WORD 2day: 6th October, 2015

The Art of Prioritising

Tuesday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time

Jon 3: 1-10; Lk 10: 38-42

Martha was doing a lot of good but what Mary chose was deemed to be the best. At times we spend our time and energy doing a lot of things, all of them good may be! But what is the best we can choose at a given moment, I believe that is the point of discernment. The best that I can choose at a point of time, is what is expected of me from God right then. The people of Nineveh had a keen sense of discernment and they made a concrete and clear choice. They had their priorities clear. My choices actually reveal my priorities. 

Spending hours together for an entertainment, investing enormous energy towards getting merely an appreciation, dumping whole life down the drain hoarding money, these are some warped priorities that threaten us these days. A majority of us give into it consciously or unwittingly. Jesus teaches us today the art of prioritising. Place not just the first things first, but the most important things first! You may have to even give up on somethings, not merely because they are bad but even if they are good, merely because they are not as important. Seek ye first the Reign of God and everything else will be given unto you - that's a pearl of the art of prioritising!

WORD 2day: 5th October, 2015

Lacking Compassion is lacking God

Monday,  27th week in Ordinary Time
Jon 1:1 - 2:1, 11; Lk 10: 25-37

Recently talking to a group of parish leaders on living our faith in our day to day life,  I observed the reality of the treacherous imbalance in the so called development in India. A gentleman from the crowd immediately made a statement so categorically that left me wondering. He said, 'all these poor people you say,  are poor because they are lazy and irresponsible!' When I retorted with a question,  'all of them?'...he conceded a bit saying, 'atleast half of them' and then on my further pursuance he came to saying, 'atleast a big number of them'!

At times we make rash judgements on persons because we lack compassion. When we lack compassion, we lack godliness. Jonah today wanted the people of Niniveh to perish in their sins. He did not want to call them to conversion of their heart because he thought they would escape the punishment that was due to them. We could be like Jonah so much guided by vendetta but we are called to reach out like the Samaritan, doing all that we could to anyone in need...not stand there enquiring whether the person is deserving or not, whether my efforts will bear the best results or not. That is lack of compassion, and lacking compassion is lacking God.

PRAYER for 14th Ordinary Synod of Bishops - Tamil

PRAYER for 14th Ordinary Synod of Bishops

FAMILY: The Vocation and Mission Today

4th October, 2015: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gen 2: 18-24; Heb 2: 9-11; Mk 10: 2-16

FAMILY is the basic unit of a holistic humanity, not the individual. Where this fact is gainsaid, we see the genesis of every problem the world is infested with today. The Word today invites us to dwell on this theme of Family and rightly this day has been chosen to initiate the 14th Ordinary Synod of Bishops, which would reflect on the theme: The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and the Contemporary World. The Synod which begins today, in the Vatican, would last for 3 weeks and each of these weeks would highlight a sub theme, the very themes that we can find underlined in the readings today.

Listening to Challenges: The Synod would begin with listening to the Challenges of the Family in the contemporary world. In a world that is filled with individualism, materialism and consumerism, the family has become an entity that is seen to be an hindrance, a block, a burden that slows down one's personal progress towards self fulfillment. In the Gospel, Jesus underlines the problems of infidelity and unchastity around the reality of marriage. With the increasing numbers of divorce, reducing numbers of marriages, growing justification of co-habitation, newer claims to the nature of marriage, we are called to listen to the times and understand the challenges involved in building a family today.

Discerning Vocations: The First reading highlights an indelible nature of marriage and family. Being a Family or a Marriage is a vocation. It is not a phenomenon that happens by default. It has to be a conscious choice, well discerned and taken up with absolute commitment. Discerning Vocations here would mean the need for persons to make a choice and the role of the community in helping a person make that choice with ease and seriousness. It would mean also the need of the pastors and those who play that role in some manner or degree, to accompany individuals within this context. To mark this fact of family being the locus of one's calling,  during the Synod,  on 18th of October,  the parents of St. Teresa of Liseux will be canonised acknowledging their role as parents in promoting sanctity in their family. 

Exploring the Mission of the Family Today: In the second reading we see that the Word reminds us of the most fundamental function of a family: it makes us brothers and sisters in the Lord. Though every person is an individual, each with his or her interests and motives, dreams and vision, desires and ambitions, we are never islands. We are called to live in a family, to begin with and that family is required to become the basic building block of a humanity that is loving, respectful and caring towards everyone else around us.Today a Christian family specially has an enormous responsibility, a mission to accomplish - Evangelisation. It is to share the love of God to the world today. A family is a lived experience of God's love on a daily basis - to share that love with everyone around and with the world at large is simply what Evangelisation means today. Specially against the background of war and injustice, exploitation and domination, violence and crime, terrorism and fanaticism, the Christian families have to become beacons that bear out true love and compassion reminding the world of the Lord who is ever present in our midst and the Lord who is madly in love with you and me.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Their angels are constantly before the Lord

2nd October,  2015: Celebrating the Guardian Angels
Bar 1: 15-22; Matthew 18:1-5,10

The Guardian angels are a special way of God's expression of protective concern over God's children. Every time I think of the Guardian angels I am led to think of a saint of recent times,  Padre Saint Pio. He had many a times vivid experiences of the angel protecting him and those he followed up spiritually. There is something that I read recently that comes to my mind.

