The Naked Truth - God alone is!

Remembering St. Teresa of Lisieux 

Monday, 26th week in Ordinary Time

1st October, 2018: Job 1:6-22; Lk 9: 46-50

Naked I was born, naked will I die! God gave and God has taken it back. Blessed be the name of the Lord... Job is given by the Word today as the brilliant example of a child of God! His properties burned, he remained calm. His cattle were taken, he bore it all. His servants were killed he held on to the Lord. His children died altogether, he broke down but in the bosom of the Lord! That was Job, of whom the Lord was proud of.

Jesus is teaching a similar lesson too in the Gospel ...your ego, your social status, your position and power, your possession and your attachments... nothing can stand the test of time. God alone will. Whether we believe or not the Lord is. Whether we praise the Lord or not, the Lord is worthy of all the praise in the world. Whatever we do and whatever we are involved in, even without our own full knowledge of it, we are serving the purposes of the Lord. Ultimately that which is going to prevail is God's will. God alone is almighty and God's purposes alone give meaning to anything that exists. Only thing proper of us to do is, Surrender!

The Little flower whom we remember today reminds us of the same attitude of absolute surrender. She would say: 'what matters is not great deeds, but deeds with great love'! The Little way that she proposes is simply a total, loving and radical surrender into the hands of God; allowing God to hold us by our hands and walk us through the divine plans.

The truth finally is, who ever we are and whatever we have, everything will pass. The naked truth is, God alone is, God alone will forever be.

வாழ்வின் பொருள் புரிகிறதா?

அக்டோபர் 1: குழந்தையேசுவின் புனித தெரேசா - நினைவு  

யோபு 1: 6-22; லூக் 9: 46-50

இந்த உலகிற்கு நாம் என்ன கொண்டுவந்தோம், இங்கிருந்து எதை கொண்டுச்செல்ல போகிறோம்? இறைவனிடமிருந்து வந்தோம், அவரிடமே திரும்பி செல்வோம்... ஆனால் வாழும்போது மட்டும் அனைத்தும் நம்முடையது போலவே எண்ணி வாழ்வது ஏன்... என்ற ஆழமான கேள்வியொன்றை எழுப்புகிறது இன்றைய இறைவார்த்தை. பிறப்பும் நாம் கேட்டு வருவதில்லை, இறப்பும் நாம் நிர்ணயித்து நிகழ்வதில்லை, இடைப்பட்ட காலத்தில் மட்டும் அனைத்தும் நமது விருப்பு வெறுப்பின் படியே நடக்க வேண்டும் என்று சிந்தித்தால் நம்மைவிட அதிக மடமையுள்ளவர்கள் யாராவது இருக்க முடியுமா? 

முதல் வாசகத்தில் வரும் யோபுவும் சரி நற்செய்தியில் பேசும் கிறிஸ்துவும் சரி, இதையே நமக்கு நினைவுறுத்துகிறார்கள் - விருப்பு வெறுப்பு, பழி பொறாமை, போட்டி பகை, பெயர் புகழ் என்று இல்லாத ஒன்றை மனதில் வைத்து கொண்டு, இருக்கும் வாழ்க்கையை வீணடிக்கும் மூடத்தனத்தை மனிதர்கள் மட்டுமே செய்ய கூடும் என்பதை காலமும் நமக்கு தொடர்ந்து உறுதிசெய்துக்கொண்டே இருக்கிறது.

