Rich in God's sight

WORD 2day: Monday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 20, 2025: Romans 4:20-25; Luke 12:13-21

Storing up treasures for oneself versus being rich in God's sight - is the contrast that the Gospel presents us today! Being rich by the standards of the world, or at least having more than just enough, seems to be the driving force for a big majority in the present day context. At times one is dumbstruck looking at how one has wealth as much much as a whole village and another at the very same time, has not enough to be assured of the next meal. This is no strange fact today's world - that is how is the world is, they say without shame or shock!

Storing up wealth, however, is not easy - work, fatigue, stress, competition, strain, pain, sacrifice, fight, strife... it involves all these and more. Being rich in God's sight - consists of just one thing, one single thing - to remain still in God's presence! Through darkness and cloud, through storm and turbulence, 'be still and know that I am God' (Ps 46:10). 

Abraham, through all moments of probable doubt and hopelessness, "grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God" says the letter to the Romans. That was reckoned to him as righteousness! Through our daily work and responsibilities, concerns and discouragements, struggles and temptations, let us learn to 'be still' and 'grow strong in faith'! 

As we go about out daily duties and demanding responsibilities, let us remember that we are upto these tasks because God has willed it so. If that is truly the case, God shall give us the grace to see ourselves through them too. Let us be ever convinced that God is capable of doing what God has promised - that will make us rich and blessed in the sight of God. 

WITH HANDS RAISED UNTO THE LORD

Missionaries of Hope among all peoples!

Mission Sunday: 29th Sunday in Ordinary time - October 19, 2025

Exodus 17:8-13; 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:2; Luke 18:1-8

Work as if everything depended on you; Pray as if nothing depended on you, goes the popular saying. Today we have a wonderful image to place before us, as we go about our daily life. Moses on the hill overlooking the battle, with hands raised unto the Lord! The battle belongs to the Lord... all that we need to do is keep still, the Lord will fight for us says the book of Exodus (14:14).

We are called to live our life with our hands raised unto the Lord!

Living with hands raised unto the Lord is a gesture that means to abandon everything into the hands of God. It is a total personal abandonment to the Lord, that the Lord may guide us and that the Lord may fight the battle for us! Many grow weary of struggles and temptations in life... when Moses' hands were raised, Israel won!

The book of Proverbs tells us, 'the horse is made ready for the battle; but the victory belongs to the Lord!'(Prov. 21:31). When we learn to abandon ourselves in the hands of God, we will see the wonders that can happen. The more we stick on to ourselves as the source of energy and victory, the more we could get stressed, depressed and discouraged. These instances are today, becoming more and more as human mind in its pride thinks of any dependence as below dignity, even the dependence on God! Is not interdependence among fellow beings and total dependence on God, that would make us truly human!

Living with hands raised unto the Lord is to reach out to the Lord with all our heart. It is like the antenna that stretches to connect, to receive and to communicate. That is in short, 'prayer' - to connect, to receive and to communicate. How many times we rattle off prayers, with the formula we have memorised from time immemorial! Even the so-called spontaneous prayers, how many times it is like the warning from the Lord: heaping up empty words and phrases! Do we really pray, or say prayers?

Let us pay attention to the term that seems common in today's readings: pray without ceasing tells Jesus presenting to us the image of the widow; proclaim in season and out of season instructs St. Paul; and the first reading presents to us Moses unwilling to grow weary of having his hands raised unto to the Lord. A two fold call here: first, not to grow weary... like the widow to go on in trust, with our hands raised unto the Lord; second, when a brother or sister seems to grow weary, to rush to their side like Aaron and Hur and to be with them and to raise our hands in unison unto the Lord. A praying person builds a praying community of brothers and sisters, genuinely concerned about each other!

Living with the hands raised unto the Lord is to be filled with hope in the Lord; to live as Missionaries of hope among all peoples - as the message of the Holy Father for this Mission Sunday invites us. Like it happened to the widow, it may look like you might never get justice. Like it happened to the Israelites, it might look like you are losing the battle. Things may continuously go wrong, people might endlessly misunderstand you, nothing might seem to be going the way you wished it would..."But as for you, continue, in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it"...from Jesus himself who hoped in the One who sent him, from our Blessed mother who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord! 

In the battle of our daily living, every day of our life, every moment of our day, let us resolve to live with our hands raised unto to the Lord in a holy abandonment, in a loving union and in an unfailing hope... so that when Our Lord and Saviour comes he will still find faith here amidst us!

