Christ-ian Perseverance...Ready!?!

Wednesday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 28, 2018: Revelations 15:1-4; Luke 21: 12-19

Perseverance in terms of targets and achievements in the world is, holding on endlessly. The same, when it comes to our relationship with God is, giving up limitlessly. It is to give up totally into the hands of God, regardless of the successes or failures, gains or losses, happiness or sadness, prosperity or misery! 

Faith is all about this giving up, giving up everything and walking with our hands in the hands of God. Indeed it's a challenging feat. Specially considering the fact that today there is a great pressure laid on people to hoard up things, keep striving to prove oneself, ensure one's career or well being in competition with each other...the times are difficult. 

It takes true faith and strong hope, to remain calm and unperturbed even amidst such tribulations. That is true perseverance. Imagine the scenario around you. Truth is heckled at globally, values are sidelined, rights are taken for granted and dignity is reserved only to those who can afford it. It seems like the plagues that we read of in the hands of those angels have been let loose on to humanity! What are you going to do?

Neither hyper-reaction nor frustration can help! Neither counter aggression nor silent witnessing will serve! Neither over confidence nor a sense of hopelessness can strengthen us. Yes, we need perseverance... but not that of the world, which advocates an aggressive, obsessive, success-centered, control seeking obstinacy; but a hopeful, transcendent, serene and child like perseverance, which is truly, Christ-ian perseverance. Are you ready for it?

The Harvest: Curiosity or Care to Change?

Tuesday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 27, 2018: Revelations 14:14-19; Luke 21:5-11

Harvest is joyful but it involves sickles and winnowing chaff. Harvest is a welcome end but anyway it's an end.  Harvest is the end of a process of growth but it is a moment when one shall be judged to be gathered or to be thrown away! 

It is the same with faith... that too is an harvest.  We keep growing.  All absurdities and adversities notwithstanding, we grow but it is upto that moment of reckoning when we shall be judged worthy or not,  for  the king who has chosen us to belong to him. But we are prone to think of that moment as something unconnected to the here and the now, as if it is to happen from nowhere, as if it is a magical event to be expected with curiosity. 

When will these things happen?  We are more interested in knowing when certain things will happen and curious about predictions and premonitions,  than understanding what is the right thing to be done here and now, and make the right moves in life at the right time. Mistakenly we postpone the necessary and crucial transformations in life for an opportune time which sometimes does not come at all or it gets too late by the time they come by.  

The month of November insists on the urgency that is involved in personal conversion and community dedication to growth and maturity in faith. And specially this week leading us to the season of advent gives us a better understanding of the end time spirituality that we are called to live in these times: not with curiosity but with care to change!

Mindful of the short time that we have, we have a calling to live: live our lives to the full, here and now.

Holistic Humanity: Hand, Heart & Head

Monday, Last week in Ordinary time

November 26, 2018: Revelations 14: 1-5; Luke 21: 1-4.

We have begun the last week of the Ordinary time following the feast of Christ the King, and the Word this week is going to invite us to fasten our seat belts and gear up for the Reign, a call of the special season of Advent! It is like the account closing days of banks, as they say these days. Or like the 'assessment period' in the IT and the Outsourcing fields. The Word invites us to take stock of all that we have been reflecting through these long weeks of the Ordinary Season, before we begin a brand new liturgical season coming Sunday.

John speaks of his vision of paradise: how many faculties he enlists! He saw the vision, he heard the singing, names written on forehead... all of them put together - eyes, ears, mouth, forehead...imagine the head there! And the responsorial reminds us of another pair of faculties: clean hands and pure hearts...hand, heart and head -in short, the entire person is involved in entering into the dwelling place of God. 

The Gospel gives us an illustration of a person as such: whose entire self, with all faculties involved in thought, word and deed. The widow whom Jesus compliments is a model of someone who acts in total submission to the Lord, while her hand dropped those two copper coins, her heart and head were in unison - that is, she did, she never regretted, she never went back and mourned for the loss of the little that she had. However small you judge that act to be, she was integral in it: thinking, speaking and doing going so perfectly together - a holistic human person! 

If we wish to be part of the 144000 that John visualised in the Reign, we got to be holistic human persons. Thinking what is right, speaking what we think and daring to do what we say and think! In a world where lies abound, falsities fester and showbiz thrives, we are called to build up the kind that begets eternity: the holistic humanity!

CHRIST THE KING

One, True and Good

25th November, 2018: Solemnity of Christ the King

Daniel 7: 13-14; Revelations 1: 5-8; John 18: 33-37

Monarchy... Kingship...Royalty... though monarchy in its ancient form is almost obsolete in today's world and even the remnant societies that uphold monarchy have a newer interpretation of monarchy, the tendencies of the age old monarchy has not disappeared by any means. What do I mean?

