WORD 2day: 9th May, 2014

To become part of HIM

Acts 9: 1-20; Jn 6: 52-59.

'The one who feeds on me will have life because of me', declares the Lord today! Saul turns Paul, the persecutor turns the proclaimer...an absolute transformation that changed history for ever - because he experienced Christ! The Lord invites us to a personal experience of Him... eat my flesh, drink my blood, become part of me; remain in me and I shall remain in you!

Everyday is an opportunity to grow closer personally with Christ and every Eucharist we celebrate is a moment to become part of him, to remain in him and to allow the Lord to remain in us. St. Paul remains the greatest challenge ever posed to a Christian...he himself was aware of it. That is why he dared say, "be imitators of me as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11:1). 

Being imitators of Christ is not merely a matter of doing things, rather an essential change of our very nature. It becomes natural, when we become more and more a part of Him!

WORD 2day: 8th May, 2014

Drawn by our Daddy!!!

Acts 8: 26-40; Jn 6: 44-51

The readings taken together have a wonderful message for us... if we are christians, it is not by chance! It is by choice... not ours, but the Lord's. You did not choose me, I chose you, says the Lord. 

We have come to know the Lord, drawn by our Father and Mother in heaven! It is the Lord who has willed to draw us to Godself. Our 'yes' at Baptism and a reassertion of it at Confirmation are our response to this initiative of God. The point of discussion is, whether we are faithful to the yes all our life, at every moment of our daily life.

The Bread of life and the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant, are the nourishment in this journey. All through the journey the Lord accompanies us and instructs us... if we really listen, we will soon realise how special we are; and how we are drawn by our daddy!

WORD 2day: 7th May, 2014

Testimonies of true joy!

Acts 8:1b-8; Jn 6: 35-40

There was great joy in the city. Inspite of having to desert their hometowns and go into diaspora, the community of believers bring joy wherever they go. It was because, they carried the Risen Lord in their hearts. 

The resurrection experience filled them with a joy that could not be replaced by anything else under the sun. The words "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom 8:35) was a concrete life experience of the early Christians. The source of this experience is the total and loving self giving of the Lord. 

Imitating their Lord and Saviour, they were filled with hope and were emanating a divine joy. How joyful is our testimony as Christians? 

WORD 2day: 6th May, 2014

The height of discipleship

Acts 7:51-8:1a; Jn 6:30-35

We are given the picture of the martyrdom of Stephen... the height of discipleship, giving one's life up for the sake of truth. The real courage that is exhibited today by Stephen consists in daring to say what he saw and heard, or what he was given to see and hear. The Gospel presents the same courage manifested by Jesus, challenging the Scribes and the Pharisees and offering himself as the bread of life; infact, Stephen is presented to us as an ideal disciple who did what Jesus did, who lived the way Jesus lived and who died the exact way Jesus died. The cue is the prayer: "Into your hands I commend my spirit". While Jesus makes that prayer to the Father, Stephen makes it to Jesus: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". This is the first prayer we see, that was addressed to Jesus. The height of discipleship consists in the courage to imitate the master in every little detail...in our life, our prayer, our convictions and our priorities. How close are we in our lifestyle to Jesus, our Lord and Master?

WORD 2day: 5th May, 2014

The Face of an Angel...

Acts 6:8-15; Jn 6:22-29

The readings today remind us of our vocation and gift. 'What are we called to?', that was the question that the people meant when they ask Jesus in the Gospel today, "what can we do to accomplish God's works?" "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent": that is our vocation, that is our gift! Vocation because it is our life task, to know the Lord, love and accept Him as our personal saviour and testify to him unto death. It is a gift, because in doing it, we become children of God (cf.Jn 1:12), we turn into co-heirs to the Reign (cf Rom 8:17), and we acquire the face of angel - as it is said of St.Stephen in the first reading today. Our faith and our commitment to faith adorn our face with a light and beauty that makes it look 'angelic'... let us realise our hidden face of an angel; let us preserve and persevere in growing to the full stature of the angels - close to God and ever at God's service!

WORD 2day: 1st May, 2014

Work - the likeness of divinity within humanity

Gen 1:26-2:3; Mt 13:54-58.

May day, for a Christian holds much more than mere glorification of work. This is because of the very nature of God that sanctifies this essential aspect of human existence. The first reading underlines the fact that the work of creation is an essential image of God and goes on to imply that it form part of humanity, which holds the likeness and image God. 

That St. Joseph, the working hand and leader of the Holy Family, is not merely an imagination but a practical possibility and the Church today capitalises on this possibility to draw inspiration from a saint who reminds us of this essential element of our human existence.

Work is a participation in the Creative initiative of God. Work can never be a slavery; it can never be carried out solely for an external gain or out of external pressure. Today, let us promise to respect the dignity of labour and look at our opportunity to contribute through work as a personal participation in the image and likeness of God.

WORD 2day: 30th April, 2014

Conformity or Conflict? Conviction or Convenience?

Acts 5:17-26; Jn 3:16-21

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light; whoever lives the truth comes to the light! 

The world contains four categories of people in relation to right things. The first category are those who do the right, the second category are those who assist those who do the right, the third are those who hinder anyone doing the right and the worst are those who are involved in doing the evil! We find all the four categories referred to in the readings today. 

The first call to us is to analyse our choices, our preferences and our priorities and see sincerely to which of these four categories we would belong. The second lesson for us is that while we strive to be people of the light and do the right, we can come across persons of all the four categories. What would our reaction be? Conformity? or Conflict? or Conviction? or Convenience? What would guide our response in situations such as these?

WORD 2day: 29th April, 2014

Life in the Spirit

Acts 4:32-37; Jn 3:7B-15

Unless you are born in the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God...but how do you see that one is born in the Spirit? It is only through the life that is lived. There can be no space between belief and life... we are expected to live what we believe and what we believe has to be translated into our lives. That is the essence of a Christ-like life, the formula for life in the Spirit. 

Life in the Spirit has to be verified on a daily basis. As Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruits; so the signs of our life in the Spirit has to be seen in our day to day choice for love, our capacity for sharing, our willingness to give up for the sake of the Lord, our readiness to think of the other before ourselves and our sense of oneness in the Risen Lord!

Let us examine our daily choices: do they reflect a life in the Spirit? Or are we living a life born from below? Let us be born from above, let us be born of the Spirit!

WORD 2day: 28th April, 2014

Let the earth be shaken up!

Acts 4:23-31; Jn 3:1-8

With Christ having risen from the dead and the disciples having realised its effects, history opens to the next phase! The people of God who were made into Easter people, now get ready to put on another identity as the people of the Spirit... "a Spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline" (2 Tim 1:7). 

It is like asking the believers to grow up and take charge, not to live in the shadow of fear and timidity but to speak up with courage the Good news of the Lord. But that needs a transformation - a real, total, concrete personal transformation leading to a transformation as a believing community. The courage and the conviction of faith of a true believer will shake the earth, describes the readings today. 

Let the earth be shaken up today, because of our convictions. Let the humanity which seems to be on a down-slide regarding values and morals, be shaken up because of our Spirit-filled lives. Let us not be overcome by evil; but let us overcome evil with Good (cf. Rom 12:21).

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