Faith and what follows...

WORD 2day: Friday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 17, 2025: Romans 4: 1-8; Luke 12: 1-7

Faith is a gift, a gratuitous gift from God! My part is to grow in it. The more I grow in it, the more I realise how undeserving I am of it. Abraham was granted this gift and he grew tremendously worthy of it. Paul was granted this gift and he fought a brave fight to become worthy of it. 

Jesus accuses those who throw those pearls of faith to the swines of their ego and self centered thinking. If I have received this gift of faith, should I not be grateful for it and mindful enough to keep growing in it. Can I be boasting about it and mindlessly acting contrary to it? Jesus is warning us about something that would not look apparently like an aberration of faith, but in fact leads us gradually away from what true faith is all about - 'the yeast' of the Pharisees, that Jesus mentions in the Gospel today.

Taking my faith to be a reason for my pride, judging everyone else who does not partake of it; calling names at people who have a faith different from mine merely because of the difference and treating them with despite; making faith a means to make my living instead of making it my life and journeying genuinely towards my eternal life...these are somethings that I need to be on the guard about! 

Let us remind ourselves every day: faith is the greatest of gifts given to me, and I need to grow in it every day, every moment.

One God and the Bloodshed!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 28th week in Ordinary time
October 16, 2025: Romans 3: 21-30; Luke 11: 47-54

There is only one God... so finishes the first reading of today! We beleive in One God! Belief in one God seems to be a disturbing fact for many who think it is a point of contention - that those who believe in One God, have a point to prove against those who believe in a God different from theirs. But is this so? The Word today gives us a totally different perspective of belief in One God.

First of all, this perspective is more catholic than divisive! Believing in One God is a catholic perspective... not the technical term refering to the Catholic Church - but the literal meaning of the term 'catholic' which means 'all-embracing'. Believing in one God, challenges me to embrace everyone who is around me, because I firmly believe my God invites me to love all, because every one is created by the only God that I beleive in. I cannot look at a person as divided from me, however different his or her faith could be.

Secondly, this perspective makes me believe in universal brotherhood and sisterhood... as every one is my brother or sister, given to me by my God to love and share my life with. I cannot find in the other a rival or an alien or a stranger, much less an enemy!

Thirdly, laws and regulations, legalities and formalities, red tapism and border controversies, cannot stop me from being merciful and loving to the other. Believing in one God means I believe in the same God who is sovereign over all, the same God who loves all, the same God who cares for all.

And therefore, due to any reason, worst of it being the reason of faith or religion, if I cause or condone the bloodshed of a brother or sister of mine, I shall be the worst of hypocrites here on earth and the least in the Reign of that One, Supreme, loving God whom I believe in.

Righteousness, Self-righteousness and Judgements

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 15, 2025: Remember St. Teresa of Avila

Romans 2: 1-11, Luke 11: 42-46

Let us begins with an interesting episode narrated about the saint of the day - St. Teresa of Avila, who was fond of identifying herself as Sr. Teresa of Jesus. One day when she was about to climb the stairs within her convent, she found a small little boy playing on the steps. The boy asked her: "who are you?" She answered, "I am Sr. Teresa of Jesus. And who are you?" The boy retorted, "I am Jesus of Sr. Teresa" and disappeared! Yes, the Lord loves each of us in a unique and specific manner. But the Word today, has a different message to give: 

God has no favourites, says the first reading and Jesus demonstrates that in the Gospel. Neither in being close and accompanying, nor in providing a sense of righteousness (corrections and directions), does God differentiate between persons. The differences arise only in the way we receive or not, what the Lord wishes to communicate to us. In none of these are we judged by God - we are judged by our own judgements! Judge not and you shall not be judged said Jesus. And we hear today, Paul saying its corollary: judge and you shall be judged too, with the same measure and rigour!

Jesus spared no one - whether it was the pharisees or the lawyers or the chief priests or Herod or Pilate - everyone got their share! As much as Jesus was compassionate with the sinners, the publicans and the samaritans, he was stern with the Pharisees and the Saducees - was it a bias? Certainly no! They were in no way judgements passed on those people, but they were an appeal to their conscience to change their ways towards righteousness. It was done with concern for their salvation.

