A Righteous Celebration

WORD 2day: Saturday, 17th week in Ordinary time

August 2, 2025: Leviticus 25:1,8-17; Matthew 14: 1-12

In spite of all the talk about escalation of prices and tough times, crisis and economic slowdown, the celebrations do not seem to reduce or cease! Especially in the religious realm, celebrations find their importance and significance intact, though there do exist a number of restrictions and the rest. At times these celebrations are exaggerated too, to the extent of being detested. Imagine the Jubilee year we are celebrating and the Jubilee of the youth that is going on at the moment at the Church level. Should we, or should we not, celebrate? 

The Word today presents us two modes of celebration: one, an exploitative celebration that is irresponsible, insensitive and a mere show of arrogance; indifferent to the other and absolutely self centered, with no thought of contributing to the good of the other or the common good. The other mode is a righteous celebration. Let none of you wrong the neighbour but fear the Lord your God, instructs the first reading today, which is all about jubilee among the people of God. Are we not challenged to rethink and re-evaluate our own celebrations, be it in the families or be it in the religious communities?

The consideration is very straight forward: a celebration that is godly should not be at the cost of the other, but for the sake of the love for the other. A true Christian celebration should reaffirm the meaning and joy of living. That is why everyday eucharist is a celebration, a reminder of the life that we are called to live in the Lord, in communion with our brothers and sisters.

Do you see Jesus?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

August 1, 2025: Remembering St. Alphonsus Liguori

Leviticus 23: 1,4-11,15-16,27; Matthew 13: 54-58

Due to their lack of faith, Jesus did not work many mighty deeds among them, says the Gospel today.  Someone might argue, “but if God could not do a miracle, be it for whatever reason, is it not a limitation or a weakness?" Let us pay attention, it is not God's weakness, but the strength that God has shared with us. What do we mean?

God created us in God's image and likeness and this likeness ensures that we are hardly different from God (Ps.8)! That makes us also persons with inviolable freedom, a freedom which not even God would take away. Though many resent it saying it is the cause of scores of evils in the world, it is that which makes us human, and gives us the dignity as the images of the Creator. Without the 'personal freedom' we would be no more than the animals.

Faith and Freedom have a great deal to do with each other. Faith is a response given in freedom, a total absolute freedom of the inner being of a person. Jesus in his freedom chooses to enter the synagogue to pray with his people and the people with their freedom choose to see only the apparent facts of Jesus, as the son of the carpenter and a son of their soil. They were not able to see the divine import of his actions, his words and the signs that he was accomplishing.

Just as we have in the saints, specially like those of Alphonsus de Ligouri whom we celebrate today, we have people who were ever prepared to recognise the Lord, that is the reason they did not miss the Lord or allow the Lord to pass by unnoticed! They become non just beholders of God, but ambassadors of God. 

Especially today, it can happen so that we look at Jesus as someone kept aside for Sundays, special days and some particular moments of other days! It is an oft repeated warning from the Lord, not to make our spirituality legalistic and our piety pharisaic!

Set Apart...for the glory of God!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 31, 2025: Remembering St. Ignatius of Loyola
Exodus 40:16-21,34-38; Mt 13: 47-53

Moses did exactly as the Lord had directed him. The first reading begins thus. And that is what set Moses apart! Joshua would soon be following suit. We are constantly being judged, of course, not by God and not even by the world, but by our very actions and our choices. We are set apart as people of God but that is no guarantee that we will remain so forever. Just as we were set apart we could be set aside too, again depending on our choices and our readiness to do as God directs! 

The Lord is present among us, as pointed out by the tabernacle that Moses made. It is a clear message sent to the people and to us: God dwells amidst us; God is with us. God shares our lives. We are set apart to do exactly as God directs. Ignatius of Loyola whom we remember today, was a perfect example of this way of life, one who did everything esactly as God directed him! 

Ignatius, in the thirtieth year of his life, came to know the Lord at a closer communion and fell so madly in love with the Lord that he was ready to do anything "FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD" (ad maiorem Dei gloriam). A holy fixation that led to the great movement of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and so many other movements related to that; a strong determination to do what the Lord wants and for the greater glory of the Lord. The emphasis that he laid in his teaching on "discernment" was precisely to ensure we do as God directs us... when we do it, we realise that we are set part; and if and when we fail, we would be consequentially set aside! Do we wish to be in the net? Or to be cast away? 

