5th Centenary of the birth of Teresa of Avila

It's Jesus of Teresa!

15th October, 2014

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Teresa of Avila. It is the 500th year after her birth. The Carmelite family all over the world begin today the fifth birth centenary year. Just reminded of a wonderful episode from St. Teresa's life...Teresa was fond of introducing herself to everyone as Teresa of Jesus. Infact that is another name by which she is known, apart from Teresa of Avila. She loved Jesus as her own spouse; she referred to him as 'beloved' - so romantic a faith. It is said that in one of her visions,when Jesus appeared she asked,"who are you?" And Jesus replied, "I am Jesus of Teresa". Nothing can replace a personal love that we ought to have for Jesus. St. Teresa of Jesus, inspires us to an ardent love for our Saviour. Needless to say, we would be repaid with a love several times deeper and in fact, we love because he loved us first (1Jn 4:19). 

WORD 2day: 14th October, 2014

Integrity matters
Gal 5:1-6; Lk 11: 37-41

Integrity is one virtue that Jesus never compromised on. Dichotomìes and discrepancies between words and actions, between belief and life: they were immediate disqualifiers according to Jesus, in the pursuit of eternal life.

Even a simple life-practice backed up by a strong conviction can become an entry pass to the Reign. Be it the 2 pennies dropped by the widow, or the vial of perfume broken by the 'sinner' woman, the simple prayer made by the thief on the cross beside Jesus... they were reasons enough for them to inherit the Reign of God.

Let us believe in what we pray and practise what we preach or hear preached... lest we become "fools"in the eyes of the Lord.

WORD 2day: 13th October, 2014

Freedom is not free!

Gal 4: 22-24, 26-27, 31 -5:1; Lk 11: 29-32

Freedom, is not an all sweet gift. It was Jean Paul Sartre who made that provocative but profound statement, "we are condemned to be free". Freedom comes with the duty attached. We are free, free to choose and the responsibility of the choice is laid entirely upon us. It would be childish to clamour for freedom but shy away from responsibility. We are free children of God, declares Paul. With that comes the condition that we are to be held responsible for all the choices we make. Just this morning, as I was speaking to a group of youngsters, I raised a query: who decides I should be happy or not? And they refused to answer, with a knotty smile on their faces! Yes, it is our choice, or rather our choices. The free choices we make amount to the consequence we face. 

The Lord grants us the greatest gift of freedom, and leaves us with the responsibility for our choices. That is why, when we choose not to see the presence of God, when we choose not to find the moments of grace, when we choose not to realise the opportunities to do good, when we choose not to identify our brother or sister in the person next to us, we are choosing to rush towards a state that is so sad and so inhuman. We are free children of the promise (cf. Gal 4:22-24); yes we are given the great gift of freedom. But Freedom is not free; we have to pay for it with our personal responsibility!

A FITTING FAITH FOR TODAY

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 12th October, 2014

Is 25: 6-10a; Phil 4: 12-14, 19-20; Mt 22:1-14

Faith is the way we live our daily life in relation to God. It would be a dry and futile understanding to look at faith as a set of doctrines or principles to be known, learnt, memorised and repeated on occasions. Faith instead has to affect every day life and every moment of it. Faith, in theological terms, is explained as one's personal response to the self revealing God. But to make it simple we can just understand it as the way we live every moment of our life, within the perspective offered to us by God who created us and has called us to a specific vocation in life.

Today, the readings invite us to a clear understanding of what this faith is all about. The faith that the Lord invites us to, is a specific way of life, a mode of organising our life worthy of our call to be children of God! Here are three adjectives that the readings offer us on a Fitting Faith for today:

Faith is Festive: a life of faith is a call to celebrate. God has set up a feast and invites us to come and celebrate it! God has created us a wonderful world, filled it with persons to love and let us enjoy it all in freedom and cooperation. But what do we do? We choose to see the negative things that are around, we choose to take them in and be filled with them, we choose to have and spread negative feelings, we choose to hate, envy and ruin each other's life; in short we REFUSE TO CELEBRATE. We refuse to attend the feast, that the Lord has prepared! If only we live our life in relation to God, that is, with the perspective of God, we will find out how much we can celebrate. When St. Paul says, he knows to live in want and in plenty, he is not boasting of his capacity to endure; it is more about that mindset which looks at everything from the perspective of God. 

