ADVENT - CELEBRATING THE REIGN

Rejoicing Always - in the Lord, in truth and in good!

Third Sunday in Advent - December 17, 2023

Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16:24; John 1: 6-8,19-20

The last two Sundays of Advent had invited us to expect the Reign and prepare the Reign and today, we have the invitation to Celebrate the Reign! There is a premise to this call - that we are convinced that the Reign is here, or else how can we celebrate it? There are two inherent messages in this call - that the Reign is fundamentally a rejoicing and that it is only in the act and the disposition of rejoicing that the Reign can be made present where intended. 

There are enough and more reasons to complain and lament today - would suffice just to look around, at all levels local, national, international, global and the cosmic levels, there are events and facts, happenings and possibilities, news and predictions that can stifle us in our fears and tears. But the people of the Reign cannot let these overpower them. That is the crux of the message to celebrate the Reign here and now. That does not in anyway mean an insensitive going about, without minding what makes people suffer, or what sufferings exist around us. So, what do we mean by celebrating the Reign?

Celebrating the Reign: We expect the Reign, we said, not as if something external is going to come into our reality. We prepare the Reign, and not just passively wait for it to appear from somewhere, because the Reign is right amidst us. If we really believe it is amidst us, one of the first response should be to rejoice, to celebrate that Reign.  And celebrating that Reign means, ofcourse rejoicing, but rejoicing in the Lord.

Rejoicing in the Lord: The celebration of the Reign is a celebration with a difference. It is not merely rejoicing come what may - that may sound sometimes foolish or inhuman, or even arrogant. It is rejoicing in the Lord, because the Lord is with me, come what may! Mary stands out today as a model presented to us: my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour!  All the instances pointed out in that song of praise, that Luke borrows from Hannah's song and places in the mouth of Mary, are instances of misfortune: lowliness, starving, haughtiness, emptiness... but they become experiences of rejoicing in the Lord because we realise the proximity of God. 

Rejoicing in the Lord is a special kind of a disposition of life that is proper to the Reign, which makes it the celebration of the Reign in daily life. The Word today presents to us three specific characteristics of this special call: to rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoicing always: The specific characteristic is to rejoice always - Rejoice in the Lord, Rejoice in the the Lord always, emphasises the entrance antiphon to today's liturgy. The letter of St. Paul in the second reading presents to us terms such as 'at all times', 'constantly', 'never' suppress, etc., all of them pointing to one important fact of rejoicing always. That is because, as we already said, the Lord is present with us always and that is a motive for us and an enought reason for us to rejoice, to rejoice always. If it is truly a rejoicing in the Lord, it will never cease, because the Lord never ceases to be present with us, never ceases to encourage us and never ceases to illumine us to see the reasons to rejoice. 

Rejoicing in truth: A second characteristic of rejoicing in the Lord is rejoice in the truth! It is not a rejoicing that is built on some false promise or an exaggerated aspiration. It is based on truth, the truth that the Lord makes us see. We see John the Baptist presented to us in the Gospel, as the personification of this characteristic - a man who stood by the truth. When he was asked who he was, or when he was compared to the great prophet or to the messiah to come, he in a direct and a matter of factly sense, said a decisive no and went past it. For him all those compliments and limelight did not matter, because he rejoiced in the truth, he looked up to the true joy, the Lord who is to come after him - whose sandals he believed he was not worthy to untie. A humility that is a reflection of truth, can be an unfailing source for rejoicing in the Lord. 

Rejoicing in good: The third characteristic presented to us is to rejoice in the good, in the good of the other, in the for the other - not in wishing one's own good and all that is good for oneself. Returning to the first reading, we see Isaiah explaining to us  the real character of the Reign - the good for the poor, for the broken hearts, for the slaves, for the prisoners, for those who are in need and in affliction. The good here is for the other, not a selfish seeking of what is good and better. True salvation is the rejoicing in the good of all, that is indeed the experience of the Reign, the good of all, the well being of all, the fullness of life of all. The capacity to rejoice in the good that happens to the other, the capacity to make happen good for the other and rejoice in that capacity, is a characteristic mark of a Reign person and a Reign community.

