GOD'S PRESENCE, PEACE AND EVERY BLESSING!!!

The Solemnity of the Mother of  God

Num 6:22-27; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2: 16-21

It is a fresh start, a new year, a treasure of 365 days! It is a gift, a gift in all ways: precious, beautiful, wrapped and presented. First of all, it would be too rude not to receive it as a gift. Secondly, it is wrapped...and it is important that we receive it with a sense of wonder, surprise and gratitude. Trying to know everything, in the name of predictions and presumptions, would strip it of its wonder! To approach it with a wry and dry mentality will make it devoid of its surprise. Let us approach it with gratitude and a sense of childlike curiosity, prepared to receive the gift on daily basis, one day at a time!

The greatest gift we can have, that with which we begin every new year, is the loving presence of God! The babe in the manger is a the highest gift that we can have. The Emmanuel, God with us, is the most precious gift that we can behold. That the Lord is with us fills us with hope: that whatever it be as the year unfolds day by day, we would never be alone facing it. We have the Lord with us. 

We celebrate the gift of our Lord: given through the Mother of God! The Mother of God is a gift, a reminder and a challenge to us. The Mother of God, is a gift: God gives her to us as a protector, a guide, a refuge as we begin this new year, with all its surprises. The Mother of God, is the reminder of the Word made flesh, the Lord who has cast away all distance and difference and become one like us, just to show us how much God loves us. The Mother of God is a challenge, a challenge to give, to give endlessly. She gave herself, when the Angel approached her! She gave the world the Son of God, born of a woman, when the fullness of time came. She gave that child to the Lord, offered him in the temple and offered him to the Father's work! She gave her young son, for the sake of the salvation of the world. She gave up everything and gave everything! She stands as a challenge for us today, to give, to give and never to count!

This year, which is given into our hands today, as a gift pack, will be filled with peace if we live it in the way that the Lord wants us to; after the example of our Blessed Mother. She said that yes, and she said that for her whole life, not knowing what it meant and where it will lead her. All that she was assured was, the Lord was with her. We are assured too that the Lord's presence will go with us, that the Lord's countenance with shine on us. Let us begin with hope and that will give us peace.

May the Lord bless you and keep you!

May the Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!

May the Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!

May your New year 2015 be filled with God's presence, peace and every blessing!

WORD 2day: 31st December, 2014

Thank you Lord for 2014

1 Jn 2: 18-21; Jn 1: 1-18

There is a discussion of the last hour today in the readings and indeed it is the last hour of this year! As we begin this day, let our hearts be filled with thanksgiving! The light, the true light, the Word, the Eternal word is here amidst us! Let this day be dedicated to thank the Lord for all the good that the Lord has done for us in the year that is just passing by. 

We would do well today to list the goodness that we have enjoyed from the Lord. It would do good also to list the not-so-happy experiences and find out what they have to tell us for our life. It would be wonderful if we review our lives once again today, affirm to ourselves the marks of the people of God; and resolve to do away with those that do not fit in.

There is one message that the Word wants to leave strongly in our minds, as we end this year and get ready to start a new one, and that is: "The Word has become flesh; and dwells among us!" The Lord is with us and that is the note of hope with which we await the new year! Good bye 2014!

WORD 2day: 30th December, 2014

Surrender or Manipulation? What is our disposition?

1 Jn 2: 12-17; Lk 2: 36-40

World or things of the world as opposed to the love of the Father: by now it is considered an outdated way of thinking. Indeed the dichotomy that is involved and implied is a bit old fashioned but the difference between the two choices, is real and concrete. Even our prayer for example could have within itself hidden a sense of giving more importance to the world and the things of the world instead of our love for God our Father and Mother. 

Just yesterday, there was the last minute preparation going on for a mega event, while unfortunately the forecast was for a likely cyclone showers! Immediately a group got down to pray and say, 'please stop the rain'! Praying here is something wonderful, but a subtle point to be noted here is: how prepared are we to accept the will of God in things that we have planned; instead of asking the Lord to adjust to our designs?

Whoever does the will of God remains for ever, reminds St. John in his epistle today (v.17). Prophetess Anna, or even Prophet Simeon for that matter, waited for years together, in relentless patience towards the will of God. Can we really abandon ourselves to the will of God: a surrender so beautifully symbolised by the Divine Kid in the manger these days!

