Return! To the Fullness of the Father!

THE WORD IN ADVENT - First Tuesday

December 3, 2019: Remembering St. Francis Xavier

Isaiah 11: 1-10; Luke 10: 21-24

A day to thank God for the great missionary St. Francis Xavier, who is so much connected to the growth of Christian faith in India and Japan; an evangeliser and catechist par excellence. 

Talking of faith and growing in faith, in a context like India, I have wondered often, and I am sure you have too, that at school, in the neighbourhood, as children we have always grown up with so many different people, different in their faith, different in their customs etc. but always grown up as friends and neighbours, sharing lives, sharing festivities and sharing our brotherhood and sisterhood as one humanity. From where then does hatred come, if this unity and fellowship is so natural? 

On the Lord's mountain, there is no hurt or harm, no killing or violence, no manipulation or deception. That is the fullness with which the Father made the whole world. The New heaven and New earth, has to be modelled on this - on the fullness of the Father. Hence it is not inventing something new, but going to the roots, a returning to the Father. 

This is of course found  naturally with children and those persons with a simple child-like heart. Jesus awes at these...the children and those who are children at heart: "for theirs is the Reign of God!" (Mt 19:14). Woe to those who cause these little ones to stumble, make them learn hatred and grow inhuman...(cf.Mt 18:6). To bring Good news, as Francis Xavier did, is not to brandish a brute superiority or instill a sense of inferiority and fear but sharing a sense of fullness, the fullness of the Father. It is growing to be peacemakers, children of God, persons of love... to Return to the fullness of the Father as true people of the Reign!

WORD 2day

2nd December, 2013

One of the concrete expressions of faith is, total confidence that the Lord has the power to act on my behalf! The readings today explain this reality to us in a splendid manner. Isaiah infuses hope into the people in exile that the Lord will bring back their glory to them, that the Lord will forgive all their iniquities, cleanse them and heal them! He is building up their shattered faith, the faith that Jesus notices in the centurion, a non-Israelite, a 'pagan' according to the Jews... Jesus sees the confidence that the centurion had in Jesus' power to heal that servant at home. Work-stress, family problems, personal crises, misunderstandings, relationship issues, daily concerns, discouragements, health issues... when we are faced with these - we need to have an unassailable confidence that Our Lord has the power to act on our behalf. Let us pray for the strength of faith, to say as the centurion does today: "Lord, only say a word, and your servant will be healed!"

RETURN TO THE REIGN

1st December, 2013: New Liturgical Year - 1st Sunday of Advent

Let us begin with wishing each other a blessed New liturgical year! And right at the outset the Lord invites us today, to RETURN to the REIGN of God. The Church is the sign and the sacrament of the Reign of God. We are the Church, the people of God! Therefore we are expected to be the signs, the bearers, the heralds of the Reign of God today to the world. And how can this happen if we are not people of the Reign, if we are not mindful of ushering in the Reign of God here on earth, or making the Reign felt concretely, if we do not really believe in what Christ said: 'The Reign of God is amidst you!' (Lk 17:21) Hence, the invitation today, to return to the Reign is basically a wake up call, to wake up to the reality, to wake up to our real identity, to wake up to our dignity as the People of the Reign and to live up to that identity on a daily basis.

It is an invitation to CLIMB the mountain of the Lord... yes, to walk in the way of the Lord, to walk in the light of the Lord...as the first reading repeats in different words. It is fundamentally an invitiation to climb, to go up, infact to grow up. We are invited to go up, grow up, above our tendencies of conflict and our feelings of rivalry and jealousy, above our petty considerations of ourselves and self centered strivings for pleasure. It is a call to transcend what is popularly considered to be 'desirable' and reach the thinking worthy of the Reign - where swords can turn into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks; where all manipulation and exploitation will give into genuine love and sincere goodwill for the other.

It is an invitation to CONDUCT ourselves worthy of the Reign. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, invites us St. Paul. And in doing it, let's not wait for an opportune moment... for "now is the acceptable time, now is the time of salvation!" (2 Cor 6:2). Waiting for another moment will be a mistake, a blunder, a foolishness on our part. Let us make the choice, a choice for God, a choice for the light, a choice for the good, a choice to be awake, a choice to be the people of the Reign. Let us not blame the world, the society, the times... the choice is ours, and let us make it now - To accept the invitation of the Lord and "walk in the light of the Lord"(Is 2:5). We will find the joy that the Lord can give, the joy that the Light can shed, the joy that cannot be taken away from us, and in that joy we will find the Reign of God amidst us!

It is an invitation to CELEBRATE the Reign of God amidst us, not waiting to reach the end but celebrating it all the way. Advent is not a preparation towards a celebration, it is a celebration in itself, a celebration of the peace, the prosperity, the security and the salvation that the Lord brings us. The Reign of God becomes a reality when we celebrate our love and joy together as brothers and sisters in the Lord. This is the meaning of the phrase, All the way to heaven is heaven! As we pray in the responsorial psalm, we are walking, walking towards the Reign, but all through the way we are called to celebrate the Reign of God..celebrate the love we share, celebrate the equality we have, celebrate the justice we stand for, celebrate the brotherhood and sisterhood that we work to establish forever - that celebration is returning to the Reign!

As we begin the year, and the wonderful season of Advent, let us pay heed to the invitation from the Lord - to Climb the mountain of the Lord, to Conduct ourselves worthy of the Reign and in that joy, to Celebrate the Reign of God, every day in our relationships in our family, in our communities, in our parish, in our localities and wherever we are. May the joy of the Gospel, the joy of the Reign, fill our hearts all through this new year. 

WORD 2day

30th November, 2013: Remembering St. Andrew, the Apostle.

