WORD 2day: 25th September, 2014

From Vanity to Sanity, towards Sanctity

Eccl 1:2-11; Lk 9: 7-9

TINNUTS... one of our formators used to sigh often, when we were in our initial formation. And the expansion of it goes this way: There Is Nothing New Under The Sun.The first reading speaks of vanities in life. Labour, dreams, experiences, senses...everything is a vanity if they are not in the right perspective.

The Gospel presents to us a personification of vanities, Herod! Herod had every opportunity to realise the vanity with which he was living. But he made no use of them, he even put an end to them. That would surely affect him all his life. That is why the Gospel says, "he kept saying, I beheaded John."

Are there vanities which surround us today? Aren't there opportunities offered to realise them and to do away with them? From Vanity to Sanity...that is the ordinary journey we are expected to make, to embark upon the extraordinary journey towards sanctity!

WORD 2day: 24th September, 2014

In plenty and in want...

Pro 30:5-9; Lk 9: 1-6

Recently I heard of a young man, barely reaching his forties, who resigned his promising and colourful job. The reason: they were paying him unreasonably high! The first reading speaks of a mindset of this sort- a man who wants to live neither in want nor in plenty. Not in want, because he will not think of shortcuts to get rich; nor in plenty, that he does not forget the one who gives. 

Jesus instructs his apostles on being a messenger of God. The crux of his instruction is not merely about whether to have or not to have, whether to possess or not to possess, but it is all about depending on God or not! Poverty within the worldview of the Reign of God, in terms of Jesus' thinking, is a fundamental dependence on God. Being grateful for what God gives, and being expectant like a child to be given things in love. 

It is more than what proverbs suggests, while the passage from the proverbs carries a tinge of cynical realism, the Gospel offers a proactive sense of dependence out of true human freedom, that defines a true disciple and a dedicated apostle. This is the same as St. Paul suggests, to learn to live in want and in plenty, because we can do anything through the one who strengthens us (cf. Phil 4:12,13).

WORD 2day: 23rd September, 2014

The Right thing to do...

Pro 21: 1-6, 10-13; Lk 8: 19-21

Doing the right thing is better than sacrifice says the first reading today. And the right thing is imprinted in our hearts. The Word of God, comes to us through various ways: direct proclamation is just one among them. There are situations and persons whom we come across who bring us a challenge to face and respond to. The Word of God comes along, instructing us what is right and what is to be avoided. There is the inner voice within us, that "sound of sheer silence" (1 Kgs 19:12), which tells us at the right moment the right thing to do. 

All that we need to do is first of all, be attentive: attentive to the Word that comes across to us. Secondly, be sincere: sincere to admit that we have received the word and to recognise the demands that it places. At times because of the demands that the Word places on us, we pretend not to have heard, or not to have understood the real meaning of the Word. It would serve no purpose and we in fact deceive ourselves by doing it. Thirdly, our task is to be diligent, in carrying out amidst all struggles, what the Word tells us. 

The Gospel today assures us that when we do all the three we would be considered not merely disciples, but mother, brother, sister, in short, coheirs with Christ to the Reign of God. But when we stop short of them, we would be deceiving ourselves warns the letter of James (1:22).  

WORD 2day: 22nd September, 2014

Think good; Do good; Be good!

Pro 3:27-34; Lk 8:16-18

The first reading today has a wonderful set of practical tips for a happy living. Those tips can altogether be summarised in the phrase: think well of all; speak well of all; do good to all. This is the runway to happiness, but rarely taken by many! We prefer to complicate our lives, make it distrustful, enigmatic and suspicious. Neither are we happy nor do we allow others to be happy. 

Recently, I asked a person who came to me with a problem at home, "What is you choice: to be happy or not to be?" And the person said, "ofcourse, to be happy!" and immediately added, "but I am afraid I wont be able to do the things that you told me to. They would take me for granted and make me more and more a fool!" Then I concluded, "so, you choose to be unhappy!"

At times, that is the fact! We choose to be unhappy and we are experts at making ourselves unhappy over anything at all. Jesus today seems to tell us, "you want to be happy? choose it! manifest it! Let it be seen in your lives, in your choices!" Lighting the lamp and putting it on the stand, is the metaphor to living a life that is God-worthy and making it known to others that they may be challenged. The simple formula to begin with is what is said in the first reading; in other words: think good! do good! be good!

It is your face Lord, that I seek!

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 21st September, 2014

Is 55: 6-9; Phil 1: 20c-24, 27a; Mt 20: 1-16a

It is your face O Lord that I seek, prays the Psalmist (cf 27:8). Seeking the face of the Lord is the sweet task given to a lover of the Lord. The Lord declares, I have not told you to seek me in vain, as if I were absent from you! The Lord is always with us and the Lord's countenance sheds its light upon us and that is the joy of our Christian living.

But we on our part are invited to Seek the Lord, say the readings today. We are called to seek the Lord, seek the Lord above all else! Lord awaits to shine forth on us, it is ours to seek. St. Paul tells us in the second reading today, it becomes even a longing to end this existence on earth and get to the Lord, that we may behold the face of the Lord! But it is not ours to decide, we are expected to live our earthly sojourn as long as the Lord wills it for us; but even within this sojourn the Lord will enable us to behold the Lord's face, if we seek it.

Seek the Lord, today! says the first reading and the Gospel parable too. The urgency of seeking the Lord is expressed so well and so plainly in the first reading, where Isaiah urges that we seek the Lord while there is still time! Instead of just standing around and staring at things that will do no good and focusing on elements that would lead us no where, it is important that we seek the Lord and seek the Lord today, here and now! It is a call to make a choice, to make up our minds, to discern our ways and set on a determined seeking!

