to God! An authentic outcome of immense gratitude is total submission to God for the marvels that God has done to us. We see the man in the Gospel, just one out of the ten of them - "he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks" (v.16). What happened to the rest? Either they did not realise they were healed or they did not realise that the healing was a gift! This Samaritan heart realised the gratuitous miracle and recognised the hand of God - and the result was, a grateful submission at the feet of Jesus.

Gratitude leads to a Faithful Perseverance in God's ways! "Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well" (v.19) says Jesus, commissioning him to be an apostle to the World. That is the commission we receive every time we experience the grace of God in our personal lives - to go into the world and share the word of God, 'that the word of God may not be fettered' (cf. 2 Tim 2:9). It is the gratitude for the goodness that we have experienced in the Lord that makes us persevere, amidst all troubles and trials we might face. Our perseverance is not so much because we are faithful to the Lord, as because the Lord is faithful to us, reminds St. Paul in the second reading (2 Tim 2:13).

A grateful heart is a humble heart and a humble person will ever be a faithful person and faithfulness gives one the courage and strength to persevere. Learning to look at our daily life and recognise the miracles that happen in abundance; putting up with daily crosses with the image of the Crucified Saviour in our hearts; placing ourselves each day at the feet of Jesus to be sent into the world as messengers of his loving Word - that is growing into Spiritual Persons. Let us heed the call of the Word today, to increase our sense of gratitude and grow into authentic spiritual persons!

Belonging to Christ

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

October 8, 2022: Galatians 3: 22-29; Luke 11: 27-28

'We are Christians for the past 4 generations'; 'I belong to such and such a Church or denomination'; 'oh! I am a born again' or I am born thrice!!!... nothing of these will make us automatically acceptable or blessed in the eyes of God. Whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free...it does not matter, says St. Paul in the first reading today - neither circumcision nor non-circumcision matters, when it comes to belong to Christ. What matters is, that we clothe ourselves in Christ, that we become one in Christ, that we truly BELONG TO CHRIST (cf. Gal 3:29) in all the sense of that term.

Belonging to Christ would mean 3 things according to the readings today: 

One, having faith in God, inspite of anything that happens or does not happen, like Abraham. It requires patience and endurance, to stay put in the presence of God, with humility and submission.

Second, hearing the Word attentively, like St. Paul. He heard it, he listened to it, he understood it and he converted himself according to what the Word wanted him to do. And precisely because of this fact, he was able to speak with ascendancy to the Jews and the non Jews, to the followers and the apostles.

Thirdly, observing the directions given by the Lord, like our blessed mother. She is blessed not merely because she bore and suckled the Son of God, but because she heard the Word, bore it in her mind and heart and conducted her entire life on the basis of the directions given to her. She was a perfect handmaid of the Word. 

Can I today really claim that I belong to Christ? 

Daily Faithfulness and Constant Commitment

THE WORD AND THE FEAST 

October 7, 2022: Celebrating our Blessed Mother of Holy Rosary
Galatians 3:7-14; Luke 11:15-26

One who is righteous, by faith shall he or she live, says the first reading! Being God's or belonging to God means a life full of daily choices. It is not a change that happens once and remains for ever, but it is a daily faithfulness on our part to remain in the same state of grace. Faith, therefore, is not a set of truths that are proposed or discussed; but it is a personal commitment lived, a relationship that is established, a rapport that is built between me and my God!

Because God loved me so much, Christ stoops down to such an extent to initiate that relationship between me and God... Christ became a curse for my sake, reminds St.Paul. It is not enough that such a relationship is initiated by God, a gratuitous gift given to me. It is essential that I keep that relationship going, on a daily basis, filling my life with God and all that pertains to God. If not, there are myriads of other things that are waiting to take possession of my heart. As St. Peter warns, 'your enemy the devil, is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour' (cf. 1 Pet 5:8). The key is: daily faithfulness and constant commitment. 

The Holy Rosary is a great treasure we have to live this daily faithfulness and constant commitment - for two reasons. First, our Blessed Mother who is the exemplification of faithfulness and commitment. She has lived her call to the full and challenges us to the same commitment and faithfulness. Secondly, the daily devotion of Rosary, in its content and its spirit, reminds us of our call. May this spiritual practice of the devotion to Rosary make us more and more disciples of Christ, the faithful One.