Will you grow up please!

Wednesday, 22nd week in Ordinary Time

5th September, 2018: 1 Cor 3:1-9; Lk 4:38-44

The Church finds itself today in a situation of growing up, under the leadership of Pope Francis. We have a great example in the very concept of a Pope Emeritus and a Pope living in perfect union of heart and mind, setting an example for the entire Church and those who are related to that Faith Community in any way. We are called to be of one heart and one soul (cf. Acts 4: 32) not claiming to belong to Apollos  or to Cephas or to Paul (cf.1 Cor 1:12).  

How sad to see Churches divided on certain unchristian considerations... some churches sealed and communities broken into pieces... and in most of these cases those who are to lead themselves are the causes of division. We have a clarion call to grow up! Pope Francis once said these words beginning of this year: "we should recognise with sincerity and pain that our communities continue to live in division that is scandalous. Division among us Christians is a scandal.  There is no other word: a scandal." We see Jesus in the Gospel today that he refuses to get stuck to the praises, recognition and acceptance. He decides to move on.. to grow on... to grow up!

Mother Teresa, whom we celebrate and thank God for today, lived this call, the call to unite people in goodness of the Lord. To us today, this is the very call that we have. This is the call from the Lord: will you please grow up! Don't blame the situation. Don't blame those who are around. Don't blame the times. Don't blame anyone... just grow up!

Being SPIRIT-ual People!

Tuesday, 22nd week in  Ordinary Time

4th September, 2018: 1 Cor 2: 10-16; Lk 4: 31-37

Being Spiritual in its core means, getting in touch with the indwelling Spirit. 

The Spirit is the innermost being of our selves. We are formed in the image and likeness of God and the Spirit of the Lord dwells within us. The more we realise that and the more we are convinced of that, the more we would see our selves capable of bringing transformation to ourselves, to others around and to the context around. The so-called great people who make a difference in their own way, are fundamentally those who have come into grips with this innermost core of their beings - the Spirit. We see Paul speaking of it in the first reading and we see Jesus manifesting it in himself in the Gospel passage. 

The invitation is now for us to realise the core of our beings: the indwelling Spirit - getting in touch with the Spirit and getting into the grip of the Spirit, that great things may happen in and through us. We need not look to perform or prove ourselves. Things will happen and people we see it, when we are in the grip of the Spirit. Let us get into the depth of ourselves and get in touch with the indwelling Spirit. 

Rejecting God is acting against the Spirit, for the Spirit reveals to us in the heart of our hearts! Claiming to know God, is faking spirit, just like the demons which claimed to know God and the Son of God. Knowing God and surrendering ourselves is truly knowing God and it is being Spirit-ual people!

Wisdom and Foolishness

Friday,  21st week in Ordinary Time 

31st August, 2018: 1 Cor 1: 17-25; Mt 25: 1-13

The world today has its own definition of wisdom and foolishness, success and failure... everything, to put it simply, calculated in terms of benefits and gains in comparison to effort and investment. Convenience and comfort seem unfailing criteria of choice. But can these be Christian parameters?

The Christian paradigm, as Paul says is the Cross and the hope that it projects. However hard we may try, no other paradigm can make sense within a Christian mindset. The sacrifices we make and the selfless goodwill that we have towards others are true Christian parameters of righteousness. 

The shrewdness of the world and the folly of God... the foolishness of the world and the wisdom of God... the difference is crucial. That is what makes a Christian Paradigm!

Doing good without expecting anything in return or without looking for its credits, and more than that, 'being' good in spite of persons who contemplate evil and circumstances  that spread fear, is the cross we are called to embrace if we wish to belong to the Bridegroom!

Waiting...but how?

Thursday, 21st week in Ordinary time

30th August, 2018: 1 Cor 1:1-9; Mt 24: 42-51

The Word today brings out the all important spiritual practice of Waiting. Waiting is a daily-life experience for most of us, if not all of us. When we look at it from a larger perspective of Spirituality and life changing experiences, it can be of three modes depending on the disposition with which a person waits.

Utopian Waiting, is a kind of excited waiting. It is more or less like a child who is waiting with excitement for a Christmas gift from the Santa. There is so much of dreaming and planning about the gift. The gift is opened and admired and experienced, all in imagination or at the mental plane, even before it reaches the hands of the beholder. Here there is so much of noise made about it though no one is absolutely sure what it is all about. About waiting for the Lord too, there are people who do this, aren't they?

Slumberous Waiting, is a kind of inactive waiting, just waiting to kill the time till it all happens. There is nothing much done about it, or practically nothing, because the person waiting does not expect anything spectacular at the end of it all. There is a kind of indifference and cynicism, even a bit of pessimism! There is nothing new under the sun and what is going to be has always been, they believe. They feel they have nothing much to accomplish and there is so much of compromise and lethargy here, that when it really happens they are hardly prepared!

