The Temple that we are!

The Solemnity of the Dedication of Lateran Basilica

November 9, 2018: Ezekiel 47: 1-2,8-9,12 (or) 1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11,16-17; John 2:13-22

The dedication of the Basilica of St John at the Lateran gives us a great opportunity to reflect on the decadence of the divinity that resides within humanity. But before go to discuss that, let us say a word on the Basilica itself.

The Basilica and the feast: 
The feast that we celebrate today is the remembrance of the dedication (on 9th, Nov, 324 AD) of the Basilica that stands on the property which was called 'Lateran' because it belonged to that family but acquired and given by Emperor Constantine to the Church earlier. The Church which was built was dedicated to the two great Johns of the Gospel: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist! This Basilica is one of the so-called Four Major Basilicas of Rome (the other three being those of St. Peter, Mary Major and St. Paul outside the walls). There is yet another importance attached to this Basilica because this is the Cathedral, that is the Official seat of the Bishop of Rome, that is none other than the Holy Father himself. Hence this is called the Papal Cathedral or the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, and not the all-famous Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican! 

We are the Temple: 
The Word speaks to us of the Temple today. Temple of the Lord. Temple of the living God. Temple where lives God. That temple you are! And it is from here the Lord wants his glory to be spread far and wide, from the temple of our selves, from the altars of our daily struggles and sacrifices. The Lord's zeal for the temple flairs up today and that temple is not the structure that stands in places, but the persons that we are. 

Such a sanctuary, filled with such extraordinary truths is made into a robbers den: a place where all evil resides; and a market place: where everything goes on except what is sacred! Exploitation of persons, decadence of moral dignity, human trafficking, sexual aberrations, killing in the name of god, violating the rights of the other, scheming to wipe out the races of people, keeping quiet at the face of blatant inhumanity that is perpetrated at large, buying and selling human labour without an iota of human respect, the swelling of the moneyed and the suffering of the exploited, the arrogance of the affluent and the insensitivity towards the downtrodden, the thousands and thousands of lives of the poor over whose graves walks the so called development today... these are the crimes against which the Lord would make a whip!

Cleansing the temple, the invitation that Lord has is fundamentally to realise the divinity that resides within us and the dignity that arises from the fact and to understand that we are a blessing to many, as Ezekiel points out about the waters that flow from beneath the Temple which makes fertile every land that it flows into. In simple words, we are called to be persons worthy of the Lord, communities worthy of our faith and societies worthy of the sacredness of the humanity. 

True Loss and Real Gain

Thursday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 8, 2018: Philippians 3: 3-8a; Luke 15: 1-10

The World today judges everything against categories like gain or loss or profit or returns! Which is the true loss and what would be real gain - the Apostle today clarifies it in no uncertain terms. I consider everything as a loss or as rubbish, when it comes to knowing Christ, gaining favour with the Lord, growing in relationship with the Lord. 

Past glories, handed down traditions, legalistic requirements, ritual uprightness...these will not take you that far, however good and right and just they are. All that is expected of us is to get nearer and nearer, closer and closer,  more and more in personal relationship with God. God keeps looking out for us as presented in the parables in the Gospel- the shepherd and the woman! And so evidently the initial lines of the Gospel today communicates it: the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus and the pharisees were complaining! What really matters is not circumcision or not...but the relationship one has with the person of Christ. 

Entering into a personal rapport with the Lord means being moulded into the Lord's ways. The question fundamentally is about one's choices and priorities. The Gospel clarifies the choices and priorities of the Lord...for the Lord, God's children matter the most! Whether one has been into sin all one's life (like the sheep that stray), or one considers oneself worth nothing (just a single dime); for the Lord, that one person is worth the whole world, is worth giving up everything, even God's only son!

True loss is the loss of relationship with the Lord and Real gain is gaining life in the Lord. Whether we live or die, we do it for Christ.

Called Christian? Better be one!

Wednesday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 7, 2018: Philippians 2: 12-18; Luke: 14:25-33

If you call yourself a Christian you better be one, says the Word today. You want to construct a tower but you don't want to procure the material; you want to fight the battle but you don't care to gather the soldiers; you want to be called a Christian but you don't want to take in all those things that makes up that name! What a shame! 

