Celebrating the Reign - the Joy of Faith

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Third week Wednesday

December 20, 2023 - Isaiah 7: 10-14; Luke 1: 26-38

God-with-us, or Emmanuel, is the most profound of all promises and it evokes an experience intensely related to our spirits, because we long for an assuring presence in our life - all of us, even the most strong among us. It is a longing that is inherent to every human person, which can be very easily connected to our faith, if we believe that faith is first and foremost beholding a mighty presence that reveals itself to us. That is why, the joy of the Reign is a joy of faith, the joy of receiving, beholding and enjoying the gift of faith, the gift of beholding the presence of God with us. 

The joy of faith consists in our capacity to listen to God, a God who speaks, promises, instructs and interprets the ordinary events of our life, on a daily basis.

The joy of faith consists in our ability to see the Lord present beside us in the most difficult of times, in moments of possible delusion and and surrender to the presence, trusting in the goodness of the One who is the Lord of the Universe.

The joy of faith consists in our readiness to see the hand of God at work, even at the darkest moments of our lives, to feel always overshadowed by the power of the One who is in control of everything. 

That faith is the Key, as the antiphon of the day reminds us - the Key of David who opens the gates of the eternal Reign, the Key that open what no one can close, and closes what no one can open - the power of the hand of God that is at work in history. Faith permits me to see that hand, behold that hand and hold on to that hand, in trust and in love. 

Faith fills me with joy - with faith, we can rejoice even when we run into problem and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance; endurance develops strength of character, character strengthens our confident hope of salvation and this hope shall never lead us to disappointment. Fill us Lord, with the joy of faith today!

Celebrating the Reign - the Joy in the Promises

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Third week Tuesday

December 19, 2023 - Judges 13:2-7,24-25; Luke 1: 5-25

The Joy of the Reign lies in the promises of the Lord! The joy is not all about what we experience today or what we expect today, but in the timeless and eternal promises that the Lord has given us, God's beloved children and the people of the Covenant. "You shall conceive and bear a son", "Your wife shall bear a son" - we find these two promises in the Word today - made to two couples who were apparently beyond the possibility of bearing a child. They are certainly not the only ones... we can begin counting right from the case of Abraham, right up to the birth of Jesus - everywhere what we see is the "promise" active, alive and actualised. 

Be it Samson or John the Baptist - they had their call clearly defined and they were instrumental in fulfilling the promises of God. In history, we see that God has availed Godself of varied people who received the promises of the Lord, trusted in them and thus became themselves bearers of that promise onward to God's people. Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David, Samson, Samuel and finally John the Baptist - they were all promise bearers. And finally, Jesus was the ultimate promise and promise bearer. 

When the Lord grants us a promise, there is an injunction that comes along - of course the Lord's promise is a covenant and therefore it involves equally both parties: God and us. For example, today when Samson and John were promised, their mothers were instructed as to what to do and what not to do! They knew that their child was special, a promise to look forward to. After all, every child that is born in this world is a promise, isn't it? We are never left hopeless, the Lord's promises accompany us all through and in these promises lies our true joy, the joy of the Reign. 

As the antiphon for the day explains to us - the Root of Jesse, is the sign to the people... like the experience of Abraham, hoping against hope, we see the promise of the Lord coming to life even there where seems to be no possibility. That is why we proclain, it is the Lord who is our hope; our trust is in the Lord right from our birth! 

Let our celebration of the Reign be firmly rooted in the promises of the Lord, the eternal promise that makes us people of the Lord, people of the Covenant, people of the Reign. 

Celebrating the Reign - the Joy of the Presence

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Third week Monday

December 18, 2023 - Jeremiah 23: 5-8; Matthew 1: 18-24

Among the varied reasons we reflected upon for rejoicing as we await and prepare for the Reign, one of the foremost is the unfailing  presence of God. This week as we are all set to reflect on the ways to celebrate the Reign, today we are given with this experience to come to grips with. This is a traditional experience, right from the times of the Old Testament, when the people felt the presence of God constantly guiding them through various intermediaries - persons like the kings and the judges, events like the pillars of clouds and fire, experiences like the division of the red sea and the crossing of the jordan. This is what is related to us in the first reading, with that hebrew word - Yahweh tsidkenu - Lord our righteousness (Jer 5:6), that is, the Lord who does to us what we need, not just what we deserve, but even more than what is our due... because the Lord is ever present with us and know what we exactly need. 

In the New Testament, we see that God decides to make that presence felt, not through intermediary experiences, but through a concrete personal experience of Godself - Emmanuel, the term we see in the Gospel. A personal presence of God that makes us experiences the proximity of God, all our life. Can there be a joy more than this, more than the unceasing presence of God with us, a presence that saves, justifies, guides, protects and accompanies. 

If we have to celebrate the Reign which is amidst us, we need to first of all recognise the presence of the Lord amidst us. As the antiphon of the day reminds us, the Ruler of the House of Israel, one who gave us the law, one who continues to guide us with his presence, one who teaches us what is righteousness, one who protects us in our integrity, is the Emmanuel, is the God who is with us, is the one who is present amidst us, inviting us to make that presence felt by all around us and share it with the rest of the world. 

Let our celebration of the Reign become more and more concrete each and every living day, that we may incessantly prepare ourselves towards being ever worthier people of the Reign. 

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.