WORD 2day: 26th May, 2015

Honest and Unattractive Marketing

Tuesday,  8th week in OrdinaryTime
Sir 35: 1-12; Mk 10: 28-31

Buy one get two; pay less get more;  paisa vasool... these are well known marketing techniques followed by the business brands, big or small. At the most the attempt to be sincere would be marked with an asterisk in smallest font size possible and stated "conditions apply" - all an attempt to hide what it really costs.

But today Jesus seems to be inviting people promising them 100 fold of what they give up and adds 'persecutions and death' too as inevitable part of the package - plain and clear! The First reading too promises sevenfold of what we offer to the Lord, but insists: 'offer no bribes, these God does not accept! Trust not in sacrifice of the fruits of extortion.'

It's all an unattractive type of marketing but honest. The fruits of discipleship is all made known to us. ..and along with it, what it truly costs. Will that kind of a propaganda attract many;  yes, many among those who honour honesty and dare to pick up the cross.

WORD 2day: 25th May, 2015

BE ALL FOR GOD

Monday,  8th week in Ordinary Time

Sir 17: 20-24; Mk 10: 17-27

We resume our normal journey after a long, eventful and significant detour into joys and sorrows,  passions and glories, pains and victories of Christ. The readings today present Jesus too about to set on a journey and Jesus gives us a clear and splendid orientation for our journey.

Live your life, all for God! While you still have the time come back to God from your strange ways. There may be great intense moments when you feel connected with God. Those are gifts,  do cherish them. But your faithfulness to God has to be seen in the normal long run, in the daily choices and determining priorities you possess. Seek perfection and there is no end to that journey; it goes on and on until you be all for God!

The Spirit and the Spirit's handmaiden!

24.05.2015

A HAPPY FEAST OF PENTECOST...

HAPPY FEAST OF MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS...

WORD 2day: Winding up to begin anew

Saturday, VII week of Easter: 23rd May,  2015

Acts 28:16-20, 30-31; Jn 21: 20-25

Don't you find a sense of winding up in the readings today? A type of 'and-they-lived-happily-thereafter' narration! Paul seems to settle down for good in Rome as an honoured guest in house arrest,  while Jesus seems to be bidding his final bye as the book of John comes to an end. The end is for a new beginning. ..the Church awaits the all important feast of the Pentecost tomorrow,  an outpouring of the Spirit that led to a renewed life and radical witness.

The message today is our call to'follow Christ' in season and out of season,  whether we are free or captive,  whether we live or die, whether we eat or drink! Good news has to be announced by all means and the responsibility is ours,  irrespective of our state of life or situation at present. How prepared and willing am I?

WORD 2day : Towards a true sense of Christian Leadership

Friday,  VII week of Easter: 22nd May,  2015
Acts 25: 13b-21; Jn 21: 15-19

Jesus seems to be preparing the second level of leadership. Peter he appoints already before he goes and Paul he seems to be taking to the all the ends of the earth that he may bear witness, true to his promises. In this Jesus offers us an insight into Christian leadership;  it does not consist in power and position but in bearing witness and serving the community of faith. Infact in such a perspective every baptised person is called to play a role as a leader: in witnessing and serving!

Today looking at our communities, be it parish communities where the laity scheme their way to positions of honour and fame,  or the members of the religious congregations or the clergy playing dirty politics and divisive games... true understanding of Christian leadership seems to have taken a back seat. The Gospel Acclamation reminds us today that the Spirit will teach us the truth and all the truth. May the Spirit of the Lord rekindle our faith and lead us towards true sense of Christian leadership.

WORD 2day: As in Jerusalem, so in Rome. ..

Thursday,  VII week of Easter: 21st May, 2015
Acts 22:30 - 23: 6-11; Jn 17: 20-25

Just out of one danger, Paul is promised more of them! Courage! says the Lord. We can live our life with courage and confidence because the Lord goes before us. Just as the Lord promises today to Paul,  it will be as in Jerusalem also in Rome, and in every other place. .. for the Lord precedes us wherever we may go.

All that we need to do is remain united,  remain one,  witness to the oneness we see between the Father and the Son. Jesus continues to pray that we may be one because that would be the first witness to the Reign that he longed to establish on earth.

Jesus promises us the glory that God alone can give,  that comes from the perfection of being one! That determination,  that decision to remain before the world one and bold,  will be the work of the Spirit who is the fellowship between the Father and the Son. Wherever we are,  let us be aware and convinced that we possess the glory that the Lord has promised, and live up to that glory,  to that gift,  to that person who has called us as one.