What does it take then, to be a Christian? 
To be a light when every one around is getting used to the darkness; to carry the cross with love when every one around you is waiting to shake off even an extra speck of dust  that seems to weigh on them; to be holy and blameless while everyone around is losing the very sense of those terms. That is what it takes to be a Christian!

To be perfect children of God is to resemble God, to receive the shining light that the Lord is and share with the world, to stand up there in the midst of all those who are searching for the truth, worse still, among those who are sworn to destroy and obscure truth, and bear the light that the Lord is! Can we? Are we prepared? Do we dare?

Let our prayer today be: O Lord Jesus Christ, give us the strength, the courage and the light to walk in your footsteps, carrying our crosses and and making a difference in every life we encounter. You are our light and our salvation. 

Can you really stay there?

Tuesday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 6, 2018: Phil 2: 5-11; Lk14: 15-24

We can find any number of reasons or excuses to keep ourselves from doing the right thing to do, as long as we keep doing it as if we are doing it for the sake of some one else. It would already be too late when we realise that we have not really lived our life, in the way it could have been! Our minds will be filled with too many ifs and buts to make real sense of it. 

Instead, when we know ourselves, accept this life as a gift from God and live our life understanding its sacrality, and true to the vocation given to each of us: we would be in paradise dining with the Lord already now. But it does involve, suffering and sacrifice endured in a joyful spirit of fulfilling one's vocation. 

The parable Jesus narrates today, presents us with a man who had no big merit to be there at the wedding feast but he was there; but to remain there he had to have done a bit of preparation - did he? In our coming into being, we had nothing to do; but in living that life to that full, we have a great deal to choose! In our being chosen as God's people we had nothing much to do, because the Lord chose us from eternity; but in remaining truly God's people we have a lot to do, on a daily basis!

St. Paul gives the picture of Christ, who lived his mission, the personal vocation that he was given and through that he redeemed the whole world. When we live our personal lives true to our vocation and at the depth of its meaning, we too will turn out to be instruments of God's salvation, to ourselves and to others. We are given the gift of life and given the invitation to live it to the full... the choice is ours: we have entered the feast of the Lord...but can we really stay there!

From Competititon and Conceit to Comprehension!

Monday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 5, 2018: Philippians 2: 1-4; Luke 14: 12-14

It is so important that we do good to others, to the faith community and to humanity as a whole. But it is more important to be attentive to why we do what we do! Yes, the motivation behind the good we do, determines whether the act is truly good or just tolerable! This is the call the Word has today: to determinedly  move from competition and conceit and discerningly grow towards a comprehension that Christ alone can make possible.

Competition makes all the good that I do, a mere external show and seeking the approval of fellow human beings. It begins to use the others, the needy and the ones to whom I reach out to, and makes them feel like 'objects' of someone else's or some others' goodness and prowess. 

Conceit makes one oblivious of the rest of the persons around and what really matters to them. All that matters to me is 'me'! (Recently I heard a quack speak of his 'me' speaking to  ' his me' in the other... so full of himself! That is only within parentheses.) I am so full of myself that even the good that I do for the other is a manifestation of myself and not truly a reaching out to the other. How many politicians and so-called philanthropists we have seen who wish to highlight themselves making their service a pretext.

Comprehension...is the understanding, the oneness of mind that leads to looking at the One Lord who unites me and the others and everyone else. There is no distinction here; when the other suffers, I suffer. When I do something good for the other, there is nothing to be proud about it because I am doing what I ought to; after all if I suffer, won't I seek a remedy?

One heart, one mind, one spirit, without competition or conceit...when I do good for someone, I do not count the cost, I do not look for a return, nor do I lament the effort. After all, we are one in the Lord!

HEAR... MY CHILD

With your Ear, Heart and Spirit 

31st Sunday in Ordinary time: November 4, 2018

Deuteronomy 6: 2-6; Hebrew 7: 23-28; Mk 12: 28-34

Hear O Israel... we read those words repeatedly today! Hearing... is one important faculty physically; we would talk about it in another occasion when Jesus restores in a deaf man his capacity to hear! Today we are more concerned with the spiritual faculty of hearing, a hearing that becomes fundamental to a truly spiritual person, to a son or a daughter of God, to a true child of God! God who is heard more than just a few times in the Word, crying out to God's people: Hear O Israel, Hear O my people, Hear my beloved, speaks to us today, those very same words: Hear, my son, my daughter, my child... hear me today!

