THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The Word and the World

Remembering St. Alphonsus di Liguori - 1st August, 2017

Ex0 33:7-11, 34:5-9,28; Mt 13: 36-43

Yesterday we had a founder to thank God for, and today we have another! Alphonsus di Liguori founded the order of the Redemptorists in the 18th century and even today, their work towards the preaching of the Word is unparalleled. 

Moses brought to the people the Word from the Lord, the Word that would make them walk in the right path. When we stay in the light of that Word, we bear fruits that can be gathered into the barn. When we stray away from the Word we become darnels which remain to be thrown into fire. This was in short what the Order of the Redeemer wanted to communicate to the World. The World has to fall in line with the Word and each of us has a duty to be a reminder to the world. 

At times we ourselves become scandals to the world, not living of lives in the light of the Word. Alphonsus and his order comes to remind us of that - a constant reminder to stop, think, renew and resume our journey always in the light of the Word. Let the world truly get in touch with the Word!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

A Prophet of the Reign

31st July 2017: Remembering St. Ignatius of Loyola
Exo 32: 15-24,30-34; Mt 13: 31-35

We are reading these days at the Eucharist about Moses and the interventions that God made through Moses, the great prophet of God. Today we celebrate another prophet, Ignatius who has some characteristics that he shares with Moses.

Moses was a timely intervention that God had prepared for the sake of God's people. Ignatius was a timely intervention too; he comes in at the disturbed times of Reformation and initiates a Counter Reformation that revolutionises the whole Church and calls her to renewal.

Moses had a history of killing a person; but that was an outcome of the fundamental feeling for the oppressed people that was hidden in his heart and God makes use of that to raise him up as a prophet who would stand by God's people. Ignatius was a soldier, who had ambitions of rising in power and position; but God makes use of that warrior's spirit to raise a soldier of God, who would combat the wiles of the evil one and defend the Church, the people of God.

Moses gives rise to a new community of people, the hebrews who were bound by the Ten Commandments, the sign of their covenant with the Lord. Ignatius gave rise to a new company called the Company of Jesus, later called the Society of Jesus, who bound themselves to total obedience to the Holy Father and resolved to stand by the Church and defend the Church at all cost. 

Today Jesus speaks of the Reign of God as a mustard seed that grows, and we have a beautiful example of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuit Order, which we have seen grow from the six people that they were to the biggest of all Religious Orders in history. They have upheld the cause of the Reign of God, proving to be prophets in the world. The Reign and being prophets of the Reign involves struggles which one cannot imagine.  Are we ready for those struggles?

WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE?

30th July, 2017 - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Kgs 3: 5, 7-12; Rom 8: 28-30; Mt 13: 44-52

Have you lived these moments:

- Someone defrauds you and takes away from you whatever you have, though it might not have been much, but that is all what you had! You let go of it, for you have no other go.

- Someone requests you for a help and you render it most willingly, only to later come to know that the person never deserved that help, or the person actually has been exploiting you! You shrug your shoulder and go your way.

- Someone is in dire need and you very generously lend a hand; but as soon as the person got to a better state of affairs, the person turns indifferent to you. You begin to wonder, why on earth in the first place, did you choose to help! Anyway, you did what you did, you would do it further too.

- Someone whom you know is against you or has no corner soft in his or her heart for you, but you continue to do good, help out and remain charitable, however feeling bad that nothing returns. You keep doing it anyway.

Have you lived an experience of this nature? Can there be a rational explanation for these ...however hard you try they will only remain empty excuses. But the world considers foolish what these persons consider valuable whereas, that which matters the least to these, matters the most to the world. The choice of Solomon, the attitude that St. Paul speaks of and the act of the man Jesus speaks of in the parable, they are of this kind. They seem to be losers in the eyes of the world. But in fact they gain something that the world knows nothing about, even if it knows it values it for nothing!

It is like that girl about whom the story is narrated - the girl who was asked to choose whatever she wishes in the palace of the king. Whatever she touched, it was told, would belong to her. While everyone else with her was running helter skelter touching what they could imagine was precious, this girl stood her ground filled with thoughts. They asked her, 'haven't you made your choice?' She said, 'in fact I have and walked up to the king and held his hand'. What could be more precious than the king in the palace of the king - she became the crown princess! 

We may have everything, but if we lack God on our side, soon we will feel the emptiness all around. When we choose God we choose everything! What do you choose? 

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

29th July, 2017: Remembering St.  Martha

1 John 4: 7-16; John 11:19-27

Woman called Martha,  she had a sister called Mary and a brother called Lazarus...these are the details given to us by the Gospels taken together.  

Three elements highlighted by the Word in her life:

1. She invited Jesus... there was a woman who invited Jesus to her home, reads the episode at Bethany. Inviting Jesus into our homes,  is a Bethany theme we can reflect on today.