The need to cover your face!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 30, 2025: Exodus 34: 29-35; Matthew 13: 44-46

The need to cover your face! In the first reading today, we have an interesting account of Moses who would cover his face with a veil because, it shone after the meeting with the Lord. We see in the television newscast and other dailies where people cover their face, when taken into police custody or arrested for some malpractices! Two extreme reasons which can lead us to cover our face - one, shame and the other, a holy embarrassment - it all depends on one fact - where lies your treasure or which is the pearl you are in search of?

Many of the saints who found their treasure in the Lord, were found to act crazy! They gave up everything - their wealth, their prospects, their career, their comfort, their health, even their life - because they found the Lord and the Lord's will for them! Some of them were even considered lunatic and taken to asylums. As St. Paul says, they have behaved like "fools for Christ"(1 Cor 4:10).

In whatever we do, in whatever we choose, if we have the Lord ever before our mind and always as our priority and criterion, we will never have the need to cover our face in shame. Look up to him and be radiant, says the Psalmist (Ps 34:5). When we continuously grow in our union of intention with the Lord, we would certainly reach a moment, when we would be forced to cover our face – out of sheer radiance of the Lord!

Let us fix our eyes on the Lord, from whom all richness and light come. All that matters is that our treasure, our pearl remains forever, the Reign of God!

Love makes us siblings!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

July 29, 2025: Remembering Martha, Maria and Lazarus
1 John 4; 7-16: 1-9; John 11: 19-27.

What has traditionally been celebrated as the feast of St. Martha, from 2021, we have been celebrating as the feast of the Siblings of Bethany - Martha, Mary and Lazarus - thanks to our beloved late Holy Father Pope Francis. Just as we recently celebrated the Grandparents' day... this could be also considered as the Siblings day...reminding us, how we need to as siblings love each other, sustain each other and be connected to the Lord together in love.  

In the Gospel, we see when Martha tells Jesus, "if you were here, my brother would not have died," Martha's (and Mary's) hope in the Lord was plainly expressed in those words. But the Lord challenges them to journey further in their hope, not to get stuck to clichés, not to remain with mere oft-repeated statements and memorised aphorisms... but to go all the way out, in trusting the Lord. It is like what St. Paul who says about Abraham (Rom 4:18), that Jesus invites Martha and Mary: to hope against hope!

Martha's confession about Christ is in no way less than the confession of St. Peter! The faith that Martha had in Jesus was so profound that she believed when Jesus was around nothing could go wrong. Jesus acknowledges the trust that Martha had in him, but invites her to go a step ahead and trust that even if things went wrong, she had nothing to fear for the Lord was with her always! 

Martha, Mary and Lazarus are given to us, in contrast to the people whom the prophets before Jesus and Jesus himself had to encounter... people who heard everything said and saw everything done, but at the first instance of a crisis or doubt, they fell back to their faithless ways. To stay strong without falling, we need to sustain each other - Martha and Mary, Disciples gathered together in the upper room, etc... are models we have of those who sustained themselves in each other's love, during moments of struggle. 

As we hear from the first reading, love is proposed as an over-all remedy and today, in a special way, the love between the siblings! Even if we are not siblings, our love in the One Lord, makes us siblings. Let us love one another! 

PRAYER IS RELATIONSHIP

An Authentic Christ-ian Prayer...

July 27, 2025: 17th Sunday in Ordinary time
Genesis 18: 20-32; Colossians 2: 12-14; Luke 11:1-13

Prayer... A Christian Prayer... An authentic Christian Prayer... A Christ-like prayer... is fundamentally one's Relationship with God. Out of the numerous attributes to God that were proper to the historical experience of the people of Israel, which was his own experience too, Jesus picked that of 'Father'. That was the most scandalous of all, for the Jews. When Jesus called God, Abba, Father (Mk 14:36) as we see in Gospels, he was demonstrating an intimate relationship that existed, not only between him and the One who sent him, but also between everyone who believes in him and in the One who sent him...as John says, to all who believed in him, he gave the right to become the children of God (Jn 1:12). Radically for Jesus, faith was a process of acknowledging a God who reveals Godself as a father, a mother, as one who created us, one who cares for us! Consequently, Prayer for him was a relationship that one shared with God; a relationship that is built on a personal sharing, that is, on DIALOGUE.

