People of the Light - transformed

WORD 2day - Friday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 19, 2024 - Acts 9: 1-20; John 6: 52-59

The Light infact blinds us, only to make us see everything more clear and more resplendent. That is what we see in the experience of Paul, or any other apostle or disciple. When they encountered the Risen Lord, they were blinded, they could not really get what they were seeing, but very soon, they began to see everything in a new light... because they were transformed; people of the Light are transformed, they begin to see everything new, clear and renewed. 

Transformation here could mean three important internal experiences of a person: conversion, renewal and proaction.

We see Saul who turns away from his past, with an absolute detachment to the old ways of life. Jesus' call to his followers was a break from the past too - they had to unlearn what the old bread meant and behold the new bread that was being offered. That required accepting the challenge of transformation. Conversion, as a definitive break from a tendency that keeps us away from our way to perfection is an essential first step towards transformation.

Paul becomes a new man, all new that he was able to proclaim, "I live, but not I, it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). Is it not what Jesus promised too: he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him? Transformation is not about touching up some corners of our life, but being born anew, becoming a new person, a total Renewal into Christ every time we encounter the Risen Lord in intimacy.

We see a sense of urgency in the transformed Paul. He is emphatically dedicated towards preaching Christ without lamenting or crying over the forgettable past. Whoever eats me will draw life from me, says Jesus - a new life, a new way of life, a new meaning to life. Transformation is all about this Proaction - it is not explaining to all what has happened to me, but letting my actions speak, letting my life manifest the new lease of life in me. 

People of the Light are transformed people, with an enviable experience of conversion, renewal and proaction. Are we?

People of the Light - drawn

WORD 2day - Thursday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 18, 2024 - Acts 8: 26-40; John 6: 44-51

No one can come to me unless he oe she is drawn by the Father who sent me - this teaching of Christ explains to us who could become people of the Light:  those who are drawn by the Lord. This experience of "being drawn" is what we exactly mean by the conviction, faith is a gift; not everyone gets to have it. 

First of all the persons should feel drawn: those who have a disposition from within, feel drawn by the Lord. Just as the Ethiopian minister who we meet in the first reading today, who was eager to know something, who was reading to get to know. The Lord uses that disposition, to draw the person to Godself. This is the stage of realisation. The Minister felt drawn. The people were fed with the bread from heaven, and here they see, in the Gospel, the Bread from heaven feeding them!

Secondly, persons should wish to draw closer: this is the part of the personal response to what the Lord wishes to do to us. The Minister asking Philip to get in and sit by his side, and imploring him to explain the Word, is a response, a clear and definitive respose of a yes to draw near to the Lord who is drawing the person to himself. Difficulty in understanding things beyond our minds, not really getting to see the spiritual sense of the things happening in our life, could be reasons enough to turn us away from God, but not so with those who are drawn by God!

Thirdly, persons stay close to God and draw others to God: this is the part of resolve, to taste the Lord and share that with the world around. Anyone who eats of this bread will live forever and there is a net difference seen in the life of these persons drawn by God and those who let themselves be drawn. They become ambassadors of this eternal life that resides in God. They are already taught by God to hear the teaching, feel drawn, actively draw closer and stay close to God drawing others to God and to God's Reign. 

People of the Light - finding the Way

WORD 2day - Wednesday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 17, 2024 - Acts 8:1-8; John 6: 35-40

It is the Father's will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, declares Jesus today and that is what the people of the Light are. They are in the Light and they see the Light; seeing the Light, they find the Way. The people of the Light shall find the way, even where there seems to be none, because they have the Way with them - the Way, the Light and the Truth, the Risen Lord. 

The acts of the apostles reports that people where dispersed, but wherever they where scattered they announced the Word; they were not a group of desolate persons lost in diaspora but were like seeds that were scattered...giving rise to life wherever they found themselves. This is finding the way...they found it without problem, because they were people of the light. 

Jesus' call to eat of him and receive eternal life is a call to find this Light, that is himself. To find our existence in him, to find our life in him, that our life and our existence will discover the gift of eternity that we have in God and from God. Faith, therefore, is not merely knowing and understanding what it means to be  people of God, instead it is finding the Light that sustains our lives every moment - that even in moments of "being scattered" we could be persons who could offer light to the world around us.

People of the Light - heavenward

WORD 2day - Tuesday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 16, 2024 - Acts 7:51-8:1; John 6:30-35

The characteristic trait of people of the Light, presented for our reflection by the Word today, is being heavenward! 

