Contrasts, convictions and choices...

WORD 2day: Monday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 17, 2019: 2 Corinthians 6: 1-10; Matthew 5: 38-42

The Beatitudes continue to inspire the Liturgy! As we reflected last week, the crux of the beatitudes, that is found in Mathew's fifth chapter, is the invitation to the followers of Christ to be a Contrast Community! 

We see that sense of 'contrast' flooding the readings today. Be it the first or the Gospel, the readings point to us the two choices we have in life always - inspiring the monumental words of Robert Frost - "two roads diverged in a yellow wood - and I took the less travelled by, and that has made all the difference". Mahatma Gandhi speaking of the Sermon on the Mount to Lord Irwin said, "when your country and mine shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in this Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems not only of our countries but those of the whole world." 

Let our life show if we are Christ-ians or not. Let my choices define who I am and what relationship I have with Christ. If I believe Christ is my personal saviour, the way I look at the world and all that happens around, will totally be in contrast to the way the mainstream of today thinks and calculates. St. Paul speaks of this in such powerful terms, a conviction that cost him everything - his career, his freedom and even his life! 

It takes courage for me today to accept, that even I have received the same saving faith, as St. Paul's, in the same Trinitarian Lord who create, calls and commissions us!   

THE ABC OF HOLY TRINITY

Solemnity of the Holy Trinity: June 16, 2019

Proverbs 8: 22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16: 12-15

We celebrate the feast of the Trinity today! The Solemnity reminds us of, not only who our God is, but also who we are! 

We ARE a communion! 

Just as our God is a communion of three persons - Father, Son and the Spirit, we who are created in that image and likeness, are a communion too. We are neither body living in the spirit, nor a spirit residing in the body... we are a being created in such a communion of our natures that we are one, just as the three persons of the trinity are one. It is high time we undid the contrasts between the body and the soul and the mind! We are communion, we ARE Trinity.

We need to continuously grow out of a dichotomous or a segmented life where there is the public life and the private life, the so-called spiritual life and the ordinary life, the life from the Christian point of view and a parallel life of the standards of the world... this is totally contrary to integrity that is truly 'christian'...this integrity can otherwise be known as Communion within a person, an undivided state of life.

We BELIEVE in communion, not in contestation. 

The three persons of the Trinity live in communion with each other and there is an eternal self giving that takes place among them, by which they stay as ONE. We believe in communion, dialogue, sharing, sacrifice and selfless service. Only that would make us One people of God.

Today the television channels have fallen into a craze - taking a current issue and calling up people from different camps of thought and making them debate, fight and contest with each other. Worse still, they name the show 'fight' or 'debate' or 'argument', parading the truth that they are more interested in contesting than arriving at a common ground that could promote happiness and fulfillment. The dangerous phenomenon is that the same kind of a mindset enters a family and issues are debated over, contested over but very rarely prayed over and discerned towards communion!

We CLING to the Trinity 

In the Trinitarian God we have everything we stand in need of. The Father gives us love and mercy in abundance. The Son gives us the light and truth to live by. The Spirit gives us companionship and good counsel.  All that we need to live our life to the full is given by the Trinitarian God. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are in eternal procession, teaches the Church's theology which means that every one of the three, upholds the other and empties oneself into the others for a unified, generative action.

It may sound a bit too theoretical, but in fact, it is just a life style that would create a paradise on earth wherever we are - if we trust one another and prove trust worthy to each other. That is the message, that we cling to the Trinity not just in asking for favours and fulfilling our needs but in our life style, in our way of relating to the other and making ourselves available to the other, to the community to the entire humanity and even the universe! What a challenging call it is!

As we celebrate this wonderful solemnity, let us take to heart the call and the challenge given to us by the Holy Trinity... to be, to believe and to cling on to the Most Holy Trinity.

Yes, No and New Creation

WORD 2day: Saturday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 15, 2019: 2 Corinthians 5: 14-21; Matthew 5: 33-37

Whether we live or die, it is for Christ - an absolute allegiance to Christ is what Paul recommends as a sign of true disciples of Christ. Let your yes be yes and your no, no. Such candidness can give rise to problems and challenges. But challenges and problems would not matter as I am a new creation in Christ. 

The Newness refers to the difference in priorities - what the world finds important does not seem so to me and what the world does not bother about seems very important to me; what the world advocates to everyone as the source of happiness in life appears to me a source of sorrow and what the world wants me to avoid as a plague, becomes a way to more permanent happiness that comes from the Lord. The New priority marks the newness that I possess in Christ.