Seek the Lord with Hope, says the parable that Jesus presents. Don't worry if you wasted your time till now, make up your mind right now and seek the Lord with hope; do not think if the Lord will accept you or not. First of all, the Lord has not rejected you from the eyes of the Lord in order that you wonder whether the Lord will accept you. The Lord's love is unconditional, and the Lord does not love us to the extent that we deserve it. If only the Lord were to calculate how deserving we are, how many of us can really stand before the Lord and claim the love of God for ourselves? "But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us"(Rom 5:8). That is the love with which the landowner gives the same wages to the first and the last. This is the hope that Jesus gives us: at no point of time does God reject you! Seek the Lord with Hope and you will definitely find the Lord, assure the readings today.

The Lord is with me, the Lord lives with me, moves with me and sustains me! But it is upto me to seek that presence of the Lord, seek that grace of the Lord and seek that face of the Lord so that the light of God's countenance may illumine my daily life! 

WORD 2day: 20th September, 2014

Sowing, Growing and what is in between

Remembering Martyr St. Andrew and companions: I Cor 15: 35-37, 42-49; Lk 8: 4-15 

The readings today speak of sowing and growing, and what goes on in between these - dying and being reborn! In the context of celebrating martyr St. Andrew and companions , or any martyr for that matter, the aspects of dying to ourselves and being reborn in Christ is a criterion for Christian living (cf. Rom 6). Many of us who claim to be followers, disciples and apostles of Christ, still refuse to die to certain tendencies and elements within our self, which militate against the Spirit who wants to dwell within us, for we are called to be the temples of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19).

Of course there are situations that are against our becoming totally the dwelling place of God: like the parched land or the scorching heat or the choking thorns. That is everyone's experience and cannot be ever a valid reason for our personal lack of commitment to belong to God and for our lagging in efforts to grow closer to God. God has sown, God has called us and chosen us and appointed us each, in our life and in our own context. What matters now is our personal commitment, perseverance and loving decision to belong and to grow into the image and likeness of the One who has caused us and called us! 

WORD 2day: 19th September, 2014

The Resurrection Community

I Cor 15: 12-20; Lk 8:1-3

The Readings today point to an identity that is so fundamental to a follower of Christ. First of all the effects that Christ has on his followers is the Resurrection effect: that is a life filled with hope! If Christ were not raised from the dead, our faith would be in vain - declares St. Paul today. We are filled with a hope so great that nothing, not even death can take away the meaning of our life. Secondly, we find today Jesus amidst the first community that he himself had initiated - the Twelve, and some women! That is another Resurrection effect - the fruit of rising above all the pettiness of the world, discarding the divisions, despising the differences of gender or geography, and becoming one community, one people! 'We are all baptised into the one Spirit - Jews or Greeks, free or slaves, we are all filled with the same Spirit', St. Paul would instruct ( cf. 1 Cor 12:13). Today, let us look at our faith community: is it one body? is it united in the Risen Lord? Is it "following" the Lord? Does it have the "mind" of Christ? Are we really Resurrection Community?

WORD 2day: 18th September, 2014

Humility and Gratitude - signs of spirituality
I Cor 15:1-11; Lk 7: 36-50

By the grace of God I am what I am, states St. Paul in today's first reading. That statement brings out two salient features of a truly Spiritual person. The first is Humility; the other quality flows from it and it is, Gratitude.

Humility is a sign that one knows oneself, understands oneself, places oneself in the right perspective and accepts what the Lord has called one towards. It is not abasing or belittling oneself; that would be a misunderstanding. Humility is looking at oneself from the perspective of God!

Gratitude is a quality that is sine qua non, for a life that wants to define itself with the adjective, "spiritual". A grateful heart is a holy heart. The woman who was forgiven, was offered a totally new life and that made her so exuberantly grateful that she did not hesitate to expess it through all means she thought would help.

A humble person is spiritual and a grateful person is holy.

WORD 2day: 17th September, 2014

Love is all what matters!

1 Cor 12:33 - 13:13; Lk 

Just yesterday I read somewhere, the saying from Buddha: in the end, only three things matter, how much you loved, how gently you lived and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you! Jesus had further simplified all this and said: Love one another as I have loved you; that alone matters! St. Augustine surely was not exaggerating when he said: love and do what you will! Infact, the only condition that Jesus places in sharing his identity with us was LOVE (cf. Jn 13:35).

At times we can be deceived by interpretations and cultural fads. At times love can be considered a relative, emotional feeling. But are these truly 'Christian'? Christianly speaking love is not a deceptive concept...it is an absolute criterion and that is why St.Paul so beautifully lists the characters of true 'Christian' love. Those traits the Word offers us today are fool proof ways of being a Christian. Pleasing others, dancing to tunes, earning name and fame... these actually should not matter; after all, love is all what matters!

WORD 2day: 16th September, 2014

Compassion or Comparison?

1 Cor 12: 12-14, 27-31a; Lk 7: 7-11

Each of us is given special gifts from the Holy Spirit, special gifts according to the special calling that we have. If we become aware of the call that we have received, we would also become aware of the gift that is given to us, to live up to that calling. To be prophets, or to be apostles, or to be teachers, or to be leaders, or to be interpreters... these are all different calls which are lived out by means of various tasks that we are called to carry out. But the fundamental purpose of all these, the call underlying all these calls is just one: to be holy and blameless, before God in love (Eph 1:4). 

The readings today, taken together, give us this all important Christian lesson for life: be compassionate and do not compare! As St. Paul instructs, to rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15), that is the way we can realise, that we are One People! Comparisons will lead to jealousy and fights which will make us enemies, and we would lose our very identity of being God's people.