JOYFUL WAITING FOR THE REIGN

Assurance, Aspirations and Associations

December 11, 2022: 3rd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 35: 1-6,10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

An expectant couple, a lover on the park bench, a child on the birthday eve, a starved person on a spread out table... these are vivid snapshots of the joy of waiting! There is a pain involved, but a pain that is part of the joy. There are myriads of reasons to be disturbed and be restless about, but they are all overwhelmed by the joy that resides beneath, still hidden but already beginning to be seen. That is the picture that the Church wants us to contemplate this Sunday: the Joyful Waiting for the Reign.

This Sunday is called the Gaudete Sunday (Gaudete in latin simply means 'Rejoice')... taking off from the entrance antiphon which invites us today, to REJOICE, because the salvation of the Lord is near. If we note the colour of the vestments today...they are not merely the violet, but purple...to add the necessary element of joy to the waiting that we have begun some time ago! A Christian waiting should be joyful, the liturgy reminds us today.

The whole creation groans as with pangs of childbirth...for a peaceful, prosperous, perfect world. Every religion and every spirituality is a yearning towards that state of existence, called in various names - shalom, lokasangraha etc. Jesus revealed it to us as the Reign of God; "We are seeking God's Kingdom" reminds the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(180) of Pope Francis. This waiting, this Christian waiting for the Reign of God is a joyful waiting, not a miserable waiting, nor a servile waiting. The Word today brings to our attention the marks of this joyful waiting:

The first mark is the Assurance of Faith. The first reading is full of words like, gladness, joy, exultation, rejoicing, shouting, leaping, singing... all these words are used by Isaiah, when the people of Israel are still in Exile...but they know their liberation is imminent. What fills their hearts and their lives is faith - a joyful and total abandonment into the hands of God, one who creates and directs history. A total assurance that the Lord is for them; the Lord stands in favour of them and the Lord will lead them to the prosperity that they are waiting for. Our life, to be truly Christian, to be truly worthy of the Reign, has to be based firmly on this assurance of faith, that the Lord is with us and the Lord is for us. When God is for us, who can be against us!

The second mark of a joyful waiting is the Aspirations of Hope. The first reading, the responsorial psalm and the Gospel are filled with imageries of the lame walking, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the dumb speaking... the aspirations of a heart, the desire for a better world, the yearning for a bright tomorrow, the thirst for justice and truth, these are infallible signs of the Reign. That is what we are invited to hope for, and only that hope will thrust us into action, towards doing our little bit, our essential part in making those dreams come true! We need to be filled with that vision, to reach the promised land, each and every one of us hand in hand.

The third mark is Associations of Love. The second reading touches upon a crucial point: yes we wait, but in the meanwhile what do we do? How do we comport ourselves? There are various modes of waiting... angry and restless... anxious and nasty... irritated and tensed... But the joyful waiting for the Reign has to be a wait that is filled with a "prophetic patience", says St. James. An abundance of patience that cherishes every moment that is spent in waiting. A patience that is expressed in our loving rapport with every brother and sister. Our relationships have to express to the world that we are people with a difference, we look for something that not everyone is looking for, that we are people who have our gaze fixed on the Lord and the Lord's Reign that everyone around seems beautiful and precious in our eyes!

We are waiting... we are waiting for the Reign... but the Reign is already here, the wait is to make it more and more visible! Hence, each of us has the responsibility, to make the Reign of God felt, here and now, through living with an abundance of assurance of faith, with limitless aspirations of hope and divine associations of love with each other. 

The joyful wait for the Reign, has to radiate that spirit of joy to every one, everyday in every way!

Holding His hands as we keep walking

The WORD in ADVENT - Second Saturday

December 10, 2022: Ecclesiasticus 48:17-19; Matthew 17: 10-13

News about violence everyday, cry of injustice and unfettered exploitation of the weak, persecutions in the name of religion and venomous maligning of persons and groups owing to the religious and moral values that they hold on to, the seeming victory of the evil forces - these are what we hear on a daily basis these days. And Jesus seems to tell us, "this is nothing new, since John the Baptist came upto this present time, the kingdom of Heaven has been subject to violence!" And the first reading adds hopefully, inspite of all these, "Do not be afraid, I shall help you."

The image that we are given today to ruminate, is that of a child holding the hand of the father or the mother, and braving the whole world around. Let us never forget that one quintessential truth of Christian faith: we are never alone! The Lord promises today: I, the God of Israel, shall never abandon you! 