Being in Christ would mean being rooted in Christ, being built up in Christ, being born anew in Christ - making Christ's values my own, Christ's mind my own, Christ's priority my own...No one can be in Christ except through the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives me the courage to maintain my yes, no and my nature as a new creation in Christ. 

Contrast Communities

WORD 2day: Friday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 14, 2019: 2 Corinthians 4: 7-15; Matthew 5: 27-32

The discourse of the beatitudes continues! Our identity gets more and more established as 'Contrast Communities'! We are invited to choose the hard way, the unbeaten path, the lonesome road and not to follow the easy-going crowd. It is easy to make an exception now and then and stay comfortable for the moment. It is easy to give up on a person or a value or a conviction, because there are troubles and unnecessary struggles involved. But it takes courage to stick to a conviction, stand by a value and stay clear of a scandal. It calls for struggle, affliction and perplexity to remain faithful to the grace we have received in our baptismal mandate. 

I may argue that I am too weak...but it is in that 'earthen vessel' the treasure is placed. My strength and my value lies in the treasure that is within. When my gaze is fixed on the treasure, I should be able to handle the earthen vessel better. The secret lies in respecting this earthen vessel, atleast for the sake of the treasures that lie within. 

When we are filled with Christ, we are able to see the proposals of the easy-going world less luring. Yes, we live with constant temptations and afflictions, but we fight all this "so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." That tough choice, that unswerving priority is the challenge - the call to be People of God, people of the Beatitudes, that is, to be Contrast Communities. 

The Message and the Messenger

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

June 13, 2019: Celebrating St. Anthony of Padua

Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 10: 1-9 

Let us begins with some interesting facts about 

• Born: 15, August, 1195
• Died: 13, June, 1231. He was just 36 when he died. 
• Saint: 30 May, 1232. He was not even 37 when he was canonised by Pope Gregory IX.
• His Baptismal name was Ferdinand Martins de Bulhŏes.
• He was elected Provincial of his region of Franciscan friars, but he resigned very shortly  just to be able to carryout his preaching mission.
• Patron of missing things and missing persons!
• In Padua, where the Basilica stands today, he is also prayed to, by those who are looking for the right spouse to marry, or by those married couples who have problems in their marriage. 
• The Basilica treasures the incorrupt tongue of the saint, as a relic venerated even today, as a testimony to his gift of breaking the Word.
• He was a contemporary to St. Francis of Assisi and one of the best ones at that. He belonged to the Order begun by St. Francis.
• A survey reports that after the Blessed Mother and St.Joseph, St. Anthony may be the most loved saint in the Catholic World today.

The Lord sent them two by two... here is 'a two' whom we come across today - St. Anthony and St. Francis - two who were giants of sanctity and with an absolute dedication to the Message! As messengers of the Word they were so dedicated that they transformed themselves into the message that they were proclaiming. Hence they did not need words and eloquence, their life did all the speaking. How far or close are we to the Message? 

May St. Anthony help us to treasure the Word in our hearts and live it to the full. 

The Reign: that which lasts!

Wednesday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 12, 2019: 2 Corinthians 3: 4-11; Matthew 5: 17-19

Moses allows divorce; Jesus forbids. Moses insists on the sabbath; Jesus relativises it. Moses gives cleanliness rules; Jesus despises the insistence on the external cleanliness. We can go on listing certain elements that people, not only during Jesus' time but even today, consider contrasting each other, between the law given by Moses and the lifestyle proposed by Jesus. They are not contrasting one another - the latter is outgrowing the former; the latter is letting the former evolve! 

Evolving is always towards a destined finality - and here the destiny is 'that which lasts'. It is not to lose ourselves in passing and transient concerns but to focus on that which lasts. According to Jesus that which lasts forever is the Reign of God. 

Reign of the God is that absolute criterion against which all these rules, regulations, legislations and customs shall be understood, interpreted and made sense of. Reign of God is the righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Concentrating on the interior peacefulness and happiness, leads to integrity - which is the only possibility of each of us becoming agents of the Reign of God, bringing all God's will to fulfillment. 

The Apostle of Encouragement and Consolation

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

June 11, 2019 - Remembering St. Barnabas
Acts 11:21b-26, 13:1-3; Matthew 10: 7-13

Barnabas, is a great personality we find in the beginnings of the Apostolic Communities. Three things that strike us from this person are: 

His total dedication to the Lord: He is one of the first ones mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as having had sold his properties and brought them to the feet of the Apostles (Acts 4:37). We find him as fearless as Paul in the ministry that they would for a long time do together as companions on the move. And a tradition holds that he was dragged out of the synagogue as he was disputing on the Word with the  Jews and stoned to death! He spared not even his life for the sake of the Word. 

