Right to be children of God

WORD 2day: Friday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 9, 2023: Tobit 11:5-17; Mark 12:35-37

Anna was excited to see her son and felt she could even die in peace, since she had seen her son. Tobit was delighted in his son, as his son comes back from the journey. Tobias becomes the happiness of his parents. Both Anna and Tobit were almost reborn because of Tobias. Is this what the poet meant when he said, 'the child is the father of the man'! Tobias almost gave new birth to Tobit who actually wanted to die. That is the son giving a new life to his parents!

We have another Son who does the same, but to all. We see in the Gospel, Jesus wants to give that same new life to the people but they are still trying to make out for themselves who Jesus was, whose son he was and to whom they could link him to. They did not recognise the sonship that Jesus was claiming. We would do the same mistake, not only if we do not recognise the sonship of Jesus, but also when we do not realise the right to be children of God that we have received through Jesus. 

Jesus invites us to become aware of our sonship and daughterhood in God. He says the earthly fathers and mothers, the earthly generations we treasure, are but passing, and we need to have that eternal abode that sustains our journey. You are the children of God, when we hear Jesus telling us this, we would inherit the blessedness that he himself had, the salvation that he brought us - everything summarised in the right we have to be known as children of God. 

Love... can we ever understand it enough?

WORD 2day: Thursday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 8, 2023: Tobit 6:10-11; 7:1bcde, 9-17; 8:4-9a; Mark 12: 28-34

There are too many heart wrenching stories we hear these days... not merely those of big accidents and wars, but above all, of persons who do not understand what it means to love! Think of a husband who decides to disown his wife just witin a year after their wedding, because she was diagnosed with a serious illness; or think of a religious or a priest, after years of life in ministry, just throwing away everything for some misunderstanding or similar temporal issues. Not just these, but many such experiences raise a fundamental doubt: how Christ-ian are we? Have we really immersed ourselves into the mystery that God is? God is love and if we are born of God, we should love - love God and love our brothers and sisters.

While the Gospel reiterates this call that each of us has received, in the first reading today we have a typical example in the person of Tobiah. Once he decides that he loves Sarah, nothing deters him from growing in that perfection. He is told how fatal it can be if he loves Sarah, but he does not hesitate. The reason is, he believed that Sarah was brought into his life by God.

Love is not merely a feeling; it is an act of faith. To look at every person around me and see and believe that God has given me that person, that brother or that sister, to love- that is the secret. That is true Christian love: does the world today, does every Christian today, do I today, really understand what it means to say, I love? Will the world ever understand that enough?

God is bigger than anything!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 7, 2023: Tobit 3: 1-11,16-17; Mark 12: 18-27

Holy Father Pope Francis is convinced of his saying, 'a sad Christian cannot proclaim the Good news!' Every one has one's own share of the baggage to be carried! For some it seems more, for some others less. But, more or less, actually does not make much difference; what makes the difference is how one looks at it. 

In the Gospel today, Jesus almost laughs at the Sadducees for their ignorance - you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God, he says. They behave like the mendicant who was asked, what if you won a ticket to France tomorrow, and he said instantly, I will go to France and beg! Jesus challenges them, and us, to think big! He warns us not to limit God to someone like us, out of our ignorance! 

Our God is God of the living, not of the dead...God is much greater than whatever I can think of, or imagine! All that I need to do is believe in that God, trust in the presence of that God and when I am aware of that overwhelming presence with me, all the troubles that I face today, becomes so negligible. Be it Tobit or Sara... their share of trouble was so heavy... little did they realise the mighty presence with them, which was there to deliver them and launch them into Salvation History never to be forgotten! 

When St.Augustine says " when I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete", this is what he means... the Mighty Presence of my Living God, can make the worst of my troubles look so silly! God is bigger than anything I can every think of! 

To see or not to see...

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 6, 2023: Tobit 2: 9-14; Mark 12: 13-17

Tobit loses his sight and lives so for four years or so. Even that did not disturb his wife much but the question she asks him, 'where is all your charity?', brings out the crux of the message today. It is truly charity that helps us see persons as they are. In charity we decide whether to see or not, to see or not persons as they are instead of fixing them into the peg holes we have made for each of them. 

Judgements are the first enemies of charity and that is why the saintly Mother Teresa made that statement: if you judge, you have no time to love! Inability to see, is in fact a lack of openness caused by lack of charity. Where there is love, there is no judgement; and where there is judgement, there is a lack of love obviously.  

The Pharisees and the Scribes hated Jesus to the core because he was exposing their hypocrisy, their stubbornness of heart, their decision not to see, because they wanted to prove their judgement that Jesus was a fake messiah! Jesus never judged them, for even when he criticised them, he continued to love them! Even after reports and experiences of the goodness of the Lord, they refused to see, or decided not to see!

