The Spirituality of Remembering

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 17, 2023: Feast of Immaculate Heart of Mary

2 Corinthians 5: 14-21 (or) Isaiah 61: 9-11; Luke 2: 41-51.


To Remember is a Spirituality in itself!

Mary's heart is exalted today...
because she remembered...
she kept everything in her HEART...
Abraham, Moses, the Prophets... all of them were blessed because they remembered, they remembered the good that the Lord had done to them... they helped others remember it too. And God remembered them and blessed them more!

Just after the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
the Church proposes that we remember the Immaculate Heart of Mary...
because it was a heart that resembled
the heart of Jesus.

Learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart...
Mary observed that heart from close,
infact she had her part in forming that heart...
and she herself treasured a heart that resembled that meek and humble heart of the Lord!

She kept everything in her heart! To remember the goodness of the Lord, to remember the great things done to us by the Lord, to remember the mighty presence of the Lord ever in our hearts - that is the spirituality that Our Blessed Mother teaches us today!

When we remember all the good that the Lord has done to me, the hurdles and heart aches that come to me sometimes will look much smaller. 

All I need to do, as the Gospel says about our Blessed Mother, 
is to keep everything in our hearts and contemplate on them, to remember the goodness of the Lord, because, to remember is a Spirituality in itself!

Love made Flesh

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 16, 2023: Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Deuteronomy 7: 6-11; 1 John 4: 7-16; Matthew 11: 25-30

Following the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ that we celebrated last Sunday, we remember today the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the fount of love, the most symbolic expression of our relationship with God. The great devotion that we have for the Sacred Heart, has come from and passed through immense experiences of God's love in a concrete manner. Sr. Margaret Mary Alacoque was chosen as the champion and apostle for this devotion and today we have a treasure in its form, to reflect upon, to learn from, and to attach ourselves to.

The Sacred Heart symbolises...

1. The Covenant: God's initiative in love towards humanity, towards you and me. The heart reminds us of the covenant we have with the Lord - to belong to the Lord, to be people of the Lord! We see the indication of this in the first reading today and the key here is relationship - love made flesh and brought alive in every relationship we build, promote and sanctify in our lives. 

2. The Compassion: God's continued relationship filled with compassion towards us, reflecting the covenant that we have with God. The compassion which calls us to 'come and rest'; the wounded, scarred, pierced heart, offers to heal, soothe and fill our hearts. The call we find in the Gospel reading, is a call that continues for all our life. The Lord makes it clear that he has come to us rendering the love that God has for us real and concrete. It depends on us to go to that love or not - willing to taste that love made flesh and offered to us in ways without end.

3. The Commitment: God's invitation to imitate the total, self giving love of God. Loving one another is a commitment, not merely a sentiment or a wishful feeling. It is a concrete commitment towards the over-all well being of each other. Only when we love are we born of God's love, if not our very sonship or daughtership in relation to God becomes null and void. The second reading today reminds us of this call and invites us to relate to the love made flesh and be transformed each us in our lifes - into love made flesh! 

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, fill us with the same love that your heart burns with - Amen.

Righteousness that liberates!

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

June 15, 2023: 2 Corinthians 3:15 - 4:1, 3-6; Matthew 5: 20-26

Righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and the pharisees... that is an interesting perspective to look at. The readings of today would be very handy for the orientation that the Holy Father Pope Francis has been repeatedly offering the Church from the time he took up his papacy... the call to holiness, in concrete terms of personal integrity and community witness! 

Holiness is not some kind of an external showmanship, nor is it an imposed grandeur of a mysterious element that makes something or someone valuable; it is the simplicity of truth that is seen plainly in one's life and ways. Keeping our faith "unveiled" is the key to understand the challenge of the readings today. 

Let us live our faith... should we fail in the process now or later, it does not really matter! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! The sons and daughters of a liberating God cannot live in fear, not even the fear of making mistakes! Let us go out and live, and live our life to the full. Unveiled and Shining, Unfettered and Liberated, let us live a life of righteousness which does not consist of mere abiding by laws but consists in warm and mature relationships. 

A Christianity that cannot be translated in terms of loving, liberating and respectful interpersonal relationships, is nothing more than the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees! What difference do we make? Aren't we called to surpass that lame kind of a righteousness to a Righteousness that liberates?

