WORD 2day

13th November, 2013

The readings seem to converge on one thought today... that the Lord wishes, expects, and demands a response from us! Our God is a self revealing God... through signs and wonders and prophets and wise persons and finally through God's only Son, and continuously even today in and through God's Spirit, God continues to reveal Godself to us in various ways. The more we are given, the more we are expected to respond! It is not that God gives, so that we would repay! No! But it is that, we are given so much, we are filled with such goodness, we receive "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16), that we realise it is right and just to give God thanks and praise! To know the right thing to be done at the right time and choosing to do it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit...we would be blessed to possess it. And the Lord says today, "set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed!" (Wis 6:11). 

WORD 2day

12th November, 2013

The first reading today states a tremendous truth - we are made for eternity, incorruptible by nature, because we carry the image of God within us! That is the fundamental truth of salvation. We are all saved in the core of our being, none of us is destined to destruction, none of us is rushing towards perdition! But we have a responsibility to keep that truth alive, because it all depends on the choices we make. By nature we are God's own children, but if we by our daily decisions and life choices, resolve to break away from God and from the gifts that God has placed within us, we are ruining our own salvific core. We are called every day, every moment to go on living in faith founded on hope and guided by love, to live a life of love and mercy; and at the end of it say, 'we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty!' God who loves us will never desert us, unless we decide to break away from God.

WORD 2day

11th November, 2013: Remembering St. Martin

Holiness is a matter of the innermost being. It does not consist merely of the external signs and shows. Words not said, thoughts not expressed, acts merely contemplated, reactions withheld... these determine my holiness more than what the world around perceives me to be. That is why the strange link between faith and forgiveness in the Gospel today. While Jesus teaches the disciples to forgive brothers and sisters, they respond saying - 'increase our faith!' Can sound strange, but only apparently so! One cannot consider oneself to be a person of faith, holy and spiritual, if one's relationships with others is not right. If faith is relationship with God, forgiveness is relationship with my fellow beings! If the latter fails, the former is meaningless; St. Martin whom we celebrate today was someone who lived this in his life! If we want really to be spiritual, we have to forgive, accept, and love our brothers and sisters, as God does with us! Lets ask the Lord to "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5).

We are people of RESURRECTION

10th November, 2013: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

"And I will raise them up on the last day" declared Jesus regarding those who partook of him. Resurrection is our hope, Resurrection is the foundation of our faith. The crux of the salvation that Jesus offers us is Hope, and hope is the confidence of things that we are yet to receive and the greatest of all that we look forward to is resurrection! This is what Jesus in his incarnate self showed us - he lived his life for God, he died for God and by God he was raised; when we live, we live for God; if we die, we die for God, and we will be risen in the Lord! This is the foundation of our faith; for as St.Paul says, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile" (1 Cor 15:17). The readings today, help us understand what resurrection can mean to us. 

Resurrection is a REWARD, a recompense that God sets before us for the commitment with which we live our life. We come from God, and it is our destiny that we return to God. We are loved into existence by God and we bear God's image in the core of our being. Every day of our life is an opportunity to cherish that image within us and bring it to fulfillment within us. Every person we come across is a companion on this journey and every situation we live through is a means to nudge towards the destiny. There are moments that are trying and those are moments to stride across, as we see in the first reading. When we find ourselves in such moments as those, when we have to choose between God and godlessness, between righteousness and injustice, between good and mediocrity - and we decide to choose God, righteousness, goodness - we can proudly say with St. Paul, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown"(2 Tim 4:7,8).

Resurrection is RECONCILIATION, a reunion with my creator, an experience of my oneness with my God, whose child I am. In the letter to the Colossians, we are told, "you have now been reconciled in the body of his flesh, so as to present you holy and blameless before God provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in faith"(Col 1:22,23). Just this morning some one remarked to me, 'Oh after all, would we live another 25 years!' Absolutely true, that we are on an earthly sojourn and our eternal abode beckons us. That is why St. Paul prays in the second reading today, 'May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.' It is in that love of God and the faithfulness of Christ, that we are assured of 'eternal life' which is participating in the nature of God, who alone is eternal. In our resurrection we become one with God, we are reconciled to God, and we become eternal like God!

Resurrection is REALISATION, a concrete experience of what has been promised. We are called to live as the people of Resurrection. Christians are Easter People... while there is in store the eternal life that has been promised, we are invited to live that resurrection every day, every moment, specially in those moments when we are prone to hopelessness and desperation. We need to realise who we are, we need to realise who our God is! Jesus says of us - "they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection" (Lk 20:35). As Paul explains to the Romans (ch.6), we have died with Christ, in his crucifiction and we will live with him! We are called to live our lives, as people of resurrection, not losing heart on any trial, not giving up at any temptation, not desperate with any failure, not bogged down by any evil - but people filled with hope, comfort, courage, steadfastness, strength and love of God.