இன்று நாம் நினைவுகூரும் குழந்தையேசுவின் தெரேசா எனப்படும் லிசியே நகரத்து தெரேசம்மாள் தனது வாழ்வில் விட்டுச்சென்ற பாடமும் இதுவே. 24 வயதிலேயே இறந்த அவர் தன் வாழ்க்கை முழுவதையும் தியாகத்திலும், உடல் வருத்திய நோயிலும் செலவிட்டாலும், இறைவனின் சித்தமேற்கும் பக்குவத்தாலும், அவர் திருவுளத்திற்கு அடிப்பணியும் முடிவினாலும் அனைத்தையும் இறைவனின் மகிமைக்காக மட்டும் செய்யும் மனம் கொண்டவராய் வாழ்ந்தார். 'பெரும் செயல்களை செய்வதில் அல்ல, இறைவன் வகுக்கும் செயல்களை பெரும் அன்போடு செய்வதிலே தான் புனிதம் இருக்கிறது' என்று கற்பிக்கும் அவரை போன்றே, இறைவனின் திருவுளத்திற்கும், அவரது மகிமைக்கும் நம்மையே சரணாக்குவோம், முழுமை காண்போம். 

FEELING J - Feeling Jealous or Feeling Jesus?

The Reign Feel...

30th September, 2018: 26th Sunday in Ordinary time

Num 11: 25-29; Jas 5: 1-6; Mk 9: 38-43,45,47-48

Jesus gives us a lesson against feeling jealous. Feeling zealous is not Feeling Jealous. The first reading and the Gospel bring it out so clearly. The second reading points to the rest of the complications within feeling jealous, how it leads to greed and avarice and finally to perdition. 

Today we are aware of the hardships that the Church is undergoing - forget about the sins committed (be it by the shepherds or by the faithful), they are to be denounced and God alone shall be the judge. But, think of the purposeful maligning of names and assassination of characters that are ventured upon for selfish motives and political gains... is that truly a Regin feel?

For decades now, it is becoming bitter by the day, the denominations fighting with each other, the various churches giving into a sense of unchristian rivalry, the infights within parish communities, clashes and stand offs on the basis of caste or region within the churches and congregations... are these truly part of a Reign feel? 

The Reign Feel is God Centered... it was not Moses or Aaron or Joshua...it was God, the I AM who was leading the community. Zeal for the Reign would make us think in terms of God and not in terms of divisions and establishments. Today, when people in the name of God try to draw attention to themselves and wish limelight all over them, are ready to sacrifice anything - values, morals, decency, integrity - for the sake of the popularity and living, they are truly far far away from the Reign! God has to be the absolute, undeterred centre of all that we say and do!

The Reign Feel is Jesus Centered... I belong to Apollos, I belong to Paul, I belong to Barnaba...the early Church already had factions we come to understand from the preoccupations of the Apostles like Paul and James. When the people of God begin to go behind individuals and brand names and banners, instead of Jesus the One Lord who died for us on the Cross (As St. Paul so categorically says in 1 Cor 1:13, it is only Jesus who died for you on the Cross, not Paul nor Peter nor any of the preachers and evangelists and miracle workers that people run after today), people fail to measure up to the standards of making up the Reign of God.

The Reign Feel is Other Centered... not calculating my gains, my possessions, my comfort and my luxury; it is not getting obsessed with what I can profit or what I can hoard for myself, not looking for the fame that I can have or making my name known allover! James outlines with clarity what it means to be God Centered and Jesus Centered, it is being Other Centered! The labourers, the reapers, the workers, the poor, the suffering, the innocent, the needy, the weak, the languishing, the lonely, the elderly, the vulnerable, the children, the abused, the battered, those who cry out for help - they are touchstones of the Reign of God.

Yes, the Reign Feel is feeling J... it is not Jealous but Jesus. Reign Feel is feeling Jesus: it is thinking like Jesus, reasoning like Jesus, choosing like Jesus and prioritising like Jesus, reaching out like Jesus, and being ready to die like Jesus for God's will and God's people! 

To Stand and to Wait on

Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

29th September, 2018: Celebrating the Archangels 

Dan 7: 9-10,13-14; Jn 1: 47-51

The Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are familiar and popular among us due to their presence in the Scripture. Today as we celebrate their part in God's design, we are called to recollect the invitation they give us: to stand before the Lord, to wait on the Lord and to be instrumental in the fulfillment of God's will. These are the three functions of the Archangels and we are called to live those very dispositions.

