Key persons unto the Kingdom

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time : 24th August, 2014

Is 22: 19-23; Rom 11: 33-36; Mt 16: 13-20

One image that dominates the liturgy of the word today, is the image of the Key...every person wants to be a key person. Becoming conscious of one's mission and situating it within God's plan is the real secret behind being key persons in the eyes of the Lord. Every prophet, we see in the Old Testament, is enamoured by the love of the Lord and surrenders totally to the Spirit shining as a key person within the believing community. Our tasks of being part of the Parish Pastoral Council, the cooperators to the animating nucleus of the Parish at the zonal or the division levels, are some key roles that people aspire for today. The call is be key persons, yes; but not unto our own glory but unto the Reign that the Lord wants us to build here on earth. 

God Given Role: 

Being key persons unto the kingdom would mean, we understand our key role from the perspective of God. At times politics enters the religious ambit and shatters every bit of truth that can exist. Loss of focus and confusion of meanings are the outcomes of such an influx and personal integrity is left at stake. The Lord reminds us in the first reading that it is the Lord who robes one with or strips one of authority.

Guided by Wisdom:

Wisdom is not merely knowing; it is knowing that one knows and knowing what is to be known at a particular point of time. It is, more than capacity, a grace! A key person unto the Kingdom should be equipped with wisdom much more than anything. To make the right decisions at the right time and to make the right changes at the right time towards an authentic growth towards being true people of the Reign, the key persons, if not all, should be guided by wisdom.

Personal Knowledge of God:

The Gospel today gives us the ultimate criterion to be key persons unto the kingdom: it is to know God, on a personal basis. To have encountered God, experienced God, tasted God, felt the concrete presence of God is one of the fundamental criteria to play any key role in a community of faith, a community of people of God. Mere borrowed experiences and brainwashed theories cannot make one an authentic key player within the community of the Reign. 

Each of us can turn to be a key person unto the Kingdom, if we realise the God given role that we have, be guided by Wisdom and yearn for a personal knowledge of God in our lives. The more key persons there are, the more the Reign can be established on earth.

WORD 2day: 23rd August, 2014

We, the glory of God

Ezek 43: 1-7; Mt 23: 1-12

The talk of the glory of the Lord reminds me immediately of the famous saying of St. Irenaeus, "the glory of God is the human person fully alive." It is so true, that the Lord does not glory in the whole universe, but in the human person that God has created, precisely because the Lord created the human persons in God's own image and likeness. Bearing God's image and likeness is much more than just being a special creature; it is being God's own, it is bearing that dignity that comes from God, it is having God as our father, our mother, our Master, our Lord, our source, our destiny, our model, our meaning... our all. 

Let us not be carried away by the scandals on earth and the misleading examples around. Let our eyes be fixed on that one source and summit. The Lord alone is our Master. When we journey on this way, we will have with us those who have gone before us, those who are struggling along with us, those who are on the verge of giving up, those who are contemplating to commence the same journey and so on. Let us feel a sense of solidarity with all, encourage each other and grow up (cf. 1 Thess 5:11), to be true sons and daughters of God , manifesting the glory of the Lord here on earth. Just as Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord enshrined in the Temple, let the world today see the glory of the Lord in us, the living temples of the Lord (1 Cor 3:16).

WORD 2day: 22nd August, 2014

The Dry bone syndrome
Ezek 37: 1-14; Mt 22: 34-40

The world is experiencing a time that is strange in all its sense and meaningless in  its totality. There is some invention or development every single day in the field of social networking, making it easier and easier to stay in touch and communicate to each other. But the paradox is that world is growing colder by the day towards those who are suffering, those who are struggling, those who are left without hope, those who are exploited and targetted, denied their rights, robbed of their dignity and incessantly dehumanised. It is an experience we can call the dry bone syndŕome. Bones strewn all around but having nothing to do with each other.

The spirit, the breath of the Lord that the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy about, is nothing but the Spirit of the Lord, the love for God and the love for one's neighbours. It is Love that can give life to this heap of dry bones. It is the love that God lavishes upon us and the realisation of it, that can urge us to love others (2 Cor 5:14).

WORD 2day: 21st August, 2014

The task of becoming God's people
Ezek 36: 33-28; Mt 26: 1-14

The readings today seem to underline the urgency of responding to God's invitation. The urgency in no way does away with the demands of the criteria. The demand is not just to be good people, but to be God's people. However we may try, that task seems to be practically impossible, with all the traps and trials around in our living conditions. The Lord òffers to fill us with Lord's own spirit. It is only through that, one can live according to the norms of the living Lord. Let us put on the Spirit of the Lord and enter the daily banquet of the Lord...well on our way to becoming the Lord's people.

Joseph: Biblical Icon for Family Living #2

My contribution in the Salesian Bulletin - August Issue...

WORD 2day: 20th August, 2014

A warning and a lesson... BE COMPASSIONATE  

Ezek 34: 1-11; Mt 20: 1-16

The careless shepherds and the sensitive land owner: the readings today present to us a dynamic contrast. It is a warning and a lesson offered together, to every person who has in some way or the other, care over others. It could be pastors who have care over the whole flock of the faithful, or the parents who have the care of children, or the teachers who have the responsibility towards their wards, or friends who have a natural ascendancy over their peers, or employers who have a say over their employees and so on.

