The Spirituality of letting go!

WORD 2day: Monday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 26, 2023: Genesis 12: 1-9; Matthew 7: 1-5

Beginning today, we will be presented with Abraham for our reflection for the next few days. What was so special about Abraham? From the very first moment the Word clarifies that for us. Leave your country and your people, calls the Lord and there he is, doing it with such confidence. He lets go of everything, everything that gave him an identity. His place, his people, his traditions, every bit of his comfort zone!

To let go... that is the spirituality offered to us, as a call to discipleship. If we are truly people of God, disciples of Christ, we should be ready to let go... to let go of anything that do not actually matter. Above all the challenge to let go refers to, letting go of our opinions is the most challenging of all.

The Gospel presents to this crucial and typical challenge: to let go... to let go of our opinions and judgements and prejudices of people and to be open minded. How many new experiences we would have lost because of our opinionated approach! How many enriching encounters we would have lost because of our prefixed judgements! How many growth experiences we would have lost because of our prejudiced mindset. How prepared are we to let go?

The spirituality of letting go involves not holding on to what does not matter truly in life. When I am able to decide firmly that it is only God who matters, and nothing more than that... not even my own thinking and opinions, dreams and projects, then I am guided by the right spirit, the spirit of the Reign... the spirituality of letting go! 

FROM FEAR TO FAITH

Challenging the culture of death towards a culture of faith!

June 25, 2023 - 12th Sunday in Ordinary time

Jeremiah 20: 10-13; Romans 5: 12-15; Matthew 10: 26-33

Look around and observe what is happening out there... there are these divisive forces at work who are determined to break humanity into pieces and make everyone suffer to the maximum; there are these moneyed who suddenly become experts in everything - in medical care, in artificial intelligence, in universal wellbeing, in common good and what not, and everyone finds it so compelling to nod to whatever they say; there are these who are blatantly selfish and greedy, but make everyone believe that they are the saviours of tomorrow; there are those who cause so much havoc for no reason, but are capable of threatening everyone to silence and do whatever they wish... what do they make a simple person like you and me feel? FEAR!

There is this fancy idea rather widespread, treating FEAR as an acronym, and expands it as False Evidence Appearing Real! In fact, fear exists only as long as darkness and falsity persist, isn't it? That is why Jesus says today, do not fear, what is in the dark will see daylight soon and then you will know well. Imagine your fear of a ghost, it disappears as soon as light comes on! Or think of how your fear of what you would trample on, just vanishes the moment some one switches on a torch or a search light! Fear is discarded by light, because fear is absence faith and faith is "the light that illumines our entire journey!" (cf. Lumen Fidei, n.1). 

The Word this Sunday calls our attention to the fears that surround us and the unfortunate impact they can have on us, if we are inattentive about them. Look at Jeremiah, a man with so much enthusiasm and dedication to the Lord, for a moment he seems to be weak and trembles before this terror, about to give into its powers! The call is to remember that fear is a product of darkness.

Fear is the product of darkness: The prince of darkness makes his presence felt in fear; fear is the sign of the presence of evil! It is the power that the evil one claims to have over us children of God. There are any number of irrational fears that the evil one instills in our minds: the fear of failure, the fear of pain, the fear of shame, the fear of loss... But if we are truly children of God, children of Light, we shall see the foolishness that is involved in these fears. Why should I fear? What shoud I fear? What can harm me? What evil can come over me? Jesus reminds us, with a clarity of perspective: what is the worst that can happen to you - death? But why should I fear death?

In fact the most powerful of the tools that the prince of darkness uses against us is death! And those who give into the influence of this evil prince, go on to become perpetrators of this culture of death! 

Fear spreads a culture of death: The culture of death is the culture of needless fear, the fear that makes one give into evil, give into sin, justify sinfulness and promote the rule of the evil. It is the entry of sin and justification of sinfulness and a submission to sinfulness to the extent of making it a norm for life - creating a culture that leads to death, an eternal damnation that leads to absolute meaninglessness here in our life and for all eternity. When Jesus differentiates between a death that ends our bodily existence and the death that strips us of our total sense of meaning, Jesus invites us to look at our real essence - our innermost being, that is the very element of God that resides within us. The culture of death denies this vehemently, laughs at it, belittles it and tries to shun it out of our lives and of this world. 

The sense of God within us - that is the light of Faith. That is the identity of the children of Light, the identity of the children of God, the identity of a culture of faith. 