How far do you really see? Does the sight giving charity truly reside in our hearts?

Prophecy - a core Christian call!

WORD 2day: Monday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 5, 2023: Tobit 1: 1a, 2-3a, 2: 1c-8; Mark 12: 1-12

Prophecy, is part of our Christian calling, not just a part but the very core of it. Prophets are not merely soothsayers or fortune tellers or those who foresay events! The different shades of the literal meaning of a prophet are: pro-phetes - to speak for God, to speak before the people, to speak for the truth in front of the people, to stand alone for the 'right' before a multitude that may stand around and pressurise me against it. Tobias in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel are doing just that! 

It is not a matter of belonging to a category called 'prophets' or to consider self righteously oneself better than all the rest - but it is knowing what is right, being convinced of what is right and being that. Yes, 'being' that, not just 'doing' that. 

Compromises and Justifications can be found for any issue, excuses and good reasons can be found for any lack... whereas, prophecy is that dimension of one's personality that remains itself at all times, looks at itself and judges oneself, with the parameters that makes sense only to a person who shares that state of life. 

May we grow more and more aware of ourselves, our convictions and our priorities that we may constantly check whether we are really living our call to prophecy in the ordinary circumstances of our daily Christian living.

CELEBRATING THE GOD OF COMMUNION

An accompanying, relating and self-giving God!

June 4, 2023: Solemnity of the Holy Trinity
Exodus 34: 4b -6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13; John 3: 16-18

The feast of the Holy Trinity is an invitation to a life of communion, communion between persons, communion within the family, within the local church, in the universal Church and above all, an invitation to the ultimate and perfect communion with God! Communion defines what it means to be a Christian: and that is because we believe in a God of Communion!

Entering into the theology of the Holy Trinity will take us too far; but the verse from St. Paul in the second reading today (1 Cor 13:13), summarises it all. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Already in the early Church the understanding of the God they believed in, the idea of the God whom Jesus introduced them to, the concept of the God who has been with them all this while, was clear and concrete. 

What we believe in, affects what we live. If not, we either do not really believe or do not live our own life. If we really believe in the Holy Trinity as we should, we should be promoters of communion in our interpersonal relationships, in our family, in our faith communities and in the locality wherever we live, ultimately challenging the whole world to this communion of humanity. The divisive forces cannot really take the upper hand if each and every individual loves, longs for and promotes passionately this communion that the God we believe in stands for. 

The God of Communion is an Accompanying God. God accompanies not because we deserve that accompaniment, but because God takes responsibility over us, as God's people. That is the covenant that God has made: you shall be my people and I shall be your God. In the first reading today, when Moses asks God to be with the people, it is exactly this covenant that is invoked. An accompanying God is the basis of the communion between God and humanity, and it is our belief that God has kept this possibility open right from the beginning. 

The God of Communion is a Relating God. Communion is unreal, unless through relationship. And God relates to us continuously, God communicates constantly and wishes to remain in constant touch with us. If we realise, respect and recognise the role of this relationship, it will be reflected in our day to day relatioships: encourage each other; agree with each other; live in peace, exhorts St.Paul. Anyone who says he loves God and does not love his brother or sister, is a liar, warns St. James (1 Jn 4:20). 

The God of Communion is a Self-giving God. God is not merely almighty, God is all-loving and all-giving too! God gives and forgives, it is said; we get and forget! For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, Jesus Christ, that we may have life! For Christ so loved his brothers and sisters that he gave his own life, his body and blood, that we may have life! For the Spirit so loves us that the Spirit dwells in our hearts, in our bodies, in our selves! The God of communion seeks communion with us, and seeks communion among us. 

The Trinity is the right corrective the world so divided and so threatened by hatred today. Killings, exploitations, corruption and manipulation are brass tacks manifestation of the lack of communion. Personal Intergrity, Christian Fellowship and Universal Brotherhood are the three fundamental forms of communion that we need to work towards these days. Let us begin with our personal selves and reach wherever we reach, so that we can rightfully say that we believe in the God of Communion and that we stand for the Accompanying, Relating and Self-giving God, the God of Communion, the Loving Father and Mother, the Life-giving Son and the Indwelling Spirit.

The Word and the Wisdom

WORD 2day: Saturday, 8th week in Ordinary time

June 3, 2023: Sirach 51:12-20; Mark 11: 27-33

Jesus is the Word made flesh... the Second person of the Trinity, the Wisdom signified in the Old Testament personified in the person of Jesus,  God's guiding presence that was with the people of the Old Testament and came alive in human flesh in the New Testament. The readings taken together today, give us a twin perspective of Jesus and Jesus' relation to the figure of Wisdom!