Rejoicing in the Lord would therefore mean combatting three fundamental enemies of the Reign - fear which is against truth, selfishness that is against goodness, and insensitivity that closes our hearts and our minds to the ever present possibilities to recognise the presence of the Lord. Rejoice, reminds the Word today! Let us learn to Rejoice, grow in our capacity to Rejoice, to Rejoice in the Lord and thus Celebrate the Reign that we are part of!

 

Preparing the Reign - The Warning Signs

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second week Saturday

December 16, 2023 -  Ecclesiasticus 48:1-4,9-12; Matthew 17: 10-13 

How do we prepare the Reign? That has been the question we asked all through this week and today, we conclude the week with a warning from the Word - beware of your stubbornness! We know, we understand, we realise but we do not wish to accept or change our ways - isn't that called stubbornness? Or is there another name for it? Have we the audacity to justify ourselves - as individuals and as humanity?

The Word today speaks of Elijah - a great figure who connects the Old Testament and the New Testament, who is re-presented by John the Baptist in his person and significance. Two things were similar in Elijah and John the Baptist, that made people think of them resembling each other when Jesus hinted at it. One the fiery zeal - they were not simple ordinary men of average commitment who did what they could. They were extraordinary persons whom people dared not stare at. Secondly, they were forerunners or proclaimers - they both were announcing Christ: one remotely the saving Son of Man and the other immediately the coming of Jesus the Christ.

The message that stands out, again, is two fold: one that the Lord certainly gives us signs of God's message; secondly, that it is our responsibility to behold the sign and act upon it. Preparing the Reign can be a risky call - failing to do it, not only is a failure but can be a cause of our damnation, the reason for our eternal perdition, or the ground for our final judgement. 

Can we say we have not seen the signs? That would be a blatant lie and an escapism - because they are so vivid like a fire, flaring like a torch, consuming like a whirlwind of fire. How can we miss it? Imagine the lessons that the humanity was given, be it in the two major wars of the past century, or the continued armed arrogances around the world that have claimed a toll of thousands of lives only in little more than two decades of this new millemium, or the pandemic that turned our lives upside down in the three years of this new decade - are they not loud and clear lessons to learn? Have we learnt anything at all?

Can we say we have heeded to the signs? Indeed Elijah has come and we have treated him the way it pleased us! How many lessons we have turned down? How many true prophets we have sent to the dungeon? How many warnings we have washed down the drain? And we wish to be yet called the people of the Reign? What excuse have we? What justification do we have to say we are still worthy of the Reign that has been promised by the Lord? 

Preparing the Reign - Learn to Obey

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second week Friday

December 15, 2023 - Isaiah 48: 17-19; Matthew 11: 16-19

How do we prepare the Reign? By learning to obey, by learning what it means to obey and by learning exactly whom to obey and how to obey! Obedience is resented by many - for instance the young resent obeying their elders or parents, the subordinates grudge obeying their superiors, and so on. It is often seen as a sign of subservience and subordination, a lack of autonomy and freedom. As long as we are children, it does not matter; obedience comes naturally. The moment we begin to grow up, the possibility of resentment grows too. It is therefore pitched against growing up, to obey. In this context we understand why Jesus said: unless you become like children you would not enter the Reign!

Becoming like children is not becoming infantile - like what Jesus explains in the parable he narrates today. Expecting everyone to dance to my tunes, or thinking that obedience is to dance to the tunes of someone, is not a very matured manner of understanding 'obedience'. Obedience therefore is the most free act that one can commit oneself to - knowing what the other(s) wants from me, deciding to do what is asked of me and freely choosing to face the consequences of doing or avoiding something following that decision made. 

Obedience to God has to be that free act, from the heart of a child, with trust and hope in the love of God. It is not a grudging fulfilment of a law, nor merely a ritual following of a rubric, nor a blind choice of what we do not understand - it is certainly not a blind leap! Because the Lord teaches us, the Lord leads us, the Lord instructs  us - that we may learn, that we may follow, that we may be alert to what he makes us aware of. There is so much knowledge, will and freedom involved here - that it amounts to faith. That is the obedience of faith that Paul speaks of in the letter to the Romans. 