Prayer is a Dialogue... a dialogue where there is a sharing of minds and oneness of heart. Abraham, today is presented in the reading as dialoguing with God... he does not only speak his mind but listens to God and gets to know God's mind. A beautiful picture of a person in conversation with God - trying to raise his preoccupations, with the limited knowledge that he has, but with the concern he has for the life of the others. And an amazing depiction of God who knows very well that there will not be even 10 righteous people as Abraham claims, but listens patiently to his pleas, allows him to talk and permits him to share his concerns.

At times when we begin to furnish a list to God and ask that to be granted on order; or when we make programmes and suggest God to follow; or when we find problems with God's designs and suggest improvements - we need to remind ourselves of this dimension of prayer - prayer as a dialogue! It consists not only in speaking but also in listening, waiting for and accepting God's will. Prayer is a dialogue, a dialogue that is initiated by the overwhelming RECOGNITION OF GOD'S GOODNESS.

The overwhelming recognition of God's goodness and majesty is what initiates the process of dialogue! The Psalm beautifully presents the human heart opening itself up to God, in praise and thanksgiving! A true Christian prayer begins there! St. Paul formulates this so well in his letter instructing, "do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Phil 4:6).

When we recognise the loving presence, the helping hand, the protecting wings, the sheltering solace of God on a daily basis, we cannot help singing the praise of God in spite of the endless needs and preoccupations we can possibly have in life! That recognition of God's goodness and majesty and our readiness to acknowledge and submit to it, bestows on us the greatest of all gifts, the TOTAL ACCEPTANCE BY GOD.

God accepts me totally, unconditionally, in spite of all my imperfections and iniquities - this is the realisation out of which a lovely relationship is born - that relationship we call, Prayer. The second reading today affirms that God has forgiven me, buried all my sins and nailed them to the Cross on which my saviour Jesus died for me! And with the same Jesus, God has raised me to the status of God's child, in my baptism! God loves me so much that God accepts me with all my limitations, with all my childishness, with all my idiosyncrasies.

Comparing this relationship to friendship in the parable that Jesus narrates today, he subtly communicates a point that we can be sometimes foolish, simplistic and thoughtless in the things that we ask from God or in the way we ask for them. Still, we need not hesitate, we can go right on and do it, because God accepts us as we are. It is that affirmation that gives us the right to stand in the presence of the Lord and be ourselves, as Abraham dared to be!

Let us treasure this great relationship we have with God, yearn to be in God's presence and live in God's presence as authentically as possible, as innocent and dependent as children, as grateful and obedient as sons and daughters, as rightful and loving as Jesus himself was towards God, whom he revealed to us our Our Father and Mother!

Grandparents' day today!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

July 26, 2025: Celebrating Sts. Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary and grandparents of Jesus
Ecclesiastes 44: 1,10-15; Matthew 13: 16-17

The first setting in which faith enlightens humanity is the family, declared Pope Francis in his encyclical Lumen Fidei (n. 52).  He further explained that passing on of faith in the family happens in the process of shared expression of faith within the family, helping children to become aware of their faith and grow and mature in it.

Christian faith is always communitarian and it is passed on initially and primarily in the family. Recent studies have shown that on the level of faith being lived (or practiced) in Europe vis-a-vis in India, that one major reason for the degeneration in Europe is the weakening of the institution of the family. Those who hand on faith to us are really God-given. Most important among them, our parents and grandparents who not only give us life but show us also how to live it, from their own experience.

Celebrating a day to remember the parents of Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, provides us an opportunity to remember with thanks these our fore-runners in faith, as the first reading suggests, 'let us praise famous persons, our parents in their generations. These were persons of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten' (Sir 44:1,10). Infact, thanks to them, we are in a position better than them due to their hard work, great example and their dreams for us! Jesus acknowledges that in his words (Mt 13:16-17) and exhorts us to live up to our blessedness, our giftedness, worthy of the faith and tradition that is transmitted to us, from our predecessors.