DB VOICES

DB VOICES... a Youth Choir in the city!

A new initiative with don bosco youth of the city of Chennai, to form a youth choir, took off with a bang on 28th December, 2014. A band of 25 singers and 6 musicians, from three salesian parishes (namely, Basinbridge, Ayanavaram and Vyasarpadi) sang for the Priestly Ordination of the two deacons of the Province of Chennai. This was their first programme as a choir, formed merely a couple of weeks before. The singing was awesome and the music was divine! They are aware that they have greater milestones to achieve! All that they need is our assurance, affirmation and accompaniment! 

Thanks to Frs. Deva Joe and Edward Michael who trained them for this programme and thanks to many more who are with these youngsters and their magnificent dreams! We look forward to seeing and hearing you more dear young friends. Congrats to you all. You have a lot more to achieve. March on!

WORD 2day : 29th, December, 2014

Love: the light of Life
1 Jn 2: 3-11; Lk 2: 22-35

Hatred, violence,  vengeance,  aggression and terrorism abound today in forms varied and vicious. The talks of conversion and reconversion rob faith of its fundamental essence.  The readings today give us a clear cut criterion to judge who is right and who is not. The one who loves one's brothers and sisters is in light. And whoever says he or she is in light,  yet hates one's brother or sister,  is still in darkness (Cf. 1 Jn 2: 8&9).

Jesus the light can never cause hatred or division. There can be people who claim to be interpreting the Light but causing divisions and hatred and rivalry. Let them be certain,  says the Word, that they are still in darkness.

Let love, the light of life, guide us on as we come to the close of this year!

FAMILY: WHERE GOD ABIDES

The Feast of the Holy Family

28th December, 2014

Celebrating the feast of Holy Family... we are given a challenging model, a role we have to play as families in today's context.

The Holy family offered the Lord to the world: Do we do as families? Do we offer the Lord to where we live? Do our way of life offer the values of the Lord to our surroundings? Do the families and individuals around have the Lord to take away from us, when they visit us?

The Holy family brought the Lord to Jerusalem. The Lord said he lives where two or three are gathered in the Lord's name! What about our families...aren't we gathered in the name of the Lord and by the holy will of God? If so, aren't our families responsible of bringing the Lord to the community, the gathering of the families? Are our Church gatherings, our communities real union of families or some mass of people congregated?

The Holy family created a space for the Lord to live with them. Have we created a concrete space for the Lord in our homes? It is not about the altars we have at home, neat and decorated. It is not about the pictures we hang or the calendars we stare at. It is about the living space, it is about a membership in the family!

The Holy family does more than just standing around and blessing us today! They challenge us to be bearers of the Lord to the world. Can we accept that challenge?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

St. John, the other apostle

1 Jn 1: 1-4; Jn 20: 1 a,  2-8

John is literally a great gift of God to us, as the name itself suggests. John refers to himself in the Gospel as the Other Disciple and that specificity gives us a guarantee of the great tradition that is behind that name and that experience.

John stands for a loving personal relationship with the Lord. That is what we are challenged towards in our daily concrete life. Can we say an whole hearted yes to that call?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

St. Stephen, the first Martyr

Acts 6: 8-10, 7: 54-59; Mt 10: 17-22

Persecutions and Martyrdom have never been alien to Christian Faith. St. Stephen is the first Biblical evidence to it. Continuing in the line of the prophets and persons of God who have been treated at will by the world in the Old Testament, we see Jesus and most of his disciples facing the same end in the New Testament. Some one posted on the facebook yesterday saying they were offended when they heard the congregation praying for Christians in Iraq and the person questioned: "Why only Christians? Why not others?" Infact, 'Christians in Iraq' should by now be a collective term for us...it should stand for and remind us of every person persecuted for truth, every person tortured unjustly, every person discriminated and trampled under the tyranny of violence and force!

St. Stephen knew what it meant to suffer for Christ; it meant suffering for the things that really matter; it meant standing for true beliefs and convictions that can elevate your spirit to the heavens open and the angels coming down! It was Stephen who also imitated his Master literally: While Jesus prayed for those who crucified him and offered his spirit into the hands of his loving Father, Stephen prayed for those who stoned him and surrendered his spirit into Jesus' hands.What an example for us to emulate!