When learn to obey, we learn to walk by the light. It is not that we close our eyes and go behind the Lord... that is not a very apt expression. That would be more like the children crying out to each other, pleasing each other or wanting to please the other for staying in the good books, or to stay out of problems. Obedience of the Reign is a mature dedication to a purpose, knowingly, willingly and freely. That is what Mary did; that is what Joseph did; and that is what Jesus did in relation to his Father. Thus was the Reign inaugurated in the Christ event.

If we wish to be people of the Reign, that is, if we wish to prepare the Reign here and now, we better learn to obey, just as Jesus did and as Jesus taught.   

Preparing the Reign - Learn to Respect

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second week Thursday

December 14, 2023 - Isaiah 41: 13-20; Matthew 11: 11-15

How do we prepare the Reign? By learning to respect the other, by learning to respect every one, by learning to respect each one for what they are at their core! Every society has its own prefixed notions, as to who has to be respected and who no, as to who has to be regarded more and who less, as to who is more important and who less. At times we are schooled into it, knowingly or unknowingly. It is important with the eyes of the Lord to subject this kind of a stereotyping into a critical judgement. 

We see a rather shocking beginning to the first reading today, when the Lord (in Isaiah's words) calls Jacob a worm, and Israel a puny mite! It may look like a degrading of the people, but the very next sentence explains to us the real sense. "I will help you... the Holy One is your redeemer"... that the Lord chooses Jacob, that the Lord calls Israel as God's own. They will soon turn into a threshing sled, powerful and strong. The message is simple -  however insignificant they are, the Lord is with them and that makes them truly great and respectable. 

We see another startling fact in the Gospel when Jesus says, John the Baptist is the greatest of all born of women, but the least in the Reign is greater even than he is! Jesus is teaching us the about the true greatness - it lies in belonging to the Reign! Not in holding on to the name and fame, the power and position, the possessions and pleasures here on earth - which may be attained by such arduous and esteemable effort, but in belonging to the Reign, in belonging to the Lord that our real and true dignity lies. 

The secret of preparing the Reign lies in knowing and recognizing this fact - the fact of the dignity and respect that comes from God. That is what we are at the core - every one us is created in the image and likeness of God and we are called to recognize this image and likeness in the other, without fail. The moment we fail to recognize it in the other, we fail to realize it within ourselves - thus we even lose the image and likeness that is at the core of our selves. Can we be truly sons and daughters of God then? Can we truly belong to the Reign then? 

Preparing the Reign involves recognizing the presence of God at the core of evey 'other', and respecting them for that - not going by externities and appearances, social prejudices and cultural divides. Every person is to be respected and revered, as a son and daughter of God, as a member of the Reign and that is the way we prepare the Reign. 

Preparing the Reign - Learn to Empower

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second week Wednesday

December 13, 2023 - Isaiah 40: 25-31; Matthew 11: 28-30

How do we prepare the Reign? By learning to empower, by learning to spot the absolute source of empowerment, the Lord himself. Preparing the Reign consists of empowering persons, in their state of confusion and discouragement, in their drooping state of mind, in their lowest moments of life. God has repeatedly revealed Godself, as  the one who strengthens the weak. Look at the way God took sides according to the pages of the Old Testament, the same continues with Jesus.

Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened, calls Jesus to give them rest, the proportionate yoke, and the salvific burden. Jesus never said I shall give you money and prosperity and wellbeing, in the sense of how some preachers of the 'prosperity gospel' today claim and allure. Let us not exaggerate - neither a negative gloom nor an all positive picturesque situation we have in our daily life. Each one has his or her share of burden, the right proportionate yoke and we cannot negate it. If we cannot negate, it means each of us needs a strengthening, an empowerment. Hence the invitation today: learn to Empower.

To learn to empower, first and foremost, I need to learn to be empowered. 'Come', the Lord calls - do we hear that call? do we heed that call? do we let ourselves be empowered by the Lord and Shepherd? That is a prerequisite for us to learn to empower. To experience the empowerment of the Lord, to identify the unfailing source of empowerment in the Lord and to develop a ready reaching out to God when in need of empowerment are essential traits in which we need to grow, before we learn to empower. 