WORD 2day : The Spirit that makes us One

Wednesday,  VII week of Easter: 20th May, 2015
Acts 20: 28-38; Jn 17: 11b-19

From parting mood to prayer mode... today the readings capture both Jesus and Paul praying for and praying with their beloved followers. They invoke the Spirit who unites and warn the followers of the spirit of discord.

The passages today give us a cue as to how we can discern the right move in the face of differences among us. Be it in a family or in a community of faithful,  given the fact that we are thinking individuals,  there is bound to arise differences of opinion. As long as they are from the Spirit these differences will only lead to growth and renewal. But we are warned against the differences caused by the ravenous wolves and treacherous beasts. Ruled by ego and dominated by envy,  these differences are aimed at destroying the unity of the people of God.

What comes from the Spirit unites us,  for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit that makes us one! Let us remain in the Spirit and remain united in love above everything else. May we live worthy of the prayer that Jesus made for us: that they may be one!

WORD 2day: The One Spirit

Tuesday,  VII week of Easter: 19th May,  2015
Acts 20: 17-27; Jn 17: 1-11

We see both Paul and Jesus in a parting mood;  Paul is sensing an imminent trouble and Jesus is sure of a fast approaching end. But both have a sense of having completed the task given to them. Apart from that both have a note of passing on the mission to those around them - Paul to the presbyters and Jesus to the apostles. There is one thing in both cases that ensures the continuity: the One Spirit.

The same Spirit that was in Jesus,  he gave to his apostles,  to Paul and then Paul to the elders...the Spirit of courage and strength. As Paul would explain in 2 Tim 1:7, the Spirit of power,  of love and of self discipline. Power, which makes us fearless;  love which makes feel for the others;  and self discipline which enables us to do the will of the One who calls us,  come what may!

WORD 2day: Spirit of the Conqueror

Monday,  VII week of Easter: 18th May,  2015

Acts 19:1-8; Jn 16: 29-33

No one probably understood Jesus when he was around. They were only making their guesses,  putting together things that they saw,  the things they heard and the things that were being reported. Today,  as many other times Jesus confronts them with the truth! When the disciples presume that they knew and understood what Jesus was saying,  Jesus makes them realise their folly and their weakness - not out of despise - but out of genuine concern.

They still had not known the Spirit,  as those men of Ephesus whom we come across in the first reading. Jesus introduces to them and speaks to us of the continuous presence of God,  which is the indwelling Spirit. It is with the coming of the Spirit that the apostles come to understand Jesus and Him,  they become conquerors.

We are invited today to contemplate this Spirit of the Lord, who will make of us too: conquerors of the world and all its viles.

THE LORD GOES... TO BE

Ascension of the Lord: 17th May, 2015

Acts 1:1-11; Eph 4: 1-13; Mk 16:15-20

Ascension. The Lord goes up, the Lord goes up to his Father, to the One who sent him, to the one who had given him a mission to accomplish! The Lord goes up, but has he accomplished?

The Lord goes up, with the PROMISE OF THE FATHER: I am going, but you remain! 

I am going says the Lord; but assures that he will not abandon us totally. The Lord will give us an helper who would fill us with the same passion and fire that was in the Son of God. The promise is so concrete and sure, that the next step depends on that. They would be told to do what they have to do. And then it happens...the promise of the Father, crying out to the apostles, to us: you are my beloved sons and daughters, today I have begotten you in my Son! It is the promise of the Father as we read in the Book of Joel (chapter 2) that the Father will fill us with the Spirit!

The Lord goes up, with a PARTING MESSAGE: I am going, You too go!

Go and be my witnesses! Go proclaim my message! Go continue my task! It is like the famous relay race! The Lord has done his rounds, and now the baton is in our hands. It depends on us to take it forward, says the Lord, as he gives his parting message to the Apostles. Go all over the world; Go to all people; Go to take my message!

The Lord goes up, into a PRESENCE BEYOND: I am going, but I am with your forever. 

This going of the Lord is not a going in the literal sense of the word, because if the Lord were to be gone, we would not exist. The Lord goes, to be with us ever more powerfully, ever more closely and ever more unceasingly. As the Lord promises, the Lord have overcome the World (Jn 16: 33). The Lord goes, precisely that he could be with us always and everywhere, till the end of times, as a conqueror, as the power that enlivens us, as a person who has gone before us showing us the way.

The Lord Goes... to be with us...forever, always and everywhere!