To Stand before the Lord is to be in God's presence all our life. It is refraining from pushing the disposition of prayer to merely a few minutes of the day. It is instead, knowing that we are constantly in the presence of the Lord and we can speak to, share with and take directions from the Lord anytime and anywhere!

To wait on the Lord is to be at God's beck and call. That is what we all are created to be but the freedom that God has given us makes us do it as our personal choice. Angels are the extensions of God's power...they carryout the orders from the Lord. The invitation here is to be ready and willing to carryout orders from the Lord, without mixing it up with my wishes and reservations.

To be instrumental in the fulfillment of God's will. To be God's representatives, to be God's consolation, to be God's aiding hand, to be God's voice for justice...these are what we are called to be - Angels of the Lord making the Lord present amidst us by our own Godly dispositions.

May Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and the hosts of God's Angels inspire us, protect us and help us to be God's people always!

Live, Love and Find God

Saturday, 25th week in Ordinary time

29th September, 2018: Eccl 11:9 -12: 8; Lk 9: 43b-45 

Life is short and life is limited, but it offers ample opportunity to do things that are remarkable. It never forces anyone, leaving far behind every one who complains of a life of boredom and monotony. For a Christian, life cannot be boring because he or she has a life task to accomplish and daily directions to carry out, from the Lord. That is why St. Paul would write saying, "do not grow weary of doing right" (2 Thess 3:13). It might invite criticism, jealousy, opposition, persecution and even crucifixion! But what matters is to do the will of God, and do it willingly. 

A few years ago I happened to see a video uploaded by someone, of a boy who fell into the enclosure of a tiger and was eaten by the white tiger, in a zoo in India. Such a long time that the boy was going through the trauma of hanging between life and death, in the jaws of that tiger! What did the crowd do? What did the officials do? There was certainly a crowd there, screaming and going mad, and a few among them recording it on their cell phones. But what did they do to save that boy? It was a crucial time, a crucial issue of life and death, a crucial moment of taking decisions and making choices. In fact I myself was traumatised looking at that video; imagine the trauma that boy would have gone through!

This is what happens many a time - we stand by and pass comments, judgments, critiques and suggestions while a group of people suffer till they are no more! One thing is helplessness but another unpardonable attitude is indifference, which makes life so inhuman. 

Life is short and life is limited; let's live it to the full, let us do all the good that we can to every one around. Let us not waste our life in envying, calumniating, gossiping, judging and spreading hate! Let us live to the full, love each other and experience God close to us!

In God's own time...

Friday, 25th week in Ordinary time

28th September, 2018: Eccl 3: 1-11; Lk 9: 18-22

Two great enemies to spiritual health, as spiritual masters point out are: Anxiety and Curiosity! Anxiety is against faith because it points to a lack of trust in the Lord; And Curiosity is lack of patient acceptance of the present.To both these, and to many other spiritual ailments the corrective given is, Surrender!

In short, surrender can be described as the assurance that in God's time everything will happen. Patience, trust and the unfailing confidence in God's goodness, are the ingredients of this mentality of surrender. Especially when things aren't going the way we would want them to, we need this quality to remain sane and secure.

In the Gospel today, we find Jesus as a personification of this quality. He was neither curious nor anxious about his mission on earth. That is why he was more interested about their personal conviction than the public opinion; and he was stern that they don't go about frenetically spreading their conviction and forcing it on people, but to let them arrive at that conviction through their own experience too! That serenity on Jesus' part comes from an attitude of Surrender, an assurance that everything will be made beautiful IN GOD'S OWN TIME.

Seeking Christ can be vanity too!

Thursday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

27th September, 2018: Eccl 1:2-11; Lk 9:7-9

Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity...says the first reading today. There is nothing new under the sun, what are we toiling for? What are we seeking and searching and anxious for? That is the wise question that the philosopher raises in the Word today. It is important to take note of this question - routine, monotony and boredom are not reality that are external...they are attitudes and dispositions that are internal. How we look at things, how they matter to us, how they affect us and how we relate to them - that makes all the change that can be there.