We are in fact  preparing to celebrate precisely this truth; that God came to dwell with us. This is what incarnation is all about - God making that radical choice not only to be with us, but to be one among us and forever with us. And ever since, God has been with us; and God shall never abandon us. Let us celebrate that presence of God, not merely at special moments, but daily, and every moment of our lives - let us hold God's hands as we keep walking in our daily life.

Not to be childish, but Child-like

The WORD in ADVENT - Second Friday

December 9, 2022: Isaiah 48: 17-19; Matthew 11: 16-19

If we had noticed carefully these days, there is a constant reference in the Gospel this week to John the Baptist. From last Sunday, the Gospel and the preface keep presenting to us the figure of John the Baptist, to challenge us regarding how prepared we are for the Coming of the Lord!

Today's Word draws our attention to the difference between "being childish" and "being child-like."  Unless you become like a child you will not enter the Reign of God - but that in no way means you become or remain childish! Jesus gives a simple example - being childish is being so centered on yourself that you wish everything around you happens just as you wish and everyone does exactly what you wish... and said literally, that every one dances to your tunes!

Being childlike, instead, is being prophetic, being like the persons of God who abandon everything into the hands of God with total confidence in God and in God alone. 

Another typical quality of children - that they are single minded. You tell them, 'do this', they are all taken up with that until they do that - their entire mind is occupied with that. Look at the mindset of John the Baptist... or Jesus for that matter... so single minded in their faithfulness to the One who had sent them, and the mission entrusted to them respectively. Another prophetic character in them - like a child who is totally occupied with that one task entrusted to him or her!

Let us be like children, and grow to be more and more child-like; let us single mindedly walk in the path God has planned for us, with our hands in the hands of God. Let us not remain childish, looking for our immediate happiness but grow to be child-like, prophetic and God-loving. Let us distance ourselves from unutile childishness to a real spirit of the Reign, becoming more and more child-like!

Making ourselves worthy for our Lord to be born!

The WORD, The FEAST and ADVENT

December 8, 2022: Solemnity of Immaculate Conception
Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12; Luke 1:26-30

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Mother - the dogma of faith that Mary, from the moment that she was conceived in her mother's womb, was preserved without the stain of original sin. The celebration of today has 3 reminders for us:

Reminder 1: God's plan for each of us is eternal! God chose to preserve Mary even before she was born, from the moment of her passing from non existence to existence! How true when the Word says, 'You know me even before my bones were being formed in the womb of my mother.' God knows each of us and has a mysterious plan for us from eternity. Is it not true that God has chosen us before the foundations of the world, as St. Paul says.

Reminder 2: It was indeed a grace that Mary was spared from the stain of original sin, but she on her part remained faithful, sinless and wholly belonging to God all her life that she brought this grace of holiness, right upto the end of her life when she was found worthy of another grace - that of Assumption. We were freed from the bond of original sin too, at our baptism. Is it not our duty to bring this baptismal innocence right through to the end of our life that we can find ourselves in the company of saints and angels in union with God almighty!

Reminder 3: For Mary it was a remote preparation to behold the Son of God within her in God's own time. The feast occurs during Advent and that reminds us that we are in that place too... waiting and willing to prepare ourselves to behold the Son of God, who wishes to be born in our lives this Christmas. How well is our preparation going?

The Message is simple and clear: God has chosen me from eternity to belong to God. It is my faithful response to this call that will determine my status as God's son or daughter. When I listen to God's word and live by it, God dwells in me, God's word will be born in me, making me the dwelling place, the tabernacle, the temple of the Living God!

Soar on the wings of Hope

The WORD, the SAINT and ADVENT - Second Wednesday

December 7, 2022: Celebrating St. Ambrose

Isaiah 40: 25-31; Matthew 11: 28-30

Those who hope in the Lord will soar like the eagle, the Word underlines. Those who seek the Lord in their weariness and helplessness will find the rejuvenating wings of the Lord uplifting their spirits. The Reign is a promise of lifting the spirits of the drooping hearts. The spirit of the Reign is to take responsibility for those who grapple with life for meaning and purpose. 

St. Ambrose whom we celebrate today did that, and that is how we have St. Augustine today! Augustine was converted by the teaching and example of Ambrose. Ambrose himself was chosen in a miraculous way to lead the people of God. Everything amounts to show us that nothing is impossible for God. That is hope, the key to the spirit of the Reign.

Like Ambrose we are called to stand for hope. And when we do that the Lord stands by us! What a powerful imagery we are given in the Word, for this season of advent: to wait on the Lord! Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles! The Word today is profusely filled with hope, a hope that comes from the abundance of love that the Lord has for us! It is strengthened by that love, that we can run but still not get weary. Even if we are weary, the Lord invites us to come to the Lord and rest in the Lord. 

