REJOICE

Third Sunday of Advent: 14th December,  2014

Is 61: 1-2 a,  10-11; 1Thes 5: 16-24; Jn 1: 1-6, 19-28.

Rejoice...again I say rejoice! Today is called the Gaudate Sunday, asking us to celebrate in foreboding joy, the Lord and his coming.

Joy is the key Christian value in today's world, maintains strongly our beloved Holy Father Pope Francis. He says a christian should be able to convince the world that one can be filled with joy and live one's life inspiring the same joy in those around and in the world at large. It is possible that one gets confused as to what this joy really means. But as to Christian joy,  there should be no doubt what it means.

J-Jesus... first and foundation.

Christian Joy is to place Jesus first in life. When the Lord is given the first and the central place in life, every thing else falls in place. Relativising every thing else in relation to God is a source of an immense serenity. John the Baptist knew that well and bears witness to this serenity!

The foundation of Christian Joy is the Lord himself.  It involves a grateful recognition of all that Good had done to us. Like our blessed mother we would break into a song of praise and thanksgiving: my soul magnifies the Lord;  for the Lord has done great things for me. Like Isaiah today and like Jesus himself who would quote the very same verses of Isaiah... we would acknowledge the working of the spirit on our behalf.

O-Others... prior and principle.

The other comes prior to the self in true joy. True Christian joy would take into consideration the other immediately after the Lord,  who is the source of joy. Selfishness and avarice,  pleasure and exploitation cannot form part of Christian joy.

The very principle of Christian joy is the community and the sense of the people of God! The Don Bosco Youth Centres in Chennai have this tag line attached to them: No one has the right to be happy alone. The call "rejoice" today, comes to the community as a whole to rejoice in the Lord who has willed to act on their behalf.

Y-You... last but not the least

You come at the end nevertheless "you" matter much to the Lord. It is not true to think that Christian spirit requires that you negate yourself to the extent that you think your self is evil!  It is not. You are precious in the eyes of God and you form an integral and important part of God's salvific plan.

Rejoice... is the call today. Let's rejoice in the Lord and prepare ourselves more intensely with that joy, to receive the Lord when He comes.

YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE #6

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

12th December, 2014: Feast of Our Blessed Mother of Guadalupe

Zech 2: 14-17; Lk 1: 26-38

The Lord comes: with our Yes!

The feast of Our Blessed Mother of Guadalupe during the Advent is an opportune moment to reflect on the importance of our cooperation with God's will. The Lord speaks of the plan to be one of us, be with us and make us God's own. And the Gospel presents to us the shortcut to become God's own, with a role model in place: Our Blessed Mother. 

It is because of her total surrender that she enters so powerfully into the plan of God as an instrument so crucial in the hands of God. We have a call to make the presence of the Lord felt in the world today and in our context. The Reign of God is nothing but making the influence of God felt on every bit of what is happening around us. It is only with our Yes, that this can become a reality. The Lord throws the challenge open to us and awaits our Yes: with our Yes, the Lord comes into our history, as with Mary's Yes, the Lord entered the history of humanity so concretely.

Do you really want God to enter you life? Do you want your life to journey towards its fullness? Then ask yourself: Are you ready to say YES to the Lord and the Lord's plans? If you do, you too will sing with our Blessed Mother- 'My soul magnifies the Lord'!

WORD 2day: 11th December, 2014

Second Thursday of Advent
Isa 41: 13-20; Mt 11: 11-15

The Reign Suffers

Jesus speaks of the Reign that suffers at the hands of the violent. It follows from Jesus' assertion that the Reign of God rests amidst us. Yes, the Reign lives in those who live the values of the Reign. Most of the times when I speak to persons, especially the Religious, about the Reign of God the session would not come to an end without a question: "are all that you spoke of, possible? Can we really establish such a Reign in our context?" 

My response is: it is not about establishing the Reign. The Reign already exists, in the persons who stand for love and mutual care, in persons who thirst for justice and truth, in persons who are ready to give up even their lives for the sake of fullness of life for all. The question is do we form part of that Reign already in our life or not. And if we do form part of it, it would be seen in our everyday choices, our priorities and the causes we stand for and speak out for. 

When we do it, we will not be surely left in peace. We will have troubles from every corner and the Lord assures us in the first reading today: 'Fear not! I will help you!' Because the Reign of God is the Lord's doing and we are all agents of that the Reign here on earth.

WORD 2 day: 10th December, 2014

Second Wednesday of Advent

Is 40: 25-31; Mt 11: 28-30

The Temple Run...the life's run

A famous game on the ipads and iphones among the young today, is the Temple Run. I have been fascinated by it the few times that I have seen it. It is nothing but a man who keeps running...he has a devil chasing him and he has to keep running. On the way though he has a devil behind him, he is worried about picking up coins and diamonds so that he can move on ahead having benefits and lives. 

Looking at it, one is reminded of how our lives are ...running all the time from pillar to post for so many varied things, and in the meanwhile concerned about collecting and hoarding things for the present and the future. It has become a need today and looks so rare that anyone will shrink from this running around! A Christian is no exception to this process.

The Lord assures his sons and daughters that God will be with us strengthening us in this life and all its trials...you will run but will not grow tired, you will walk but will not grow faint...if and only if you have God with you! The Lord expresses his wish to comfort us and assist us, it is upto us to receive this grace and accept his accompaniment.

YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE #5

WORD 2day: 9th December, 2014

Second Tuesday of Advent

Is 40: 1-11; Mt 18: 12-14

A Shepherd in Search

The image that the readings today paint to us is of a Shepherd who is compassionately in search of his lost lamb! And more precisely the Gospel and the beginning of the first reading speak to us of the comfort that the Lord wants bring us. 

