GIVE; YOU ARE GIVEN

Seventh World Day of the Poor 

November 19, 2023: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary time 

Proverbs 31:10-13,19-20,30-31; 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6; Matthew 25: 14-30 

pc: St. Columbans Mission Society

Do not turn your face away from anyone who is poor (Tobit 4:7). This is the message that the Holy Father gives us on this seventh World day of the Poor. The  World day of the Poor, as we know, was instituted by the present Pope in 2017 as a follow up of the Year of Mercy, that we celebrated as a Church. Mercy is at the centre of what we remember today: not so much the mercy that we are called to have towards others, but the mercy that God has given us in abundance! We are given with that mercy in such measures, that we are bound to give, so much so, when we do not give we fail, we fall short of our call, we sin!

The Need to Give

Why do we need to give? Not only because there are needy; not only because the other deserves what I wish to give, but simply because I am given! Hence, the first requirement is that I recognise my "givenness", that is I recognise how much I am given with. Look at the parable today that Jesus narrates - the first two realised how much they are given with and in their recognisance they found a way to make it double; the third one did not feel he was given, he never owned what was given to him, he never realised it was his! What hinders us from not realising what we are given: first, ingratitude which makes us complain all the time; secondly, fixations that we have which looks for particulars that we lack inspite of so much that we are blessed with; thirdly, cravings which make us blind to the goodness and blessedness that already surrounds us. 

What to Give

We know there are various levels of giving - giving from our abundance; giving from what we have; giving inspite of the lack and so on... but what matters here is the attitude of giving. True giving is giving of oneself - from the very thoughts and inclinations, intending to give of oneself. One can be giving great treasures away, but when he or she has an attachment to what would the gain, the return of out of it - a profit, a name, a publicity and so on, there is not giving there! The attitude of giving is not there! Giving has to come from within, the inherent quality of reaching out... which is mindful of the fact that we have received. The best of all that we have received from the Lord is God's love and mercy, and that is what we are called to give. Love and Mercy... from that everything else will follow. 

How to Give

We shall take three lessons here from the Word today, not to turn away our face from the poor! The first reading presents to us the symbol of Wisdom - the woman who administers the household the way it should be. Wisdom should regulate our life and make us realise how much we are given and that the more we realise we are given, the the more we are required to give! The Holy Father's message from the book of Tobit (chapter 4) is in fact an advice that Tobit gives his son, Tobias where he says this with simplicity - when you have more you give more, when you have less you give what you have. That is it, what matters is the heart with which you give and the attitude of giving more than what you give.  

The second lesson is from St. Paul who tells us, not to operate on the logic of fear and justification, just as did the third person in the parable of the Gospel. I feared you, he said! That did not help him to give of his best, it made him dig and hide! Instead the right thinking, a wise realisation of the meaning of our life will make us give, give of ourselves, and give to the full. It is not that we fear the end times and therefore we wish to make good, but because we have the wisdom to know how best to live our here and now.  

The third lesson is the model of God and the Son of God - the way they give! God who gives everything in abundance and Son of God who gives himself totally to us and for our salvation. That is the model given to us. With the help of the Spirit we could learn too, to realise how much we are given with, how much we are called to give and how to give! 

The giving we are concerned here is not merely material giving, which us just a streak of the real outcome, but the giving that is an attitude of gratitude, realisation and a call. That attitude alone can inspire us not to turn our face from anyone who is poor. 

Praying, Trusting, and Living life with God

WORD 2day: Saturday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 18, 2023 - Wisdom 18: 14-16, 19:6-9; Luke 18: 1-8

Our help is in the name of the Lord, proclaims Psalm 124. The Lord alone is our refuge and our strength. The Lord knows when we sit and when we stand, even before a word is on our mouth, the Lord knows it all. This trust is called the attitude of prayer - a total abandonment into the hands of the Lord! 

At times when we pray, we sound like knocking at the door of the Lord as the last resort... 'I have tried everything Lord; and now I have nothing more to try and so I come to you!' Instead, it has to be from the first moment: "You are everything Lord and I surrender myself to you; guide me along and accompany me, that I may never stray from Your will and guard me from all those which plot to take me away from You and Your holy will." 

How many wonders we have seen, all worked by the Lord! If the Lord is so powerful, can he not look at the suffering we are going through. If in spite of that I am in the midst of an agony, can I not trust in the Lord and think of those splendid days I had experienced in the presence of the Lord! Will not the same presence guide me on! Why do I moan and why do I complain - is it not because I have given up trust? 

Let us live our life with the Lord - every bit of it - our duties, our desires, our trials, our preoccupations, our sufferings, our agonies, our temptations and even our failures; let us live them all with the Lord and be prepared always to say: Not mine, but Your will be done, O Lord! (Lk 22:42)

Faith - what does it mean to me!

