Integral Choice for God

WORD 2day: Thursday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 26, 2025: Genesis 16:1-12, 15-16; Matthew 7: 21-29

Not everyone who says Lord! Lord!, really belongs to the Lord! There is an invitation today to check... between authenticity and duplicity.

Let's talk of three categories of persons - Pretenders, Performers and Professionals!

The Pretenders are those who try to be something that they really are not, but everyone can see it so obviously that they actually are pretending. These are amateur actors, but they can perfect themselves in the act.

The Performers are those who perform to the occasion, to the audience, to the moment. Though they are not actually what they act to be, their performance comes very close to reality.

The Professionals are those who live the character they want to be for the short moment to such a perfection that people begin to equate the character and the person!

We could be any of these three in our Spirituality - trying to pretend to be someone that people see so clearly that we are not; or performing at certain moments with perfection that comes with practice and repetition; or being professionals who can be taken so easily to be what they appear to be, though it may be solely for certain punctuated moments. None of the three is SUFFICIENT to be an authentic disciple of Christ... What he wants is an integrity where there is no pretension or performance or professional role playing.

Integrity that Christ demands, requires a ready acceptance of the crosses that come my way once I have chosen a definite way of walking with the Lord. Abraham is given as a model today, as one who struggled his way all through with contradictions, conflicts and difficult choices to make, but he remained faithful. The key is Integrity in the choice for God!

Before you call yourself a Christian...

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 25, 2025: Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18; Matthew 7: 15-20

The Tree and the Fruits... that's a powerful metaphor of life! 

Abraham, was a man of God, he was the father of the covenantal people! Abraham listened, obeyed, believed and remained loyal to the Lord who called him. The Covenant the Lord made was the tree, and Abraham's life choices were the fruits! He proved to be what he was called to be!

The eternal covenant that is made in the blood of Jesus Christ, is the guarantee of the grace and the gift of faith within us. It is the sap of the tree that we are, as God's children. While it is God's will that God has transformed us into God's children in our baptism, our daily life and regular choices have to bear fruits that will make it visible to the world and to ourselves, that we are trees of God, that we are children of God.

As the famous phrase, often attributed to William J Toms, reminds us: 'you may be the only bible that someone might read! Be careful with the way you live your life!' May your fruits identify who you are, not merely your self-trumpetting words. On the contrary, let us beware that our fruits do not betray who we really are in contrast to the over-blown claims that we may have about ourselves - as children of God, as people of God, as instruments of God and so on!

I am a Christian... and that has to be a fact not merely a title! Not merely in my activities, responsibilities and external duties that I carry out, but in every choice of mine, in every thought and expression of it, in every intention that gives rise to my words and my deeds at any moment of my life, I need to live a Christ-ian.

I remember a question once a preacher posed during a retreat, 'if today they detain you for being a Christian, will they find enough evidence in you to implicate you?' A powerful question, extremely simple in its categorical demand that before you call yourself a Christian, live so! 

Call, Purpose & Destiny

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 24, 2025: Solemnity of the nativity of St. John the Baptist

Isaiah 49:1-6; Acts 13: 22-26; Luke 1: 57-66,80

The Gospels narrate a long list of similarities between the stories of John and Jesus... the apparently 'impossible' conditions in which the mothers conceived, the direct intervention of God in the conception, the apparitions of the angels to the fathers, the prior choice of the name of the child to be born - one simple message is the image of John the Baptist as the precursor of Jesus.

The birth narratives of John and Jesus, together have another important message to reveal to us and that is, we are not here by chance! We are part of a complex plan, an eternal design of God. We are willed into existence by God; we are loved into existence, by the Creator! In fact nothing happens by chance and there are no coincidences... if we look harder, if only we spend more attention, we can certainly see the hand of God, a miracle therein!

