Open and Ready to Receive the Joy?

 The WORD in ADVENT - Third Thursday

December 15, 2022: Isaiah 54: 1-10; Luke 7: 24-30

The mountains may depart, the hills be shaken, but the love of the Lord shall stand forever, reminds us Isaiah. The covenant that the Lord has made shall never go in vain. These beautiful lines from the prophet are not merely some romantic lines or immaginary desires - this is a commimtment that God taken on our behalf... to be with us till the end of times. 

One of the enemies that would hinder us from expereincing that trememdous love of God, is a lack of openness to it and inability to recieve it when it is given actually. Openness is preparation and the act of receiveing it is celebration. We are moving fast into the moment of celebration and that is what this week reminds us - last week was preparation and this week is already a foreshadowing of the celebration to come. 

Jesus draws our attention to the need for this openness/preparedness and receiving/beholding the Lord at His coming - what did you go to see in the desert? He is making a cause of the way people missed John the Baptist, the Elijah promised to return. Today we are awaiting the coming of another - are we going to receive him or are we going to miss him? The urgency is well felt. 

The messengers, the message, the announcement - everything is here. All the remains to be ensured is our choice to really prepare and truly receive the Messiah. Are we doing enough to receive that visit of the Lord? Are we open enough to receive the message and feel the presence of the messenger? How disposed are we to make present the joy of the Reign where we are? 

To make the Lord seen

The WORD in ADVENT - Third Wednesday

December 14, 2022: Isaiah 45:6-8,18,21-25; Luke 7: 19-23

The Word today indicates the proximity of the great feast of Christmas, posing the question: are you the one to come? And look at the answer given, not merely by Jesus, but also by the first reading and the responsorial psalm. Open your eyes and see!

John the Baptist who identified Jesus and proclaimed him to the people, begins to have his doubts. Maybe, he too, just like the other Jews, expected Jesus to come out with a plan and a programme drastically different - a rebellion, a revolution, a protest, a challenge to the status quo! All these were happening, but in a much different plane altogether from what everyone was trying to see!

The dumb speak, the deaf hear, the crippled walk, the sinners are forgiven, the diseased are healed, the lonely are accompanied, the poor are fed, the jobless are sustained, the weak are strengthened, the oppressed are freed, the voiceless are empowered, the least are lifted, the lost are respected... these are the signs of the coming of the Lord - signs of joy; true, inner and deep joy specially of those who are broken in spirit and fear-stricken in life.

If we pose the question to the Lord, are you the one to come, the Lord would simply say... I have already come! Are you ready to make me seen? Are you prepared to manifest me to the world in your words and attitudes, in your choices and priorities, in your criteria and discerments? It is important that you open your eyes and see... but as sons and daughters of God, we have an added duty! Apart from opening our eyes and seeing, we need to open our eyes to all the suffering and the needy, and make the Lord seen! That shall be true Christmas!

Truly God's Children

The WORD in ADVENT - Third Tuesday

December 13, 2022: Zephaniah 3:1-2,9-13; Matthew 21: 28-32

At a point in the first reading the Lord says: 'you need not be ashamed of all your deeds...'. Not to be ashamed of myself is a life of dignity and honour - that I am myself and I am proud of it. True love and true regard for each other will give one this dignity and honour. The Lord fills us with this dignity and honour as God's sons and daughters.

In our moral integrity we are challenged to remain worthy of that calling we have, that is, to be sons and daughters of God our loving father and mother. It consists of the decision we make to hear the voice of God, listen to it, realise the call within it and act on it with love.

Not hearing the voice would be a total insensitivity to God - a rejection or a shutting out of God from our lives. Not many of us dare to it, atleast not for long in life. Hearing but not listening would be a disrespect - this is more often than not, seen in our attitudes. Listening but not realising the call involved in it, would be foolishness - because why all the effort and attention to listen but finally only to throw it away in the air. Is it not a waste of time and energy? Finally, Realising the call that is involved in the Word listened to, but not acting upon it, would be a deliberate choice that would negate our very belonging to the Lord - that is, we telling ourselves and the world, that we are not really, truly, in actuality, children of God!

When we are ready to hear, listen, realise and act on God's word, we would be true sons and daughters of God; and we would never need to be ashamed of ourselves, our deeds or our lives. That is a joy, a joy of being truly God's children!

Relying on the Real King

The WORD in ADVENT - Third Monday

December 12, 2022: Numbers 24:2-7,15-17; Matthew 21: 23-27

Balaam asserts, affirms and reaffirms on whose authority he speaks; the Jewish leaders and priests ask Jesus on whose authority Jesus does all that he does. Both Balaam and Jesus, we see in the Word today, were fearless, and so was John the Baptist, who is referred to! 

Balaam was faced with a furious whole race, John the Baptist with a hard hearted set of people who felt in many ways self-sufficient and Jesus, with a powerful top brass of the society. The first two made it clear to themselves and to those around, that they relied not on their personal power, or eloquence, or skill, or talent but on the Lord whom they announced! Jesus made his identity and authority clear through his life and commitment to his Father, in every minute detail of his words and actions. 

Today when the very institutions like the governments and public services, which have to safeguard the common good, start working against equality, justice and human dignity, what do you do! Stand up, speak up and usher in the Reign! No authority can stop us! And we need to please no authority, except One. 

The key message today is this: that an authority that will never be questioned is the Lord who reigns over all. Submitting myself to that Reign and inspiring others to submit to the Reign, is the way we are called to establish the Reign of God, here and now. The Reign of God, is not a Reign that expands by conquest and battles, but by commitment and conviction, by submission and surrender, by a personal choice to rely absolutely on the real King, the Lord of the Reign!

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!