Understanding the discourse between the religious bigwigs of his time and Jesus, we see there were two things involved: Righteousness that Jesus insisted so much upon; and the Self-righteousness that Jesus detested in them! The thin line between Righteousness and Self righteousness has to be trodden with diligent care.

Judgements arise from self righteousness, where I consider myself one-up and sit on the tribunal looking down on others. While righteousness makes one just and loving, non-judgemental and compassionate, humble and impartial, and above all, lovable! It is God's righteousness that makes God the most lovable of all persons we can think of. And the love that we have for God, challenges us to grow towards that same Righteousness, from our tendency to self-righteousness.

The Light of Integrity

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 28th Week in Ordinary time

October 14, 2025: Romans 1: 16-25; Luke 11: 37-41

The terminology used by Paul today sounds very practical, warning us that there are no excuses one can give for not recognising the hand of God in and through the immensity of the reality around. And added to that, when it comes to me and God, I don't need to have proofs and justifications and evidences that I believe in God or not. Because God knows the innermost thoughts of mine and I need not be bothered about my presentations and formulations. This is the fundamental element of what we call 'integrity'... Having the least discrepancy between my inner self and my external behaviour, between my convictions and what I engage myself in on a daily basis, between what really matters for me and what I present myself as to others!

Jesus uses simple terms for that in the Gospel - inside and outside! Let both be clean he says... I can have no excuses when it comes to my inner self, for I stand convicted before God who knows the innermost thoughts. The question which is more important - inside or outside, is a psuedo question! Jesus says when your inside is pure and holy, automatically your outisde begins to glow, like a light lit on the hilltop.

The many saints that we celebrate as our examples and intercessors, were people like us, but they were incomparable in their integrity. They were ready to give of their whole self to God - not just part time and not just a stage show or a dramatic performance. When I do all that I do, with true consciousness and sincere acceptance of why I do it, I am on the first step towards integrity. I need to constantly purify myself towards that integrity that will reveal God's image within me.

In spite of the beasts of this world, the attractions and the pressures that surround me, help me Lord to grow in my personal integrity!

The call and the reminders...

WORD 2day: Monday, 28th Week in Ordinary time

October 13, 2025: Romans 1: 1-7; Luke 11: 29-32

The first reading today speaks to us about our call to belong to Christ, our call to be holy and our obedience of faith. At times we forget this fundamental call as we live our daily life and all its responsibilities, getting lost in programmes and daily chores. We get so used to our life as Christians or as Religious, that it doesnt make any concrete difference in us! Gradually we lose track of our fundamental call, and go after things that matter nothing to our salvation, some of them even detrimental to it. We become so callous to our failures and disorientation that we do not even realise we are going farther and farther away from our destined goal: our sanctification.

One thing we are aware is that we can never justify our act, our choices or our priorities when they go against this call that we have received. First of all because we are given reminders after reminders, through persons, situations, events and experiences. Secondly because the Lord comes to us in person to remind us that we belong to God, that we have a whole life journey to make with  God on our side.

The Gospel offers us models by way of the people of Nineveh and Queen of Sheba, people who were so attentive to these signs and reminders that they instantly picked up the message that God was giving them. They recognised the voice of the Lord and Word that was brought to them, took the utmost effort to respond to their specific call.

That is the reminder given to me today: to know how much have I grown in responding to the call that the Lord has given me personally, the call to belong to Christ, the call to be holy, the call to my personal sanctification!

THE GREAT ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

The touchstone of sanctity

October 12, 2025: 28th Sunday in Ordinary time
2 Kings 5: 14-17; 2 Timothy 2: 8-13; Luke 17: 11-19

Spiritual life is made of a set of attitudes that make up who we are! The touchstone of an authentically spiritual person lies in the virtue that the Word of God speaks to us of today: the great attitude of Gratitude... gratitude for every goodness that one experiences, gratitude to the Source of all that one has and one is - God! "What do you have that you did not receive?" asks St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:7).

Gratitude is born of a Humble Recognition of God! Namaan was asked to dip in river Jordan and he felt offended because his pride ruled his will. But when he listens to that word from the Man of God, humbling himself for that moment, he recognised the presence of the Mighty God. It is only when I am humble, I recognise God and that recognition of God makes me more humble!