We have a purpose, because God knew us right when we were being formed in the womb of our mothers! We have a special mission because, it is the Lord who has called us by name, even before we were born! We are chosen in the eyes of God, because as St. Paul says, God has chosen us before the foundations of the world in Christ Jesus, to be holy and blameless! Many of us, how blind and lazy we remain, not willing (not that we are incapable) to see what God really wants of us! If only we grow in our eagerness to respond to God's will, we shall be living miracles of God, wherever we are.

So, we are created, called, commissioned and destined to usher in the Reign of God, as John announced the coming of Christ. Let us become aware of our call, our purpose and our destiny, which is much larger than the petty preoccupations of our daily worries! Troubles, disease, and suffering - where can they at the most lead us to? To death! Even that is won by the Lamb, whom John foretold. All that we need to do is become more and more intensely aware of our call, our purpose and our destiny.

Blessed to bless; judge to be judged!

WORD 2day: Monday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 23, 2025 - Genesis 12: 1-9; Matthew 7: 1-5

Abraham was blessed to bless; Jacob was blessed to bless; We the people of God are blessed to bless! There are two messages here for us to note - first to understand that we are blessed, be what may the situation around. More often than not, we get so immersed into some troubles and difficulties that come our way, that we forget conveniently our blessings. We become so blind to those blessings so obviously present all around us. 

The second fact to remember is the call that is involved in every blessing that we have received. The call to recognise the blessings that we have received, is not merely for our own sake, but for the sake of the people. I shall make you a light house to the nations, I shall make you a blessing to the people... these are promises that the Lord has made to God's people. 

When we are blessed to bless, why do we curse and become a curse to the others? That is the key that Jesus wishes to present to us. See the blessing in others; do not judge them. When I judge the other for some simple shortcomings that I find in him or her, I magnify the curse that is between us and give into the power of that curse... that is why the Lord instructs us: judge not; and be not judged. 

When I judge, I give into the power of juegement and subject myelf to judgements! The positive formulation of that could be to find the blessing in the other, seek to magnify that blessing and thus become a blessing to the other! Let us remember we are blessed to bless! 

CELEBRATING THE SELF-GIVING GOD

Receiving, Remembering, and Remaining in Him! 

June 22, 2025: The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Genesis 14:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26; Luke 9: 11-17

I am the bread come down from heaven, one who eats of this bread will have eternal life!

Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, a celebration of the Self-Giving God... the total self giving of the Lord who came down from heaven, to remain with us!

The Word has prepared us during the week past, towards this great celebration... we have been reflecting about Christian giving last few days and today, we are invited to remain with that thought: Giving... Christian giving... what a challenging model we have, in the One who not only invites us to give, but also inspires us to give after his own model.  

I can give to receive... not merely a mundane reception of a return for my giving; but it could be a giving to receive something spiritual. To receive, may be a blessing from God , to receive an affirmation from the Divine Giver, etc. Melchizedek brought out bread and wine and Abraham gave him the one tenth... all these giving, in view of receiving the divine protection. This is a model of giving to receive, but let us look at the Lord's giving. 

The Lord who gave himself, is the only one who gave, only to be received... yes, only to be received! It is not giving to receive, but giving to be received! Hence the crux of the message is, that the Lord has given, and it is upto me to receive or not! On the part of the Lord, the Lord gives, to be Received. This is the element of salvation that the Lord has left in the sacrament of the Eucharist, for us to receive... there is so much in there, waiting for to be received! 

When the Lord, in that decisive moment, decided to leave a memory behind, he gave the bread and the wine, that is the body and the blood, and said... do this in remembrance of me... it is important that we pay attention here, he did not instruct us just to remember him, but to remember to do what he did, and do it in remembrance of him... that is, to give of myself as he gave himself totally, to give in remembrance of him... The Lord gives, to be Remembered, that he has invited me to give, and to give as he gave! This is the element of gratitude that the Lord teaches us in the sacrament of Eucharist, the heart of thanksgiving.