Fear is overcome by a culture of Faith: In the apostolic letter, Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis (and Pope Benedict) present to us faith as the light that can illumine the entire human existence and experience - our daily life, our struggles, our pains, our temptations, our failures, our faults and weaknesses, our sufferings and even our death! Jesus died, that we may live; in his death he brought endeless life, not only to himself in resurrection, but to the entire creation that unites with him, the saviour of the universe. This is the culture of faith - a culture that promotes hope, love, righteousness, service and responsibility. It is in this culture that we can shine as lights, just as Jesus our inner light shines within us.  

Mother Teresa said once, "death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies within/inside us while we are alive." That is truly challenging the culture of death - not allowing death to reign over us, but overcoming death in the name of the One who has defeated death once and forever.  We are people of light, people of life, people of faith and ours is a culture of faith! Faith dispels fears! And the culture of faith, is to notice, recognise and celebrate the presence of the Light within us, in order that we can share and spread it to the farthest end of the existence. 

Let us heed to the call of the Word - to journey from fear to faith, to challenge the culture of death towards promoting a culture of faith. 

Celebrating the Mystery of Life

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 24, 2023: The Nativity of John the Baptist
Isaiah 49:1-6; Acts 13:22-26; Luke1:57-66, 80

There are no coincidences; there are only miracles! One constant and incomparable miracle in human life is birth! 

Let us just imagine, how before any of us was born our father, mother, home, family, everything was determined and prepared for. All that we had to do was be there and insert ourselves into that reality. And when a child is born, everybody wonders what would become of the child, but God has had a definitive plan already from eternity. If only one cooperated with those plans, one would achieve the purpose of his or her life to the full... which is not merely a pretty long life for its own sake, but immensely a lot more. 

Of course, many go rather early but that "early" is highly relative to the purposes achieved by those persons: for St. Francis it was 45 years, for St. Anthony it was 35 and for St. Dominic Savio it was just 14 plus! The real miracle is how things happen in such succession and correspondence that you can hardly account for. When we are mindful of a divine hand guiding us, we would find a great peace and serenity even amidst raging troubles and persistent problems.

The birth of John, which we celebrate today is painted in a manner that vividly brings out this miracle that every person is and every life is. What is important here is to be mindful of the call and be open to its ways. The feast speaks to us in these words: learn to look at yourself with a sense of mystery; open the eyes of your soul to see the mystery in every other who lives with you, or around you; keep your faith alive to realise and experience the Mystery present always with you and within you - the Lord who is leading you by your hand!

To treasure and to boast!

WORD 2day: Friday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 23, 2023: 2 Corinthians 11: 18, 21-30; Matthew 6: 19-23

Look to Him and be radiant, inspires the Psalmist today. Eyes... Looking... Seeing... these are part of the glossary on the one hand in the Word today. It is about the perspective we have of life, that is, the point of view from where we wish to understand our life and everyday events. 

On the other hand we have two more terms that orient us to the theme - treasure and boasting! To treasure or to boast of something, means to value something dear! To value something dear, defines your perspective on life. What I value, what I treasure, what I boast about, will determine what I want to define my life as! Depending on that which I boast about, my life and its significance assumes depth. That is why Jesus invites me to guard my eyes, to be careful with my perspective on life, my way of looking at my priorities and things that I give importance to. 

There could be a great model in St. Paul who enumerates the possible things on which he can boast about, but chooses from them to boast on things that showed his weakness, because he would say in the very next chapter, 'when I am weak then I am strong' (2 Cor 12:10). The humble and saintly parish priest, St. John Maria Vianney would say, "if people would do for God what they do for the world, my dear people, what a number of Christians would go to heaven!" 

It all depends on what one's perspective is, what one sees to be important, what one sees to be one's treasure and worthy to be boasted about!

One people of One God!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 11th week in the Ordinary time

June 22, 2023: 2 Corinthians 11: 1-11; Matthew 6: 7-15

One cannot but admire the pastoral heart of St. Paul, in today's first reading. A heart that bleeds to see his own people, his 'children' as they were, being assailed by other preachers, other gospels and other attractions, so easily and so readily! What about today, when I see my brothers and sisters so readily falling for eloquence in preaching, vivacity in worship, emotional satisfaction, logicality in reasoning, the capacity for quoting from memory, the free flow of words and phrases that are so beautiful and soothing to hear... pastoral hearts bleed even today! 