For the past four years, inspired by Pope Francis' call, we have been holding this day as a grateful remembrance of our grandparents! Pope Francis, had pointed to this day as World Grandparents' Day in the Church, and asked for it to be celebrated on the closest Sunday to the feast we celebrate today, that of Sts. Joachim and Anne. If you have the fortune of having them still with you, give them a bear hug and say a big thanks! And if they are no more, remember them with love and gratitude! Whatever be the case, let us celebrate them!

Called to follow the Contradictions

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 25, 2025: Celebrating St. James the Apostle
2 Corinthians 4: 7-15; Matthew 20: 20-28

We believe, so we speak! That was the watchword of the band of apostles, as St. Paul notes in the first reading today (2Cor 4:13). However, there was a time when even the apostles did not understand what Jesus was upto... they looked at Jesus like any other leader, carrying forward his career! But in time, Jesus made them understand that they are called to follow, a leader who is 'crazy' in the terms of the world, a man who was full of contradictions.

Whoever among you would be the great must be a servant, and who would be the first must be a slave. James and John today become the occasion for Jesus to reinstate his philosophy of life, indeed a tough one. St. Paul understood that philosophy perfectly and he expressed it lucidly when he said, we carry within our bodies the death of Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in us. He says, death was at work in the lives of Apostles, so that life can be experienced by those to whom they carried the message.

When the culture at large would teach that it is important to prevent death and seek life, the apostles seemingly seek death, in order to give life, and behold eternal life! And they invite the others to believe and once they believe, the believers too seek to carry within themselves the death of Jesus, so that the world may receive life in Christ. That is the chain of apostleship that is passed on to us... to be apostles is to carry the death of Jesus within us, that we may ultimately manifest the eternal life in Jesus to the world.

James, the first of the apostles to be put to death (Acts 12:2) bears a resounding witness to this way of life; the life of apostleship, the life of contradiction! 

Seeing and Hearing - Lightening and Thunder

WORD 2day: Thursday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 24, 2025 - Exodus 19: 1-2,9-11,16-20; Matthew 13: 10-17

Happy are your eyes for they see what they see; happy are your ears for they hear what they hear! Israel encountered the Lord, just as Moses did. Moses saw God, the people saw the lightening; Moses heard the Lord speak, the people heard the peals of thunder. They were frightened to the core, while Moses was not. Seeing and hearing are two great faculties that the Lord has given us!

Even spiritually seeing and hearing are wondrous gifts of God. God wishes that we may see: but do we look at God's presence as an illumination of life and its meaning or merely as fearsome lightening? God speaks that we may hear: but do we hear those words or only a noisy thunder? 

Jesus declares it openly, that it is not destroying the traditions that he was intent on, but finding the right rationale behind so many things that we see and hear. If we dont really understand the way the Lord wants us to understand, the revelations that are sent our way will remain only lightening and thunder...but if we are with open eyes and heed our ears, we shall see and hear the Lord, in varied events of our days. 

Are we ready to meet the Lord, to see and to hear... not out of fear, but in awe, respect and love!

To become fertile soli...

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 23, 2025: Exodus 14:21 - 15:1; Matthew 12: 46-50

Those who have ears, let them hear; those who have eyes, let them see; those who have a heart, let them feel... how pained Jesus would have been to say this! The people saw him cure the sick, give sight to the blind, make the deaf hear and the mute speak, drive the demons out and raise people from the dead! In spite of all these the people were not ready to believe him! He was wondering what kind of a heart they had... rocks, or thorny bushes or sandy sidewalks... how he wished they were good fertile soil.

However, Jesus knew what kind of people he was dealing with - the children of the people who saw the plagues one after another in Egypt, but still readily murmured when they saw the Egyptians pursue them; the people who saw the Egyptians perish right in front of their eyes, but still readily murmured when they had nothing to eat; the people who saw the manna fall from nowhere and the quails that fell right into their mouths, but still readily murmured that they would die for want of water; the people who saw water gush forth from a rock in the middle of the desert, but still readily murmured that manna was tasteless and the quails were stale!

Hard and stubborn as they were, nothing pierced their hearts to make it bear fruit as God wanted from them... the warning to us is clear! How prone we are to murmur against God in times of trouble, forgetting the abundance of graces we have received! The capacity to see God's presence in our daily life will decide, whether we are sandy sidewalks or rocky ruins or thorny bushes or as God wants, fertile soil!