His undisputed priority for God:  Barnabas gave an undisputed first place to God and God's Word. Nothing else came before that... the greatest enemy that vies for the place of God in our life is our SELF, our Ego and Barnabas kept it far away from prominence. As we see in the first reading today, though he himself was a famous man, a man loved by all, when he brought Paul to the limelight, he took a secondary place and never vied for name or fame! He was actually Joseph but was called 'the son of encouragement' that is, Barnabas, by the apostles! He encouraged the apostles and the people in their radical living of their vocation as God's people. Leaving our ego aside, is such an important task within the mission of following the Lord. If only this happens in our families, in our faith communities, in religious communities and every type of relationship, how concrete and challenging our witness would become! 

His uncompromising self identity that gave rise to strong convictions: It is true that it was Barnabas who brought Paul, the newly converted Jew to the apostles and it was Barnabas, and Barnabas alone who could give a leaning shoulder to Paul, true to his name which meant also 'Son of Consolation'. Not just that, when he had to disagree with the same Paul, he dared do so and parted ways! Strong personalities, with personal freedom and mutual respect - but with one single FIRE within - the fire to proclaim the Good News about Christ - to heal the sick, to raise the dead, cast the demons out, to give and give without any expectation. 

Every occasion of celebrating an apostle is reminder of how they were able to go about with nothing in their hand or in their purse for the sake of the Reign of God, with nothing to gain for themselves, but ready to give everything to others! They were making Christ present, and they were called 'Christians'... May St. Barnabas inspire us to really deserve that name 'Christians'.

Mary, the Mother of the Church

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Monday after the Pentecost - June 10, 2019

Genesis 3: 9-15, 20; John 19: 25-34

We celebrate a new memorial today in the Church, just a year old... the very second time that we celebrate it as a Church: the memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church! The positioning of the feast is very crucial: the day after the Pentecost, to prolong the celebration of the Pentecost and to remain with the extraordinary event that took place, resulting in the genesis of the Church! 

Mary is indisputably the Mother of the Church for the following three reasons:

1. Mary bore Jesus, the head of the Church: As the mother of the head of the Church, she naturally becomes the mother of the body of Christ - the Church. As she gave birth to Jesus and nourished him, so does she nourish each of us in our faith in Christ her son. As she brought up Jesus in wisdom and grace, so does she watch us mature in our faith and hope. This role was predestined for her by the Almighty from time immemorial - that is what the first reading establishes today. As she cared for Jesus and protected him from all worldly perils (be it fleeing to Egypt or going in search of Jesus at Jerusalem), so does she care for us and protect us. THE PATRONESS AND PROTECTORESS OF THE CHURCH.

2. Jesus nominated her as the mother of his followers: While Jesus was about to culminate his divine moment of sacrifice to the Father, on the Cross, he deliberately nominated Mary as the mother of his followers! He looked at John, the beloved disciple who represented every beloved of Christ who would form his Church, and said, Behold your Mother! That was a parting gift, a final gesture of love and care towards his loved ones on earth. As Mary went home with John that day, so does she come home with everyone who accepts this gift from Jesus, she is there to guide us and accompany us. THE GUIDE AND MODEL OF THE CHURCH.

3. Mary was there holding the Apostles together, at the descent of the Spirit: Mary was one of the first members of the Church, right at its origin. Just yesterday we celebrated the birthday of the Church - I wonder how some groups of so-called Chrsitians conveniently forget one important person who was at the centre of it all. How can there be the Church without Mary! She was united with the apostles, in fact she united them in prayer until the Spirit came! The Holy Spirit was no stranger to Mary. Her faith journey began with her rendezvous with the Spirit. Mary unites us, as one of us and as a person filled with the Spirit! A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH AND A SPIRIT-FILLED PERSON. 

Note that the three reasons that we just saw, are all from the Word of God, so faithfully cherished by the Tradition of the Holy Catholic Church. The Feast that was instituted last year, is not merely an invention of fantasy - but a profound reflection on the Word and its impact on our faith. Let us cherish out Blessed Mother, the Mother of God, Our Mother and the Mother of the Church!

PEOPLE OF THE SPIRIT

The Signs: Communion, Commission and Compassion!

The Solemnity of Pentecost - June 9, 2019

Acts 2: 1-11; 1 Corinthians 12: 3a-7, 12-13; John 20: 19-23

The Solemnity of the Pentecost- a day when we have to wish the Church, happy birthday!... and as every birthday is a day of reminder to grow up, to mature.. it is also for the Church today a day of reminder to grow up and mature as the Reign of God, the ultimate purpose of the Community of faith on earth. The Church does not exist for herself, taught Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on 19th Feb 2012. The Vatican Council II instructed us the same truth, while saying the Church exists to proclaim and plant the seeds of the Reign of God. The reminder comes from the first instances of the birth of the Church... the event of the coming of the Spirit. Today for the Church and for every Christian to grow up and mature, the presence of the Spirit is indispensable. 

