Sent forth to Endure...

WORD 2day - Friday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 14, 2023: Genesis 46:1-7,28-30; Matthew 10:16-23

Enduring till the end is the test of the strength of one's faith. Israel(Jacob) today expresses that great satisfaction in having endured till the end, on seeing Joseph alive..."Now let me die!" - a sense of fulfillment! As later we would hear Simeon exclaiming in the Temple of Jerusalem on seeing the child Jesus, "At last all powerful Master, let your servant go in peace. For, my eyes have seen the salvation you have prepared for the nations!" 

Jesus teaches the same to us, his followers, "the one who endures till the end shall be saved" (Mt 10:22). Endurance that Jesus demands is for two reasons - first, because all the troubles that a follower of Christ faces is for such a noble purpose, a cause so great, that anything can be given up for its sake - the Reign of God on earth. 

Seek first the Reign of God... even if you have to give up your home, your dear ones, your belongings or even your life, for you will be rewarded hundred percent, says the Lord, here on earth and in the eternal life! Secondly, because the mission entrusted to us is so vast and so immense that these troubles can measure no where in comparison to it. He says with a tinge of humour, even if you have to run from one town to the other due to persecutions, "you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel, before the Son of man comes." Such was the determination of the early Christians and the Apostles who led them from the fore. 

To proclaim through our daily lives the Reign of God and if we have to face hard consequences for it, to be prepared to endure it all the way - that is the call for me today.

Sent forth with a Mission

WORD 2day - Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 13, 2023: Genesis 44:18-21,23-29,45:1-5; Matthew 10:7-15

The theme of yesterday continues today - being sent, and sent to go forth on a mission! Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob (or Israel) is considered the closest 'prefigurement' of Jesus in the Old Testament. Notice in his life the situations that change - from a predilected son to a slave, from a slave to a prisoner, but from a prisoner to the highest of the officials and there, established as the one who would save his own kith and kin from famine! 

Is it not the same with Jesus, as St. Paul describes in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 2): from Son of God to a human being and a slave; from a slave to death and that on the Cross; but from the Cross raised to be the highest of all names to which every one on earth and heaven shall bend their knees; and there, established as Lord he saved us his brothers and sisters and reconciles us to God our Father and Mother.

As Joseph notes in the last verse of the first reading today, "it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you", it was with a mission that Jesus was sent to us and it is with a mission that Jesus sends us today - he says to each of us: "As the father sent me, so I send you"(Jn 20:21). Each of us is sent! 

The mission as we said yesterday, we have to discover in our personal lives and when we do discover we will understand that it is at one and the same time, a privilege and a responsibility, an honour and a challenge. But if we do not manage to discover it, we would have wasted our life, its significance and its purpose!

Sent to go forth

WORD 2day - Wednedsay, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 12, 2023: Genesis 41: 55-57, 42:5-7, 17-24; Matthew 10:1-7

The naming of the Apostles - with a function given to them: to chase the evil spirits and to heal the sick! Apostles are those who are 'sent' (literally too, 'apostolos' in Greek means that); sent in the name of God with a specific mission. 

Joseph of the Old Testament, was an apostle too - sent ahead by God to Egypt in order to provide for God's people at a later time! Providing was yet another important mission of God. So, providing for God's people, liberating them from the ungodly forces and giving them a life in all its fullness - those are the duties of an apostle, on behalf of the Lord who sends him or her. And all these carried out for one purpose to make present the Reign of God amidst the people here and now! 

Jesus had a big following - his disciples; and from them he sends these 'Apostles.' We are among his disciples already by our Baptism and he wants to send each of us with a specific mission. And each of us sent, exactly to where we are - to our homes, to our neighbourhoods, to our parishes, to our societies... to establish the Reign of God, that is, to assure the needs of all, to stand by the neglected and guarantee them their rights, to stand against the ungodly forces, the unjust systems, the corrupt and inhuman dominations, to empower the people towards a peaceful, serene and human existence. 

When Pope Francis calls the Church to "take to the streets of the world" and to "reach the very outskirts of existence", in short to be "the Church that goes forth", he is reminding us our call as 'apostles', and our mission as heralds of the Reign of God. 

Have we made real efforts to understand our call and our mission as apostles, right here and right now?