WORD 2day: Friday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 17, 2023 - Wisdom 13: 1-9; Luke 17: 26-37

'Fools say in their heart, 'there is no God',' goes Psalm 14:1. Though it is not the spirit of the times to get into an argument with people with variant religious convictions, sometimes it is important to challenge the insincere ones regarding some opinions that are held and promoted with hidden motives and contrived plots. 

The readings today are quite strong against those who probably have religious choice of convenience, than conviction. Many manipulate their or other's religious sentiments to their own convenience and comfort, to achieve their ends and to exploit others. These are the worst kind of human beings one can imagine of - not true even to themselves! 

But leaving alone the tendency to point a finger at someone, it is important for me to evaluate my faith! Faith is not merely saying 'yes' to a set of truths, but it is a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, with that Merciful God that he revealed to us, with the Spirit who lives on with us and within us.

Is it not an ample opportunity for me today to raise this question in my heart: What does my faith mean to me? What are the SIGNS of real faith in my day to day life? Do I really relate to God in the core of my being?

At the core of the Reign is... Me!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 16, 2023 - Wisdom 7:22 - 8:1; Luke 17: 20-25

The Reign of God is within you! (Lk 17:21) - this was a statement, they say, that provoked, sustained and gave meaning to Liberation theology in the 70s. Not only that. This was also the teaching that took Jesus to the cross.

What is so provocative about it? To answer that question from the Gospel, we need to listen to the first reading and the psalm. They speak of the Wisdom of the Lord, the Word of God, that abides with us and within us, the Lord who has come to live amidst us, the greatest grace of incarnation. Look at those attributes given to that indwelling Lord: in the form of Wisdom, the Word, the Spirit who is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, active, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, sharp, irresistible, beneficent, loving, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-knowing, penetrating, all-intelligent, pure and most subtle! The Indwelling Spirit, the Lord who dwells within me, making me the core of God's Reign.

Jesus' proclamation of the arrival of the Reign, or "the year of the Lord" or the fulfillment of the Word (Lk 4:19,21) was looked at as an offence, a scandal, because Jesus underlined the proximity, the closeness of God to human beings. Jesus declared every common person the beholder of the Reign; you and me as the core of the Reign!

Even today, if I choose to, I can see God as some one far, distant, removed and isolated. But if I am sincerely observant, I can feel the presence of the Word, the Wisdom, the Incarnate Son walking beside me and I can feel God close and intimate to me because, "God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom" (Wis 7:28). We need to look at the Reign of God residing within us, at the core of our being. We are indeed the core of the Reign, we need to evolve into it, by our daily choices and lofty ideals.

Faith is, to respond!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 15, 2023 - Wisdom 6: 1-11; Luke 17: 11-19

The readings seem to converge on one thought today... that the Lord wishes, expects, and demands a response from us! Our God is a self revealing God... through signs and wonders and prophets and wise persons and finally through God's only Son, and continuously even today in and through God's Spirit, God continues to reveal Godself to us in various ways.

The more we are given, the more we are expected to respond! It is not that God gives, so that we would repay! No! But it is that, we are given so much, we are filled with such goodness, we receive "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16), that we realise it is right and just to give God thanks and praise!

To know the right thing, to be done at the right time, and choosing to do it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit... we would be blessed to possess it. And the Lord says today, "set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed!" (Wis 6:11). Doing the right thing, at the right time, is a response that we give to the Lord and that response is what is expected from me! When I don't respond, I waste what was entrusted to me, as a gift, a treasure!

Our response to the self revealing God - that is our faith. Growing in faith is learning to respond more and more adequately. Failing to respond is dwindling in faith. Let us grow in faith everyday - let us be attentive to respond to the Lord in every way!

Remaining true to our Salvific core

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 14, 2023 - Wisdom 2:23 - 3:9; Luke 17: 7-10

The first reading today states a tremendous truth - we are made for eternity, incorruptible by nature, because we carry the image of God within us! That is the fundamental truth of salvation. We are all saved in the core of our being, none of us is destined to destruction, none of us is rushing towards perdition! But we have a responsibility to keep that truth alive, because it all depends on the choices we make. 

By nature we are God's own children, but if we by our daily decisions and life choices, resolve to break away from God and from the gifts that God has placed within us, we are ruining our own salvific core. We are called every day, every moment to go on living in faith founded on hope and guided by love, to live a life of love and mercy; and at the end of it say, 'we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty!' 

God who loves us will never desert us, unless we decide to break away from God. It is so important for us to repeat to ourselves - God is with us, that is what God has so clearly promised. The real question is, are we with God? By our choices and priorities, are we really with God? We are all saved in the core of our being, because our core is God. Our responsibility is to remain true to that salvific core!