How do we recognise the presence of the Spirit? 
There are three signs today suggested by the Liturgy of the Word to ascertain the presence of the Spirit.

1st Sign: COMMUNION (I Reading)

The first sign of the presence of the Spirit is Communion. When they spoke in various tongues, every one understood in their own language. The first gift of the Spirit is the 'oneness of heart and mind' that is achieved by the gift of UNDERSTANDING. Where there is division for the sake of ego and personal opinion, where there is manipulation for the sake of having one's ways, the Spirit is absent! Any division of the hearts of the children of God is created by the evil spirit! Communion, the fruit of Understanding, does not in anyway mean a homogeneous uniformity. It is a divine blending of differences. Yes, the Communion offered by the Spirit is born out of a RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCES which are appreciated as the richness that is so natural in the very creation of God, the differences that are brought in a harmonious symphony by the Spirit. 

One who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, uses the gift of UNDERSTANDING that arises from an authentic RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCES, to bring the people of God together, as community of people with one heart and one spirit.

2nd Sign: COMMISSION (II Reading)

The second sign of the Spirit's presence is Commission. A commissioning which begins with a CALLING... as we are called into one community in the Risen Lord, called to be children of God who call out, 'Abba Father'. This calling does not end with a domestic understanding of being children cuddling at home, but a call that fills us with the FIRE OF MISSION, for we are not filled with the Spirit of cowardice to fall into fear, but the Spirit of adoption that urges us on to go forward and live a life of witness, that is bold and befitting the one who called us.

One who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, is aware of the CALLING that one has received and is courageous to bear witness to that calling with the FIRE OF THE MISSION, that burns from within as Jeremiah says (Jer 20:9).

3rd Sign: COMPASSION (Gospel)

The third and the most fundamental sign of the presence of the Spirit is COMPASSION, without which the very name 'Christian' has no meaning absolutely. Compassion is an active form of LOVE, the only expectation that the Lord has from us - to love each other as the Lord loves us. Love, is not a mere feeling but a feeling with, it is feeling with the other, what the other feels. While speaking of the Early Christians it was said they were of one mind and one heart - that was love. While St. Paul instructs, 'Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn' (Rom 12:15). That is true Christian love, that is the way that the Lord loved us. To love is to LIVE LIKE JESUS. Fundamentally, this is what the Spirit enables us to be - to be like Jesus, to live like Jesus. 

Hence, One who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, is filled with LOVE and vows to LIVE LIKE JESUS. The disciples together were called to grow to be like Christ. To grow to be like Christ is to grow in the image of the Lord given by the Spirit. To be disciples of Christ is to grow in the likeness of Christ, to be think like Christ, to speak like Christ, to act like Christ and to decide like Christ in every thing. Those who are in the Christ are a new creation! Those who are in the Spirit are true children of God, empowered to call God, Abba Father!

The coming of the Spirit was a radical change of lifestyle for the disciples and all who believed in Christ. Today, if we are to celebrate this feast with real meaning, there has to be a radical evaluation of our life style - whether we promote communion, accept our commission and burn with compassion! If we do, we are the people of the Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit, Fill us with your Fire!

Peter and Paul... You and me!!!

WORD 2day: Saturday after the Ascension Sunday

June 8, 2019: Acts 28: 16-20, 30-31; Jn 21: 10-25

These days we continuously hear of Paul and Peter, the two great leaders who led the band of apostles in their proclamation of the Gospel and the initial formation of the Church. They announced the Gospel in season and out of season, in the prison or out of it, in political custody or in the public squares, in health and in sickness, among the faithful or among skeptics, among simple peasants or to learned philosophers. Nothing held them back from preaching the Word.

Looking for ideal situations to evangelise, bemoaning the political atmosphere or the social apprehensions,  finding excuses for remaining unnoticed Christians and justifying our lack of initiatives towards evangelisation: these are very common these days. Tomorrow we will be celebrating the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit causing the birth of the Church. 

Let us pray for the Spirit, the Spirit of power, love and self-discipline, the Spirit of courage and wisdom, the Spirit who strengthens apostles and empowers martyrs, that we may be persons filled with the Spirit and witnessing to the Gospel without ceasing. Peter and Paul are no more, if we do not become Peters, Pauls, Aquillas and Priscillas!