Encounters

WORD 2day - Monday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 10, 2023: Genesis 28: 10-22; Matthew 9: 18-26

Encounters with God - the Word presents three of them today; Jacob's encounter with God, the ailing lady and the little child encountering Jesus. Two messages that stand out in the totality of today's events. 

Firstly, any encounter with God rejuvenates. Jacob was given a new vision of life; the lady with the hemorrhage was given a new life; and the little child was given back her life! One cannot remain the same after having encountered God. 

The second message, which is carried specially by the Gospel account, is about the special encounter through TOUCH - It is interesting to note the two accounts of Luke which seem to point to a fact: whether you touch God or God touches you, the fruits are the same! The lady sad and suffering touched Jesus, and Jesus touched the little child dead and gone... the effect was the same - a new lease of life. Touching God or God touching us, they are the same - for they are fundamentally an encounter and "Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love" (Lumen Fidei, 4). 

May be another important feature can be underlined too - that God met Jacob on a ground and while he slept; Jesus encountered the diseased lady on a road and amidst a jostling crowd; Jesus touched the little girl in a room and while she lay dead! It does not matter where we are, or what we are upto, the living God can encounter us anywhere and anytime, provided we are ready and willing to accept and behold the encounter. Behold I stand knocking at the door, says the Lord!

Struggles - aren't they salvific?

WORD 2day - Tuesday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 11, 2023: Genesis 32: 23-33; Matthew 9: 32-37

It's puzzling! Among a few puzzling details of the Old Testament is the likes of today's account from Jacob's life. The Lord (!?!) wrestled with Jacob, says the reading today - and elsewhere we see a similar account of God trying to kill Moses (Exo 4:24). Whatever may be the exegesis, the first disclaimer here is not to take these lines literally. There is a symbolic or a interpretative meaning to these happenings! 

One thing we can guess here is that these men had something really to struggle with, a struggle of life and death! But they stood firm on the side of the Lord who had called them and after that struggle of life and death, there is something remarkable, a change that is radical, a happening that defines history forever. For, Jacob after that struggle comes to be called Israel, a name that would define the People of God forever. Incidentally, Moses after that struggle comes to establish a new covenant with the Lord in the sign of circumcision - again something that would define the People of the Covenant, ever since. 

Jesus had a similar struggle, constantly there were people who followed him as there were the others who tried their best to demonise him (Mt 9:34). The struggle went on right till the cross - the struggle of life and death, but he stood by the Father who had sent him. And after that struggle, he was not anymore merely Jesus, but Jesus the Christ; there came the event that changed the World for ever, it changed the history not only of the world but of you and me! 

Today we are saved, in his struggle, in his death, in his wounds, in his blood and in his Resurrection! The question to me is - how ready and willing am I for a struggle?

KNOWING GOD

As God reveals...

July 9, 2023: 14th Sunday in Ordinary time

Zechariah 9: 9-10; Romans 8: 9,11-13; Matthew 11: 25-30

Do we know God? That is a very complicated question, isn't it? Anyone, needless to be humble, enough to be realistic, would say, knowing God is not a human task. It is almost impossible. That is why God comes to our aid, with God's grace! It is sheer grace that we get to know God. Yes, it is always a "given"! Only by God's grace, and God's self revelation do we get to know God, despite our inability and our limitedness. This is a grandiose gift, but at the same time a risky terrain. What is the risk?

Being a grace and a supernatural gift, in the process of knowing God, we might sometimes settle for what is a limited understanding of God, if not an erroneous understanding. Attributed to the philosopher Xenophanes is the saying which goes: "if cattle or horses had hands and could draw, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle." The danger pointed out here is, if we are not sincerely attentive to God, we might paint God the way we are, the way we think and the way we wish - instead of getting to know who God really is, and what God reveals Godself as. 

This is one challenge that Jesus had during his life time - and God continues to have even now - to make people understand who God really is. People who thought that they knew everything about God, that they were very close to God and closer than anybody else, that they were true authorities on God-talk, actually did not know God. Instead, those who were, and who are, simple and innocent, unsophisticated and humble, find God much closer and much clearer to themselves. That is the way of the Lord and that is why Jesus glorifies the Father today: I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of earth!