1. Jesus has Wisdom: the Gospel presents to us the way Jesus tackled the trap that was laid for him by the shrewd pharisees and scribes. Jesus proves that he had the Wisdom, a great gift from the Lord. It is fundamentally knowing what to say and what not to say at a particular point of time and saying what is to be said in the best way possible with the choice of the right verbal or non verbal language! Now that was Jesus' forte. Be it in the event we read in the Gospel today,or the incident of the woman caught in adultery, or the case of the samaritan woman, or the discussion with the disciples asking for power and position... everywhere Jesus knew the right thing to be said and he chose the right sense of doing it.

2. Jesus as Wisdom: the way the first reading presents Wisdom, we come to clearly understand what the Old Testament speaks of as Wisdom is not merely a quality or a faculty, but a person, a personal presence of the Almighty! When Jesus lived and moved around, people readily and without much difficulty saw the Wisdom that he was. Jesus was, and is, the Wisdom that fills us with light and shows us the way. If only we accept the Wisdom of Christ in contrast to rest of the truth claims of the world, we would find that joy that is complete, that Christ alone can give.

Being Godly...being human

WORD 2day: Friday, 8th week in Ordinary time

June 2, 2023: Sirach 44: 1, 9-13; Mark 11: 11-26

The readings today speak to us of an essential dimension of human life, a mark of bring truly human: being Godly. If we can narrow down to some particular marks for being human beings vis-a-vis the 'lower' beings, it has to be, being Godly. However these days the social network seems to present us with cases of many of these animals, the so called 'lower' beings, with qualities and actions much more edifying than those of the humans.

Today the Word outlines for us two signs of being Godly...

Being rooted in God - finding one's solace and fulfillment in nothing less than God, finding the hand of God in every bit of one's well being, being grateful for and conscious of the good that God continues to do, standing by to find out God's will and accompaniment in daily journeys of life. ..these are signs of being rooted in God.

Bearing forth God's fruits - one who bears forth God's fruits will bear it forth for others and not make a living out of it as it was happening in the Temple; he or she will bear it forth in season and out of season, in abundance and always mindful that the fruits belong to God.

While the so-called post-modern advanced world of today, finds it difficult, be it to root itself in God or bear forth fruits that are Godly, isn't it a Christian challenge to manifest in our lives that being human is being Godly?

The splendid gift of truly seeing!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 8th week in Ordinary Time

June 1, 2023: Sirach 42: 15-25; Mark 10: 46-52

To truly see the nature and observe all that it points to, to truly see the creation and the creatures and all the marvels they possess, to truly see the process of change and rejuvenation inbuilt in the nature and drink in their splendour, to truly see all that happens around one and sense the lessons that they offer... it is a splendid gift! Not all possess it.

Today, we can without exaggeration join Bartimaeus and ask the Lord that we might see, see truly, observe clearly, listen intently, understand deeply and find the splendour of God's presence with us and within us. Within us because we are, each of us is, the most marvellous of all wonders that God has created and the most precious of all places where God resides. With us because God is ever present with what and who surround us. 

Without God's grace, we cannot see that presence and receive God's directions for our daily life. To see a teary eye and read the helplessness in it; to see the troubled spirit and hear the cry for understanding; to see the disturbed minds and understand the yearning for true love... it is an essential and lovely gift that we can ask God for: the splendid gift of truly seeing!

God in the midst of us

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May 31, 2023: Mary and Elizabeth - the Feast of Visitation
Zephaniah 3: 14-18a; Luke 1: 39-56

We celebrate the feast of the Visitation of our Blessed Mother to Elizabeth. When Mary entered Elizabeth's household, there was a sense of God that was felt, for two reasons. The first, Mary was carrying Jesus within her and the effect was felt! The second, Mary herself was transformed into the presence of God for Elizabeth!

The first reading today turns our attention to the words of Zephaniah explaining what the Lord in our midst is doing: God exults, God renews and God dances!

God exults in the wonderful gifts that we are to Godself.
God renews those parts of us that are not as good as they can be!
God dances with joy over everything that we are able to do in God's eternal plan.

Anyone who expresses this exultation of the Lord, this call for renewal and the rejoicing of the Lord in God's children, is a reminder of the presence of God.

In fact when Elizabeth says, 'what have I done to deserve that the Mother of my Lord should visit me!', she becomes the reminder of the presence of God to Mary! When Mary turns to Elizabeth and says, 'My heart exults in the Lord and my soul rejoices in the Lord my saviour', she becomes the reminder of the Lord's presence to Elizabeth and to the entire household!

We are called to be reminders of the presence of God, to be the presences of God to those around us. When we exult in the Lord, when we do our part to renew those around us, correcting them with care and love, when we rejoice in the goodness of others and the good things that happen to them, we become God's presence amidst God's people!

Can we be today, God's presences wherever we are!