THAT DAY AND THE CALL!

June 6th, 2017 

That day:

Looking back at the 41 years...that day stands out as a day to be marked, to be marked for life...yes a day that defined the entire life style to be adapted.

The call:

The call that I have received is to live my everyday with God. The picture that I have chosen reminds me of the day and the call... first of all the water reminding of the baptismal font; the waves and the stillness reminding of the situations in life and the two boats..one firm and strong and the other a bit battered reminding me of the experiences that have been around in life. 

The reminder:

May the day remind me of the call that I have received, the privilege that I have, being related to the Lord and the challenge I have, to remain connected to the Lord on a daily basis.

A prayer on the day of Baptism:

O Lord, may I realise your grace that I have received in my baptism. May I always be mindful of your presence with me and within me, that I may become to all that very presence, adding glory to your name! You live and reign forever and ever.

WORD 2day: 5th June, 2017

Fruits cannot be forced

Monday, 9th week in Ordinary Time 

Tob 1:3 - 2: 1-8; Jn 12: 1-12

Tobit dares all consequences to be righteous in the eyes of the Lord. No king, no  threat,  no punishment could stop him from being faithful to the call that he believed he had from the Lord. Tobias learns from him. Just as fruits cannot be forced from a tree, faithfulness cannot be forced from a person. He or She will be faithful in as much as the  person is convinced about the call that he or she had received from the Lord.

Our life is a call and we are called to bear fruit, when we don't we are missing the point. Let's not wait to be forced to bear fruit, neither should we be pressurised not to. No fruit can be forced and no force can block authentic fruits. 

SPIRIT UNITES

Principles of Unity: Communication, Conciliation and Christ

Solemnity of Pentecost: 4th June, 2017

Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13; Jn 20:19-23

We are people of the Spirit - that is the reminder we are given with today! We are people of the Spirit - in contrast to the people of the world (if we can make that distinction). But being people of the Spirit is not merely a namesake understanding. Our life has to show that we are people of the Spirit. The fruits and the gifts of the Spirit that we are well aware of, inspires in us a lifestyle that is ideal and an inspiration to everyone around. If we were truly the people of the Spirit, it has to be seen, seen in our daily life, our daily choices, in our very way of life. Infights, ego clashes, misunderstandings, jealousies, misgivings - these are signs of the lack of Spirit. Even some so-called spiritual people give into these deficiencies and that is a clear sign that they are spiritual people only in their name and title. 

There are certain principles of unity that the Spirit ensures in a Spirit-filled person. The first of those principles is Communication. Simple blocks in communication among persons are the primary cause of the big unresolved issues. Husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, kith and kin, friends and neighbours - when communication stops, understanding disappears. communication stops due to blocks like prejudice, taking the other for granted and ego trips. Even when one talks, the other doesn't really understand because the other is listening from his or her own prejudice or pre-understanding. When each one hears only what one wants to hear, there is either lack of communication or gross miscommunication!

Christ is the invincible principle of unity. The Spirit unites us in the Lord. We become one, one in the Lord, one body of Christ and this is possible only through the Spirit. Believing in Christ, has to unite us not divide us. As St. Paul would complain, do not say, I belong to Paul, I belong to Apollos or I belong to Cephas...saying thus you are dividing the Lord. Today the factions that we have among the believers and the way one group vies with the other to increase their numbers or prove their strength is an outright counter witness to the One Lord and that is why, a divided church is the greatest scandal in the world. If we truly believe in  One Lord and pledge our allegiance to that One Lord, where does the division and fight come from? 

Conciliation is an important principle of unity. We are human persons, each with our own limitations and weaknesses. We cannot avoid little misunderstandings and misgivings, but what is detrimental is, not finding a way out of these misunderstandings and misgivings. A truly Spirit-filled will take the initiative of reconciling with the other. He or she will not look for reasons to blame the other or excuses to prolong the stand off. The Spirit-filled persons will find ready reasons to reconcile, to rebuild relationships and build up the Body of Christ. In a recent meeting with the President of the US, Pope Francis gave him an icon of peace, and insisted that he be promoter of peace and not war! That is the sign of a Spirit filled person.

A true sign of Spirit filled persons is the person's longing for unity and his or her concrete initiatives towards unity! 

WORD 2day: 3rd June, 2017

What does it matter - You Follow!

Saturday after Ascension Sunday

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

What does it matter when we are called to proclaim the good news of the Lord - nothing should really matter: whether we are free or bound, whether we are threatened or encouraged, whether we are rewarded or taken to task, whether we are in good health or in sickness, whether we are supported or not - nothing should really matter! Paul and Peter today give us a beautiful message: proclaim the good news in season and out of season. 

What do we really need to announce the good news but our loving words, caring attitudes, sensitive heart and meaningful relations! We have persons around us and we have an opportunity to deal with them. That is all we need to proclaim the good news - the news that God loves us. This is what Jesus did and today he calls you and me to follow. What does it matter to us - let us follow the Lord!

WORD 2day: 2nd June, 2017

Where you would rather not go

Friday after the Ascension Sunday

Acts 25: 13-21; Jn 21: 15-19

With the Spirit in you, you would go where you would rather not go, you would do things which you would rather not do, you would say things that you would rather not say...you would become so unpredictable, as surprising as the Lord Himself. The Spirit empowers you to be as powerful as the Lord is! 

Paul does something like that today - he appeals to the Emperor! Jesus predicts it for Peter and it is seen in Paul...he does something that one would rather not. The courage for that choice comes from the Spirit. It is not only that the Lord is unpredictable, even those who are in the Lord are unpredictable. They would take the world by surprise. People would stand in awe at the choices made, because they would make choices that people would rather not make. 