Being heavenward is not a negation of the present, nor is it belittling of the gift of life that we possess here and now. It is a recognizance of the fact that we are meant for an experience and a destination that is beyond, beyond everything that we can think of or imagine. That is why we are reminded by the Word elsewhere that we have our true home in heaven! 

The people of the Light are heavenward, in as much as it matters nothing to them who and what can destroy their life here below. Stephen today with his courage and valour, testifies to the convicting Spirit with no fear of anything. After all his Master had taught them, do not be afraid of those who can destroy only your body but submit to Him who can give you eternal life. 

The people of the Light are heavenward, in as much as they are able to see through the various events of life the miraculous hand of heaven. They are not curtailed by the apparent, they see beyond and observe the ultimate truth that can be revealed only by the Light - just as Jesus teaches the people in the Gospel, that they need to look beyond Moses, to see the real Love that was burning for them.

The people of the Light are heavenward, in as much as they are able to trace their way to heaven through every ordinary step in their daily life. That is the type of faith that the Lord invites us to. To walk consciously every day, and to take every step with mindfulness that God is with us and God is directing us in ways known only to God. Not to fret in anxiety and at the same time not to drag on in lethargy, but to remain open and attentive to the Word and the voice of the Lord, that is being heavenward. 

People of the Light - in Wisdom

WORD 2day - Monday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 15, 2024 - Acts 6: 8-15; John 6: 22-29

The Liturgy yesterday presented to us the importance of the light from the face of the Lord to shine upon us: it is lumen fidei, the light of faith that the Risen Lord makes shine on us, that we become children of the God. When the light of faith shines on us, we the people of resurrection, we turn into people of the Light - and that is what we are, the people of the Light. 

The Word this week shall speak to us about the characteristics of the people of the Light of the Risen Lord, that is the tenstimonies of the Risen Lord who are filled with the light of faith. The first characteristic that the Word today points us to is: Wisdom. Stephen, the first known martyr for the Gospel, is presented to us as a person filled with wisdom: they found they could not get better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said. 

Our minds now turn to this great gift of Wisdom: how do we understand that? The easiest way to comprehend wisdom would be through another great gift that is closely related to it: knowledge. How do we differentiate these two: knowledge and wisdom? Knowledge is possessing the required data... knowing, being informed and having the necessary data is an important aspect of faith. But more crucial is the gift of wisdom, which is the capacity to use the data in the right manner, the capability to draw the right inspiration from the information that I possess, the competence to convert the data that I have to right principles for life. Wisdom is manifested in the right choices that one makes. 

This is what Jesus exhorts from those who followed him allover. Do not work for food that cannot last, work for food that endures to eternal life - he said. Knowing what is eternal and making a choice for it, makes me relativise everything else in life. Food and necessities, identity and achievements, status and positions... they are all good motives that can take one's life forward, but not sufficient to take one upto salvation. It is wisdom to know what truly matters, and choose the Lord above all.

THE PEOPLE OF THE LIGHT

The Light of the Risen Lord

Third Sunday in the Eastertide

The Easter Community - centred on the Word

WORD 2day: Saturday, Second week in the Eastertide

April 13, 2024 - Acts 6: 1-7; John 6: 16-21

The Easter community was born of the Word made flesh, who died and  rose again, bringing the new community into existence. In this new birth of the community there were new meanings, new significations, new implications and new world view initiated. There was no dearth of crises, but the new born community had a new vision, that empowered them to approach the crises with calmness. It was the Risen Lord who taught them that. 

The event narrated in the Gospel is one instance where the Lord had taught them these precious lessons: there is nothing to fear about the crises that come your way, they can become means to recognise the Lord; as long as we remain with the Lord, we could be battered by the winds of time, but we will never be blown away; if we remain with the Lord we will hear the Word right amidst the confusion - Do not be afraid, it's I! 

Having learnt these from the Lord, the Easter community puts it into practice, when they are faced with one of the earliest problems that arise in the community. The lament of neglect and deprivation from one section of the community, in comparison to another section... how much such laments exist even today. What matters is, that the community responds immediately, adding to its ministries. But what is more important is the fact that they were particular not to lose there foundation...the ministry of the Word.

The centre of the Easter community was the Word, made flesh, who died and rose...they refused to lose sight of it, at any moment of their life and experience. The challenge to today's community is exactly this - how many things, how many interests, how many priorities, how many principles take us to a point where we begin unfortunately to compromise the centre of our faith and identity, the centrality of the Word! 

