WORD 2day: 22nd October, 2015

Demanding a choice

Remembering the Pope of the Media Age
Rom 6: 19-23 ; Lk 12: 49-53

The call to make a choice can sometimes place us in contrast with another person or group of persons. Mixing up persons and issues is a sign of lack of maturity. When we say God hates sin but not the sinners, we are referring to this capacity to love a person irrespective of the differences. That is a quality that leads to a healthy dialogue. Remembering today the great Pope Saint John Paul II, a man of dialogue and peace,  we are called to be persons who are convinced about what we believe and what we live, but at the same time persons who never judge others or look to divide persons!

WORD 2day : 21st October, 2015

Integrity: Being Slaves to Righteousness

Wednesday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 6: 12-18 -18; Lk 12: 39-48

Jesus continues his instruction as to how we need to be prepared for that hour of reckoning at any point of time in our life. Infact Jesus is ridiculing all the funny discussions and calculations about when that hour will come - some self proclaimed eschatalogical quacks make much ado of the end and its timings and miss the entire point that Jesus is driving home here.  No matter when and where,  you know what to do and why to do it. Take care how you do it - not seeking human attention but going by merely God's approval.

This is what we call Integrity where I don't need an external recognition and I have developed an internal system of convictions and criteria that makes me almost a "slave" to Righteousness... doing nothing but good, speaking nothing but good,  thinking nothing but good, no matter how unlikely the returns are, or what the consequences would be. I am good and righteous and there is no because!

WORD 2day: 19th October, 2015

Faith versus Foolishness

Monday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 4: 20-25; Lk 12: 13-21

Ultimately it is my faith that is going to make a difference, says the first reading and the Gospel corroborates the fact saying, 'if i don't realise that, I am getting more and more foolish!' In the face of death, what would anything other than my relationship with God mean to me. The source and destiny of my existence is God and God alone can make any difference to my being in the final analysis. A bit of realism and humility will bring every one to this thinking but the sad fact is that it takes a whole lifetime for some to come to that realisation. If we have it already, it is a reason to thank God for having inspired us early. Let us grow in the realisation, become more and more founded on our faith and less and less foolish in our life.

SUNDAY REFLECTION - 18 Oct, 2015

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time 

Is 53: 10-11; Heb 4: 14-16; Mk 10: 35-45

WORD 2day: 17th October, 2015

Faith that speaks and acts!

Saturday,  28th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 4:13,16-18; Lk 12: 8-12

Jesus assures us, true faith speaks for us. We need not hunt for ways and means of explaining and defending our faith;  it has to be self evident and self explanatory. We don't need mighty big formulae to hold on to a faith...all we need is the realisation of the constant and unceasing presence of the Lord with us. When I am convinced of this presence I can hope against hope as Abraham did. Such a faith speaks on my behalf, clarifies things for me and others and acts in my favour in the ultimate analysis.

WORD 2day: 16th October, 2015

Faith and what follows!

Friday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Rom 4: 1-8; Lk 12: 1-7

Faith is a gift, a gratuitous gift from God! My part is to grow in it. The more I grow in it, the more I realise how undeserving I am of it. Abraham was granted this gift and he grew tremendously worthy of it. Paul was granted this gift and he fought a brave fight to become worthy of it. Jesus accuses those who throw those pearls of faith to the swines of their ego and self centered thinking. If I have received this gift of faith, should I not be grateful for it and mindful enough to keep growing in it. Can I be boasting about it and mindlessly acting contrary to it? Jesus is warning us about something that would not look apparently like an aberration of faith, but in fact leads us gradually away from what true faith is all about - 'the yeast' of the Pharisees, that Jesus mentions in the Gospel today.

Taking my faith to be a reason for my pride, judging everyone else who does not partake of it; calling names at people who have a faith different from mine merely because of the difference and treating them with despite; making faith a means to make my living instead of making it my life and journeying genuinely towards my eternal life...these are somethings that I need to be on the guard about! Faith is a gift given to me and I need to grow in it every day, every moment.

THE MUDGUARD AND THE GENERATION X

It was still a drowsy morning, the day had not yet unclasped itself from the rain clouds of the previous night. I was on a mission to get things set for a programme to be held later that day. Riding a two wheeler, towards a destination roughly 10 kms away, after a couple of kilometers my peaceful ride was shaken with a jolt. A young lad whiffed past me in one of the latest model motor bikes. The noise and the speed that shook me were nothing when compared to what came next. He went over a puddle of muddy water created by the rain the previous night... before I could realise he had changed my plain shirt into dotted designer wear. There was mud all over me, in dots and florals and stars on my mild green kurtha. For a second I was furious with that biker but the very next moment my mind took off on another tangent! 

That bike had such a small mudguard that it would prevent the splash only for the rider himself. I wondered whether that mudguard reflected the mindset of the present generation. The older bikes have a mudguard big enough to prevent the dust or the mud being sprayed or splashed on the rest of the vehicles on the road, while the new generation bikes have such fancy small mudguards that serve only the rider himself. Does it in any way hint at the self centered and insensitive lifestyle of a generation that cares only about its own fun and thrill and nothing about what the others think or feel? 

I have never before thought about the connection between the mudguard and the generation X. Have you? 

ST. TERESA OF JESUS

15TH OCTOBER 2015: 

THE FIFTH CENTENETARY YEAR OF THE BIRTH OF ST. TERESA OF AVILA.

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing make you afraid.
All things are passing.
God alone never changes.
Patience gains all things.
If you have God you will want for nothing
God alone suffices.

- St. Teresa of Avila (in one of her bookmarks)

WORD 2day : 14th October, 2015

No Favourites ... just Righteousness
Wednesday,  28th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 2: 1-11, Lk 11: 42-46

God had no favourites says the first reading and Jesus demonstrates that in the Gospel. Jesus spared no one - whether it was the pharisees or the lawyers or the chief priests or Herod or Pilate - everyone got their share! They were in no way judgements passed on people but they were an appeal to their conscience to change their ways towards righteousness. It was done with concern for their salvation.

The thin line between Righteousness and Self righteousness has to be trodden with diligent care. Judgements arise from self righteousness while righteousness make us just and loving and above all lovable!

WORD 2day: 13th October, 2015

No excuses...just Integrity! 

Tuesday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Rom 1: 16-25; Lk 11: 37-41

The terminology used by Paul sounds very practical, warning us that there are no excuses one can give for not recognising the hand of God in and through the immensity of the reality around. And added to that when it comes to me and God, I don't need to have proofs and justifications and evidences that I believe in God or not. Because God knows the innermost thoughts of mine and I need not be bothered about my presentations and formulations. This is the fundamental element of what we call 'integrity'...Having the least discrepancy between my inner self and my external behaviour, between my convictions and what I engage myself in on a daily basis, between what really matters for me and what I present myself as to others! Jesus uses simple terms for that in the Gospel - inside and outside! Let both be clean he says... I can have no excuses when it comes to my innerself, for I stand convicted before God who knows the innermost thoughts. 

Help me Lord to grow in my personal integrity!