Faith is Focused: a life of faith is a call to fix our eyes on God. Pressures, stress, problems, confusions, struggles, misunderstandings, competitions, disappointments, distractions, temptations, tears, treason...these are experiences that come our way sometime or the other. What would our point of reference be: luck, skills, human efficiency, proving oneself? 'Behold our God to whom we looked to save us', presents Isaiah. God will provide everything declares St. Paul. Our focus has to be on Christ. Look to Him and be radiant says the Psalm (34:5). 

Faith is Firm: a life of faith is a call never to compromise. Today, the culture is such that there is a big confusion whether there is anything that is unacceptable. Every thing seems permissible and every thing seems 'alright', if not 'normal'! There is a justification for everything. It is growing to be a culture of 'what-ifs' and 'why-nots'...but faith provides us with a firm foundation, firm criteria to make our choices. "My friend, how is it that you got in without the wedding garments?"..."My friend how is it that you expect to be with me without making a choice for me?"..."My friend, how is it that you had chosen something, but lived totally another life?"...we have to be prepared to face these questions, if at all we compromise! Our faith is an 'yes' that we say to the Lord, which would involve a number of small yes'es and no's... and any compromise in it will make us unfit for the Feast of the Reign. 

On a daily basis...let us evaluate our life and our choices...are they truly festive? fully focused? and really firm on the way to God? 

Malala: a throbbing inspiration for today's young

The news that the young girl Malala Yousafai shares the Nobel Peace prize with Mr. Kailash Sathyarthi comes as a luminous inspiration to the youth of today. I have been following the news about this girl, ever since she was shot in her head (in 2012); she was then 15. She had shaken even the stern silence of the Talibans who began blaming her that she making her appearances into popularity stunts. The speech that she gave at the UN saying, I am not angry with the Taliban... spoke volumes of her determined state of mind. In spite of all the comments that she is managing it because of the media glare or she has some political motivations and she is well backed up etc., having done their rounds, I cannot but admire this girl and the cause for which she stands.

I am looking at her Indian counterparts...my young friends in India... what are your priorities. At 17...what matters to you? How informed are you? How courageous are you? How criticaly aware are you of the system around you, be it political or social or cultural. How liberating, how transforming, how challenging are your perspectives. And how determined are you to stand by them?

This 17 year old has set you a model. I am not calling you to idolise her...just wondering if your hearts and minds are disturbed by this throbbing precedence!

WORD 2day: 11th October, 2014

Belonging to Christ
Gal 3: 22-29; Lk 11: 27-28

'We are Christians for the past 4 generations'; 'I belong to such and such a  Church or denomination'; 'oh! I am born again' or I am born thrice!!!... nothing of this will make us acceptable or blessed in the eyes of God. Whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free...it does not matter, says St. Paul in the first reading today. What matters is, that we clothe ourselves in Christ, that we become one in Christ, that WE BELONG TO CHRIST (cf. Gal 3:29).

Belonging to Christ would mean 3 things according to the readings today: having faith in God (inspite of anything that happens or does not happen, like Abraham); hearing the Word attentively (like St. Paul); and observing the directions given by the Lord (like our blessed mother).

WORD 2day: 10th October, 2014.

Daily Faithfulness and Constant Commitment

Gal 3:7-14; Lk 11:15-26

One who is righteous, by faith shall he or she live, says the first reading! Being God's or belonging to God means a life full of daily choices. It is not a change that happens once and remains for ever, but it is a daily faithfulness on our part to remain in the same state of grace. Faith, therefore, is not a set of truths that are proposed or discussed; but it is a personal commitment lived, a relationship that is established, a rapport that is built between me and my God!