2. She loved Jesus, she loved her sister and her brother. Martha was a person of love. Her hospitality to Jesus,  her missing of Lazarus and her relationship with her sister Mary. ..these are imitable signs of God's love made tangible in her life.

3. She believed in Christ. She did not take Jesus for granted. Her familiarity with Jesus did not make her forget the fact of who he was. She held Jesus always high and believed in him.

The point that comes out in short is the importance of our personal relationship with Christ, our eagerness to do all that we can to make Jesus feel at home in our hearts and our mindfulness of who Christ is to us: the one who comes in the name of the Almighty!

WORD 2day: 28th July, 2017

The Right-Living People

Friday, 16th week in Ordinary Time

Exo 20: 1-17; Mt 13: 18-23

Jesus speaks of the four types of seed ground, viz., the pathway, the rocky, the thorny and the good ground, and compares them with four kinds of people. His story remains open ended throwing the challenge to us: which ground are you? Extending the same analogy with respect to the laws that the Lord gives us, today we find the same four kinds of people.

Those who do not know what is right and deliberately keep away from understanding it: they are like the pathway; nothing remains in them. They are the ruthless inhuman beings whom we find on earth who are a burden to the planet and scourge to humanity.

Those who know what is right but do not do it: they are like the rocky ground. There is a chance of correcting them, but it takes a yeomen effort - to break them, fill them will more sand and convert them.

Those who know what is right but are unable to do it: they are like the ground with thorn bushes. They know and wish to do what is right but find themselves too weak before the temptations and struggles and they give in easily. They need a lot of mercy and compassion and they can be set right by a bit of cleaning.

Those who know what is right and strive to do it, come what may: they are the good ground and they are rare to find. In fact they are the Lord's true sons and daughters. They need no external pressure or internal force to do what is right. It comes naturally to them and the others find it too unrealistic. These are the Right-Living people!

Which of the four types do I belong?

WORD 2day: 27th July, 2017

Seeing and Hearing - Lightening and Thunder!

Thursday, 16th week in Ordinary Time

Exo 19: 1-2,9-11,16-20; Mt 13: 10-17

Happy are your eyes for they see what they see; happy are your ears for they hear what they hear! Israel encountered the Lord, just as Moses did. Moses saw God, the people saw the lightening; Moses heard the Lord speak, the people heard the peals of thunder. They were frightened to the core, while Moses was not. Seeing and hearing are two great faculties that the Lord has given us! 

Even spiritually seeing and hearing are wondrous gifts of God. God wishes that we may see: but do we look at God's presence as an illumination of life and its meaning or merely as fearsome lightening? God speaks that we may hear: but do we hear those words or only a noisy thunder?  It is not destroying the traditions that Jesus is intent on, but finding the right rationale behind so many things that we see and hear. 

Are we ready to meet the Lord, to see and to hear...- not out of fear, but in awe, respect and love!

HAPPY GRAND PARENTS' DAY

Celebrating Sts. Joachim and Anne: 26th July, 2017

Joachim and Anne, are the grand parents of Jesus. Are they Biblical figures - in themselves they are not. But by virtue of their role in the life of Mary who was chosen to be the Mother of God, they draw their importance. Did Jesus get to live with them...we do not know for certain, but probably yes! The way they brought up their daughter guarantees that they would have been great sources of inspiration in Jesus' life. Grandparents have a unique role to play in our lives, specially spiritual lives. Grand parents stand for the all important phenomenon of transmission of faith, from one generation to the next. 

The transmission that the grandparents effect is a practical and concrete transmission of lived faith. It deals with right practice and right living. Faith in its very essence has an all-embracing quality of transforming the entire life of a person and the community to which the person belongs. 

Let us treasure our traditions, transform our todays and thus pave way for meaningful tomorrows. Let us pray for our Grandparents specially today and honour them in some little way.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Jesus' School of Servant Leadership

Remembering St. James - 25th July, 2017
2 Cor 4: 7-15; Mt 20: 20-28

Feast of any Apostle reminds us of the wonderful words that St. Paul utters today: "we hold this treasure in earthen vessels". Every apostle has his own weakness, nevertheless the gift that they are and they possess, surpasses everything as God's power and might is revealed in it.

Feast of St. James (with the Gospel that we are given to reflect today) reminds us of this more strongly and adds another specific teaching, a teaching from Jesus' School of Servant Leadership. In Matthew's and Mark's versions of the Gospel, we find that every time Jesus foretells about his passion, he follows it up with the discourse on servant leadership (as we see in Mt 16:24ff; 18:1ff; 20:20ff). James and John took time to realise that the only thing we can inherit from Jesus is his identity as Suffering Servant!

