WORD 2day: 21st July, 2016

Cisterns that hold no water

Thursday, 16th week in Ordinary Time
Jer 2: 1-3,7-8,12-13; Mt 13: 10-17

The Word warns us today of allowing our lives to becoming leaky cisterns that hold no water! It gets filled only to let go of everything in no time. It looks promising hiding within it the cracks that give away all that it is filled with.

Our life can look filled with things and with persons but suddenly when we look back it seems empty and dry. It is only the Lord who is constant and ever present. When we lose the Lord we run the risk of becoming leaky cisterns.

Our daily practices and our regular religious habits may not be absolute guarantees too!  They can become water stored in a leaky cistern if our interior disposition and personal convictions do not match the external behaviour.

WORD 2day : 19th July, 2016

Mercy and Faithfulness

Tuesday,  16th week in Ordinary Time
Mic 7: 14-15,18-20; Mt 12: 46-50ay

The most concrete expression of God's faithfulness is God's mercy which is so boundless and plentiful. Our concrete way of  living out mercy is being faithful to the biddings of the Lord.

Being faithful to the biddings of the Lord would consist of being attentive to everything around me, being truly concerned about everyone around me and being open to the promptings of the Spirit within me.

Mercy is not about doing some charitable acts here and there and now and then. But it is becoming like God, growing in our godliness and being signs of God's faithfulness to those who are in need of it.

WORD 2day: 18th July, 2016

To Act, Love and Walk in the Lord

Monday,  16th week in Ordinary Time 

Mic 6:1-4,6-8; Mt 12:38-42

The Lord has given a lot to us, beginning with God creating us in God's own image and giving us our life to enjoy the wonder of being human persons. Right up to this moment the Lord continues to guard us and sustain us in ways known only unto God. What does God expect in return? Nothing but a just, kind and gentle relationships among us. Is it not fair that a father expects this among his sons and daughters? Is it not right that a ruler expects this among his subjects?

Let us review our doings : are they just?

Let us analyse our love: is it for kindness or for dominion?

Let us watch our walk of life: is it gentle or trampling others?

Let us be pleasing sons and daughters of the Lord!

CHRIST AMONG US

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The plotters' plight

Celebrating our blessed mother of Mount Carmel
16th July, 2016: Mic 2:1-5; Mt 12: 14-21

The common element on the two readings today is that of the plotters. Plotters are a common sight and have been so all the time. Right from original episodes of humanity as found in the Holy Word, we have this group of people making their mark. The serpent, Cain, Jacob, Joseph's brothers... and the list goes on. In spite of these great plots God has powerfully shown that God's mercies and love is always with the lowly, the humble,  the simple and the integral persons who not only make their mark but create history.

Celebrating the memory of our blessed mother we  are invited to behold how she shone in her life as a simple and humble person, defeating all plots even without her knowledge but with total surrender in the Lord.

None of the plotters have been protagonists of history as long as they remained so. All of them have been antagonists and they will be always considered so. The protagonists are always those who stand by God and suffer all these plots without giving way to doubt or despair. The plotters... woe to them says the Word.

WORD 2day : 15th July, 2016

Mercy of the Master

Friday,  15th week in Ordinary Time 

Is 38: 1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Mt 12:1-8

The Lord is the Master of everything,  the One who made everything and maintains order in them. Everything obeys the Lord and everything goes according to the Lord's bidding. Human beings alone revolt and rebel and the Lord loves that because it is through that the human beings prove to themselves and the entire reality that they are special, that they are made in the image of God with freedom and responsibility.

It is the mercy of the Master that allows us to go on living even if do not comply with all that the Lord lays down. The Word reminds us today that we live by that mercy. How good it will be if only we understood the mercy of God and live it in our daily interactions: staying far from judging people,  giving everyone an endless second chance and compassionately accompanying the weak and the needy!

Let the mercy of the Master spur us on!

WORD 2day: 14th July, 2016

Longing for God... True Longing...

Thursday, 15th week in Ordinary Time

Is 26: 7-9, 12, 16-19; Mt 11: 28-30

Longing for God is a wonderful and never ending theme in the spiritual realm. Today the Word presents to us again the theme calling our attention to the right understanding of an authentic longing for God. 

Everyone longs for God in some way or the other. At times,I feel even the so-called atheists are those who are longing for a more personal and concrete experience of God to arrive at that point of surrender. 

At times this longing is exaggerated to extents where encountering God becomes purely human venture and we take too much of a credit for the experiences that come our way. There is monopoly and domination here which leads to a great celebration of the experience but leaving alone the true nature of that erstwhile longing.

True longing is remaining open to the experience of God, staying patient and enduring every moment and when that experience happens, understanding that it is a pure gift from God. This understanding arises from two great spiritual virtues: Faith, that God is longing to be closer to me too. And the second, Humility, that allows me to relate with everyone in the same gracious manner that God has dealt with me! 

WORD 2day : 13th July, 2016

God is In-charge

Wednesday, 15th week in Ordinary Time
Is 10: 5-7, 13-16; Mt 11: 25-27

Just yesterday we were having a chat on certain political developments in our part of the country. After a while of listing so many things evil and harmful, one among us exclaimed, "how can God ever allow this?"

Today reflecting on this account from Isaiah,  we tend to think that the people then would have asked the same question: how can God permit this.

Jesus answers these questions with just one expression... God knows it all and God alone knows it all. We will understand things only when it is time for us to and when it is revealed to us. Until then we need to remain faith focused and hope filled, assuring ourselves and each other: God is in charge!

WORD 2day: 12th July, 2016

Standing by to Stand on

Tuesday,  15th week in Ordinary Time
Is 7: 1-9; Mt 11:20-24

Standing on and Standing by are the two terms the Word speaks of today. The world is worried  about only one of them- standing on. We wish to stand on for as long as possible but we could not care less whom we are standing by. It does not matter,  the world today seems to say. It does not matter whom you stand by provided you stand on. But when standing on becomes problematic we wail and complain.

Should we not find out in the first place whom have we been standing by... the Lord says if we stand by the Lord,  we need not worry about standing on.  Whatever eventualities,  the Lord will see us through.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The gift of giving to the Lord

Celebrating St. Benedict: 11th July, 2016

Pro 2: 1-9; Mt 19: 27-29

Choosing the noble things in life, choosing those that really matter in life, choosing God as priority in life... that is wisdom! Benedict whom we celebrate today, chose God to be everything in life for himself and not merely that, he taught it to the world. He started a whole order of religious minded persons who would choose God above all else!

Everything we have is a gift from God; and we need ask nothing from God, for God gives all that we need! Persons like Benedict, and many such other great persons of God teach us an important lesson: if at all we need to ask something from God, that would be the gift of giving everything to the Lord. Giving to the Lord... is something that we need to learn when we wish to mature in our spiritual life, not being concerned merely of asking and receiving from the Lord. What have I given the Lord today?