Consider people who are at war with each other for power and supremacy! Consider leaders who have ruled all their lives but even at their ripe old age dissent from ceding their power to anyone else. Consider political leaders and parties who make their kith and kin their political heir, and thus make the whole state or the polity their property. Consider people who wield so much power wherever they are, that they do not tolerate even the slightest criticism, much less opposition! Are these not tendencies of monarchy? A post modern era such as today, looks with despise on any form of monarchy! And today we celebrate Christ as King! Are we outdated? Are we obsolete? Are we archaic? Are we irrelevant? 

Celebrating Christ as King is to show ourselves how different a king Jesus our Lord is and to show the world, how different governing people could be! 


Our King is One... with none as second or with no need to succession! The first reading presents a king who is eternal, without end to his reign! Christ needs to contend with no one, he is the indisputable king and we will do well to acknowledge that. At the same time there is no necessity for anyone to protect the sovereignty of Christ... there is no power greater than him, there is no authority higher than him and there is no other name more powerful than his! Christ and Christ alone rules and he rules without end!
One, True, Good are the metaphysical qualities of a being; in the Indian tradition they are the transcendent qualities of the Atman...yes, Jesus, is Lord! the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the One, the True, the Good who gives me the very sense of my being! Christ is my King not because he rules, but because he loves, he loves me royally. He is my King, the only king, the true king, the good king, the king of my heart!

Our King is True... it is to bear witness to the Truth that he came on earth and gave his life: this is his own testimony before Pilate in the Gospel today. He is king, but not of the kind which we find in this world...those which are selfish, power mongering and pleasure seeking, but selfless, servant minded and self giving; not fraudulent, corrupt and crooked but just, true and integral! 

Our King is Good... for he loves us and gives himself totally up for our sake. Unlike the monarchs who demand everything at the cost of anything, Jesus our Lord, demands nothing costing him everything, his life, his body, blood and even his divinity! As Jesus taught his disciples, the rulers of this world lord it over the others - they are arrogant, heartless, tyrannical, cruel and obsessed with power - it cannot be so among us (cf. Mt 20:25,26)... Jesus did not only say that, he lived that. The one who wants to rule, let him serve. What a loving king we have!  

The God of the Living

Saturday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 24, 2018: Revelations 11: 4-12; Luke 20: 27-40

The God of the living: that is how Jesus presents his God and Father, and our God and Father. Resurrection is the foundation of our conviction that our life is not merely made of the few years that we spend on this earth. Our life is part of the Eternal Stream, that is God and we have but a few years here on earth. We come from and we are meant for, a union that is eternal and all our efforts during this life has to be towards ensuring that union for ever. 

What would be the fall out if we had this truth right in front of our minds while we live? We would not unnecessarily fret to make ourselves comfortable at the cost of the other. We would not long to possess something or someone, leading to undue striving to control the other and manipulate situations. We would not harm others or harm the nature just because at present we would like to make more money or make life more easy. We would not calculate everything in terms of gain and profit and dividends and surplus.

Should we wait for a terrifying moment to repent and reset our values, if that moment has not come already? Jesus offers us a wonderful criterion: the criterion of Resurrection. Live as Resurrection-people; live as people of the Eternity; live as people who really believe that your life does not end here and now; live as people who belong to the God of the Living!

Sweet or Bitter - All for the Reign!

Friday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 23, 2018: Rev 10: 8-11; Lk 19: 45-48

Jesus was attractive; people rallied around him so willingly and readily. He was interesting to listen to; so many pharisees and scribes hung on to his lips. He was famous; the mere name drew not just crowds but even prominent persons like Zachaeus. He had charming ways; even Herod wanted to see him atleast once! All these were true only in as much as they all looked at Jesus from a distance. When Jesus got near...he turned demanding.

The people came to him and he challenged them to live a life of destitution, with no place to even lay their heads. The people listened to him and he called them whitewashed sepulchers, inviting them to true personal conversion. Individuals approached him and he challenged them to total reformation of their personal and public lives. The people led him with such celebration into the city of Jerusalem and he enters the Temple and drives out the vendors and money lenders.  

The Lord's promises are sweet, but when we take it to heart they are demanding. If we truly listen to the Word of God, we cannot remain the same forever, we would be challenged to change, to transform, to become more and more like the Lord himself. 

Yes, the Word may be sweet in the mouth; but for sure it will be bitter in the stomach, but only to churn out the unwanted elements and paving way towards the Reign. The Word heals us, nurtures us and prepares us to be people of the Reign!

The Right Weeping - Christian style

Thursday, 33rd week in Ordinary time 

November 22, 2018: Revelations 5:1-10; Luke 19:41-44

Weeping is Christ-ian too when it is done for the right reasons and in the right mode.  Jesus himself wept, it is said, once for his friend and the other time for Jerusalem... both that they may be saved in the Lord.

John weeps in the first reading today that there is no one to open the scroll.  Such was his eagerness to hear the Word and understand the will  of God.  Crying,  weeping, complaining for the right reasons is commendable. 

But the unfortunate fact is that we cry and weep for all wrong reasons!  We cry because we did not get what we wanted or we weep because we miss what we would have loved to have... In all such, what stands out is, me, my desires and my prospects.

