WORD 2day: 12th March 2014

RETURN TO RIGHT LIVING

'The sign of Jonah' - what really does Jesus mean by that? Is it merely a reference to the fact that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days? According to Luke, No. The Gospel and the first reading taken together makes the message clear. And of all times, at the present times, the message seems so perfectly applicable! The world is going in a direction so bizarre and in a pace so reckless; everything seems acceptable and basics seem crammed up. Respect for persons, dignity of life, value of truth, sensitivity to the other, sense of self-donation - these seem to be totally alien to the world today. But the final word, however, is not hopelessness: that is the message! Listening to the call of Jesus, if we stop, think, and return to right living as the people of Nineveh did at Jonah's words - it will surely become a better world to live in. But are we ready? There is no alternative. If we really do not want to ruin the world and our existence further, we have no other go but RETURN to Right living.

WORd 2day: 11th March, 2014

TURN YOUR HEARTS TO GOD: that is Prayer!

Prayer is not about well-worded phrases and decorated utterances, it is about turning one's heart to God. The Word today teaches us how our prayer should be, drawing inspiration from the very Word of God and its nature. The prayer that we make should rise from the heart, it should be a self-communication that brings us close to God! When it happens every word we use will have its effect; the words will not be empty phrases but concrete commitments to the Lord and our relationship with God.  Jesus teaches a model in the 'Our Father' - glorifying God's name, desiring God's Reign, submitting to God's will: aren't they concrete commitments? Let not our prayer me empty phrases and legalistic performances, but total surrender and concrete commitment to the Lord. In simple terms, prayer is a constant and daily effort to turn away from things that distract and turning our hearts to God.

WORD 2day: 10th March, 2014

RELEARN YOUR BASICS

Law and Holiness had a very intimate connection for the Jews. For them, a strict observance of the law meant a sure way to holiness. As time went by, they began to identify the law and holiness, forgetting what lay in between... the relationships that the laws were meant to ensure! Laws were given to enhance the relationship between the people and their God and among people with each other as a community. And that is exactly what Jesus stresses on: the relationships! As St. John questions, how can anyone who does not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, love God whom they have not seen? (cf. 1Jn 4:20). Jesus places this as an absolute condition - the correlation between faith and love; when they combine there is hope; if not, the very fundamentals are under question. Let us relearn our basics this lent - let us begin within our family; let us love each other genuinely and that will be the best starting point to grow in holiness!

GROWING THROUGH TEMPTATIONS

Lenten Project 2014: Sunday #1 - 9th March.

Temptation is a daily experience, sometimes consciously lived through and some other times unconsciously. However much we try to, we cannot live a life without temptations - that would even make life uneventful and our commitment less challenging. Big, small, mighty, risky, simple, profound, drastic... temptations can vary in their dimensions and gravity but the fact is, they are there! The readings today invite us to look at these moments of temptation as Spiritual moments, moments out of which we can grow, moments through which we can deepen our faith experience and refound our footing in our journey towards spiritual perfection. Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect!

Temptation ...is a moment of CRISIS. Crisis, is probably the word that is heard the most today. World economic crisis, the political crisis in parts of Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle east, the ethical crisis, the faith crisis and so on. Crisis is simply the experience of a drastic reduction of something that has to be. Lack of money, lack of political stability, lack of ethical certainty, lack of adherence to faith... at the ground of it all there is a fundamental lack - the lack of meaning, the lack of sense of worth, the lack of real fulfillment in life. The Gospel today gives us a beautiful insight into this situation of crisis, the moment of temptation. 'At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil'...the insight is this: The Spirit of the Lord is present with us, as ever, even at the moment when we feel tempted! That is a tremendous insight. When we go through a moment of crisis, a moment of difficulty, a moment of tendency to sin, a moment of pressure to give up, we think we are all alone. No! We are not alone. The Spirit of the Lord is with us, ever present beside us. All that we need to do, is to TURN TO THE SPIRIT at those crucial moments, as did Jesus in the Gospel today. And the Spirit will give us the strength to fight and overcome those temptations unscathed. 