It is imperative to know God, but know God as God reveals, not in the way we wish to imagine God. At times we create our own god, which could be far away from what God truly is, and what God reveals Godself as. Jesus' primay aim within the incarnational design was to reveal God to us and to receive that revelation fully, the Word traces us a way, a passage, an itinerary that Jesus intended to teach us. This itinerary, to know God, can be presented in these three terms:

From power to peace:

I bless you Father, God of heaven and earth... the words of Jesus in the Gospel portrays a fundamental understanding of God - the God of heaven and earth, the God Almighty! But look at this God almighty... God renounced that mightiness, made Godself so vulnerable in the event of incarnation and came to live amidst us - to show us how much God loved us. That is why the Prophet Zechariah, in the first reading speaks of a God who is victorious and triumphant, but humble and riding on a donkey, a God who banishes chariots, horses and bows of war, a God who proclaims peace for the nations! 

God prefers peace to power! God chooses compassion instead of glory, as the psalm says. That is the God we are introduced to, by Jesus the Christ - a God who is compassionate, loving, caring and peace-giving, and not power mongering, competitive, egocentred, self promoting, exploitative and arrogant. If we have to truly know God, we need to move from a power-oriented thinking to a peace-centred mentality. Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God. 

From death to life:

There is a constant struggle between the unspiritual and the Spiritual, not just out there in the world, but within us every day. When we feel tempted, angered, tired or anxious, there is this conflict within us - what to choose the easy way of the unspiritual or the long-winded way of the Spiritual. That is a choice between death and life - death, not in the sense of the end of life, but in the sense of it absence. Many choose to die, way long before they are buried, a culture of death that keeps threatening the humanity. 

There is a tendency and a propaganda in the world today, to make everything easy. Why should we think of a consequence that might come after a few decades? Why should we think of remote effects on persons whom we may or may not know? Why worry about a so-called unknown future, while we have the concrete presence right in our hands? These are the modes of thinking propagated by the culture of death. Are we going to give into these? If we wish really to know God, we would dare choose life; we would choose to move from death to life! But that is not as easily done as said. With all the mindblowing campaigns around, it could be absolutely tiresome. And that is why the next passage that Jesus suggests...

From fatigue to freedom:

When we find it tiresome to choose life, when we find it hard to choose peace, when we find it exhausting to know and understand God, Jesus says: come to me, and I shall give you rest! learn from me, for I am meek and humble. It is in this meekness and humility, that you will find God and Godliness, for God has chosen the meek and the humble! Those who pride in power and authoritarianism, those who gloat in glory and pomp, those who crave for luxury and splendour, unfortunately are far from God, far from knowing God. And that is a very serious warning that Jesus gives us!

What we need to have is the rest, the calm, the serenity, the peace, the freedom that the Lord alone can give! Not in a frenetic search or an anxious scampering that we would know or discover God, because it is God who reveals... it is in the calmness and stillness that we can know God. Isn't that the meaning of what the psalm 46 tells us - be still and know that I am God! Come to me, I will give you rest, and learn from my meekness who God is - that is the invitation of Christ today. To know God not though our fatigue, but in freedom. It might sound logical to say, as soon as I know God, I will surrender myself to God. But the truth is other way around, when we surrender ourselves in freedom to God, we begin to know God. 

It is only in our choice for a life giving lifestyle, our preference for peace and our free submission to God, we shall know God, know God as God reveals. 

Privileged! Loved!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 8, 2023 - Genesis 23: 1-4,19, 24: 1-8, 62-67; Matthew 9: 9-13

Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you! To be God's "predilected" child (if we can use that term) is an incredible honour; and that is what we are. How beautifully John expresses this in his letter (1 Jn 3:1-3)! In the corrupt culture of the day, it is pretty easy to understand this predilection... a VIP's son or daughter, or a person who has the backing of a key personality in the society gets above anybody and everybody else to win favours in the society! 

Jacob was the chosen one, he was the one picked to bring forth the 'predilected' people of God. And because he was chosen, everything works in his favour. Unjust! Unfair! Undeserved! - we might say all that and all that is true! God's love that is 'poured' into us (Rom 5:5: not just given but poured into our hearts); it is unjustly given, unfairly lavished, undeservedly heaped on us. What a way to communicate that truth via the story of Jacob - a cheater yes, but who becomes an identity for God on earth - God refers to Godself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and God of Jacob! 

This logic, however, is totally different! This logic will not fit into the usual logic of the give-and-take, the cause-and-effect; this is a totally different logic of God's love, God's prodigal love for each of us. And if we try to fit this into the normal logic we will be frustrated, like pouring new wine in old skin, or old wine in new skin or stitching a new cloth to an old shrunken one! 