Precisely when we feel burdened and stressed, we are invited by the Lord with his open arms, like the open wings of the eagle - to soar on the wings of hope! 

To surrender to our Shepherd

The WORD in ADVENT

December 06, 2022: Isaiah 40: 1-11; Matthew 18: 12-14

The image we are given to contemplate today is that of the good shepherd with a lamb in his bosom, caressing it with compassion and love! This is no strange or unfamiliar image for us... we have always imagined ourselves as a sheep in the hands of a shepherd. That is what we are in the hands of God. It is an humbling experience everyday to realise how much the Lord loves us - inspite of our weaknesses and limitations, repeated failures and endless mistakes. 

When we feel overwhelmed with struggles and surrounded by troubles, it is enough to contemplate this picture and we shall feel the warmth of his embrace and the consolation of his whispers. Despite the enemies that surround us, we will feel a sense of security; and there we will find the strength to begin anew and resume our walk with the Lord. We are called to prepare the way of the Lord and the first step is to know and realise that way, in our lives and our ways of living.  

At times we may feel a bit lost, with no clues as to how to go about, what is right, what is to be established and what is to be challenged, and above all, how! We may find hindrances and hurdles, at times tempatations and weaknesses from within too. But let us not lose heart. "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God will stand for ever" and we will never be lost, for the good Shepherd will always come in search, will certainly find us and will gently lead us on! All that we need to do is, surrender to our Shepherd!

Anticipate the incredible

The WORD in ADVENT - Second Monday

December 5, 2022: Isaiah 35:1-10; Luke 5: 17-26

When the Lord comes you witness the incredible! The Lord is around and when you let the Lord into your life, things you consider incredible just happen from nowhere. It is not a mere imagination or a wishful thinking, it was a prediction based on concrete experiences. Israel certainly had experienced great things in history. 

Isaiah's prediction is made true by the event in the Gospel and the reaction of those high priests and scribes. Jesus was very subtle in making them understand that he had the power from God and with God anything was possible! Some were praising God for the experience, and there were others who were angry and upset about the same events - now arises the crucial question. What made the difference between these two sets of people?

One set of people were ready to expect the unexpected, anticipate the incredibe and praise God for what they say. The other set, the so-called learned and "theologically formed" set of people were so fixed in their ideas that they would impede even God from doing what they did not expect from God. What a presumptious way of living!

In our lives too the Lord stands knocking at the door, to change things and to change the way we see things and to change the entire experience of humanity... but it is upto us to let the Lord in. We would let him in when we are able to expect the unexpected, behold the unprecedented, and anticipate the incredible - for with God all things are possible, and nothing is impossible! 

THE SPIRIT OF THE REIGN

Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit

December 4, 2022: 2nd Sunday of Advent 

Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15: 4-9; Matthew 3: 1-12

Repent, for the Reign of God is near! Last week, the first of the season, we had an invitation from the Lord! And today, as a sign of acceptance of that invitation, we are given a clarion call by the prophets, to prepare ourselves in a worthy manner to receive the King, to receive the Reign. This king we receive, is someone different, some one unique, and has a style and outlook totally different from all other rulers that we know of! He does not force himself on us; when he passes by, if we are worthy and ready to receive him, he will enter, remain with us and rule in our hearts, our homes and our land! If not, he passes by, and we are the losers...for the axe is kept at the roots, and the worthless shrubs will stand no ground. The readings today instruct us through the great prophets Isaiah, John the Baptist and Apostle Paul, as to our disposition to receive the Reign; they invite us to possess the Spirit of the Reign!

The Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety and reverence of the Lord - that is the Spirit we should possess to be people of the Reign. The Reign will come, the Ruler will appear, but the question is, you and me: will we be prepared to receive it today! The Reign is not merely plenty and prosperity, it is not merely a state of pleasurable feeling with nothing to worry, at times we imagine so. As St. Paul would define to the Romans, the Reign is Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17); it is this Reign that the prophets announced; it is this Reign that Jesus inaugurated through his life and mission; it is this Reign that we are commissioned to make present in the world today - and the way is, through Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit!

"Bear fruits worthy of Repentace" cries the voice in the desert. Our King is a righteous king, righteousness shall be his girdle says Isaiah. The call is that we turn to righteousness, make our paths straight, leave the acts of darkness and live as people of light, going about our daily duties with diligence and dedication. The Spirit of Righteousness, will show us the right way, the right sense and the right direction to take in life.