Because God loved me so much, Christ stoops down to such an extent to initiate that relationship between me and God... Christ became a curse for my sake, reminds St.Paul. It is not enough that such a relationship is initiated by God, a gratuitous gift given to me. It is essential that I keep that relationship going, on a daily basis, filling my life with God and all that pertains to God. If not, there are myriads of other things that are waiting to take possession of my heart. As St. Peter warns, 'your enemy the devil, is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour' (cf. 1 Pet 5:8). The key is: daily faithfulness and constant commitment.

WORD 2day: 9th October, 2014

Supplying the Spirit

Gal 3: 1-5; Lk 11: 5-13

One who supplies the Spirit to you: that is an identity that the Word reveals of God, in both the readings today (Gal 3:5; Lk 11:13). 'To supply the Spirit'...what would that mean? It would mean that we are given the assurance of the continued presence of the Lord perennially. 'The Spirit is the mark of God's ownership on us' (cf Eph 1:13), St. Paul would declare elsewhere. It is God's definition of our identity, our call and the meaning of our life. We are called to be sons and daughters of the Spirit and the Spirit does not leave us even a moment. We are accompanied all through. 

But when doubts assail us, when we fall into temptations, when we lax into lower standards of human living, give into the vile pressures of the evil one and the vices of the distraught world, we are shunning the Spirit of the Lord. Asking, knocking, seeking are acts of faith, they are not acts of some desperate effort to get something by all means. They are acts of faith by which we live our convictions that, even before asking the Lord knows my needs; to knock is to surrender oneself totally, come what may; and to seek is not a call to seek in vain or in all-emptiness but to seek the person who lives within us, who dwell within us, who makes us the dwelling places of God (cf 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19).Once we possess the Spirit, we would need nothing: Seek ye first the Reign of God, and everything will be given unto you.

WORD 2day: 8th October, 2014

Of God's great big family!

Gal 2:1-2, 7-14; Lk 11:1-4

I have heard of a wonderful definition for prayer (most probably from Martin Luther), which says: prayer is not saying lies to God! It is a spot-on definition, because it gives us the crux of it all. In the letter to the Galatians today, St. Paul is narrating that incident when he had to challenge Peter on his integrity: "If you, though a Jew, are living like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the gentiles to live like Jews?" What does it matter what name you bear or to which denomination you belong or which saint is your patron, when your life does not reflect what you believe in?

If I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God and my Saviour - then every person around me is my brother or my sister! What has to be there between us is merely love and love alone! How can I ever think of hating, fighting, judging, competing, ruining, maligning, envying, calumniating, belittling, trampling, exploiting... how can I do these if I truly believe what I believe! It is a reminder again from Jesus in the Gospel today: Accept God your Father and Mother from on High and live in love, like Children of one family, God's great big family!

WORD 2day: 7th October, 2014

Listening to God: Remembering Our Mother of the Holy Rosary

Gal 1: 13-24; Lk 10: 38-42

The Readings today insist on our need to listen to God. The credit that has to be given to Saul, in his turning into Paul is fundamentally his readiness to listen to God. If he were as stubborn as he always were, he would not have heard the Lord's voice from his horse! He himself reiterates his capacity to listen to God, by narrating his initial journey in the Lord, preparing himself to be an apostle: that was to the major part, an attentive listening to the Lord and to all that the Lord wanted to reveal.  

Mary at Bethany, is yet another icon of listening to God. She knew where the life giving source was: "to whom shall we go Lord, while you have the words of eternal life" were the words of Peter to the Word made flesh. Today we are called to discover the life giving Spirit in the Word that comes across to us on a daily basis. 

Our Blessed mother is the epitome of silent listening, for she kept everything in her heart and pondered, says the Gospel. The practice of the Holy Rosary, is a wonderful lesson that Mary teaches us to listen to God. Yes in praying the rosary, we listen to God speaking, God speaking in and through the sacred mysteries that are contemplated. From annunciation to coronation, we cannot find proofs from the Bible for every one of them, but in silent contemplation, we will come to realise the Divine Plan of salvation unfolding slowly but steadily.