It is all about calling God, OUR Father and Mother... being part of ONE REIGN OF GOD, doing as brothers and sisters TOGETHER the will of God on earth as in heaven; it is about forgiving the shortcomings of others in the community, the shortcomings of the community itself and staying on, as one community, facing the struggles and temptations as ONE community, overcoming all evil! 

Today, let us not today get lost in the beauty and the splendour of the Lord's Prayer - that is not the message of the Word... it is all about being a community that is worthy of praying that prayer! Evangelii Nuntiandi, the Apostolic Letter of Pope Paul VI (art.no.77) says, "the division among Christians is a serious reality which impedes the very work of Christ." Being of one heart and one mind, believing in the One Gospel that is handed down to us, is the highest witness we can give the world today, in every sphere of life!

A call to Sacred Interiority

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 21, 2023: 2 Corinthians 9: 6-11; Matthew 6: 1-6,16-18

Interiority - that is the key to understand the Word today, while the world keeps shouting out to us, "Get Noticed!" Much of the Spiritual journey is made in the portals of interiority, that is why in today's culture there is so little space for true spirituality. 

The capacity to live on the basis of one's personal convictions formed out of concrete experiences and wise judgements, guided and illumined by the inner light of the Spirit of God, is what we understand to be Interiority. Cheerful giving, silent piety, hidden alms, secret sacrifices, serene spiritual life... these are a few signs of interiority that the Word points out to us today. A few more we could think of are, hopeful spirit, realistic optimism, humble gratitude, genuine fellowship, unconditional forgiveness, simple behaviour, reflective thinking, compassionate listening, and so on. 

A person of interiority is like a still spring and a silent stream, they appear still and silent, but there is life within them. They look quiet and ordinary, but within them resides the powerful Spirit of the all powerful God. I know, I have become a bit too philosophical in today's sharing, but interiority takes you by force, it drags you in and tethers your mind around something that you cannot speak enough about. That is why great sages of our tradition have spoken very little and mostly in aphorisms; that is why Jesus spoke always in parables and metaphors. 

Let this call guide our day today: the call to a sacred interiority!

Love even if it hurts!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 11th week in Orinary time

June 20, 2023: 2 Corinthians 8: 1-9; Matthew 5: 43-48

St. Paul presents an example of the community of Macedonia to his beloved community of Corinth. He calls them to excel in their faith, to reach the heights of authenticity in their faith. And the way he proposes is, as the people of Macedonia, to be compassionate towards the others, generous towards those in want, and empathetic towards those in need! 

Paul is but reiterating the invitation of Christ to all his followers - be you perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect! And the way to perfection that Jesus proposes is in Love - a love that does not expect any appreciation in return, a love that does not expect anything in return, a love that does not expect even love in return. 

A tough call even for the saintliest among us - to love and expect nothing in return! Infact, when something is expected in return it is no love! That is why God's love is unconditional and every love that is genuine, is with absolutely no tags attached. Love is merely a giving, an offering, a self-offering. And obviously, it involves a great risk of rejection or depreciation, but that risk cannot stop me from loving. That is the exact point. 

How well said by Mother Teresa, 'Love until it hurts'. Truly Christ-ian!!!

A Life in Contrast

WORD 2day: Monday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 19, 2023: 2 Corinthians 6: 1-10; Matthew 5: 38-42

The Beatitudes continue to inspire the Liturgy! As we reflected last week, the crux of the beatitudes, that is found in Mathew's fifth chapter, is the invitation to the followers of Christ to be a Contrast Community! 

We see that sense of 'contrast' flooding the readings today. Be it the first or the Gospel, the readings point to us the two choices we have in life always - inspiring the monumental words of Robert Frost - "two roads diverged in a yellow wood - and I took the less travelled by, and that has made all the difference". Mahatma Gandhi speaking of the Sermon on the Mount to Lord Irwin said, "when your country and mine shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in this Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems not only of our countries but those of the whole world." 

Let our life show if we are Christ-ians or not. Let my choices define who I am and what relationship I have with Christ. If I believe Christ is my personal saviour, the way I look at the world and all that happens around, will totally be in contrast to the way the mainstream of today thinks and calculates. St. Paul speaks of this in such powerful terms, a conviction that cost him everything - his career, his freedom and even his life! It takes courage for me today to accept, that even I have received the same saving faith, as St. Paul's, in the same Spirit!