Gratitude is expressed in Grateful Submission to God! An authentic outcome of immense gratitude is total submission to God for the marvels that God has done to us. We see the man in the Gospel, just one out of the ten of them - "he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks" (v.16). What happened to the rest? Either they did not realise they were healed or they did not realise that the healing was a gift! This Samaritan heart realised the gratuitous miracle and recognised the hand of God - and the result was, a grateful submission at the feet of Jesus.

Gratitude leads to a Faithful Perseverance in God's ways! "Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well" (v.19) says Jesus, commissioning him to be an apostle to the World. That is the commission we receive every time we experience the grace of God in our personal lives - to go into the world and share the word of God, 'that the word of God may not be fettered' (cf. 2 Tim 2:9). It is the gratitude for the goodness that we have experienced in the Lord that makes us persevere, amidst all troubles and trials we might face. Our perseverance is not so much because we are faithful to the Lord, as because the Lord is faithful to us, reminds St. Paul in the second reading (2 Tim 2:13).

A grateful heart is a humble heart and a humble person will ever be a faithful person and faithfulness gives one the courage and strength to persevere. Learning to look at our daily life and recognise the miracles that happen in abundance; putting up with daily crosses with the image of the Crucified Saviour in our hearts; placing ourselves each day at the feet of Jesus to be sent into the world as messengers of his loving Word - that is growing into Spiritual Persons. Let us heed the call of the Word today, to increase our sense of gratitude and grow into authentic spiritual persons!

Catch up with the Reign

WORD 2day: Friday, 27th week in Ordinary time

October 10, 2025: Joel 1:13-15,2:1-2; Luke 11: 15-26

The easiest way to get rid of someone from the world is to demonise that person! This is what the Political Super Powers today keep trying. If they feel the need to eliminate someone, they feel like demolishing another nation or they feel like doing away with a movement, the easiest way they follow is, to demonise them - call them names like evil, violent, terrorists, outlaws, rebels and so on - and get the whole world look at them as being a personification of evil. Then what remains is to get rid of the so-called evil!

This happens in all walks of life. Why do you think the fundamentalist pentecostal groups keep calling the Apostolic Catholic Church names and comparing it to the Antichrist? The sad thing is, even within our Catholic community of faith, there are those who care about nothing but their puritan rules and rigour, and hardly about true faith and real God-experience, who at times start such demonising acts, creating schismatic sentiments within the Church, opposing the Holy Father or finding fault in whatever is proposed towards more meaningful living of the Church. This is unfortunately an experience so often visited in the recent past.

The Lord warns us today: you will be lagging behind, while the Kingdom of God would have overtaken you. Catch up with the Reign. Revelation is progressive, everyday the Lord keeps revealing to us, the way to get closer and closer to the Lord. Everything that happens, all the situations of humanity are but signs of God's revelation and a call to get closer to the Reign, by becoming more and more like the Merciful Father, like the Observant Son and like the Illumining Spirit. If we lose track of it, we shall certainly lag behind.

It is necessary today, to open our ears, eyes and our hearts, and understand what is going on around us in the light of the Wisdom of the Lord. That alone shall enable us to catch up with the Reign!

Prayers, Questions and Answers

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 27th week in Ordinary time

October 8, 2025 - Jonah 4: 1-11; Luke 11: 1-4

At times persons, when they are faced with problems, difficulties and enormous burdens, they tend to throw numerous questions at the Lord - for they know they have no one else to question about what is happening in their life. But later when things settle down, they thinking of all that and feel bad, saying 'I am so ashamed of myself. I asked the Lord so many questions when I went through those troubles!" But should it be the case? Truly speaking, "it need not be! and it should not be!" There is nothing to be confused about, here! The idea here seems perfectly fitting as a reflection on the Word today.

Can I question the Lord? Is that prayerful at all?

What else could be more prayerful? It is not wrong to ask questions to the Lord. But it is important to wait for the answer. What would be a mistake is, that we ask questions and move away from the Lord, abandon the Lord, quit the presence of the Lord. That is the problem most of us give in to.

Ask whatever question you want to, because the Lord is your Father and Mother who loves you above all. But after asking the question, remain there till the Lord answers you, as the Lord answered Jonah today. The answer will come, now, later, much later, God alone knows when, but it will come. Because God answers prayers, that is, God answers the question your raise in prayer! God will surely answer...wait!

Praying can very well be asking questions, but only when you are determined to get an answer from the Lord, whatever time it takes! For God's is the kingdom, God's is the power, God's is the glory for evermore!