To learn to empower means that we represent the loving Shepherd to the other. It is a call to each and everyone, and that is the key to the Reign. There is a mutual empowerment required and when that happens that we empower each other, the Reign of God is being prepared. Empowerment here is not any false promise, the Lord does not give any. It is not any exaggeration of great prowess. It is all about gentleness and humility, a restful replenishment of our spirits. We really do need to learn this from the Lord - in fact the Lord has that invitation too: learn from me.

To learn to empower is to recognise the constant source of empowerment that the Lord is and to become ourselves in anyway we can, source of empowerment to everyone around, that growing together stronger and firmer, we can prepare the Reign. 

Preparing the Reign - Learn to Speak

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second week Tuesday

December 12, 2023 -  Isaiah 40: 1-11; Matthew 18: 12-14

How do we prepare the Reign? By learning to speak, by learning to speak to the hearts, by learning to speak as the Lord wants. Console my people, speak to their hearts, says the Lord in the Word today. That is what it means to prepare the Reign. Preparing the Reign is preparing the ground and those who are around. How else can we do it, but by SPEAKING the right thing, at the right time and in the right manner?

We reflected on learning to see, yesterday. And it is not enough to see, it is important to make the others see what we see - how can we do it? By speaking to them. Consoling, speaking to the heart, directing, seeking, finding, guiding, leading - these are the imageries that are given in the Word today. All of them amount to that one learning that the Lord wishes from us - that we learn to speak. 

That we learn to speak - what the Lord wants to speak. When we speak, we need to speak the good news, what the Lord wants to say, life giving words, words that build up, words that infuse life and hope. That is learning to speak. When we speak such words of hope and strength, we prepare the Reign in the hearts of people, in the situations we live in and in the communities we form part of. 

That we learn to speak - how the Lord wants us to speak. That we speak in a consoling manner, that we speak in a way that people will be led to God, in a way that will bring back the straying not send a few more astray, in a way that will making things straight, in a manner that will faciliate union and love, in a way that will create a situation of seeing and praising God for what God has done to us and keeps doing to us. That is the presence of the Reign. 

That we learn to speak the Lord, that we proclaim the Lord incessantly - not merely by our words but by our whole selves and our very lives. Shout, Cry, Announce, Proclain - "here is your God" says the first reading. We are called to speak God, whisper God, proclaim God, announce God, share God to the world. The natural prerequisite is that we should possess God! Speaking not from the emptiness, but from the fullness, from the heart that is full of God. 

Let us learn to speak, speak what the Lord wants to speak and in the way the Lord wants us to speak. Above all, let us speak God to all, that way we shall be every day, in every way, preparing the Reign.    

Preparing the Reign - Learn to See

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second week Monday

December 11, 2023 - Isaiah 35: 1-10; Luke 5: 17-26

How do we prepare the Reign? By learning to see, by learning to see the Reign! They were all astounded and praised God, saying,  "We have seen strange things today." This is how the Gospel ends today. They had Jesus all the time with them. They saw cures. They were fed as multitudes, with almost nothing in hand. They saw the blind see and the dumb speak, just as we hear in the first reading. But did they really see the Christ, at action. Jesus makes them SEE that today. 

It was not enough for them to look at Jesus as someone who did wonders or someone who exorcised - because even some of their own, among them, were capable of doing it as Jesus himself asked elsewhere: 'if you say I cast the devil out by the power of beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out?' (Matt 12:27). They had to see the Christ, the Son of God, the One who comes in the name of the Yahweh! That is why he says that - "your sins are forgiven"! To free that man from his paralysis, but more to open the eyes of those people. They had to see.

The first reading repeats that theme - they shall see the glory and the splendour of God, they shall see the God who is coming, the eyes of the blind shall be opened... it is crucial that we see! That we see Christ present in our midst, that we see Christ present in those around us, that we see the Reign of God present amidst us, that we see the Lord coming with the Reign. Preparing the Reign first and foremost requires that we see the Reign. 