Yes, the Lord invites me to give, as he invited the disciples to give the people to eat... 'give them some food yourselves,' he said. It's only when we give to the people in need, we remain the Lord's disciples. To make us learn that we need to give always of ourselves to the others in need, He gives, in order to Remain within us... He comes to us to transform us into Himself, into givers, into givers who give of ourselves to others, without passing the buck on to someone else. This is the sign of charity, the bond of love that the Lord has left in the sacrament of the Eucharist, because of which the Lord abides in us forever, and we have the possibility of remaining in him.

Yes, the Lord gives himself everyday to me, gives to be received, gives to be remembered as the one who invites us to give, and gives in order that he can remain within us and we can remain with him, forever and ever, Amen! 

Sense of Suffciency - Sign of Sanctity

WORD 2day : Saturday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 21, 2025: 2 Corinthians 12: 1-10; Matthew 6: 24-34

The rich and the poor, the affluent and the needy, the influential and the ordinary... they seem to be no different from each other! They wish for more and more and more. And at no point in their life they seem to have a sense of sufficiency. People with thousand pairs of footwears, a couple or more of private jets, scores of floors in more than a few apartments, are known facts today; and at a more ordinary level, people with a few cellphones and scores of sim cards, cupboard full of dresses and loads of wasted food... these are no rare sights too! There is no saying "enough," for the human mind today, or has it been so for all times?

St. Paul today explains the importance of the attitude of saying enough, the sense of sufficiency and considers it a sign of sanctity. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul considers himself 'blessed' with a sense of sufficiency, in plenty and in want (Phil 4: 11,12). In our families, in our personal lives, in our social life, in our religious communities... where does this virtue stand?

Be it Indian traditional spirituality, Western monastic spirituality, Eastern yogic spirituality... everywhere there is a strong point made for detachment, possessing less and learning to live with the minimum! Where do all these spiritualities go, in spite of the highly religious people who live! And the so called people of the religion, are precisely the ones who goad wealth, create a culture of promiscuity and indulge in frivolities unheard of - not many exceptions there, unfortunately!

And above all, the sense of sufficiency comes from and is a fruit of gratitude, a sense of having received enough and in abundance from God. Gratitude is a sign of a sense of sufficiency that one feels with God; and this sense of sufficiency, is obviously therefore, a sure sign of sanctity.

The heart, the eye and the lesson!

WORD 2day: Friday, 11th week ìn Ordinary time

June 20, 2025: 2 Corinthians 11:18,21-30; Mathew 6: 19-23

Jesus speaks of the heart and the eye and the importance of these to a being. St. Paul presents himself as a madman who is putting himself through so many trials. He knows more will be coming but remains ready to risk them all. We have hosts and hosts of martyrs who have died for what they believed in, Saints who lived for God and God's purposes till the last breath of their lives, and people who continue to risk their lives for causes they commit themselves to.

Where lies their strength? In their heart and in their eye, says the Gospel today. Heart refers to their Priority and eyes to their Perspective!

When God becomes my priority, nothing else would matter to me more than being Godly. Not my career, not my comforts, not my social status, not the conventional success, not the power and the position that everyone clamours for...nothing can deter me from living my life for God and God's purposes. That is my heart...and where my heart is there my treasures will be too!

When God becomes my perspective my whole world changes, because I begin to see everything the way God sees them. The jealousy of God that St. Paul spoke of yesterday is nothing but the way God looks at us: as God's own! Hence it is only right and just that we consider ourselves God's own too and in every way make ourselves so - that is becoming like God, in the way we see, think, judge and make choices. That is our eyes...and the way we look at others and at the world, will decide to whom we truly belong.

What is expected of us is, that we form our hearts and our eyes, that we ascertain our priority and clarify our perspective. May the Spirit of the Lord help us to become aware of our heart, our eye and the lesson that the Word gives us today.