How can we hear God? The spiritual faculty of hearing has three levels of perfection through which we are challenged to grow everyday. 

Hear with your ears... that is the fundamental requirement, the physical hearing, the basic openness to what is around, what can be perceived, what is told, what is shared, what is right in front of one's eyes and one's ears. This is sympathetic listening...to what one says and what one communicates. There are so many who cannot really hear, what is said. They hear what they want to, what they have already made up their mind to hear. Even before a person opens his or her mouth to say something, we have heard what the person wants to say. That is, we have a bias that does not allow us to hear what is said! We are so prejudiced that we cannot really hear what the other person is saying, what the other person is sharing. About everyone around me, I have already made a judgement within me, that I am not able to hear what they are saying at all... all the time I am busy hearing what I want to hear, what I have prerecorded in my mind. Have you heard the sad story of a mother who thought her kid was trying to bunk school crying that his shoes were hurting, and forced him to go to school, only to receive a call from school a little later that the kid died of a scorpion bite, a scorpion which was in the shoes!

God communicates everyday through so many persons and events. If we do not really hear what is being said, If we do not perceive what is being communicated, we are missing a great lot of God! Can we really be God's children if we do not hear with our ears?  That is why the Lord call our attention: Hear O Israel, hear my children, hear what I have to tell you everyday! However, hearing does not end here... this is just the first level, the sympathetic listening. We have to grow towards the next level...

Hear with your heart... 'heart' has an 'ear' within it: look at how it is spelt... h-ear-t; interesting isn't it? We are called to hear beyond our ears, not with our prejudices but with our genuine openness; yes, we are called to hear what is not said, what is not shared, what is not verbalised. This is empathetic listening... to what is communicated without words, in silence, with tears, with reactions, with some choices! This is a higher level of hearing, which is so attentive that I am able to hear not just what is said, but even what is not said, even what is stifled within, even what is meant by the simple words or gestures! This can happen only if I feel myself in the position of the one who is sharing, not when I stand in judgement of the other. A real educator will know that the naughtiest of the kids in the class is the most needy of attention; a true liberator of the oppressed will know that even the sheer silence of the oppressed is a big hue and cry for emancipation; a real prophet will know that every experience of suffering is a sign of hope from the Lord. Hearing things with the heart, would go beyond the events and understand its meaning, it will go beyond words and understand the experience. 

God sends God's message through a myriad of experiences that come our way everyday. If we do not hear beyond what is said, beyond what is seen and beyond what is apparent, we are missing an important message that we are given from God. Jesus saw these, heard these and experienced these and that is why no one could dare question him or find fault with him. Today if we hear beyond the words that are spoken, if we see beyond the things that are noticed, the Lord will tell us too: 'you are not far from the Reign of God'. You are not far, but you haven't reached it yet...and therefore the need for the next level...

Hear with your spirit... hearing with your spirit is, hearing from within. This is Spiritual listening, that is listening to the Spirit who speaks from within! Jesus who has offered himself once and for all, as our redemptive sacrifice, has given us the Spirit who dwells within us: the Spirit who speaks to us, the Spirit who directs us, the Spirit who calls us from within. Are we in touch with this Spirit? If we get in touch with this Indwelling Spirit, and only if we do so, we can be considered people of the Reign, because we will make the Reign of God present wherever we are. This is why Jesus said in another place, Reign of God is within you (Lk 17:21). 

Hearing with our spirit is being in touch with the Lord, being in communion with the Lord, remaining in constant relationship with the Lord. Do you think these are too big a matter to think of - then consider a simple term that explains all of this in one single word: PRAYER. Prayer is hearing, hearing what the Lord has to say to us, hearing with our ear, our heart and our spirit. Hear, my child, invites the Lord - are we ready?

Pick your place with Christ

Saturday, 30th week in Ordinary time

November 3, 2018: Philippians 1: 18-26; Luke 14: 1,7-11

There is a funny saying in Tamil which goes thus - there are some who wish to be the bridegroom if it were a wedding house and the dead body if it were a funeral house! The former is attractive but the latter is fearsome, but of course for someone who longs to hog the limelight anywhere and all the time, nothing is too big. Such persons go to any extent. But does that give one the true joy of life, a joy that lasts and a joy that adds meaning to life? 