It is not that easy - there are three tendencies that can make that task difficult. First, our obstinacy, that we wish to see only what we wish to see and we do not want to admit to anything that we do not wish to. Second, our incapacity, that we remain so blind and blocked that it takes so much to be liberated from our mental and intellectual paralysis. Thirdly, our distractedness or wrong focus, which makes us so attentive to what actually does not matter, instead of living our lives on the lines of what our Lord and Saviour has taught us: let's get up and walk, and we shall SEE the Reign. 

ADVENT - PREPARING THE REIGN

The Ground, those around and where we're bound...

Second Sunday in Advent - December 10, 2023

Isaiah 40: 1-5,9-11; 2 Peter 3: 8-14; Mark 1: 1-8

All of us wish to see a change, a change for the better, a change for a more peaceful world, a change for a happier life - a change around us, a change in the world! We know very well that this change out there in the world, cannot come without a change from within us! But the most disturbing fact is that, even if I change, it does not guarantee a change in the world, I need to wait. These are the complexities with which we live the problems and challenges of every day. It is against this background that we continue to reflect on the prospects of the Reign of God this advent. Last Sunday, the first of Advent, we were instructed by the Word to Expect the Reign. We reflected too saying, this expecting is not a passive waiting, but an active working towards. That is exactly the message of this Sunday: Advent is Preparing the Reign. 

Preparing the Reign: The fundamental task given us during Advent is Preparing! We are speaking here of Preparing the Reign - it is no error! We mean to phrase it that way - preparing the Reign, because it is not merely preparing for the Reign, but preparing the Reign. We are not called to prepare for the Reign, as if we have nothing directly to do with the Reign which comes from elsewhere and we prepare ourselves to be part of it when  it comes. That is not the mind of Christ. We need to prepare the Reign, build up the Reign, establish the Reign, wherever we are.

Psuedo Preparation: One danger that rests is that the kind of preparation we do can be a psuedo preparation! 

What do we mean by that? Just imagine the preparations that take place in our surroundings when a VIP is about to visit the place. There are prominently two things that happen - either what is there is covered up not to be seen or what is not there is fakely done up to be seen as present. Are we not familiar with cases where an entire slum was covered up with an overnight barricade or compund, because a dignitary was passing by that way - that is the former type. And of course we know of the roads that appear overnight for the VIP to ride on, only to break away into slithers immediately after the visit - this is the latter type. Both of these are psuedo preparations which are makeshift, eyewash, make believe, fake and deceptions, without any real change underlying. Instead, even these visits could become opportunities for a forging ahead, for strengthening of  infrastructure, for empowerment of people and the localities, if only the preparations are farsighted and authentically motivated. Therefore the question remains, what kind of preparation is the right preparation - that of the ground, of those who are around, mindful of where we are bound!

The Ground: Literally today we see the Word, the first reading and the Gospel, speak of this preparation of the ground - that the highways be made straight, the valleys be filled in, the mountains and hills be laid low, that the cliffs become plains and the ridges become valleys... that there be new heavens and a new earth! The preparation of the ground is the change in the situations - that the situations of inequality be straightened out, that the circumstances of jealousy and hatred be calmed, that the experiences of violence and aggression be tranquilised, that the predicaments of povert and misery be challenged. That is what precisely means preparing the Reign... without these changes the Reign cannot emerge! The sad and the crucial fact is, this cannot happen automatically. It can happen only where there is another preparation that is taken forward - the preparation of those around. 

Those Around: Preparation therefore is not merely of the terrain or of the macro system! It is primarily a change in the hearts, minds and the spirits of those around, beginning from each one of us. That is what the image of John the Baptist stands for today - telling each of us: straighten your hearts, flatten your egos, lift up your drooping spirits, smoothen your fractious priorities, challenge your callous religiosity and prepare for the day of the Lord. Prepare, not in terms of this Christmas, making an annual confession and dropping a few gifts into the hands of some sporadic needy - but in terms of a change of mentality, a reshaping of habits and redefining of your priorities and principles, to become truly Reign-persons and Reign-communities. That is the only way the Reign of God shall come, as we pray every day - 'your kingdom come'.