The warning is: You are not indispensable and you are answerable! The ascendancy you have is a service required of you. Jesus would instruct those given charge not to lord it over the people (Mt 20:25) and St. Peter would perfectly learn it from his master (1 Pet 5:3). It is a service of love and a task entrusted by the Lord, to be compassionate towards those under our care.

The lesson is: Treat persons for what they are and not for what they have to give you! Whether it was the one who came into the field at the dawn of the day or the ones who came close to the dusk, they were persons in need and persons who had stomachs to feed. The land owner saw what they were and not what they gave him in the form of labour. He gave them all, what they needed at the end of the day to live life at peace.

In both, the warning and the lesson, the Lord underscores a heart that is compassionate. Indeed, that is the identity of the Lord himself.

WORD 2day: 19th August, 2014

Absolute centrality of God: the Jesus style!

Ezek 28:1-10; Mt 19: 23-30

The Rich and the Poor: how do we differentiate them? It might seem a naive question. In fact, it is. Rich are those who hold wealth and the poor are those who do not. It is fair and clear. But today, the Lord invites us to go a little deeper and understand what it means to be "poor in spirit". 

Often, being rich and a sense of arrogance is considered to be naturally linked to each other. Though its authenticity could be questioned, an arrogance arising from the wealth one possesses makes one totally ungodly - that is an undeniable fact. The second category are those who are rich but act discretely, but are all the time conscious that they are so discrete and decent. They consider that a great favour they do to the rest of the society, punctuating all the time the fact that they have chosen to be so considerate towards everyone! Yet another category are those who are rich but are humble and grateful, acknowledging everything as a blessing from above.

The Jesus style of life is an attitude of absolute centrality of God, where it does not matter whether one possesses wealth or not, whether one has abundance of riches or not; a centrality that leads to a childlike dependence on God, with total trust and absolute confidence in the provident love of God. This is being poor in spirit; and that is how I can inherit the Reign of God.

WORD 2day: 18th August, 2014

Knowing is one thing; but living with God?

Ezek 24: 15-23;  Mt 19: 16-22.

I remember a scene from the movie, "I am Gabriel", where the messenger from God tells a person to make prayer mats for everyone in the town. And a day later, the person happily shows all the prayer mats made and the messenger replies calmly but sternly, "making them is one thing but what is more important is using them!" The readings today seem to give us a message similar to that.

Knowing what is right is one thing, but the more important thing is to live by it. Ezekiel is presented a sign, to make the people realise how thoughtless they were growing about God. They were fulfilling their daily duties and keeping the so called "law" or the religious duties. But whether they were really in touch with the Lord, is the true concern. The rich young man, knew the laws and lived the laws, but missed the point as to why he was doing all that: to make God the centre of his life. 

With all the various things that we do we may know what is to be done at a given point of time: the rites and the rituals, the rules and the regulations, the laws and the demands therewith. It is completely another thing to realise why do all that we do! To make God the centre of our lives, the foundation and the meaning of our lives. That would mean 'selling everything', 'giving up' and 'loving everyone genuinely'; for in love is God revealed,

THE SAVING LOVE OF GOD

The call to grow into my Salvation: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 56: 1-6,7 ; Rom 11: 13-15, 29-32; Mt 15: 21-28

Will the Hindus be saved? Will the non-believers be saved? Will those who belong to this particular church be saved? - These are questions frequently asked by those who have not truly understood the omnipotence and the mercy of God, and the relationship between the two. God wills that all be saved, declares St. Paul (1 Tim 2:4). The Universal Salvation of God has been effected once and for all, from the Cross. What is left for us is to claim it for ourselves from the Lord, in Lord's Mercy. 

Is it on our merit that we can claim it? Or are we left so desperately at the mercy of the Lord that we live till the last moment of our life with intense insecurity and total obscurity? Both these options are out of place when we remember the SAVING LOVE OF GOD. I can never merit it for I do not deserve the love that the Lord showers on me. I am not desperately left to in obscurity for I have the hope in the fact that Jesus has given me the power to become a child of God (cf. Jn 1:12). The readings today highlight this salvific act of God's love on my behalf. 

God's saving love knows no history. As the second reading points to us, the salvific love of God does not depend on what history I share and with whom? It does not keep in mind the account of the undeserving acts, in which case I would be damned to eternity. The appeal that God's love makes to us, is made afresh every day and every moment. It is in every single moment of choice that I make, that I have to receive this love, so freely and so generously given.

God's saving love respects no geography. As the second reading and the Gospel point to us, God does not love us on the basis of the background that we come from, the family that brought me up, the institutions I got educated in and the ministries that I have carried out. No, there is no geography in God's salvation because the whole earth, what is within it and what is around it belongs to God. Lord God is the Lord of the universe! And that is precisely why God's salvation is universal.

God's saving love holds no memories. I need not despair at the bitter past that I have had, nor need I to make such great acts of reparation to appease my God! They are in no way related to the love that my God has for me. The love that the Lord has for me is so absolute and boundless that nothing on earth or beyond the earth can separate me from that love in and through Christ Jesus. That love of God does not keep count of my faults or my failures; all that counts is the choice I make at a given moment, a choice so lovingly absolute for God, and for everything that belongs to God. My salvation is assured on the part of God; but on my part I need to grow into my salvation: through my daily choices and everyday commitment. 

DB turns 199