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" St.Paul quotes this word from the scripture (from Is 52:7), to insist upon the blessedness of being an apostle of the Lord, being sent to bear forth the word to the others. We celebrate St. Andrew, the apostle today - a person who just left everything and followed the Lord "immediately" when he was called; and according to the Gospel of St. John, he was the first one to announce to someone else, "we have found the Messiah" and he was the one who brought Peter to the Lord (Jn 1:40,41). This commemoration reminds us yet again our call to be proclaimers of the goodnews to the world... each of us, without any exception, ofcourse each in our own way. We will do well here to remember the words of St.Francis of Assisi, 'Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.'

WORD 2day

29th November, 2013

The final word will always be the Lord's! Calamities, Persecutions, Demoralisation these are what we see in the case of all those who had to pay with their blood, the price for their faith in Christ. The first reading foretells the same, finishing however with a note of hope on the eternal dominion of the Son of Man. The Gospel reaffirms the hope, from the mouth of the very object of that hope: the Word made flesh. Perseverance is a virtue in imitation of the faithfulness of God. 'Let us never grow tired of doing what is right' (2 Thes 3:13), as the Lord himself who never gets tired of loving us!

WORD 2day

28th November, 2013

From the lions' mouth the Lord delivers Daniel. In the Joy of the Gospel, the exhortation that the Holy Father has just released, he explains, a Christian has to be joyful but that joy will not be experienced in the same way all the time. Today's readings present us with the same message. At times there will be troubles that threaten to overpower us, temptations that tend to drown us, sinful tendencies that vouch to ruin us, concerns that refuse to leave us... but even at the worst of these moments a true Christian will not lose heart, will never give up! Because at the core of his or her heart, there is joy, the joy that Christ gives, a joy that no one or nothing can take away(Jn 16:22)!  That is infact what Jesus tells us today in the Gospel - even if you find yourself at the mouth of a lion, or at the threshold of destruction, or at the brink of death - all that you need to do is - believe in the Lord, trust in the mercy of God and "stand up and hold your heads high, for your liberation is at hand!"

WORD 2day

27th November, 2013

"The writing on the wall" - the familiar phrase in English, has its origin in the first reading today. The meaning is very clear and that is precisely the message of the Word today. It is clear to all of us even as we choose things on a daily basis, to what consequences they will lead us. None of us can claim a total ignorance while most of us do not want to really accept the fact that we do know the consequences of our choices; unfortunately we feign ignorance and desperately look for someone or something to blame it on. In all sincerity we know, what we sow, we reap. Our choices of negative tendencies like manipulation, disrespect, abuse, violence and exploitation cannot but lead to situations of hopelessness, darkness and death - King Belshazzar is sadly made aware of it today by Daniel. But there is yet another writing on the wall that is presented: Jesus says, if you choose to belong to me, if you choose to be called my disciples, if you choose to respond to my call, you will be derided, persecuted and even killed, but do not fear; in your endurance you would have won life, life in all its fullness, life in the very author of life, life everlasting!

THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL

The first Apostolic Exhortation from Pope Francis: EVANGELII GAUDIUM

Pope Francis presents to the Church the reflections on the basis of the Synod held last year on the theme of New Evangelisation. At an immediate glance this exhortation is the key note address of his papacy... as we know by now in his first 258 days (until today)... the oft repeated sentiments are - never losing Hope, total trust in the Mercy of God, never ending Forgiveness of God, going to the Peripheries in search of the last, least and the lost... these are all joyful presentation of the Gospel... the Holy Father emanates the same joy in the exhortation, inspite of taking stock of all the problems and crises that do exist!

The letter beckons our reading, as it comes from the heart of some one who has already won the hearts of such a vast number of persons in the world..specially his children in faith. Let us pay heed to the words of this shepherd and unravel in our lives the secret treasures that are in store for us, in living and proclaiming the Gospel in our daily lives!

Will soon post summaries of the chapters..one by one...

and for now, 

READ THE DOCUMENT HERE: click on the link below.

THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL - Apostolic Exhortation from Pope Francis: EVANGELII GAUDIUM

WORD 2day

26th November, 2013

This week's readings have a bi-dimensional orientation - a preparation towards advent (a new beginning) and at the same time a reflection on the end times. This is a truly Christian disposition: a bi-dimensional approach to life. A reflection on the end times has to be radically open to the new beginnings, lest it becomes a vain curiosity. A focus on the new beginnings, the new earth and new heaven, on the definitive coming of the Reign should have a mature openness towards the end time perspective, lest it remains a simplistic dream of an all-bright future, without any personal commitment to it. Dreams, visions and extra natural phenomenon have no value in themselves, unless they help a better living here and now, and a preparation for a more holistic future. The first reading and the Gospel today remind us of this need - the need to question ourselves on our life style, our criteria and choices in daily life - whether they are really worthy of the Reign, that we are called to announce to the world as disciples of Christ!

WORD 2day

25th November, 2013

The world has a stereotypical standards of what is good and what is better; social standards of what makes one good and what makes one better than the other! The temptation to conform to that social stereotypes is very high and dangerously subtle. Many a times we fall into the trap, though the Word very often warns us, "Do not conformed to this world" (Rom 12:2). Because, "the Lord does not see as the mortals see" (1 Sam 16:7). That is why, the two tiny coins that the widow drops quietly into the treasury seems more valuable to Jesus than the bags and bags of wealth that the others dump there. To be his disciples, "let the same mind be in you, as it was in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5) instructs St. Paul. Daniel was special because of this, God's mind was in him, the wisdom of the Lord was in him, that made him shine to the rest of the world. Maybe, I need to ask the Lord today, to give me that wisdom to see things as the Lord does, with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.