The call is to be drenched in this entirely unconditional love of God, and to understand how privileged we are to receive this love; and the most important of all, to exhibit that awareness in concrete, day to day actions and attitudes. One basic truth has to rule our lives, we are privileged, we are loved! 

Mercy not Sacrifice

WORD 2day: Friday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 7, 2023 - Genesis 22: 1-19; Matthew 9: 1-8

Mercy and Sacrifice actually stood for two paradigms that were in confrontation as a result of Jesus' life and teaching. God and one's relationship to God was explained purely in terms of sacrifice, sacrifice which stood for fulfillment of the requirements based on regulations and customs. The challenge is alive even today - that we do not make our spirituality a sacrifice-based spirituality. Fulfillment of the precepts, keeping the commandments, making vows and carrying out the same, offering suffrages and being faithful to our prayers to be 'said'. 

Mercy, instead, is fundamentally a relationship. The Scripture scholars attribute the meaning from the Hebrew word for mercy - rahamim (or rachamim) which comes from the root, rehem (or rechem) which means "womb". Biblically, as Jesus uses, mercy refers to a compassion that one feels to a child in the womb or a bond very intimate that arouses a warm feeling towards the other! 

Far from doing something to help the other or giving something to someone in need, Mercy is to feel one with the other, specially someone who is in real need. That is why the statement of Jesus: I have come not to call the righteous but the sinners - a feeling one with the needy! When we really feel one with someone in trouble, or difficulty, or temptation, or a struggle, much before branding that person a 'sinner' or a 'weakling' or a 'traitor' or a 'infidel', we would stay close to him or her, find out what actually is going on and share moments of solidarity that would walk that person right out of that situation. 

That is what Jesus did and that is what he expects of you and me - to go and learn what it means... Mercy not Sarifice!

Faith amidst perplexities

WORD 2day: Thursday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 6, 2023 - Genesis 22: 1-19; Matthew 9: 1-8

Abraham and his story has reached its climax today! An episode that escapes all rational discourse on God, God's will, God's mercy and Faith. If it is so difficult for us today as we read and reflect, it is not difficult to imagine the perplexity of a man who could possibly in Abraham's shoes. He would have been battling in his mind as to what really God wants from him, why does God give and why does God want to take it away so prematurely! 

Perplexities are more for one who believes more and one who believes more is prepared for more perplexities. Abraham personifies this fact - but in all his perplexities - he gives us a definition of what means Obedience of Faith (that later becomes a key word for St.Paul in his letters). 

Obedience of Faith, in simple terms is putting God first. Placing God's will before anything else, before my will, my desire, my plans and projects, my dreams and my treasures! It is perfect submission to God's will, even when I really do not understand what that actually is. Abraham never understood what God's will was, just as the pharisees and the Scribes never understood who Jesus was. But the difference was, Abraham was ready to submit but the latter did not want to. They held on to their judgments and prejudices, which did not allow them to see God's presence and action unfold right in front of their eyes.

The Word today invites us to make this loving leap of faith in God as did Abraham, without doubting the presence of the Lord at any point of time. Faith is a total, loving and unquestioning submission to the Divine Will, not when everything is well, but particularly amidst perplexities.

With open eyes...

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 5, 2023: Genesis 21: 5, 8-20a; Matthew 8: 28-34

Hagar had almost given up. For her it was all over. She found no scope of living on and no chance of surviving that desertedness. She had cried enough, she thought. All of a sudden she finds a well, the source of her life. All that while the well was just round the corner. She was so filled with self pity that she was not able to see the ample opportunity just there for hers to take. All that God did was open her eyes that she may see the well. 

However, finally she does see unlike the people of Gerasene who never saw till the end, who it was that had entered their village. Their self pity of having lost their swine in thousands blinded their eyes from perceiving the great and wonderful blessings that Jesus had in store for them. What a great miss it was, they asked Jesus to leave! 

At times, for the sake of our self pity, due to our self indulgence, and for the fear of losing something so insignificant, we lose God, or rather we reject God. Just like the persons we meet in the Word today, if only we saw who we are rejecting; if only we beheld the blessings that choosing God would bring into our lives, if only we lived our lives with our eyes open... we shall be truly blessed.