The Spirit gives life!

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

June 14, 2023: 2 Corinthians 3: 4-11; Matthew 5: 17-19

Commandments - Condemnation - Righteousness - Splendour: the glossary from the Word today! 

The earliest Christian communities were seen as contrast communities. They believed in commandments as did the Jews of their times, but their commandments were spelt differently. They knew there is condemnation, but their conditions of condemnation were formulated differently. They strove towards Righteousness but their righteousness was constituted differently. They had a splendour towards which they were drawn, but that was arrived at completely differently. It all boils down to another term: Covenant. The Christian community too focused on the Covenant, like the Jews of their times! But this was a new covenant, totally new! 

The key to all the difference was LIFE... the Life that was given by the Spirit... the Life that Christ brought... the Life to the full! I have come that you may have life...sounds well in continuity with today's phrase in Mt 5:17. Every little thing that is done, believed, taught or learnt, has to be life-giving, life enhancing... taking us towards Life in all its fullness, the promise that Jesus the Good Shepherd brought into this world. That is the right Christ-ian worldview. 

Hence the negligible corrollary would be: anything that enslaves, dehumanises, cripples life or tramples fullness, cannot be from the Spirit! The Spirit is life; anything from the Spirit is life-giving. That is what the new covenant is all about - about new life. It is a covenant of life, because it is the covenant of the Spirit and "the Spirit gives life"!

Salt, Light and the Yes!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

June 13, 2023: Remembering St. Anthony of Padua
2 Corinthians 1: 18-22; Matthew 5: 13-16

There is a close relationship between being salt, being light and saying an Yes to the Lord! 

To say Yes to the Lord means to be like the salt... totally dissolving oneself in the yes that is said, choosing to remain insignificant and hidden but making a difference in the entire reality! 

To say Yes to the Lord means to be like the light... remaining in your respect bright and burning, not counting the cost in melting yourself down or burning yourself up for the sake of the yes that you have given the Lord. 

These characteristics of the Yes to the Lord are exemplified without doubt in the life of St. Anthony of Padua. The first reading places it plain and clear in front of us, what it means to say an Yes to the Lord and St. Anthony has been one of those remarkable persons who have lived this call to the full. 

Jesus was never an yes and a no! He was always yes! And that is what he wants us to be - to entrust ourselves totally in the hands of God and be an yes always! That requires an enormous faith and relentless hope, filling us with a matchless love for God and God's ways. May St. Anthony intercede for us that we may in our daily lives be an yes that would make this world a better place, an yes that would inspire and illumine everyone around us. 

To be is to love!

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

June 12, 2023: 2 Corinthians 1: 1-7; Matthew 5: 1-12

Comfort in affliction, blessedness in poverty, peace in persecution... there is a strange logic propounded by Jesus and seconded by Paul. But there is another simple, clear, direct and demanding logic too, that is spoken of in the liturgy of the Word today. It is the logic of 'Give-because-you-received.' This logic is a bit intricate, and leaves a lot of room for subjectivity! 

Subjective because it demands first of all that I realise that I have received, so that I am inspired to give. If I am really open to every little happening in my life and fundamentally grateful in my heart, I cannot but notice the amount of good that I keep receiving from the Lord! That is the intricate detail that I have to be aware of and acknowledge, to understand and practice the logic that Jesus presents to us. 

It is so simple - I have been loved by God first, hence I have to love my brothers and sisters! I have been forgiven immeasurably, hence I have to forgive! I have received comfort and been shown mercy, hence I am called to comfort others and to be merciful in all my ways! I am loved without measure, and therefore I have no other go - I have to love! If I have to be, I have to love! To be a Christian is to love; to be is to love!

THE SACRAMENT OF THE SELF-GIVING GOD

A parent, friend and a part!