Our minds have to transcend a self-centred understanding of reality, petty  materialistic outlook on life and childish worldly worries.  We need to fix our gaze on the things above... and rise above our basic living.  

How many of us truly understand or atleast strive to explore the real and deep purpose of our lives? Didn't the Lord instruct us: seek first the Reign of God, the rest shall be given unto you!

True Praises to the Lord is Total Offering

Presentation of Mary, our Blessed Mother

November 21, 2018: Revelations 4: 1-11; Luke 19: 11-28

In the first reading today, John impresses upon us how important and essential it is for us, as creatures of the Creator Almighty, to give praise to our Lord and King. Praising God - can never be done enough and it is always in want, in contrast to the boundless glory that the Lord possesses! The Word today distinguishes among three types of people who give praises to the Lord:

The first are the Psuedo Praisers: who praise the Lord with their tongues but are far away in spirit from the Lord. They are those who deceive themselves putting up a mere show of their allegiance to God, while in fact are all the while doing their own will. Wantonly, they make of themselves people unfit for the Reign.

The second are the Pointless Praisers: who think praising the Lord alone is enough to inherit the Reign. Their praising is pointless, in fact the Lord himself had declared: 'not all those who call me Lord Lord, will enter the Reign of God' (cf. Mt 7:21). Ultimately, they fall short of entering the Reign. 

The third are the Profound Praisers: who do not consider praising the Lord as a duty in itself. Their very words, actions and life gives praise to the Lord. Their witness leads, not only themselves, but even those around them to praise the Lord to the heights. They live their life to the full, and seeing their lives, people are inspired to give praises to their King and Lord. They do not praise the Lord with just words or gestures, but with their daily life! These are the People of the Reign, true and profound in their praise.

Mary, our Blessed Mother is of this third category - a person who praised the Lord in and through her life, a person who  learnt very early in life what truly godly life meant. Today, as we celebrate the memory of her presentation in the Temple, let us honour her for the total self giving into the hands of the Lord. She teaches us by example, that true praises to the Lord is total offering of oneself unto the Lord!

Cold or hot, closed or open?

Tuesday, 33rd week in Ordinary Time

November, 20, 2018: Revelation 3: 1-6,14-20; Luke 19:1-10

Choices and compromises make a great difference in Christian living;  what matters is not so much what we do as what we intend to. Our heart and our intentions matter much more than acts and results.  This is both an advantage and a disadvantage for the human heart.  

Advantage for those who are sincere with their efforts to remain true and dedicated to the Lord,  inspite of their shortfalls.  Disadvantage for those who create an aura around themselves as if  they are spiritual giants while there rest skeletons inside the cupboard conveniently covered off, but the Lord knows all and sees all.

Our innermost disposition is what truly decides who we really are! It is from these innermost dispositions that we make our choices. You cannot remain both dead and alive at the same time; hot and cold at the same time; or belonging and not belonging to the Lord at the same time! You have to make a choice and choices are all! 

Like Zacchaeus who not only changed from his old ways but made up even for the mistakes, for his wrong doings and every thing that made others' lives less happy, we are called everyday to make some drastic choices. The choice is ours - to keep to our hidden ways or to open up and let Jesus in! And once he comes, things cannot remain the same!

Let your choices be translated into acts of commitment. Acts of grandeur lacking true internal choices cannot bear the true lasting fruits that we long for. Choices matter: are you cold or hot,  your hearts closed or open?

Good but not good enough- See that?

Monday, 33rd week in Ordinary Time

November 19, 2018: Revelations 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Luke 18: 35-43

The Lord loves us whether or not we deserve it.  But the Lord is not merely mercy but justice too!  Beginning today we listen to the Lord of justice as we begin the week running up to the feast of Christ the King.

Today the Word presents to us a Lord who is demanding and perfect... who feels all God's children are good but some are not good enough! The question to me is, to which category I belong? I should be able to see and to understand if I am good enough or not!  

When we begin something new, we always do it with so much of good will and an abundance of spirit ... just imagine the day of your first communion, for some confirmation, for some others the day of their religious consecration or for others the day of their wedding! But in a short while the energy drains, the spirit goes faint and a mere good will becomes drastically insufficient. The reason: we are not attentive enough to note the initial changes that happen. We remain so insensitive to what is happening within us that we are caught unawares at a much crucial time. That is why the prayer today: "Lord grant that we may see again!" (Cf. Lk 18:41).

Staying in touch with the Lord keeps us in touch with ourselves, to constantly check our pride, insensitivities, arrogance, unforgiving attitude, judgmental tendencies, loose talks and compromises against true love: these are the blindnesses that set in gradually but drastically! We become so blind that we do not even realise what sad levels we reach. And it is the Lord, who alone can restore the original spirit within us by enabling us to see... empowering us to realise and restart... making us "see again!" 

We are reaching the end of this liturgical year... and it is time now that each of us make it our prayer: Lord, that I may see again... that is a special seeing, a seeing from God's point of view, a seeing with the scale of the just God, seeing with all my brothers and sisters in perspective,  seeing from the perspective of God, the fullness of all goodness!