A 3G ON THE WORLD DAY OF THE POOR

GRATITUDE, GUILT AND GIVING - The 3 sensibilities provoked!

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: 19th November, 2017

This Sunday is commemorated as World Day of the Poor, heeding to the request of Pope Francis at the end of the Year of Mercy, calling us to keep alive the sensibilities that were provoked during reflections of that entire year! Here this Sunday's Word brings home to us the same sensibilities and we shall dwell on them in 3Gs.

Gratitude - because what I have is given by God! 

The parable that Jesus narrates speaks of each one having what was given them by the King and what they do with that is what the story is all about. Whatever I have, I have it because it is given by God. You may protest - no, I earned it, I merited it...could be. But the opportunity, the contacts, the success...do all have it? If I had it, I was more fortunate than so many. Without giving into a boisterous 'theology of prosperity', I need to admit that if I am blessed with comforts, with conveniences that many do not have today, I have to be grateful. When I complain, I cannot be grateful. We know of that famous saying - I complained of not having shoes until that day when I found one not having his legs! Gratitude is one important sensibility that we are called to possess - Gratitude is a sign that I acknowledge what I have received and I realise the value of what I have received. The last man was not grateful, he was afraid, lazy and crooked and that is why what he received did not fructify.

Guilt - because what I have is not only mine!

Some may not like this word used here - I am sure! It is not even to alliterate with the G's that I chose this as the second sensibility but with a lot of consciousness. Pope Francis when he invites the world to observe this day as  World Day of the Poor - do you think he is saying, now all of us rich get together and pool in some money to give to the poor? No! He is raising a big question - why are they poor? At times I feel so, when I travel around, when I encounter poor people with nothing to eat or nothing to wear or nowhere to stay! I feel guilty of the well pressed clothes that I wear, of the well presented recipes that I enjoy, the well planned travels I make, the well guarded house that I live in. Am I going to leave all these and go to the streets - it may not happen! But that little feeling of uneasiness within me, that has to be there. That uneasiness drove Francis of Assisi to sanctity; that uneasiness dragged Mother Teresa out of the confines of her convent to the peripheries of the world. I don't wish to soften the word to 'being sensitive' or to 'being aware'...it is being guilty! I don't want to get into poetic discussions like. 'everyone is poor is some way' and so on. It should pain me to see people poor; it should pain me to see persons suffer. The world today has to feel that guilt of having pushed its children to poverty and misery. When that third servant failed to be fruitful, the worst fact was not that he was not fruitful, but he was not even guilty about it. That was the most miserable fact. The king just could not digest that!

Giving - because that is why I have!

If I have anything, it is a clear sign that I am called to give! That is what a Christian life should be - Christian life and hoarding wealth for its own sake cannot go together! Oh what a statement that is to make - I am aware of it. But that is the fact. I cannot say, God has blessed me and therefore I am going to be happy! Yes I am happy with the blessing - but I am given to give! The beautiful philosophy of Stewardship that God has been insisting on right from creation, has widely been forgotten, negated and dumped down the drains. How can I not give when I know someone needs it and I have it. To add to that, I have it more than I need! In a country like India for an instance, or wherever in the world, we can see the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer - can things remain the same? How long are we going to be happy collecting something from somewhere and giving it elsewhere? Giving has to be a duty! Giving has to be our essence! Giving has to be our being! I should give, if I want to be seen as a child of God, because God gives.

Not merely in words...in deeds let us show our conviction to eradicate poverty. Not merely in deeds...but in convictions let us challenge the world against poverty. Not merely in convictions... but in our solidarity and integrity let us get down to fight for justice that every child of God has what he or she needs!  

Pray...Trust...Live your life with God

WORD 2day: 18th November, 2017

Saturday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 18: 14-16, 19:6-9; Lk 18: 1-8

Our help is in the name of the Lord, proclaims Psalm 124. The Lord alone is our refuge and our strength. The Lord knows when we sit and when we stand, even before a word is on our mouth, the Lord knows it all. This trust is called the attitude of prayer - a total abandonment into the hands of the Lord! 

At times when we pray, we sound like knocking at the door of the Lord as the last resort...'I have tried everything Lord; and now I have nothing more to try and so I come to you!' Instead, it has to be from the first moment: "You are everything Lord and I surrender myself to you; guide me along and accompany me, that I may never stray from Your will and guard me from all those which plot to take me away from You and Your holy will." 

How many wonders we have seen, all worked by the Lord! If the Lord is so powerful, can he not look at the suffering we are going through. If in spite of that I am in the midst of an agony, can I not trust in the Lord and think of those splendid days I had experienced in the presence of the Lord! Will not the same presence guide me on! Why do i moan and why do I complain - is it not because I have given up trust?

Let us live our life with the Lord - every bit of it - our duties, our desires, our trials, our preoccupations, our sufferings, our agonies, our temptations and even our failures; let us live them all with the Lord and be prepared always to say: Not mine, but Your will be done, O Lord! (Lk 22:42)

Do I relate to God in the core of my being?