In those days when the cellphones were not yet that common,  and the whatsapp and twitter were still in the oblivion, one of his Spiritual sons who lived in the States met with an accident. A friend of his knew the bonding between Padre Pio and his friend, and so rushed to a nearby post office to send him a telegram. When he reached there,  the post master handed him a telegram from Padre Pio which read, "take care and get well soon". The friend was awestruck and he asked Padre Pio,  how he managed it. Padre Pio answered with a smile,  "do you think the angels travel as slow as your trains? "

Let's count on the protecting grace of God so concretely experienced in the angels. God be blessed in the Angels and Saints!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The Word that moves!

1st October, 2015: Celebrating St. Teresa of Child Jesus

Neh 8: 1-12;Lk 10: 1-12

When Ezra read, the people listened, they cried, they celebrated, they gathered and they built themselves up - the center was the Word. 

The Seventy two: they went without money or deposit, without security or shelter, without food or furniture - the center was the Word. 

St. Teresa: lived just 24 years, never crossed her convent walls but today is known as the patroness of the missions - the center of her life was the Word. 

A life centered around the Word- that is the life that the Lord has invited us too. From a tender finger to a mighty power, the Word can move everything and today it beckons us to submit our lives too. Let us be moved by the Word and be people of the Word today.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Commissioned to be loyal servants of the Reign

30th September, 2015: Remembering St.  Jerome

Neh 2:1-8; Lk 9: 57-62

Jesus rejects one who wanted to join him;   while he deliberately invites another who is not prepared enough to join him at that moment. The message is clear- we are here on a mission,  each of us. The more conscious we are about what God wants of us at a particular moment,  the more prepared we shall be for the sacrifices that mission would entail. The more we think we are accomplishing something within our capacity and through our expertise, we tend to long for recognition and affirmation, we would be least prepared for the hardships.

Nehemiah was ready to face the risk of seeking the permission from the king and undertaking the arduous task of rebuilding the city,  because he felt commissioned. St.  Jerome lived his entire life in the secluded cave for the sake of the Word because he felt commissioned.

Wherever we are and whatever we do,  if only we are conscious of the fact that we are commissioned to be loyal of the Reign,  we would definitely make an enormous difference.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Felt Presences of God: Celebrating the Archangels

29th September, 2015

Dan 7: 9-10, 13-14; Jn 1: 47-51

Angels - how do we understand them? Angels are of various types and categories in various traditions. Every faith tradition speaks of angels, and each from its own perspective. As we well know, the Christian understanding of Angels is much drawn from the Jewish understanding of Angels, which in turn was much influenced by the Egyptian understanding. However, the Catholic teaching has gone through much refinement and we should thank God for the continuous revelations that we have had right through our faith tradition. 

Angels are the extensions of God; they are infact the felt presences of God. When a person needs to hear what the Lord wants of the person, the One who speaks those words is Angel Gabriel, the message of God. When a person badly needs a healing, a boost of health to carry out his or her assigned tasks in life, the One who brings that healing or the necessary strength is Angel Raphael, the healing of God. When a person feels weak and worn out, unable to withstand the tiresome world, the One who strengthens them is Angel Michael, the strength of God. How many persons we come across on a daily basis, in our homes, our families, our communities, our workplaces, who long to hear a good word, who look for a soothing balm for their hampered hearts, who long for a sustaining assurance! 

What am I going to do for those in need around me today: for the least, how much time am I ready to spend with them? What good words do I have in store for them? What encouraging gesture of mine is going to strengthen them in their endeavours? In short, how do I plan to start being a felt presence of God to my neighbour?

WORD 2day: 28th September, 2015

The Lord calls us 'MY PEOPLE'

Monday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time

Zech 8: 1-8; Lk 9: 46-50

The Lord time and again reiterates that the Lord shall be our God and We shall be the Lord's people. To be the Lord's people, we have to make a choice: there are two grounds presented in  the Word today. One, that we behold and recognise the presence of the Lord amidst us! To behold the Lord's presence we should be worthy and prepared. To recognise the presence of the Lord we should be open and eager to experience it.

The second ground is, to live our life according to the Lord's values and criteria. As St. Paul would often remind us: not conforming to the standards of the world but being recreated in the image of Christ (cf. Rom 12:2). 

The Lord calls us "My People"... are we prepared and worthy to call the Lord, "My God"?