Jesus speaks of this with a simple example of our tendency to pick places in gatherings!

Protocols, rules, regulations, respects due and hierarchy are considered sacred these days, more sacred even than the Sacred! This is what Jesus is reminding us of and Paul is confronting us with! Paul speaks of his vision of life and death: according to him both are important but never before Christ! Before Christ, nothing else matters - neither well being, nor success, nor life, nor death, nothing, absolutely nothing! For me, to live is Christ and to die is a gain - what a statement to make!

Speaking of picking places, it is a sound imagery that we can propose to ourselves questioning our priorities in life. What matters to us: honour in the face of persons around, riches to fill our lives with, titles to adorn ourselves with... or Christ for whom we are ready to live and to die? If Christ matters to us the most, we have won over everything else: honour and dishonour, pleasure and pain, comfort and persecution, life and death! 

Just yesterday we remembered our dead loved ones, and prayed that they find their place with God in eternity! Don't you think it begins here? Yes, let us pick our places with Christ here and now, and we shall be guaranteed a place with him in eternity!

It is all about Relationships!

All Souls Day: 2nd November, 2018

Wisdom 3: 1-9; Romans 3: 5-11; Mark 15: 33-39, 16: 1-6

Yesterday we celebrated the memory of the saints...those among us who have gone before us all the way! They shine as they have reached the destiny prepared for them. They are the Triumphant Church, radiating the HOPE that Christ brought to humanity.

Today we keep the memory of those among us who have gone before us, but not yet all the way! They await the mercy of God, to join the band of those who share the glory of the Eternal Light. They are the Penitent Church, united with us in FAITH, the one faith in which we were all baptised, the one faith in which we have a duty to offer our prayers and suffrages. 

Tomorrow onwards we are back to our daily living, as we make our way, amidst the struggles and temptations of the daily life. We are the Militant Church, fighting our way ahead on a daily basis, with LOVE - love for God who constantly accompanies us and love for brothers and sisters with which we accompany those who are around us.

It's all about relationship... we are One Church with the One Lord, with one baptism, one call and one destiny... all of us related to each other. Even the thought of death or of the dead, does not fill us with fear or anxiety, for we are all on the same journey at different stages of the course. The three tier Church is such a holistic view of our life on earth, that it renders every bit of our life and all its struggles so meaningful. It is within this framework of relationship that we think of those brothers and sisters of ours who have gone before us, signed with the same Holy Spirit, that they may receive the eternal reward they have always longed for. But that would be an incomplete exercise, if it does not challenge us to live our life with more hope and more love, here and now that our faith may throw its light on our concrete everyday. 

We are all related! Let that be the message that the day offers us. Let us march on with love, with hope and with faith towards the eternal joy prepared for us.

BEING SAINTS...

1st November, 2018: All Saints Day

Revelation 7: 2-4,9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5: 1-12a.

O when the saints, 

go marching in, 

I want to be in that number! - 

... a simple but profound thought in those familiar lines of the song. To be saints: that is God's call to each of us. At times we think, becoming saints is reserved for a select few. May be the long and tedious process of canonisation of a person in the Church, makes us feel that way. But the fact is, each of us, all of us is called to be saints. St. Paul states that in clear and unequivocal terms in his letter to the Ephesians (1:4), Thessalonians (1 thes 4:3), and other places. 

The question sometimes is, whether it is, being a saint or becoming a saint! We are created in the image and likeness of God (says Genesis 1:27) and this image and likeness of God is a "given", a nature that we have within us, as a gift. We are reminded of this image and likeness at our baptism. All the we need to do is to remain with that image in our lives. The beautiful symbol used in the rite of baptism, where the priest hands over a white cloth to the child and entrusts the task of bringing it, as it were, unsullied, intact in its purity to the end of days.That, dear friends, is the call - "to be saints"...and not merely to 'become' saints.

The readings today, develop the same thought in three wonderful dimensions:

Being Saints means... being aware of who we are! O Christian, realise your dignity! We are children of God, reminds St. John in his letter, in the second reading. God has chosen us from eternity, before the foundation of the world! This is an initiative from God our Father and Mother, who creates us and wishes that we share in God's love and ever remain in God's image and likeness, as children of the loving God.