WORD 2day: 17th November, 2017

Friday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 13: 1-9; Lk 17: 26-37

'Fools say in their heart, 'there is no God',' goes Psalm 14:1. Though it is not the spirit of the times to get into an argument with people with variant religious convictions, sometimes it is important to challenge the insincere ones regarding some opinions that are held and promoted with hidden motives and contrived plots. 

The readings today are quite strong against those who probably have religious choice of convenience, than conviction. Many manipulate their or other's religious sentiments to their own convenience and comfort, to achieve their ends and to exploit others. These are the worst kind of human beings one can imagine of - not true even to themselves!

But leaving alone the tendency to point a finger at someone, it is important for me to evaluate my faith! Faith is not merely saying 'yes' to a set of truths, but it is a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, with that Merciful God that he revealed to us, with the Spirit who lives on with us and within us. 

Is it not an ample opportunity for me today to raise this question in my heart: What does my faith mean to me? What are the SIGNS of real faith in my day to day life? Do I really relate to God in the core of my being?

ME - the core of the Reign!

WORD 2day: 16th November, 2017

Thursday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 7:22 - 8:1; Lk 17: 20-25

The Reign of God is within you! (Lk 17:21) - this was the statement, they say, that provoked, sustained and gave meaning to Liberation theology in the 70s. Not only that. This was also the teaching that took Jesus to the cross. 

What is so provocative about it? To answer that question from the Gospel, we need to listen to the first reading and the psalm. They speak of the Wisdom of the Lord, the Word of God, that abides with us and within us, the Lord who has come to live amidst us, the whole grace of incarnation. Look at those attributes given to that indwelling Lord: in the form of Wisdom, the Word, the Spirit who is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, active, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, sharp, irresistible, beneficent, loving, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-knowing, penetrating, all-intelligent, pure and most subtle! The Indwelling Spirit, the Lord who dwells within me, making me the core of God's Reign.

Jesus' proclamation of the arrival of the Reign, or the year of the Lord or the fulfillment of the Word (Lk 4:19,21) was looked at as an offence, because Jesus underlined the proximity, the closeness of God to human beings. Jesus declared every common person the beholder of the Reign, you and me as the core of the Reign!

Even today, if I choose to, I can see God as some one far, distant, removed and isolated. But if I am sincerely observant, I can feel the presence of the Word, the Wisdom, the Incarnate Son walking beside me and I can feel God close and intimate to me because, "God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom" (Wis 7:28). We need to look at the Reign of God residing within us, at the core of our being. We are indeed the core of the Reign, we need to evolve into it, by our daily choices and lofty ideals.

Faith is to respond!

WORD 2day: 15th November, 2017

Wednesday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 6: 1-11; Lk 17: 11-19

The readings seem to converge on one thought today... that the Lord wishes, expects, and demands a response from us! Our God is a self revealing God... through signs and wonders and prophets and wise persons and finally through God's only Son, and continuously even today in and through God's Spirit, God continues to reveal Godself to us in various ways.

The more we are given, the more we are expected to respond! It is not that God gives, so that we would repay! No! But it is that, we are given so much, we are filled with such goodness, we receive "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16), that we realise it is right and just to give God thanks and praise! 

To know the right thing to be done at the right time and choosing to do it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit...we would be blessed to possess it. And the Lord says today, "set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed!" (Wis 6:11). Doing the right thing, at the right time, is a response that we give to the Lord and that response is what is expected from me! When I don't respond, I waste what was entrusted to me, as a gift, a treasure! 

Our response to the self revealing God - that is our faith. Growing in faith is learning to respond more and more adequately. Failing to respond is dwindling in faith. Let us grow in faith everyday - let us be attentive to respond to the Lord in every way!

Remaining true to our Salvific Core

WORD 2day: 14th November, 2017

Tuesday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 2:23 - 3:9; Lk 17: 7-10

The first reading today states a tremendous truth - we are made for eternity, incorruptible by nature, because we carry the image of God within us! That is the fundamental truth of salvation. We are all saved in the core of our being, none of us is destined to destruction, none of us is rushing towards perdition! But we have a responsibility to keep that truth alive, because it all depends on the choices we make. 

By nature we are God's own children, but if we by our daily decisions and life choices, resolve to break away from God and from the gifts that God has placed within us, we are ruining our own salvific core. We are called every day, every moment to go on living in faith founded on hope and guided by love, to live a life of love and mercy; and at the end of it say, 'we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty!' 

God who loves us will never desert us, unless we decide to break away from God. It is so important for us to repeat to ourselves - God is with us, that is what God has so clearly promised. The real question is are we with God? By our choices and priorities, are we really with God? We are all saved in the core of our being, because our core is God. Our responsibility is to remain true to that salvific core!