Eventually they wanted to bear the crown that Jesus mentioned and that is what they did. James led the community of Jerusalem... humble and service minded as the Master himself; and his blood shed like the Master's (Acts 12:2). Let us praise the Lord for the apostle St. James and be prepared to witness to the Lord till our last breath!

WORD 2day: 24th July, 2017

Stand up, Cry out and Carry on!

Monday, 16th Week in Ordinary Time

Exo 14: 5-18; Mt 12: 38-42

Look at the images given to us today - the raging waters, the pressing enemy forces, the stone hearted beneficiaries, the swallowing sea monster, the gulf that separates the south and the north, the hard headed wicked generation - there is everywhere threat and the so-called evil stands out. What are you going to do?... Stand up, Cry out and Carry on!

Stand Up against the evil: Jesus never feared the pressurising crowd. He was able to stand up and call a spade a spade. He was able to chide them on their face - you evil generation. A person of God needs that spirit to be bold, to stand up against the evil and to stand up for the truth.

Cry Out to the Lord: It is never by my own power that I can fight the powers of evil. No I cannot. I need to cry out to the Lord, just as Moses did. Moses was mindful of the fact that he was about God's business and it belonged to God to accomplish whatever has to be, in and through God's servants. In whatever we do, we need to acknowledge the presence of God and the workmanship of God.

Carry On with the Lord: Never give in to the pressure of pleasing the clamouring crowd. The world will keep shouting at you, criticising you and giving you easier and more pragmatic alternatives. But what matters is to carry on with the Lord. That is what we see with both Moses and Jesus - they never obeyed the crowd, they never gave in to the expectations of the world. They carried on with the One who had called them: their Father!

THE JUST JUDGE

A Judge Merciful, Patient and Forgiving

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 23rd July, 2017

Wis 12: 13, 16-19; Rom 8: 26-27; Mt 13: 24-43

One thing that is certain about anything is, that it will end. Our life too will end! However not necessarily at the end of our life, but at every moment of our life, as we make decisions, as we go through actions, as we choose our words to speak and our opinions to make, we are liable for judgement. The one who judges us is not anyone who is placed above us (our superiors or bosses) or those who are around us (the people whose opinion we depend so much on); but it is Lord God, the Just Judge!

The Lord alone can judge, for it is the Lord alone who knows our innermost thoughts and fundamental attitudes. When the Lord judges, the Lord judges not our actions but our attitudes, not our decisions but our dispositions, not our choices but the underlying intention and the priority. Nothing can escape from the all knowing, ever present God who knows us through and through. That is both a challenge and a grace: a challenge because we cannot deceive God; a grace because the Lord can never judge us rashly - the Lord is a Just Judge.

The Just Judge is Mighty but Merciful. The book of wisdom, in the first reading, so beautifully brings out the fact that the Lord is mighty but merciful as a judge. The Lord knows everything and sees through everything, but treats us with mercy and kindness. As St. Paul expresses in the second reading, the Spirit of the Lord knows us and inspires us from within. At times we fail repeatedly in our daily life, with tendencies that overpower us and with temptations that make us fumble. The Lord knows it all, but the Lord's mercies never cease! The Lord has perfect control over us and can decide to pull out the weeds at anytime, but that is not who God is! God is merciful and loving, slow to anger and abounding in love!

The Just Judge is Particular but Patient. The Lord is not satisfied with any mediocre life. The Lord is particular about the way we are to live our life. The Lord has set an ideal as the acceptable way of life and wants us to live up to that. Nothing short of perfection is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord; but the Lord is patient. The Lord endures the wait. The Lord walks with us, step by step as we proceed towards this perfection. When we lack in perfection we actually are not testing the patience of the Lord, for the Lord's patience is endless, but we are running the risk of not being "gathered into the Lord's barn" (Mt 13:43). There is no end to the Lord's patience, but our possibilities are limited and it is we who have to feel the urgency!

The Just Judge is Firm but Forgiving. The Lord is demanding but absolutely understanding. The Lord's firmness never belittles the readiness to forgive. The justice of the Lord is guided by love, the absolute love that characterises the Lord alone! Firmness of God is in the very nature that we have inherited as sons and daughters of God. We are called to be plants, giving fruit, blossoming flowers and putting forth the yield, because we are children of God. We would belong to the Reign when we give fruit, however small or negligible it be: just a small mustard seed can give rise to a tree that houses hundreds of birds, a bit of yeast can leaven a bunch of dough. The Lord gives us chances but never relents from the demand to bear fruit. Forgiveness is never a compromise, it is always another chance to start anew, firm in conviction to reach the perfection.

The Lord is a just judge, loving and merciful, patient and kind, understanding and forgiving! Yet it is our duty to realise our call and bear fruit, grow into plants and not into weeds!