WORD 2day: 1st June, 2017

Expect the Unexpected - with the Spirit

Thursday after Ascension Sunday

Acts 22:30; 23:6-11; John 17:20-26

Jesus prays that we be one in the Spirit, that we become one people under one Lord, by the action of the Spirit. The Spirit unites, binds, builds! But we see in the first reading, the Spirit inspiring the Apostle to say something that divides the Sadducees and the Pharisees...just like the division that happened at the tower of Babel. Here the Spirit seems to divide, but dividing the evil and making it powerless before the good. After all the risks, dangers and resultant suffering when Paul straightens up, the Spirit tells him: it is not over, you have yet to bear similar things at Rome. The Spirit always surprises us...when we are ready to be surprised, when we expect the unexpected and carry out exactly what the Spirit wants us to, we will surely be powerful witnesses to all the world.

WORD 2day: 30th May, 2017

Glorifying, in the Spirit

Tuesday after Ascension Sunday 

Acts 20: 17-27; Jn 17:1-11

People long  to be glorified today. The giant flexes and the wall paintings so keen about names and faces, the schemes announced and credits misappropriated... these are effects of this longing for glorification. Jesus declares, 'now is the time for the son of man to be glorified'... Paul looks for a glorification too; but this is a glorification  in the Spirit.

Jesus gets ready to take up the cross and Paul says the Spirit has foreshown  him sufferings and persecutions. Glorification in the Spirit would be accepting the will of God in total surrender, without trying to change it or adapt it to our convenience. The Spirit alone can empower us towards such a disposition.

WORD 2day: 29th May, 2017

The Graduation time

Monday after Ascension Sunday

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

It is graduation time now...you ask a child this season - which class are you studying? You would get a typical reply, something like: fourth to fifth. smiling? Yes...it is graduation time.

In the Word today we see people graduating to the next levels...Paul introduces Apollos and others to the Holy Spirit; Jesus finds his disciples finally beginning to believe him. The call is the same to us today: as we have celebrated the feast of Ascension just yesterday, to graduate. To grow into people of the Spirit. The journey is begun, we would travel till coming sunday, reflecting towards being people of the Spirit. It is graduation time, we have to grow to the next level. We cannot just remain moderate and nominal Christians, we need to be Spirit filled Christians. Are we ready. Let us begin that week long journey today...towards being Spirit filled Christians!

Gone... to be with us!

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Acts 1: 1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Mt 28: 16-20

Just after the vigil mass of Ascension, a youngster came over to me with a question. She said, 'Father, why did the disciples just let Jesus go? They should have created a ruckus and made sure Jesus couldn't go. I would have done it, if it were me!' I thought it was a good point for me to start explaining what Ascension of Christ truly means. Jesus has not abandoned us, as he himself had promised. Jesus' ascension does not mean Jesus has gone away but Jesus has gone up to be with us more than before. If Jesus had continued to stay on in that incarnate form forever (just an hypothesis), he would have remained in Jerusalem, Judea and the surroundings. But Jesus went up to the Father and thus he has begun to stay with every one worldwide. As Jesus promises in the gospel today: I shall be with you till the end of times. To be with us, Jesus had to go; he went, that is what we celebrate today: the Ascension.

Going to the Father did not mean for Jesus, distancing himself from us! It was a way of involving himself more into our lives. To be close to all, and not just to a few! Jesus goes, so that he can be everywhere and with everyone and always! 

Going to the Father did not mean for Jesus, forgetting his self emptying! Jesus gave up the status of being God and emptied himself. Going back to the father is not taking up once again the Godhood but becoming the mediator. We have a mediator par excellence!

Going to the Father did not mean for Jesus, that he is done with the humanity! Jesus continues to challenge humanity to grow up, and follow him to the Father's house. Jesus gives us a roadmap, a precedence, a clear plan of life. Keep growing until you ascend to the Father.

WORD 2day: 27th May, 2017

Coming and Going - should it affect?

Saturday before Ascension

Acts 18: 23-28; Jn 16:23-38

Past two days have been totally different days in the past three years, for me personally. I had handed over a ministry that was entrusted to me three years ago, to another confrere of mine. I remember, when it was handed over to me - my predecessor was going; I was coming in. Now it is my turn to go, and there is someone else who has come in. Paul went and Apollos came. Aquila and Priscilla were there to accompany both of them. Coming and going are natural truths of life, and should they affect. In some places it does and that is a sad part of affairs.

When will it affect anyone's coming or going? When it is Doer-centered, anything that is done will be affected by the coming or going of the one who does. One may be a better doer and the other a different kind of a doer - it will surely affect if this is the center of the considerations. How talented or not a person is, how capable or not a person is...these are the considerations that will affect. 

It will affect also when it is Action-centered. Being action centered is the priority or prime importance given to what is done. Though we do not give the centrality to who is doing, but to what is being done, still what is being done depends much on how is it being done. The results matter and the dividends matter. Should these matter or affect when it comes to what the Lord wants us to do, when we have been called by the Lord.

When the Lord calls, it is for Ministry. What is central here is not the you or me who is called; nor is it what I do or how I do. The central consideration is what does God want here and now. This is God-centered: there is no place for the ego of the doer or the success of the action. It is not a project to be done and reported, it is a Ministry to be lived and here it does not matter who comes and who goes...what matters is what God wants. Let us do all the good that we can!