June 11, 2023: The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14b-16a; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; John 6: 51-58

It is a beautiful day to think of the most loving mystery of our faith: the Lord becoming our nourishment! God feeds his people and moreover, God feeds his people with his own self! What a mystery and how loving! One of the most beautiful and meaningful tabernacles that I have seen, I picture it so well in my mind, has a metal carving of a pelican mother, pecking her breast to tear her flesh open and feed her young ones with her own blood dripping from her body. Such a beautiful image to refer to Sacrament contained in that sanctum sanctorum. It is from a famous pre-Christian legend that made the early Christians adapt that symbol for Christ himself. (click here to read the legend)

Jesus' act of giving his body and blood to the believer is in keeping with the identity of the God whom the people of Israel always believed in and experienced. The God of their faith was signified in that act and that is why, when he declared, 'I am the bread from heaven, and those who eat of me shall not die', the people were shocked; some were enraged, many others deserted him! It was indeed a hard teaching for them. But it was a fact: Jesus did give himself, his body and his blood for the everlasting life of the whole world (cf. Jn 6:51). In this act of giving his body and blood, Jesus reveals to us three profound dimensions of God.

God as a parent: God as Father and Mother, is a fabulous revelation that Jesus has made of God. It was not entirely a new dimension; the people of Israel did experience it in an intense manner. Moses reminds them of that in the first reading... he reminds them of how God walked them through the desert and provided them with the food and drink that they needed. The provident God was actually a father, a mother, a loving parent, though the people preferred to look at him only as an awesome God and an almighty God. Jesus introduced God as "Abba", "Father", a loving parent, a lover par excellence. In giving his body and blood as food, Jesus highlights this element of God, the element of nourishment of the children, the element of feeding and the element of fending for the needs of the children.

God as a friend: There is no love greater than a person laying down one's life for one's friend (Jn 15:13). Jesus taught this model and lived it to the letter. As he shared that last supper with his friends he made it very clear to them, that it was a prefigurement of what has to happen on the Cross very shortly. The bread to become his body and the wine to become his blood... we do it in memory of him right until today, in memory of that friend-God who came down to live among us, be like us and give of himself to us. Every time we break the bread, we are challenged to be friends of God, to imitate his sacrifice, to burn with the same love for our brothers and sisters. The second reading elaborates this. Every time we raise that cup, we are reminded of that last drop of blood that came from his side, reminded us that we are called to live not merely for ourselves, but for others, for those who are in need of love and meaning in life.

God as part of us: The most difficult-to-digest dimension is this- God as part of us, God as dwelling in us! If you eat of this body, you will remain in me and I in you, says Jesus. God wants to remain in us, to dwell in us, to form part of us! God becoming part of us!?! Isn't that kind of scandalous? But that is the truth. What a difference it will make if only we realise and believe in that truth! We will come to you and make our home with you (cf Jn14:23), abide in me as I abide in you (Jn 15:4), you will abide in me and I will abide in you (cf. Jn 6:56)... we find these repeated teachings where Jesus reveals a unique dimension of a God who wishes, longs and seeks to abide, not just with us, but IN us. If we truly understand its implications and effects, we would have attained the eternal life that Jesus promises.

As we approach this greatest gift of all, today, let us strive to experience God as our Father, our Mother, our Friend, and above all... Our God as abiding within us. And thus we shall be transformed more and more into Him.

God sees you!

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

June 10, 2023: Tobit 12: 1, 5-15, 20; Mark 12: 38-44

St. John Bosco, a great apostle of the young in devising his method of working with the young, used what his mother Margaret taught him always at home when he was a boy: 'God Sees You,' she used to often repeat. Don Bosco later, in the Oratory, while living with those street kids and rest of the ruffian friends of his, wrote this truth in prominent places and instilled that feeling in his boys: God sees you!

The readings today seem to hint at this truth and call our attention to living our life conscientiously. The widow never realised that Jesus was looking at her or that he was praising her act in front of his disciples. But Jesus saw her, saw what she did, and more than that, saw what she was - the mind and the heart behind those 2 pences that were dropped in the box. Tobit, or even Tobiah, did not realise that the one who accompanied on the way was the Angel of God, the hand of God, the extension of God's presence. But God was there looking at everything that they were going through and the way they were living their life.

It is not pleasing the eyes of those around us, establishing a name among our fellow beings, publicising our goodness and generosity and things of that sort that will give us true and lasting happiness. It is only the watchful and undeceived eyes of God that see us, that will grant us meaning in life. 

It is a beautiful childlike spirituality, isn't it, to live mindful of the fact that God Sees You!

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?