Merry Christmas

CELEBRATING GOD'S LOVE

The Solemnity of the Birth of the Lord, 2014

Today, we celebrate love! Christmas is a festival of love, the love that God has for us! This love is not something that we can easily understand, not a love that we can easily explain nor a love that we can easily imitate! Because it is a scandalous love! Yes we celebrate a Scandalous Love today! What makes this love so scandalous are the three negatives that this love is characterised by. Let us dwell a bit on those...THREE SCANDALOUS NEGATIVES...each negative more scandalous than the previous.

First negative is: UNCONDITIONAL. This love has no conditions, absolutely no conditions. That is why even after repeated failures and faithlessness on the part of the people with whom God had made the covenant, God still continues to love humanity. Christmas, the mystery of incarnation, is an ample exposition of this 'unconditional' love; a love without any conditions absolutely. Infact, with conditions it would not be love, isn't it? 

How many conditions we pose to love a person: he or she has to avoid this or do this or that; he or she has to take me seriously; he or she has to love me in return to the same extent I do, if not more; he or she has to fulfill a list of duties and measure up to the responsibilities given to the person... and what not. As you keep following those lines, I am sure you were wondering if you can just relieve a person of all these binds. As humans we feel, we cannot. These conditions seem legitimate and necessary. But God's mind would respond in the negative: whether you keep to your call  or not, whether you live up to your identity or not, God loves you and there can be no second thoughts to it. It disturbs our mind to think of such a love: that is the scandal involved in this love. God loves us scandalously! God's love is Unconditional!

The Second negative is: ILLOGICAL. There is no logic to God's love. In the love that God has for us or in the love that the Lord teaches us to have for each other, there is no logic whatsoever. Humanity takes God for granted and abandons God's ways at the first occasion that presents, God draws ever nearer and sends more prophets and finally even God's own Son! For God so loved the world, that God sent God's only Son, that all who believe in him will be saved.

The world teaches us a flawless logic: some one is good to you, try to be good to them, but it may not be absolutely necessary, because what matters is what you will gain. If something leads to gain, choose it; if something leads to a loss refrain from it, reject it: whether it is a person or a thing. This is the logic of the day! Without this logic one would be considered, unfit, incapable, useless, impractical, loser, inefficient and so on! But God's love is illogical and it is the same love that God manifests today at the manger, that Jesus taught us: love your neighbours; love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Today, seeing the insane stand that the present political faction is taking against the minorities in our nation, we may be inclined to hate them, wish their ruin and see their end. We may be harbouring hatred and praying for their downfall. First command that the Lord gives: Love them. "It is illogical", you may shout! Yes, that is what it is: God's love is completely illogical. And we are born of that Love (Jn 1:13). If it is so for the society at large, take our families! Your brother may be doing everything against you; your sister may be totally ungrateful for all that you have done; your mother-in-law may be the worst for understanding you; your daughter-in-law may be totally disrespectful towards you; your spouse may not care for you at all...You are called to love that person! Love that person truly! That is the call of Christmas.

The third negative: UNREASONABLE. God's love has no Why? True love has no why! Ask God why God should love humanity...there is no reason for it. God made humanity and that warrants that God could deal with humanity in any manner, as tyrant task master or a domineering boss, but God gives us absolute personal freedom and loves us every moment! But why? That question can never be answered. 

There should be reason to whatever we do, says the world today. I love my children, I love my parents, I love my spouse...because they are what they are to me! But why should I love my neighbour, why should I love a stranger, why should I love a person who is far away on some other part of the planet, why should I love the next generation to come, why should I love the child which is yet to be born, why should I love the nature: should I demand a reason for these, I would not be truly 'Christ'ian. The love that Christ stands for or the love out of which Christ is born today, is an unreasonable love. This is the highest of the scandals we have: a love without reasons! God had so many ways of manifesting God's saving prowess in the past: Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Deborah, Gideon, David...and so many who were such great powerful instruments of God. But why should God finally decide to send God's son? Was there a need to send the Son and get him killed! Why couldn't God find some other person in the line of those prophets and kings? Any number of those why...would only meet with silence; the Silence of this holy, calm, mysterious night, where God is made Man! Such an unreasonable love.

The question: Are you prepared to imitate that scandalous love of God, so Unconditional, Illogical and Unreasonable? If you do, your life would be a daily Christmas - mysterious, miraculous and meaningful. If not, we would miss the point of today's celebration: the celebration of God's Scandalous love!