Temptation ...is a moment of CHOICE. Every crisis requires a categorical choice to be made. When Eve was faced with that situation standing in front of the tree, she had to make a choice - to be God's or to be like gods! And Adam, when he was faced with a situation, in front of Eve, he had to make a choice to conform or to challenge, to compromise or to stand firm! Jesus makes that choice... not to make himself a king or like god, but to belong to God always and remain the loving son of God; not to conform to the power seeking, pleasure-mad world order but to challenge it and to stand firm in his identity as the son of God. All that we need to do, is RETURN TO OUR ORIGINS... As the first reading of today says, we have the breath of God within us; we are sons and daughters of a God who has loved us into existence. I remember the counsel the Director of Novices, when we were novices, used to give us: when you are faced with moments of crisis in your religious life, think of the first moments when you felt called by God. That is a wise counsel, and the Word today gives us the same. When you are faced with a difficulty, a lack of meaning, return to your origins... the moments when you felt loved by God, called by god, chosen by God and commissioned to live this life... and the life will become meaningful with all its ingredients - sadness and joy, love and suffering, loneliness and celebration.

Temptation ...is a moment of CLARITY. If we go through the moments of crisis and difficulty with the help of the Spirit, with the assistance of the Word of God and with the counsel of the persons of God, when we come out of it we experience a clarity that has not been there before. It is not merely the calm that comes after the storm, but a step further in one's maturity, a state deeper in one's self understanding, as the person relearns the basics through the experience. St. Paul affirms this, in the Second reading as he reminds us of the 'abundance of grace' and the 'gift of justification' that comes from Jesus Christ! In and through the moments of temptation, if lived with the help of the Spirit, we RELEARN TO LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL, as Jesus exemplifies. More than the needs of food and drink, more than proving himself powerful to the world and more than having the dominion of the world, Jesus chose God, chose to remain faithful to God, chose to love, serve and worship God and God alone! The lesson is clear to us: Give God the central place in our lives, the prime place in our lives, come what may. 

Let us live our lives in the presence of the Spirit and live every moment. specially the moments of difficulty and crisis, inspired by the Spirit, strengthened by the Word of God and nourished by the Sacraments. During our moments of temptation, let us turn to the Spirit, and the Spirit will remind us to return to our Origins and we will relearn to love God above all. A clean heart create for me O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me! Amen.

WORD 2day: 8th March, 2014

RETURN TO YOUR ORIGINAL GLORY

Note the terms that appear today in the readings: Remove, Renew, Repair, Restore, and finally Repent! It is a clarion call to RETURN to our original glory, the glory of the children of God. The Lord invites us to return to the wholeness, with which the Lord created us. The image and likeness of God, the fullness of life and happiness that the Lord is, the glory and the brilliance that reside in God, the love and forgiveness that mark the nature of God - this is what we are called to return to. Cold wars and coups, cross border terrorism and international crisis, the luxurious spoils of the first world and the empty crying stomachs of the unfortunate sections of the globe... the disparities and the disdain - they arise from the fact that we have lost our original innocence and glory. A prophetic invitation today is to return to that glory of oneness, of unity, of brotherhood and sisterhood, of love, of mutual concern and of true peace. Let us return to our original glory, the glory of the Children of God. 

WORD 2day: 7th March, 2014

TURN TO INTEGRITY

What you do matters, of course. But why you do it and how you do it matters more. What you do receives its true value from who you are as a person and it is not the other way about! 

The prayers said, the rites performed, the sacrifices undertaken, the vows made and fulfilled, the practices kept up - all these will have their value, depending on the quality of daily life, types of ordinary choices and the respectful interpersonal relationships that one has in life. What a scandal it is to have a wide gaping space between one's beliefs and one's practices, between one's religious practice and one's personal relationships, between one's religious convictions and moral values. The readings today invite us to turn to integrity - to preach what we believe and to live what we preach; to stand up for what we believe and to live personally what we stand up for. Integrity gives one the authority that comes from Truth, in a way, it comes from God! Real godly persons are those who live a life of integrity says the liturgy today, urging us to turn to integrity.

WORD 2day: 6th March, 2014

TURN TO LIFE

Life and Death : both are present right in front of us! 

The choice is ours. Let us beware, choosing to live may not always be a choice for Life; neither does choosing to die for a cause mean a choice for death! In the name of a happy life, a comfortable life or a prosperous life the world today runs after false guarantees: Money, Pleasure, Power, Domination, Ego and Social Status... and the result - promiscuity, exploitation, loss of self and human dignity, lack of respect for life... in short, a CULTURE OF DEATH. That is what the world is battling against today. Instead if we choose love, sacrifice, mutual respect, empowerment of the other, wishing the good of the other, universal brotherhood and sisterhood in the One God who has created us all - it would cost a lot personally - but it would be definitely a TURN TO LIFE. Let us not tread the beaten path towards the culture of death, but resolve to turn to life, in every way, every day.