Being Saints means... being washed by the blood of the Lamb! The Image of God within us, sometimes is disturbed, smudged, smeared or sullied by the choices we make misusing the human freedom that is granted to us. The evil one will be more than happy when we lose heart at such moments and give up. The Son of God, our Saviour Jesus Christ shed his blood that we may have victory over sin and death. In that blood we are saved, and in that blood we are made clean, each and every time we turn to the Lord in genuine repentance and willingness to regain our original image. Saints are those who have their garments washed in the blood of the Lamb, says the first reading.

Being Saints means... being 'blessed' in the eyes of the Lord! And the only way to be 'blessed', is to live by the promptings of the Spirit who dwells within us. Paying attention to the indwelling Spirit, we will know what it means to be blessed - to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be peace-loving - these are ways of being persons of the spirit. In the ordinariness of our daily life, we have to be persons of the Spirit, looking at the reality different from the way the self seeking world teaches us to. 

God's initiative in the call that I have received; Christ's redeeming act of Salvation; the Spirit's indwelling presence that guides me on a daily basis - these are compelling reasons why I need to think seriously about, not merely becoming a saint one day, but being a saint everyday, in my own way!

மீட்பிற்கான எளிதான வழி எது?

அக்டோபர் 31, 2018: எபேசியர் 6:1-9; லூக்கா 13: 22-30

அனைவரும் மீட்படைவார்களா? யார் மீட்படைவர், யார் மீட்படையார்? இந்த கேள்விகள் தொன்றுதொட்டே இருந்து வருகின்றன என தோன்றுகிறது. கிறிஸ்துவிடமே  இந்த கேள்வியை பலவிதங்களில் சீடர்கள் எழுப்புவதை நாம் நற்செய்தியில் அவ்வப்போது காணுகின்றோம். ஆனால் ஒருமுறை கூட கிறிஸ்து ஆம் இல்லை என்று இதற்கு பதில் சொல்லவில்லை; இவர்கள் மீட்படைவர், இவர்கள் மீட்படையார் என்று சுட்டிக்காட்டவில்லை! மாறாக அவர்களை ஆழ்ந்து சிந்திக்கவும், அகன்று நோக்கவும் தூண்டக்கூடிய ஒரு விளக்கத்தை அவர்களுக்கு தருகிறார். 

ஒருமுறை ஊசியின் காதும் ஒட்டகமும் குறித்து ஒரு உவமையை கூறுகிறார். மற்றொரு முறை மனிதருக்கு இவை முடியாதவையாக இருக்கலாம் ஆனால் கடவுளுக்கு முடியாதது என்று ஏதும் இல்லை என்று கூறுவார். இன்று அதே கேள்விக்கு பதிலளிக்கும் அவர், இந்த குழுவையோ, அந்த சபையையோ, ஏதோவொரு குறிப்பிட்ட நிலையையோ சார்ந்தவர்கள் என்ற ஒரு காரணத்தினாலேயே ஒருவர் மீட்படைந்துவிட இயலாது! யாராக இருப்பினும், எந்த நிலையில் இருப்பினும், அந்நிலையில் அவர்கள் வாழும் வாழ்க்கை முறையை பொறுத்தே ஒருவர் மீட்புக்கு உரியவராகவோ மீட்புக்கு தூரமானவராகவோ உருவாகிறார், வளர்கிறார், என்று தெளிவுபடுத்துகிறார். 

பவுலடிகளார் மீட்பளிக்கும் அந்த வாழ்க்கை முறையை விளக்கும் போது ஒரே ஒரு வழியை நம் கண் முன் நிறுத்துகிறார்: இறைவனுக்கு உகந்ததை, இறைவனின் திருவுளத்தை செய்வது என்பதே அது! மீட்படைய எந்த ஒரு குறுக்கு வழியோ, எளிதான வழியோ இல்லை என்பதை நாம் புரிந்துகொள்ளவேண்டும். இருப்பது ஒரு வழியே! இறைவழியே!

இன்று, இந்த நேரம், இந்த சூழலில் இறைவன் என்னிடம் இருந்து என்ன எதிர்பார்க்கிறார் என்று எனக்குள்ளாக தெளிந்து தேர்ந்து நான் செயல்படும்போது, இறைவனுக்குரியவராய், மீட்புக்குரியவராய் நான் வளர்கிறேன்!