Holiness: Faith lived at the Core

WORD 2day: 13th November, 2017

Monday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 1:1-7; Lk 17: 1-6

Holiness is a matter of the innermost being. It does not consist merely of the external signs and shows. Words not said, thoughts not expressed, acts merely contemplated, reactions withheld... these determine my holiness more than what the world around perceives me to be. That is why the strange link between faith and forgiveness in the Gospel today. 

While Jesus teaches the disciples to forgive brothers and sisters, they respond saying - 'increase our faith!' Can sound strange, but only apparently so! One cannot consider oneself to be a person of faith, holy and spiritual, if one's relationships with others is not right. If faith is relationship with God, forgiveness is relationship with my fellow beings! If the latter fails, the former is meaningless. If we want really to be spiritual, we have to forgive, accept, and love our brothers and sisters, as God does with us! 

Lets ask the Lord to "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5); increase in faith means what the first reading tells us: honesty, simplicity of heart, shunning deceit, being truthful, in short: being godly at the core of our being, not merely in the external show! Yes, holiness is faith lived at the core of our beings. Faith is our daily life lived in the presence of the Lord. The more we grow conscious of the continuous presence of the Lord the more holy we shall grow!

Authentic Faith and Right Relationships

WORD 2day: 11th November, 2017

Saturday, 31st week in Ordinary Time

Rom 16: 3-9,16,22-27; Lk 16: 9-15

Note those words used in the first reading today - friend, fellow workers, fellow prisoners, compatriots, brothers and sisters - it is all full of relationships! Faith without relationships is empty. In fact faith in itself is a relationship, a relationship with God that defines every other relationship in life. Yes, it is all about relationships, but the right ones.

Faith and Right Relationships are connected to each other. Faith creates right relationships and right relationships mark authentic faith. How do we understand right relationships - they are relationships that are centered on God. They are not relationships that turn out to be possessive, selfish, self centered, self seeking, materialistic and mundane. They are relationships that center on God, that promote true selfless love, that respect the mutual dignity and freedom and that edify each other towards the spiritual maturity. These are Right Relationships, nurtured by Authentic Faith. 

When Jesus speaks of choosing one master and letting go of the other, this is what he means. By "money" he means all that is mundane, all that is materialistic and all that is merely utilitarian. By "God" he meant, all that is spiritual, faith centered and truly Divine. Relationships, if they are right, will surely lead us to this Spiritual Edification!

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How long yet that they taste the Lord!

WORD 2day: 10th November, 2017

Friday, 31st week in Ordinary Time

Rom 15: 14-21; Lk 16: 1-8

A couple of days back, a few of us priests had gone for a programme out and were returning by bus! As always, we were enjoying each other's company with cheer and laughter. I noticed an old lady who was sitting by a window and staring at us. She was quite stern faced and gloomy and before I could notice it fully, her eyes caught mine and she asked, 'are you all priests'? (ofcourse, we were in civil clothes and not clerical). No sooner than I nodded in response to her question, she began to curse - you are all liars, the church is finished, it will no longer stand, you are all living in the name of god! Though it was bad that all who were around were looking at us with pity, I could only look with pity at that old lady, and her bitterness that was so vividly portrayed on her face! Certainly she has some experiential baggage that makes her resent so badly. This event instantly popped up in my mind as I sat with the Word today.

How long yet that the bitter people of the world turn around and taste the love of God? Just like the pagans that Paul speaks of and the steward in the Gospel who suddenly discovered his insecurity, the proud and the arrogant, the resentful and godless of today need to come back to the Lord. The role that you and I are called to play here is to be reminders, signs, pointers, of that love and meaning that God alone can offer. For that we need to first take in that love as much as we can and hold it out to the world. For as St Paul affirms, 'those who have never been told about him will see him, and those who have never heard about him will understand.' 

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica: 9th November, 2017

THE ARCHBASILICA OF ST. JOHN AT THE LATERANS, is the oldest, not only among the four Major Papal Basilicas of Rome, but among all the Churches in the West. And this is the most important of all Catholic Churches, even more than St. Peter's because it is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, that is the Pope's Cathedral. That is why it is called the Archbasilica and it is known as the Mother of all Churches. When a Pope is elected and consecrated, he takes possession of this Holy Seat at a formal occasion, making himself the Bishop of Rome. The Basilica is named so, because it was originally the palace of the Laterans, a family of Royal Administrators. It was confiscated from them during the rule of Nero. But when Emperor Constantine married Fausta, the sister of Marcus Aurelius, the Domus Faustae (Fausta's Palace) came into Constantine's hands who in turn gave it to the Bishop of Rome. Later in 324 CE, Pope Silvester I transformed it into the Cathedral of Rome and dedicated it to Jesus Christ the Saviour. Later  in 10th century it was rededicated to St. John the Baptist and once again in 12th century rededicated to St. John the Evangelist. Thus the Church has a principal patron Jesus Christ the Saviour, and two additional patrons, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Hence the name, Archbasilica of St. John at the Laterans. 

We celebrate the dedication of this Basilica today and the message is clear: that we are called to become the dwelling places of God, sources of life and wellness to whole humanity.