LENTEN PROJECT 2014

With wishes for a HAPPY LENT...

Holy Father Pope Francis has given in his message for Lent 2014 a beautiful project for us to trace...

The Holy Father's message when read with an eye to grasp what he wants to impress on us, can thrust forward these three imperatives, as a project for us during these weeks of Lent.

TURN

First imperative is to turn to the Grace of God. However much we try with our own human efforts we cannot really attain the heights of a child of God. It is the work of Grace. And that is why the holy father selects the verse from the letter to the Corinthians which reminds us that the Son of God became like us to make us like him, sons and daughters of God! When we turn to Grace and surrender our lives, we are sure to make strides that would make us happy and the Lord, proud!

RETURN

The second imperative is to return, to return to the Lord no matter how far we have strayed. Some of our wrong choices, unbalanced priorities and miscalculations could have led us astray, inspite of our good will to remain with the Lord. The call is to Start Afresh! Those lines of the hymn, they always fill my heart with hope and my eyes with tears: 

Let me start again, 

pick the pieces of my brokenness, 

fill the spaces in my emptiness, 

let me start again... Let me start with you Lord!

The Holy Father quotes L. Bloy saying, 'the only real regret lies in not being a saint' and concludes - the only one real kind of poverty is not living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ. 

RELEARN

The third and the most proactive imperative is, to relearn what it means to be a christian, what it means to live as a child of God! It is not too difficult...for our original nature is that! We have only to relearn, and how do we relearn - we learn by doing! Yes, begin with a life of Witness says the Holy Father. To create a counter culture in this world which abounds in persons who live in material, moral and spiritual destitution - that is the call, that is the Witness we are challenged to live. Let us begin today!

To turn, to return and to relearn - that is the project that the Holy Father presents to us this Lent. 

We shall keep this project in mind all these days, as the Word inspires us everyday to consciously choose a life of constant conversion and daily faithfulness. 

Wish you all a HAPPY LENT...and wonderful experience of the Grace and Mercy of the Lord!

Read the entire message of Pope Francis here: Lenten Message 2014

WORD 2day: 4th March, 2014

The choice to be Holy!

From yesterday's call to remain within the parameters of the Reign, follows today's call to remain holy! Holiness is not merely an act, but an attitude; it is not doing a few things in a manner that is holy, but living our life, every moment of it, in a manner that is Godly. We are called to be holy because the one who has called us is Holy, reminds St. Peter today, resounding the call given in the book of Leviticus. When we decide for ourselves and choose to embark upon a sincere journey of holiness, Jesus promises us beautiful things - things that make us secure, persons who love and admire us, protection of God almighty that would guide us - but along with this, persecution... and ofcourse eternal life, of which we partake already by virtue of our Baptism! Hence, the choice is ours: to choose God, remain in God and persevere through all trials or to give up, choose the desires of ignorance (1st reading), and lose our original identity and dignity of the children of God! Salvation is not some magical act that the Lord performs for us, but it is our 'growing into heaven'. It is our daily maturity, by our constant faith, persistent hope and unfailing love. 

WORD 2day: 3rd March, 2014

Reign of God: Entering or Remaining?

How hard it is for one to enter the Reign of God, wonders Jesus in the Gospel today! It is very true: once we are out of it, it is so hard to enter it! But the goodnews is that we form part of it; we are called and made members of it - it does not matter we merit it or not! This is exactly what St. Peter explains in his letter today. We are called in our faith, made co-heirs with Christ, given new birth to a living hope! We belong to the Lord and we are heirs to the Lord's Reign; infact we are the protagonists of the Reign on earth, here and now. But what can restore its saltiness, when the salt loses it saltiness? What can make it a light, if its flame is quenched! The challenge we face is to remain forever the members of the Reign that we are; the co-heirs that we are; the children of God that we are called to be. It is not so much about entering the Reign of God that we should be concerned but remaining forever within its parameters, that is remaining for ever the agents of the Reign of God in and through our daily life!