Like in the story that we hear of a little girl who was lost in a jungle. When it got dark the girl hid herself behind a bush and stayed there calm and composed. the father came in search of the girl and as soon as the girl spotted her father,she shouted "Daddy! I found you!" We sometimes think we are in search of God, while it is God who is in continuous search of us!

Advent is a time that reminds us of the God who comes in search of us. When we allow ourselves to be found, we stand to gain. When we keep ourselves away from God and hide behind blocks, we would miss graces and blessings that we would never get to understand. Let us not miss the most comforting place of all that the Lord has made ready for us: the bosom of the Shepherd who is constantly in search of us.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother

Gen 3: 9-15, 20; Eph 1: 3-6, 11-12; Lk 1: 26-38

God's Plan: Not Magic but Mystery

Today's feast is not so much to celebrate the Blessed Mother of God, as to celebrate the Eternal plan of God. God has a plan for each of us, from before the foundations of the world, reminds us the Liturgy today. At times we look at this plan as something magical and try to guess it through means of mediums and methods of all sorts: palmistry, star signs, fortune tellers and prediction professionals! God's plan is not a magic for us to manipulate; it is a mystery to be lived. God's plans unfold moment by moment, as and when we live. 

Today we see, in time immemorial the promise that God made that he will set a woman and her offspring against the evil tempter of the world. And we celebrate how this plan at the foundations of the creation, unfolded in total obscurity, in the womb which bore the womb that would bear the Son of God. What a great mystery!

It is not for us to guess God's plan or calculate God's moves: that is a radical impossibility. But we are called to believe in the God's plan, accept it and cooperate with it! God has chosen us before the foundation of the world and therefore we are not here by chance; God has willed us into existence! It is our task to discern what God's plan is for us at any particular given time and carry it out, as did our Blessed Mother all her life. 

The aspect we celebrate in our Blessed Mother today is the total cooperation that she offered to the plan of God, because of which she lived all her life, holy and blameless. Let us fix our minds on the Word today: that we are chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God in love. 

W.A.I.T.

Second Sunday of Advent: 7th December,  2014

Is 40: 1-5, 9-11; 2 Pet 3: 8-14; Mt 1: 1-8

One fourth of the Advent is gone;  and soon it will be Christmas!  The Lord will be here anytime, warn the readings today. Last week liturgy invited us to watch and this week it invites us to WAIT.

Waiting can be of two fundamental kinds. It can be a passive indifference or it could be an active participation in the expectant events. A Christian waiting can never be an indifference and a passive helplessness regarding things that happen. That is what the world calls fate. A Christian waiting at advent is an active participation in the historical events that announce and usher in the Reign of God.

What does this wait concretely consist of?  The liturgy today offers a clarity on this.

To wait is to Wish the coming of the Lord. True Waiting begins with a real wish,  a want,  a true desire that the Lord comes. It cannot be based on a dubious or a half hearted acceptance of an inevitable situation. A truly Christian waiting for the Lord should begin from an ardent desire that the Lord should visit us. Sometimes this wish or desire can be half hearted because of the fear of the changes that the Lord can effect with the coming.

To wait is to Allow the hand of the Lord. 

Isaiah today speaks of the changes that we need to look forward to; that the valleys be filled and the hills be leveled! It cannot be a true Christian attitude to want the Lord to come but not being ready to do anything or give into any change personally or as a community. It is a readiness to allow the Lord to challenge us to perfection.

To wait is to Inhabit the dwellings of the Lord. 

The second reading speaks to us of the need to conduct ourselves in holiness and devotion. The Gospel presents to us a people who went in search of the man of God that they may get closer to God,  purify their ways and dwell in holiness and devotion. How eager are we to dwell in the courts of the Lord? How prepared are we to inhabit the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord promises us?

To wait is to Tremble at the presence of the Lord.

Let each one work out one's own salvation with fear and trembling. John the Baptist personifies the need to prepare oneself in earnestness for the day of the Lord. He gives the ways and means of being prepared for the Reign of God. When the people looked for a saviour in the Baptist, he admits it with trembling before the Lord that the One who comes after him is mightier than him.

Lets WAIT... wish heartily the coming of the Lord,  allow the hand of the Lord to change our lives,  inhabit the dwellings of the Lord and tremble at the presence of Lord. Let us take stock of the journey so far and continue in earnestness. 

WORD 2day: 6th December, 2014

First Saturday of Advent

Is 30: 19-21, 23, 26; Mt 9: 31- 10:1, 5a, 6-8

The greatest gift of God, is God's continual presence with us!

Life, food, water, protection, healing, assurance, sustenance, love and care...these are given to us gratuitously by God. All these are gifts that we have received, whether we acknowledge it or not. The greatest of all and the gift beyond all these is God's continual presence with us. More precisely, the fundamental gift of all is the presence! 

God's presence is manifested to us in various ways: as providing presence that fulfills our needs; protecting presence that safeguards us from dangers; probing presence that challenges us on our life's journey; and above all, guiding presence that accompanies us on a constant basis. The last of these, is a bit different presence because, all others will be taken care of by God, even if we are mere passive receivers. But the accompanying presence of the Lord can be experienced only if we actively acknowledge, accept and allow the Lord to act on our behalf. 

Advent is a spiritual exercise precisely to grow in our capacity to become aware of this accompanying presence! It is a moment when we learn to see, practice to understand and be prepared to allow God to have God's way in our life. Are you on that journey?