Holiness: Faith lived at the core

WORD 2day: Monday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 13, 2023 - Wisdom 1:1-7; Luke 17: 1-6

Holiness is a matter of our innermost beings. It does not consist merely of the external signs and shows. Words not said, thoughts not expressed, acts merely contemplated, reactions withheld... these determine my holiness more than what the world around perceives me to be. That is why the strange link between faith and forgiveness in the Gospel today. 

While Jesus teaches the disciples to forgive brothers and sisters, they respond saying - 'increase our faith!' Can sound strange, but only apparently so! One cannot consider oneself to be a person of faith, holy and spiritual, if one's relationships with others is not right. If faith is relationship with God, forgiveness is relationship with my fellow beings! If the latter fails, the former is meaningless. If we want really to be spiritual, we have to forgive, accept, and love our brothers and sisters, as God does with us! 

Lets ask the Lord to "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5); increase in faith means what the first reading tells us: honesty, simplicity of heart, shunning deceit, being truthful, in short: being godly at the core of our being, not merely in the external show! Yes, holiness is faith lived at the core of our beings. Faith is our daily life lived in the presence of the Lord. The more we grow conscious of the continuous presence of the Lord the more holy we shall grow!

Authentic Faith and Right Relationships

WORD 2day: Saturday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 11, 2023 - Romans 16: 3-9,16,22-27; Luke 16: 9-15

Note the following words used in the first reading today - friend, fellow workers, fellow prisoners, compatriots, brothers and sisters - it is all full of relationships! Faith without relationships is empty. In fact, faith in itself is a relationship, a relationship with God that defines every other relationship in life. Yes, it is all about relationships, but the right ones. 

Faith and Right Relationships are connected to each other. Faith creates right relationships and right relationships mark authentic faith. How do we understand right relationships - they are relationships that are centered on God. They are not relationships that turn out to be possessive, selfish, self centered, self seeking, materialistic and mundane. They are relationships that center on God, that promote true selfless love, that respect the mutual dignity and freedom and that edify each other towards the spiritual maturity. These are Right Relationships, nurtured by Authentic Faith. 

When Jesus speaks of choosing one master and letting go of the other, this is what he means. By "money" he means all that is mundane, all that is materialistic and all that is merely utilitarian. By "God" he meant, all that is spiritual, faith centered and truly Divine. Relationships, if they are right, will surely lead us to this Spiritual Edification!

How long yet that they taste the Lord!

WORD 2day: Friday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 10, 2023 - Romans 15: 14-21; Luke 16: 1-8

"Faith is a lie", "the church is finished", "it will no longer stand", "the church is living in the name of god"... these are some of the insults hurled at the Church today. Not just insults and curses but it is wish that many have today - that the Church be a bygone reality! We could only look with pity on these hapless persons and groups, and their bitterness that is so vividly portrayed in their expressions! 

How long yet that the bitter people of the world turn around and taste the love of God, especially through the community of faith that the Lord wished on earth? Just like the pagans that Paul speaks of and the steward in the Gospel who suddenly discovered his insecurity, the proud and the arrogant, the resentful and godless of today need to come back to the Lord. 

The role that you and I are called to play here is, to be reminders, signs, pointers, of that love and meaning that God alone can offer. For that we need to first take in that love as much as we can and hold it out to the world. As a community of faith, we are called to be reservoirs of this love of God, taste it and be filled with it, sharing it with others for them to taste it and be filled with it themselves. For as St Paul affirms, 'those who have never been told about him will see him, and those who have never heard about him will understand.'

The Temple that we are!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

November 9, 2023: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12; John 2:13-22

Today we commemorate the dedication of the Basilica of St. John at the Lateran. This basilica is special because it is one of the four major basilicas of the Church in Rome. It becomes more special because it is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, which is the Holy Father himself.

Moving around in Rome, one can see churches, one mightier than the other, in every other lane of the city. An unofficial statistics says that the city of Rome alone has more than 2500 churches. Though at an apparent observation it might look to be an exaggeration of a period in time, still there is an insight that it can offer. Why did the people go on building churches after churches?

Churches meant for them, not just a place of gathering for worship; if it were merely that, they would surely not have needed so many. Churches, were temples, buildings from where the glory of God shone forth! That is why they built more and more of them, that the glory can shine forth more and more!

The Word today, and any feast of dedication of a Church, reminds us of this important vocation that we have. From the temple of the Lord, goes forth the glory of the Lord, "and that temple you are!" (says 1 Cor 3:17). From the temple of the Lord flows the water which gives life, which brings healing, we read from Ezekiel today! From our lives, from our words, from our acts, from our very being, should flow the grace of God towards others!

Jesus sets us the example, by being so conscious of being the Temple of the Lord. If we are his brothers and sisters, if we are to be known as his disciples, we need to be conscious too, that we are God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in us (1 Cor 3:16)!