WORD 2day

31st May, 2013

Mary visits Elizabeth... the just chosen Mother of God goes with haste travelling all the way through the hill country to her cousin Elizabeth.. to be of service to her and to give praise to God for the marvel the Lord has done for her and her cousin! Today the lectionary gives a choice of first readings...Zeph 3 or Romans12:19-16... I wish we choose to reflect on the letter to the Romans...Zephaniah is good, but stops with an indication to Mary as the favoured 'daughter of Zion'. Mary is much more... some one who loved genuinely, some one who held fast to good, someone who outdid everyone in showing affection and honour, some one who rejoiced in her hope, someone who was constant in her prayer, someone who rejoiced with those who rejoiced and wept with those who wept and above all, someone who served the Lord (in serving the brothers and sisters)...only a person who is ready to serve the others, can be called 'unconceited'...and only such a modest person can heartily sing, 'My soul magnifies the Lord...he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid'... The message is clear... to imitate this first Christ-ian... to follow her footsteps to holiness... to strain ourselves and go in haste towards our brothers and sisters to be of service... to be her worthy children, to be truly brothers and sisters of her son, Jesus Christ!

WORD 2day

30th May, 2013

To see is a task, a life task. All the while that we are, we think we see, but infact we may not. Seeing what we want to see, is not seeing! Yes, I see, but just what I can. The world around me has more to be seen, more to be observed, more to be marveled at, more to be celebrated and more to be grateful for. With a mind so centered on myself and my concerns, it becomes increasingly difficult to see and all that is out there cries to be seen, marveled at, be thanked for. It's grace that enables me to see... to see the works of the Lord, the marvels of the Lord's Word, the splendour of the Lord's wisdom ... it is the Lord who enables me to see! And Bartimaeus reminds me of what has to be my constant prayer - 'Master, let me receive my sight.'  Let me receive my sight, that I may be able to see beyond myself, beyond my own concerns and well beyond my tiny little world - yes Lord..that I may see!

WORD 2day

29th May 2013

Jesus had a tough task to accomplish! He had to deconstruct the whole lot of conceptual contraptions that were in place when he lived among the people. Like we hear from Sirach, a longing to see the destruction of those who persecute, a impatience to behold the fall of the unjust, the restlessness to witness the death of the wrongdoers and the rise of the chosen ones...these were rooted deep within the psyche of the people then. Wait a second... why do we talk of those people...let's think of ourselves today! Don't I complain against the flourishing corrupt and the languishing innocent? Am I not restless to see the wrongdoers punished right in from of my eyes! Don't I long to see the fall of those who seem to be on the top of the world looking down on everyone else, with such contempt and condescension! May be Jesus even today has the same tough task, the same incomprehensible logic to teach...to be servant and to be the least...to serve and not to be served. It's a tough call to be a Christ-ian. 

WORD 2day

28th May 2013

Giving... giving is of various types... giving from what I have, giving from what I need, giving from what I am! Specially when it comes to giving the Lord, the highest mode of giving is from what I am. And when i give from what I am, I am not aware of it. When I am so conscious of what I give to the Lord - some times it happens - I give and keep reminding the Lord that I have given... When I know and remember that I have given, infact I haven't given! I am still holding on; I still possess. Like that Master who told the king, who offered him a present to be accepted as a disciple, "drop it!" Even after the king dropped the present, the Master kept repeating "drop it", until the king realised the Master did not ask him to drop the present but to drop that "I", the ego, that gave the present. It is in our nothingness we are most valuable before the Lord. That is why the teacher in Sirach suggests, do not offer him a bribe..or an unrighteous sacrifice...with him there is no partiality. Let our offering to the Lord today be our whole self, the simple self, our nothingness!

WORD 2day

27th May 2013

Hoarding wealth, heaping treasures, gaining profits, bank balance and swollen wallets... these seem to be the dreams proposed for a 'normal' person today! And to have these realised, a person seems to go to any extent... cheating, fraudulence, betrayal, letting down, perfidy and even killing and devastation find their place in today's world. And to some one who wishes to remain sane and distant from such craze, the world seems a strange place. Before long, they begin to feel discourage and distraught. It is to them the Lord speaks today. To those, whose endurance is failing, the Word speaks today and them, it wants to encourage! One  may wonder what would happen to these who are termed 'idiots' and 'good for nothing'... to them is the Reign of God promised. You wish to know how that would be made possible: "for all things are possible for God!"