Seeking Christ...today Herod seeks to see Christ. All of us have this wish to seek and experience Christ. But is that also a vanity? Yes, that will turn out to be another vanity, vanity of all vanities, if we do not seek for an internal change, for a transformation of the heart. If we seek, see, pray and claim to experience Christ, but there is no change in our inner disposition and attitude to life and to others, then that seeking and experiencing would be a vanity!

Vanity of Vanities...everything is a vanity, if we do not allow ourselves to be touched, transformed and continuously made anew in Christ.

In plenty and in want...

Wednesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

26th September, 2018: Pro 30:5-9; Lk 9: 1-6

I can never forget that strange thing I heard from a young man a few years ago, barely reaching his forties, who resigned his promising and colourful job. The reason: they were paying him unreasonably high! The first reading speaks of a mindset of this sort- a man who wants to live neither in want nor in plenty. Not in want, so that he would not think of shortcuts to get rich; nor in plenty, that he does not forget the One who gives. 

Jesus instructs his apostles on being messengers of God. The crux of his instruction is not merely about whether to have or not to have, whether to possess or not to possess, but it is all about depending on God or not! Poverty within the worldview of the Reign of God, in terms of Jesus' thinking, is a fundamental dependence on God. Being grateful for what God gives, and being expectant like a child to be given things in love. 

It is more than what proverbs suggests, while the passage from the proverbs carries a tinge of cynical realism, the Gospel offers a proactive sense of dependence out of true human freedom, that defines a true disciple and a dedicated apostle. This is the same as St. Paul suggests, to learn to live in want and in plenty, because we can do anything in the One who strengthens us (cf. Phil 4:12,13).

The best thing that can happen to me!

Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

25th September, 2018: Prov 21: 1-6, 10-13; Lk 8: 19-21

The first reading speaks to us of a variety of categories of people - the king, the virtuous, the just one, the hard working, the haughty, the wicked, the mocker... the message seems to be: whoever you are, what is important is live a life that is pleasing to the Lord; do exactly what the Lord wants you to do.

In fact, this is not a note of threat, but a wisdom par excellence. Because the best thing that can ever happen to me is what the Lord has planned for me! Once I am confident of that, then I can live my life with a serenity that nothing else can offer me. The Gospel has Jesus underlining the same fact. Mary could have been the mother of the Son of God. Not even that is the best thing that can happen to her. That biological motherhood is not as important as the Spiritual Motherhood that comes out of the fact that she listened to the call from the Lord, kept it in her heart, pondered over it and lived her life exactly according to it. That is where she stands as a great example to allowing God to have God's ways in our life.

When we allow that to happen, then God has a freehand in my life and I become the rightful child of that Father and Mother. And thus I become a brother or a sister of my Lord, Jesus Christ!

Let your light shine!

Monday, 25th week in Ordinary time

24th September, 2018: Prov 3: 27-35; Lk 18: 16-18

We just reflected on being good yesterday! Yes, be good, be just, be righteous...the Proverbs gives us a list of qualities of a just person who is acceptable  in the eyes of the Lord. Be good, be a light, shine before the world invites the Gospel. Let your light shine, let it shine day in and day out, let it shine regardless of the people and the situations around.

We do like to be good, we do wish to shine our light before the world...but is it so in all circumstances? What kind of light we wish to be?

Like the electric bulbs which give light only till that moment that they receive, at times we decide to be good to others only as long as others are good to us; we are good to the world only as long as the world around is good to us. If not, we begin to have second thoughts; we raise myriads of questions!

Like the oil lamps that sustain their burning as long as what they received lasts, we decide to be good for a little longer, anyway our goodness lasts just as long as the memory of good done to us  lasts. We are soon discouraged and disheartened!

Consider a candle, which is ignited to burn and shine. It keeps burning as long as it exists, without expecting anything from anywhere! This is our call: to shine, regardless of what others do to us. Be good in spite of the evil that may rest around you. Be Godly, however ungodly the world around you gets!