The question to me is not whether I can justify my acts and my attitudes with the majority of the society around, but how prepared and how challenging is my life as a contrast!

HOLINESS = CHOSEN + HUMBLE

The Christian sense of Election!

11th Sunday in Ordinary time - June 18, 2023
Exodus 19: 2-6; Romans 5: 6-11; Matthew 9:36 - 10:8

Election Theology is a strong strand of faith interpretation for the Abrahamic Religions, sprouting without doubt from the Judaic belief and conviction. One of the fundamental self-understanding of the people of Israel in the Old Testament, even until today, is their identity as Chosen People, the People of Yahweh. This is what we know as Election Theology - does it have its place in the Christian thought? Certainly, yes! But with a reinterpretation that was strongly offered by Jesus himself. At times this reinterpretation of Jesus, got him into trouble, serious trouble. Let us understand that part of Jesus' Experience, first.

Jesus was undetered in his conviction that he belonged to the Father, and it was the Father who sent him and even that he and the Father were one! Can we think of a more stronger version of election theology? But what was the difference that his reinterpretation made? One of the original experiences or native experiences of the people of Israel and Judah, which gave them the identity as the Chosen people of God, was the closeness of God and the covenant from the times of Noah, Abraham and Moses. The people thought of themselves as chosen, but the problem began when they began to use that self-understanding in comparison with the others, when they started discriminating and despising the others! The despise of the others, went to their head and they began to take credit to themselves for the status of being chosen people of God - so much so that even when they asked for mercy they justified themselves as being better than the others who were pagans and sinners according to them! This is where Jesus differed! What was Jesus' reinterpretation of the Election Theology? We can understand that from the three messages that the Word presents us this Sunday:

Affirmation 1: We are Chosen!

We are a chosen race, royal priesthood, as Peter affirmed in his letter (Cf. 1 Peter 2:9). He made this affirmation from the traditional belief of the people, from the Old Testament, from the passages similar to what we listen to today. I made you a kingdom of priests, holy nation! It was a fact established by God, who called the people unto Godself. Chosenness was part of the identity of the people of God and justly so. No one can deny that fact, and Jesus on his part, never compromised on that truth - that we are chosen. He infact continued that teaching and wished that it continued as a teaching - in fact, he chose the twelve to represent the chosen race and today in the Gospel we have the names of the 12. Jesus affirms too that we are chosen. There is no doubt about the fact. But Jesus dared to differ on the point that we are chosen, not exclusively, not to to exclude the others judgmentally, but inclusively, as children of God chosen to spread that chosenness! Every person is a child of God and every child of God is chosen! We as disciples of Christ are made aware of our chosenness and we in turn have to spread that chosenness - that is already a reinterpretation. 

Affirmation 2: We are Chosen, it makes us Humble!

The second aspect that did not go well with Jesus was the fact that chosenness made people haughty and arrogant. Instead, Jesus was uncompromisingly convinced that our consciousness of being chosen has to make us humble, because we are painfully aware of the fact of how unworthy we are of the election we enjoy in the sight of God. God has chosen us, not because we are worthy, but because God is merciful and kind. In the second reading Paul reminds us through his letter to the Romans - even when we were sinners Christ died for us, even when we were sinners God loved us and chose to renew God's covenant with us in Christ. This chosenness, cannot make us proud or snobbish, but humble and recognizant of our unworthiness. This recognizance will determine our lifestyle, our mode of relating to others, our way of looking at life, our judgement of things that happen and our interpretation of the accomplishments that we are capable of. 

Affirmation 3: We are Chosen, for Holiness. 

When this conviction of chosenness and recognition of unworthiness are equally strong, there is a beautiful byproduct that we can see - Holiness. That is the Christian Holiness, a combination of joy in being the chosen people of God and the responsibility that our unworthiness places within us. We are unworthy, but the Lord has chosen us and hence we strive to grow in our daily life to God's likeness, that we gradually grow toward holiness. This is the reinterpretation of the Election Theology that Jesus offers us. In the Gospel when Jesus says, go proclaim that the Reign of God is near, heal the sick, liberate the possessed and announce the goodnews, he says: Go, although you are unworthy, in the goodness of God freely you have been chosen, freely make everyone else "chosen"! Make them feel loved, cared for, forgiven, liberated, saved, ... make them feel chosen!

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!