We are the IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF THE TRIUNE GOD

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

26th May 2013

The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity is not merely a celebration of the Mystery of what God is, but it is a reminder of WHAT WE ARE!

We are the Image and Likeness of God... We are created in the image and likeness of God and We are called to be the image and likeness of the Triune God...for the world today.

To be the Image of the Father: FAITH, 

that is...

... to reflect God's PARENTHOOD in the stewardship we show towards the creation and the care we extend to each other as brothers and sisters! Humaneness comes from here.

... to possess the PATIENCE that God has with us, creating us, making a covenant with us and open and merciful every time we break that covenant! Forgiveness sprouts here.

To be the likeness of the Son: HOPE,

that is...

... to live with the OPTIMISM of a child, to see in all that happens and despite all that happens around us, the mysterious presence of God! Serenity springs here.

... to submit in OBEDIENCE like a real disciple; for one who loves obeys the commandments as Christ obeyed the Father! Salvation sprouts here.

To be the likeness of the Spirit: LOVE,

that is...

... to be filled with COMPASSION, to burn with love for the other, leading to action that manifests faith and hope within! Mission begins here.

... to create COMMUNION of hearts wherever one is, fighting against all source of division, discrimination and discord! People of God are born here.

May God today make us Exemplars of Faith. Hope and Love!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit...Now and forever. Amen.

O my divine Bread from heaven!

WORD 2day

25th May 2013

'Their ways are always before him, they will not be hid from his eyes.'

The verse from the first reading says it all...like a mother who has her eyes always on her child, as she is about all her odd jobs...always looking at what the child is upto, what the child is playing with and what the child needs...that is how God looks at each of us...telling us, as another verse says, "beware of unrighteousness". The readings remind us of our origins.. We are from the hands of a God who has loved us into existence! We were children... all of us, we were children so innocent and pure and to be always that, is our call. To remain children...  not meaning merely weak and vulnerable, but being totally dependent on God, truly simple and innocent and spontaneously loving towards each other. Let us heed the call and inherit the Reign of God.

FEAST OF MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS

24th May... Mary Help of Christians...

These are terms that are so so sweet to the ears of any salesian! Don Bosco's Madonna, Our Lady Help of Christians, is celebrated today with so much joy and gratitude for the guidance and providence felt through her all through the year and all through the life of a salesian. 

At times, I have felt (as I do even now), that the title Mary Help of Christians, is a bit too sectarian and fanatic sounding. However, the term has a historical significance that cannot be denied or done away with. It is not merely a title but a faith expression of a people of a particular period of time, who experienced God's closeness to them through a special intervention of the Blessed Mother of God. 

The battle of Lepanto won in the 16th century was a victory of the Christians over the Muslim oppressors; and Don Bosco's experience of a ever present mother in the Blessed Mother, specially when the Waldensian anti-catholics were up against him, made him polemic about the Lady help of Christians. For a Salesian today this experience is not merely handed down from Don Bosco as a tradition, but experienced and shared on a daily basis with a presence of this Mother, so close and caring. The invocation Mary Help of Christians, Pray for us...could be traced back right up to John Chrysostom of the 4th century, historically seen from the 16th century; but is identified with a spirituality lived and passed on by Don Bosco to his sons and daughters.

Though today many, like me, substitute this invocation with a neutral 'Mary Our help', the original title evokes a specific faith experience that underlies an affectionate relationship a Christian should have towards this Heavenly mother so graciously gifted to us by the Saviour. Mary Help of Christians, Pray for us.

WORD 2day

24th May 2013

Relationships of true love... are signs of the presence of God! The readings today invite us to a reflection on this dimension of our daily life. The first reading draws our attention to a 'faithful' friend and the Gospel speaks of the faithfulness that should exist between two persons brought together in holy matrimony. Faithfulness is the key, to understand the Word today. God made the covenant with the people and till the end God remained faithful to that covenant. Hosea draws a parallel to this faithfulness of God, by projecting Israel as the spouse of God, but an unfaithful one at that. Faithfulness can make us in ordinary life, a shelter, a price-less gift to the other, a life-saving remedy; and in faith life it can make us worthy of God! In a time when we see all around us breach of trusts, breakage of hearts and bribery made a rule, Faithfulness is the imprint of God within our beings!