We are people of resurrection; let us live our lives mindful of the reward that the Lord has set before us, preserve ourselves holy and blameless to be reconciled to the Lord in eternal life and realise the fruits of that resurrection right here and now, in our daily lives.

Commemorating the Lateran Basilica

9th November, 2013

Today we commemorate the dedication of the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist at the Lateran. This basilica is special because it is one of the four major basilicas of the Church in Rome. It becomes more special because it is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, which is the Holy Father himself.

Moving around in Rome, one can see churches, one mightier than the other, in every other lane of the city. An unofficial statistics says that the city of Rome alone has more than 2500 churches. Though at an apparent observation it might look to be an exaggeration of a period in time, still there is an insight that it can offer. Why did the people go on building churches after churches?

Churches meant for them, not just a place of gathering for worship; if it were merely that, they would surely not have needed so many. Churches, were temples, buildings from where the glory of God shone forth! That is why they built more and more of them, that the glory can shine forth more and more!

Today's readings, and any feast of dedication of a Church, remind us of this important vocation that we have. From the temple of the Lord goes forth the glory of that Lord, "and that temple you are!" (1 Cor 3:17). From the temple of the Lord flows the water which gives life, which brings healing, we read from Ezekiel today! From our lives, from our words, from our acts, from our very being, should flow the grace of God towards others! 

Jesus sets us the example, by being so conscious of being the Temple of the Lord. If we are his brothers and sisters, if we are to be known as his disciples, we need to be conscious too, that we are God's temple and God's spirit dwells in us (1 Cor 3:16)!

WORD 2day

8th November, 2013

Living life as a ministry - this was the inspiration that sprang within me reflecting on the Word today. Ofcourse, it is easy to brush it aside saying its a 'clerical' or 'priestly' or religious' way of thinking. But looking at the readings of today we can understand the words that Pope Francis has repeated in several modes: We cannot be part time Christians. We are called to live our life as persons of God every moment of our life, at home, in the neighbourhood, at work, on the way, in company, alone or at Church! If not, we will be caught unawares at a moment when we will have to frantically set things right as the dismissed steward does in the parable today. We should work out our own salvation, as St.Paul says to the Philippians Phil 2:12), not only in fear and trembling, but on a daily basis living our life with a consciousness that we are sent with a definite mandate, a concrete call by God to be God's stewards, to be sons and daughters of God in the world.

WORD 2day

7th November, 2013

God never gives up on us! Like the shepherd who lost his sheep and the woman who lost her coin, the Lord is after us, in search of us every time that we get ourselves lost. That a Christian should never lose sight of this fact, is what St.Paul wants to impress on us today. That has two major implications: First of all, never to give up on ourselves, because there is someone who believes in us, there is someone who loves us come what may, there is someone who is constantly present with us participating in every moment of our life - be it success or failure, joy or sadness, life or death! Secondly, it implies that we give up on none of our brothers or sisters, because there is someone who loves them unfathomably and we have no right to judge them on our whims and fancies. I am invited to trust, that God believes in me more than I myself do, and that God believes in my brothers and sisters as much as God believes in me! 

WORD 2day

6th November, 2013

'The fullness of law is love,' says St. Paul today. It can be confusing apparently if both the readings of today are taken together. The first speaks of the primacy of love and the Gospel says, unless you hate your father and mother, spouse and children... Aren't they contrary to each other? No... they are not contrary but complementary. The first reading with no dubious terms establishes the primacy of love and speaks of loving one's neighbour. The problem arises with the verb "hate" in the Gospel... which bible scholars say is a simplified (infact over-simplified) translation of the word in the original text which would actually mean, "to love less". The point is made. Christian love draws from God - God has to be the foundation for any love and that cannot be overlooked! When God is overlooked, "love" can dissipate itself into 'liking', into a mere objectification, a desire to possess, a seeking of self gratification. Even our so-called 'most-loving choices' should be checked in these terms: Is God at its foundation?

WORD 2day

5th November, 2013

Jesus has the table spread; where the saints of God are fed; he invites his chosen people come and dine! The spread that Jesus has is joy, hope, love, sharing, caring, helping, encouragement, honour, respect, service, hospitality, empathy - all that we see in the first reading, from Paul's letter to the Romans (a  profile of a perfect Christian from chapter 12). But we are too busy with our own choices, too busy setting ourselves up, towards selfishness, envy, pride, jealousy, insensitivity, avarice, competition, hatred, enmity... we choose not to pick from the spread that Jesus has - but later blame the Lord, complain against the Lord when things go wrong! It takes courage to choose God, to say 'yes' to God's invitation and partake in God's banquet. Only when we dare do that we can meaningfully pray the verse from the responsorial today, "In you, O Lord, I have found my peace!"

Life... a gift and a mystery!

Nera...one of my guppy friends in the room, gave birth to her young ones...
had the extraordinary opportunity of witnessing it live...
here I share with you one moment... 
a moment of awe! and a moment to praise the Lord of life!

click here: FOR VIDEO
nera giving birth