Spiritual Waiting, is a  kind of wholesome waiting, which lives the present moment with a holistic mindset that contains within this particular moment the gratitude for the past and the hope for the future! It is a kind of spiritual disposition that is sincere and genuine about the present life, with all its responsibilities and trials, joys and difficulties, without belittling what has gone before and what awaits. It is fundamentally living one's life to the full, joyfully waiting for the plan of eternity to unfold in all its grandeur.

Martyrdom - A matter of fact!

29th August, 2018: The beheading of John

Jer 1: 17-19; Mk 6: 17-29

Recently discussing about martyrdom with a group of youngsters,  one asked me, 'why should they go up to martyrdom?' In the same tone I replied, 'they don't go up to it,  it comes after them!'

Martyrdom is not a given-up mode of life.  It is a fruit of living one's life to the full till the end,  never losing the core purpose of that life for even a moment.

Martyrdom is not an option to choose.  It is a consequence of the choices made,  absolute choices for truth and righteousness. It is not a choice to die, but a choice to live - live for God, for truth and for righteousness, where eventually death unsuccessfully vies to have its last word. 

Martyrdom is not an unprecedented event.  One sees it coming all the time.  It is always there in front of the person threatening him or her. But for the person who is concerned with things that truly matter, martyrdom remains just a matter of fact!

Be Scandal Proof!

Tuesday, 21st week in Ordinary time

28th August, 2018: Remembering St. Augustine
2 Thess 2: 1-3a, 14-17; Mt 23: 23-30

I was shocked a few years ago, when I saw a video posted by an anti catholic brother. He was criticising everything 'Catholic' and went to the extent of calling the then Holy Father, the Anti-Christ who is to come. Taking the matter to another priest, I expressed my shock at this. And the priest just smiled at me and said: "a fruitful tree has to foresee stones coming its way!" 

Oppositions, today more than ever, keep growing to unbelievable proportions against the faith and tradition that we have grown with. There are splendid ways of God that we come across in spite of all these oppositions. At same time there is no dearth of examples that fail to communicate God's benevolence to us. 

What we are to do is, simply remain calm and composed at times when we are troubled. No use lamenting the absence of witnesses for the Lord, but being one myself - that is what really matters. And whether we are a model or not, it is important and urgent today to observe, notice and identify the counter witnesses! And it is more important and crucial to be scandal proof! 

Yesterday we celebrated St. Monica and today we have her son St. Augustine! We can imagine how scandal proof Monica would have been to have a husband like hers and the son. Augustine too, was not merely influenced but led himself gradually towards an experience of true conversion and ardent conviction, thanks to St. Ambrose. We are surrounded by sacred memories of these saintly people today: let us resolve never to give scandal to others and to grow more and more scandal proof these days!

Growing to be children of the Reign

Monday, 21st week in Ordinary time 

27th August, 2018: Remembering St. Monica
2 Thess 1: 1-5, 11-12; Mt 23: 13-22

Children of God or Children of the Hell... what decides our identity? Not what we claim to believe in nor the group we belong to. It will depend on my personal integrity says the Lord today. If I declare what I believe and live what I am convinced of, I will be a daring disciple of Christ and that is what Christ wants of us. 

It will require that we live in such a way "that our God may make us worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, in accord with thy grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thes 1:11-12.)

To grow to be worthy of our calling as children of the Reign, is the call that we have everyday. Let nothing that is part of us - our speech, our action, our attitudes, our values - let nothing that is part of us offer a message that is against the Reign of God. Let everything that we are involved in be a proclamation of the Gospel, proclamation of the goodness of God, proclamation of the glory of God in Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Monica wished this for her son, that he realises his call and becomes a child of the Reign...he not only became a child of the Reign, but a champion of the Reign!

FIDELITY TO THE FAITHFULNESS

Responding to the Faithfulness of the Lord

21st Sunday in Ordinary time: 26th August, 2018

Josh 24: 1-2,15-18; Eph 5: 21-32; Jn 6: 60-69

The God of Israel has always been identified as the God of the Covenant: I shall be your God and you shall be my people. Through ups and downs, during plenty and calamities, in peace and war, the Lord ever remained faithful to the covenant, even when the people went away from it and abandoned it. That is why the people of Israel did not contain themselves with saying God is faithful, but believed firmly that God is Faithfulness!

Today we have Joshua who understands and expresses exactly what is expected of the people of God: as for me and my household, we shall always serve the Lord. Being faithful to God was not his initiative, Joshua knew it well. It was only in response to the faithfulness of God. 