Being One...not deceived into division!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 19, 2025: 2 Corinthians 11: 1-11; Matthew 6: 7-15

One cannot but admire the pastoral heart of St. Paul, in today's first reading. A heart that bleeds to see his own people, his 'children' as they were, being assailed by other preachers, other gospels and other attractions, so easily and so readily! What about today, when we see brothers and sisters who so readily falling for eloquence in preaching, vivacity in worship, emotional satisfaction, logicality in reasoning, the capacity for quoting from memory, the free flow of words and phrases that are so beautiful and soothing to hear... our hearts bleed even today!

I, personally, have often been remarked by persons as being too conservative or fanatic about the Catholic Church... this is certainly not about that! It is about calling God, OUR Father and Mother... being ONE REIGN OF GOD, doing as brothers and sisters TOGETHER the will of God on earth as in heaven; it is about forgiving the shortcomings of others in the community, the shortcomings of the community itself and staying on, as one community, facing the struggles and temptations as ONE community, overcoming all evil!

Let us not today get lost in the beauty and the splendour of the Lord's Prayer - that is not the message of the Word... it is all about being a community that is worthy of praying that prayer! Evangelii Nuntiandi, the Apostolic Letter of Pope Paul VI (art.no.77) says, "the division among Christians is a serious reality which impedes the very work of Christ." Being of one heart and one mind, believing in the One Gospel that is handed down to us, is the highest witness we can give the world today, in every sphere of life!

The Christ-giving - a Way of Being

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 18, 2025 - 2 Corinthians 9:6-11; Matthew 6: 1-6,16-18

The Word today continues the discourse of yesterday, about giving... which as we said yesterday, cannot be just an act, but a life style. The readings today go a step further to say, it has to become a way of being, that is the way we think and the way we feel at the deepest core of our being. 

The first reading points to us two most shallow levels of giving. 

First, giving with grudge - it is like some who give, but have within them exactly contrary sentiments, wishing bad for the other, lacking respect for those to whom they give or having a sense of vengeance while giving! This kind of giving is better not done, because it amounts to a sin at the end of it all.

The second type is giving without a choice - it is giving, having to give. If there were an alternative the person would not have rather given. This takes away any merit in the act of giving, although it is good! It has really no value behind it, because it does not come from within, not from a personal choice. 

The Gospel points out another type of shallow giving, which is giving with a hook - this is a very familiar category of giving. Consciously, sub-consciously or even unconsciously, when there is a hook attached to receive directly or indirectly from a giving, that giving cannot still measure up to a Christ-giving.

Christ-giving, giving according to the life style of Christ, is only giving in love! That is what God does and that is what God expects from us. Whether giving the other (in terms of charity), or giving God (in terms of prayer and penance), only when it is done out of love and love alone, it becomes a Christ-like giving and that alone makes us brothers and sisters of that Son who gave himself totally in love. 

The Christ-giving - a lifestyle

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 17, 2025 - 2 Corinthians 8: 1-9; Matthew 5: 43-48

Continuing to reflect on the Sermon on the mount, today we have reached that place where Jesus teaches us about loving, loving like Christ, loving after the model of God's love - the love that considered only giving - never the conditions involved. In any giving there can be a few conditions involved logically - to whom, to what end, to what extent... and so on. Is that not simple and normal? Jesus breaks all those so-called norms, when he presents God's love as the model of our giving.

God loved us...and gave; gave everything. St. Paul explains that in the passage we read today: Remember how generous the Lord Jesus was: he was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty. Love is translated as "giving" and what type of giving? A Christ-giving! It is a life style presented to us by Christ himself - giving without measure, without conditions of deserving or not, and without any assurance of its return in whatever kind. 

That is what he meant when he said, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you! Give, because you wish to give; give because you have a heart to give; give because that is how you life. This is Christ.giving, a life style of love, a love that imitates God who gave everything, Christ who gave everything and the Spirit who gives up everything to reside within us!

Let us pick up this life style, the Christ-giving.