"Live in harmony with each other" reminds the Apostle. In his days righteousness shall flourish and peace abound, because our King is the Prince of Peace. We are challenged to be peacemakers in our daily life - when so much of competition and corruptions abounds, while people deceive and denounce each other, amidst the political forces that want social unrest and antisocial elements that brood over hurt and harm, we are called to hold together the frail humanity, in peace and serenity, by our thoughts, words and choices, all governed by love, the love of God. The Spirit of Peace, will hover over our days, healing the hurts and binding us in forgiveness, to build up the Reign of peace and serenity.

We shall give praise to the Lord among the peoples and sing to the Lord's name, for the Lord comes to Reign, and we are called to be part of the Reign. Righteousness and Peace fills us with joy, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Spirit, the joy that comes from an endless hope that the Lord fills us with. It is not merely a situation of having no problems, but a sense of inner strength to face everything with the help of the God of endurance and encouragement. That is the Spirit of the Reign. That is why the Holy Father Pope Francis repeats so often - a Christian can never be sad, a Christian has to be joyful, because inspite of all the problems of our life, we have the Lord with us! The Spirit fills us with joy, a joy that wells from within us, from that core of our being where God dwells.

Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit - that is the Reign of God... that is the Spirit of the Reign. The Ruler comes... let us make the paths straight, let us imbibe within us the Spirit of the Reign...and we shall welcome the King, we shall inherit the Reign!

To be filled with the Word

The WORD, the SAINT and ADVENT

December 3, 2022: Remembering Francis Xavier, the Apostle to India
Isaiah 61: 1-3; 1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23; Mark 16: 15-20

Today we celebrate a call that was lived to the full, a mission that was accomplished with all the hardships involved, a surrender that was total, absolutely total! Francis Xavier, felt his call quite late in his life, he accepted the mission that was entrusted to him and surrendered to the purposes of the Lord. His surrender was such that he was ready to give up his entire life for the call and the commission. He was just 46 when he died, a short life but an extensive mission accomplished. He chose to surrender to the Lord so late in life but the surrender was so intense that the intensity made up for all the time that was lost.

He could have excused himself as a young fellow, for when he received the call he was merely a young ambitious college student. He could have called himself unworthy with all the priorities he had then, as a young fellow at the university. The Lord does not relent, but goes after him because we know today he deserved all the attention that he was given. He fits in perfectly to the instructions given by Jesus in the Gospel today. He wanted to go to the ends of the earth... it was not enough for him to have reached India; he wanted to go to Japan, China and everywhere. His lifetime was not enough for him in anyway. He was so filled with the Word and the need to proclaim it: he believed proclaiming the Word was his duty, his life's mission!

May Francis Xavier assist us to be faithful to the call we have received, inspire us in our commitment to the mission entrusted to us and challenge us to surrender our entire selves to the Lord's purposes. The call today is to check how filled with the Word we are! That is an advent call too, unless we are filled with the Word we shall not really behold the Word at His coming.

To See - an act of faith!

The WORD in ADVENT - First Friday

December 2, 2022: Isaiah 29:17-24; Matthew 9: 27-31

'To see' is a spiritual quality. The readings, both first and the gospel, bear this imagery today. The first reading speaks of the blind who will begin to see and the lowly who will begin to find joy in the Lord. The Gospel recounts one of those encounters where Christ gives sight to two blind persons, with an insightful conversation that accompanies. 

Infact, 'to see' was one of the signs indicated for the day of the Lord, or the coming of the Lord... We see that when the Baptist asked if Jesus was the Christ to come, Jesus responds saying, 'the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear and the dead are raised' (Lk 7:20,22) - as a sign of the Lord's coming! We see Jesus citing that as a sign, in his manifesto in the Gospel of Luke (ch.4). 

In the Reign of God, all shall possess the spiritual capacity to see; we shall all see, because we will have the light of the Lord, as the responsorial psalm tells us! The Light coming amidst us, enlightens our vision! We get to see our own selves, we get to see the other, we get to see the truth, as we should. And that will change our lives, provided we are ready to see. Added to that, this will enable is to see the Lord!

Yes, we shall certainly see the Lord face to face, but today, in our daily life, we are challenged to see, to look, to perceive and to find the joy of the Lord in the midst of our routine... Can we really see? If we believe, we will. Can we decide to see? If we take our faith seriously, we will. 

Let us grow everyday in our faith, and thus grow in our capability to see the Lord, our light and our salvation.