This faithfulness of God is compared to the faithfulness that is observed in a marriage fidelity between the husband and the wife! It is a faithfulness of utmost sacrality and as much as it concerns the Lord, it is absolute! 

I am reminded of an account narrated about an old man, close to his nineties, who would come everyday to a dispensary to dress a wound on his thumb. When the time nears the mark of midday, he would get anxious and restless, telling the nurses to hurry up or to let him go as he had to go to attend to his wife at noon! When they enquired about his wife, he would tell them that she is in a state of unconsciousness (coma) for the past 6 months! The nurses would ask, 'anyway, she would not know if you came on time or not, or even whether you were there or not, why do you give it so much of an importance?'. The man would respond: 'it does not matter to me whether she knows it or not, I have made a promise to her to be at her side everyday at noon without fail, and I will keep my promise come what may!' That is what the Lord's fidelity is all about - keeping the promise!

To whom shall we go, Lord, for you have the words of eternal life. Peter reminds us today that our fidelity to God does no good to God but gains us the eternal life that we long for. Our fidelity to the Faithfulness is a grace unto ourselves.

And we would do well to ask ourselves how faithful we are to God's fidelity! 

BREAD THAT TRANSFORMS

Children, Friends and Favourites

20th Sunday in Ordinary time: 19th August, 2018
Pro 9: 1-6; Eph 5: 15-20; Jn 6: 51-58

You become what you eat, they say! In fact there are problems in the world today depending what and how persons and societies eat. There are some who suffer of obesity and there are some who suffer due to hunger and malnutrition. Eating is an existential need of persons, invariable of their social status, age or economic bearings. If we look at the Word today from the background of this fact, we have a deep message to reflect on: I am the bread that has come down from heaven, anyone who eats of this bread will live for ever.

While the ordinary bread that we eat becomes part of us, the Bread that comes from heaven does exactly the contrary - we become part of it! Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the Bread from heaven; the eternal life of God promised to all who trust in the Lord. When we eat of the bread that is Jesus the Son of God, we become part of Him, we become sharers in the eternal life, life without end. This is why what Jesus says is so literally justified: one who eats of me, shall live forever. It is not merely an analogical or a poetic statement.

The divine bread has the special capacity to transform us, into children of the Father, friends of the Son and favourites of the Spirit!

Children of the Father: 
We receive the power to become children of God when we believe, accept and eat of the One who has come down from heaven! Yes the Eucharist makes us truly children of God: we eat of Christ and we become Christ...we are transformed into the image of God, that is Christ. As St. Paul says: he is the image of the invisible God, the image in which we were created! The challenge we have here is to check at regular intervals, how Godly we have grown, and how truly we live as children of God the Father and Mother.

Friends of the Son:
I don't call you servants but friends and there is no other love greater than laying down one's life for one's friends! This is what Jesus has made of us: his friends! When we eat of this bread, the Eucharist, we partake of the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. By claiming the Spiritual endowment that Jesus has made in this wonderful sacrament, we become his friends. Becoming friends is not merely a privilege, it is a challenge too! A challenge to do what pleases our friend, to be ready to give of ourselves fully for his sake without counting the cost.

Favourites of the Spirit:
In eating the Bread, we are filled with the Spirit that enlivens our body, mind, heart and soul. Wisdom is the gift of the Spirit that enables us to understand the effects of being created in the Image of God, making us look beyond what is apparent. We become favourite dwelling place of the Spirit, with the coming of the flesh and blood of Christ into our hearts. This is the most evident transformation and even a measure of the other two transformations. The challenge here is to remain open to the promptings of the  Spirit and dare to take decisions that are outlined by Paul as a recipe for Spirit-filled Christians. Dont we know we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit!

As we approach the Eucharistic Table today, let us resolve to look deeper into our innermost Image, to analyse our friendships and prioritise our frienship with Christ and consciously and confidently grow to be true, fitting and favourite dwelling places of the life giving Spirit!

Being children versus being childish

Saturday, 19th week in Ordinary time

Ezek 18: 1-10, 13, 30-32; Mt 19: 13-15

There is a difference, a vast one at that, between being children and being childish! 

Being children is being free, natural, spontaneous and simple. It is being dependent with love, being attached in affection, being truthful in relationships and being unsullied in words and deeds. 

Being childish is being frightened, artificial, calculative and complicated. It is being unduly dependent out of fear, frightfully clinging on to practices, being calculative in relationships and selfishly seeking one's own good at the cost of the other.

In the Word today, while Jesus makes a concerted call to be children, Ezekiel warns us against becoming childish! We need to grow - not from being children to being adults but from being childish to being truly children, truly children of God, children of one loving God!