The Easter Community - Ready to Give

WORD 2day - Friday, Second week in Eastertide

April 12, 2024 - Acts 5: 34-42; John 6: 1-15

One of the characteristic marks of the Easter community highlighted by the Word today, is their capacity and their insistence on giving - giving not just to others and giving not just what they have, but giving to the Lord and giving themselves totally. Nothing did they want to keep to themselves - they sold everything and gave, we heard these days in the Word; but more than that, they did not keep even themselves to themselves! They were ready even to give their lives to the Lord, that is why they were glad and grateful when they could suffer bodily for Christ's sake. 

The Word begins with highlighting the 5 loaves that the boy was ready to give, out of which came an abundance of Grace - giving what one has. It continues with presenting Jesus as the model who was ready to give himself - he is infact setting up the prelude to a long, profound and crucial discourse on the bread that comes down from heaven! The allusion then is to the apostles who were ready to give of themselves totally to the project of their Master and Guide, Jesus the Lord. And finally, becoming the Easter Community, they realise this call, in their readiness to suffer for Christ's name and even give praise to the Lord for the sufferings they endure. A Giving that begins with giving from what one has and grows into giving of oneself to the Lord!

Today, we all over the world, have received the Christian faith and live and express it, thanks to this Easter Community which was ready to give, not just the news that they had received from the Son of God, but their very selves, their lives and all that they were, for the sake of the Reign that was announced by their beloved Rabbuni. Giving - giving to God all that we are, and anything that is expected of us, for the sake of the project that God has - the Reign of God, the fullness of life for all - that is the sign that we are growing into true Easter communities. 

The Easter Community - Filled with the Spirit

WORD 2day - Thursday, Second week in Easter

April 11, 2024 - Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36

We and the Holy Spirit - this phrase that we hear from the apostles today is as intriguing as the fact that these apostles were unstoppable in their proclamation of the Risen Lord. They were no more the ignorant and afraid lot that they were - what made the difference? The Spirit. They were broken in their heart, but God filled them with the Spirit! To those who earnestly ask, "God gives the Spirit without reserve"! That was what had happened with the new community, beginning with the apostles; God had filled them with the Spirit and all that they did, they chose in the Spirit. 

In the Gospel, we see Jesus differentiating between those who are born of the earth and those who are born of the Spirit. The difference lies here: that when we become persons born of the Spirit, we become persons who can challenge anything, persons who can face any crises, persons who would be frightened by nothing or no one! The Sanhedrin had a tough time with the apostles and the new community that was born - because they were not acting alone. They were acting: they and the Holy Spirit. 

This is what they had learnt from their Master and Lord, the Risen Christ. Christ when he lived among this community yet in formation, insisted perennially that all that he did, he did not by himself but in the One who sent  him, through the finger of God, the Spirit who enables everything to be done according to the will of God. It was this teaching and example that the new formed community realised in their own experience: they were doing everything in the Spirit. They were being told what to do, what to say, where to go and where to remain - they did everything; they and the Spirit. 

Today, at times, we have ideas and interests and we go ahead with enthusiasm,  only to soon face with a block and remain stuck. But when we go by what the Spirit wants of us, come what may, we would see the way ahead. Let us therefore resolve to say or to do, everything, we and the Holy Spirit. 

The Easter Community: United to the Lord

WORD 2day: Wednesday, Second week in Eastertide

April 10, 2024 - Acts 5: 17-26; John 3: 16-21

Presenting to us the characteristic marks of the community born out of the Resurrection experience, the Word spoke to us of a community that is united in love. It is not because they are better persons than those that do not form part of this community, but because they have found their new identity in a very special focal point - the Risen Lord. Today the Word insists on this mark, defining the Easter community as that which is united to the Lord and thus in union with each other. 

The apostles are arrested for teaching and preaching about Christ. They are miraculously liberated, only to go back to the people and announce the Risen Lord, once again. They would have been certain that they will be arrested again, but that does not impede them from carrying out the task entrusted to them - to announce and testify to the Risen Lord. They were so united to the Lord that nothing mattered to them more than what the Lord wanted of them. 

No amount of threats and punishments, no measure of harships and persecutions, no extremes of oppression or abandonment, could stop them from speaking out and proclaiming the Risen Lord, because they were a community who "looked towards him and were radiant!" The Angel of the Lord was encamped around them; they had tasted the Lord and nothing could separate them from the Lord. They had to proclaim and bear witness to the Lord!

An easter community is that which is united to the Lord in its core, that nothing else matters other than proclaiming the Lord in word and deed, in life and death, in joy or in pain. The light has come into the world - the sentence is already pronounced: we stay with the Light or not, we choose the Light or not, we are united with the Light or not - it is our choice to decide to be united to the Lord.