Where we're bound: The preparation therefore needs a clear pre-requisite and an absolute pro-sightedness. Both of these refer to the same - the Reign; as the letter of St. Peter reminds us - the new heavens and the new earth. The Reign should not be understood as a place little better than what we have today. It is not something that is slightly touched up from what we have managed so far. It is a something new! It is something totally different! It is something that the Lord alone can give - where the wolf will live with the lamb, the lion will eat straw with the ox, the cow will feed with the bear, and a small child will lead them all (Isa 11: 6,7). An entirely new life, that is the Reign that is promised to us and that is the Reign we are called and commissioned to prepare. No, it is not an utopia! It is a call. It is a commission. It is a mandate that we need to occupy ourselves with, all our life! Possible that we may not succeed? May be! But the Lord will succeed in God's own time, and we are called to do our bit. That is what the Advent reminds us of: our Christian commitment to prepare the Reign. 

Preparing the Reign means to prepare the ground, to prepare those who are around, mindful of where we are bound - above all, to begin with preparing the terrain of our hearts and our souls not towards some cosmetic touch ups, but towards a profund renewal in our conscience and commitment. O Lord that we may see, you and your Reign come! 

   

Expecting the Reign - Be Active Apostles

THE WORD IN ADVENT - First week Saturday

December 09, 2023 - Isaiah 30: 19-21, 23-26; Matthew 9:35 - 10:1,5,6-8

Here we wind up the first week of Advent, which we began with the call "to expect". That expectation is not a passive waiting, the Word had reieterated more than once during the week and today, the Word gives us a categorical directive - the right way to expect the Reign is to be active apostles.

We have that call from Jesus himself in the Gospel. Go, to cast the demons out, to cure diseases of all kinds and to raise the dead, said Jesus. He sent them all over, to go and be active apostles - but they had to first know, "apostles of what", messengers of what? What was the message they had to carry? What was the goodnews they were to give with all these actions: that the Reign is close at hand! 

The second question is, why they were to go and proclaim? Because they have received, they were to give! Therefore, what underlies this active apostolate is the realisation that they have received. Isaiah explains that in the first reading today: if you are prepared enough, "your ears will hear these words behind you, "this is the way, follow it"! The Lord has been good to you and if only you realise that, if only you grow mindful of that, you will automatically become an active apostle of the same goodness and hope!

Yes, these are the two objects of our proclamation - the key to the Reign: the Goodness of the Lord and our Hope in the Lord. God is good and we are certain beyond any doubt that God will have the final word, that the Lord will come to bless us, heal us, console us and to lead us. That is the Reign, the hope of the Reign, the Reign of goodness. 

Expecting that Reign signifies that we get into an active apostolate wherever we are and in whichever way we can, to hope in the Lord and spread that hope!

Expecting the Reign - Be Grace-filled

THE WORD AND THE FEAST - First Friday of Advent

December 8, 2023 - Celebrating the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother

Genesis 3:9-15,20; Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12; Luke 1:26-38

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception does not impede us from continuing our Advent journey, in fact it makes a significant contribution to our Advent reflections in two ways: one, because immaculate conception of Mary was indeed a preparation on God's part for the coming of Christ; secondly because Mary stands out as the greatest of models in preparing ourselves towards receiving the grace of incarnation. 

The talk of "Grace" is what abounds at this feast - as the Angel greeted Mary: "full of grace". She was Grace-filled and that state of life is two dimensional. 

First dimension is that God is the author of all Grace. What is grace? Grace is the presence of God, the presence that surrounds us all our life. Even to us the Lord has given us this grace - that God is all the time with us and for us. Mary was given this closeness to God as a great gift right from her conception in her mother's womb. She recognised that and she was mindful of that all her life. How much do we recognise that and how much do we draw strength from that - that would decide how able we are in expecting the Reign.

The second dimension is that of corresponding to that state of grace offered by God. Mary did that. Enough to think of that whole hearted submission we see in the scene of annunciation: I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word. It is true that God had chosen her from before the world was made, as St. Paul teaches us. Even we are chosen in Christ, from eternity to belong to God. But our virtue lies in corresponding to that state of grace given us - in our humble submission and loving attachment to God. 

Expecting the Reign is not merely an external event that we await, but an internal transformation that can happen only when we are recognizant of the grace that God has filled us with and mindful of corresponding to it in every way possible - in short, being Grace-filled.