Looking for the Tent of Meeting

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 30, 2019: Exodus 33:7-11, 34: 5-9,28; Matthew 13: 36-43

Let your light Shine - is a constant invitation from the Saviour to all those who profess their faith in him. What do we do for the light to shine - of course we have to do things right, just and loving! But more fundamental than that - before we DO anything, we need to BE. Like Moses, we need to be in the presence of the Lord, in the Tent of Meeting - then our light will shine, as the face of Moses shone so much that the people of Israel were afraid of gazing at it (2 Cor 3:7). 

The Gospel today, gives us the same invitation, in and through the explanation of the parable of the weeds explained to us by Jesus. "The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" says the Gospel, underlining the circumstances in which we will shine to the world! Infact, many of us are in search of this Tent of Meeting (Exo 33:7)... in places of pilgrimage, in events of miraculous nature, in our practices of strenuous personal piety and so on! 

Understanding all these appreciable efforts, the readings today give us two possibilities of spotting this tent: 

One, the Inner Sanctuary of personal integrity, that Jesus speaks of in the parable of the weeds. The Lord has blessed us with goodness within us, it depends on our use of personal freedom to retain that goodness or contaminate it with baser tendencies. 

The second is the Mobile tents of the personal around us, where God encounters us at every moment of our day. Living as Moses did for the others and in total dedication to their well being, is an unfailing means to encounter the Lord. 

Let our hearts be tuned to the Tent of Meeting that we may encounter the Lord today!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Celebrating the Home-makers - Remembering St. Martha

July 29, 2019: Exodus 32: 15-24, 30-34 (or) 1 John 4: 7-16; John 11: 19-27

Let us begin with an interesting fact that today's feast is a fruit of a mistake... a mistaken identity in history which equated Mary Magdalene with Mary, the sister of Martha. If you remember exactly a week ago (on 22nd) we celebrated the feast of Mary of Magdala, calculating a week from there, in history they wanted to celebrate the alleged sister of Mary, that is Martha!?! Though a mistake, a happy mistake and we should be happy to celebrate today the feast of this person, who was all preoccupied to express her love for Jesus Christ in every way that she possibly could. 

Another interesting fact is that today, the Church gives us a choice in the first reading- either from Exodus or from the Letter of St. John, but sticks to the Gospel according to St. John for the Gospel reading. So let us turn our attention to the Gospel from St. John, the scene of Jesus' arrival after three days of Lazarus' death. Thanks to this passage of  John, it redeems the image of Martha as a workaholic and helps us identify in her a person who had a deep understanding of who Jesus was. 

The affirmations that Martha comes out with shows how practical her faith in Christ was; that she set out and ran towards Jesus indicates the eagerness she had to meet him; and the openness she had towards the Lord and the Lord's power over any circumstance shows how deep her faith was. An active love for God and a unwavering faith in the Lord - these are the two lessons that Martha teaches us. 

How relevant they are for the world of today, which is characterised by a godless spirituality, inhuman development and unethical rationality! However, on a practical note, it is a good day to express our gratitude and felicitate the home-makers (the so-called house-wives!!!) who make our lives so pleasant!

PRAYER IS RELATIONSHIP

An Authentic Christ-ian Prayer

July 28, 2019: 17th Sunday in Ordinary time

Genesis 18: 20-32; Colossians 2: 12-14; Luke 11:1-13

Prayer... A Christian Prayer... An authentic Christian Prayer... A Christ-like prayer... is fundamentally one's Relationship with God. Out of the numerous attributes to God that were proper to the historical experience of the people of Israel, which was his own experience too, Jesus picked that of 'Father'. That was the most scandalous of all, for the Jews. When Jesus called God, Abba, Father (Mk 14:36) as we see in Gospels, he was demonstrating an intimate relationship that existed, not only between him and the One who sent him, but also between everyone who believes in him and in the One who sent him...as John says, to all who believed in him, he gave the right to become the children of God (Jn 1:12). Radically for Jesus, faith was a process of acknowledging a God who reveals Godself as a father, a mother, as one who created us, one who cares for us! Consequently, Prayer for him was a relationship that one shared with God; a relationship that is built on a personal sharing, that is, on DIALOGUE.

Prayer is a Dialogue... a dialogue where there is a sharing of minds and oneness of heart. Abraham, today is presented in the reading as dialoguing with God... he does not only speak his mind but listens to God and gets to know God's mind. A beautiful picture of a person in conversation with God - trying to raise his preoccupations, with the limited knowledge that he has, but with the concern he has for the life of the others. And an amazing depiction of God who knows very well that there will not be even 10 righteous people as Abraham claims, but listens patiently to his pleas, allows him to talk and permits him to share his concerns. 

At times when we begin to furnish a list to God and ask that to be granted on order; or when we make programmes and suggest God to follow; or when we find problems with God's designs and suggest improvements - we need to remind ourselves of this dimension of prayer - prayer as a dialogue! It consists not only in speaking but also in listening, waiting for and accepting God's will. Prayer is a dialogue, a dialogue that is initiated by the overwhelming RECOGNITION OF GOD'S GOODNESS.

The overwhelming recognition of God's goodness and majesty is what initiates the process of dialogue! The Psalm beautifully presents the human heart opening itself up to God, in praise and thanksgiving! A true Christian prayer begins there! St. Paul formulates this so well in his letter instructing, "do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Phil 4:6). 

When we recognise the loving presence, the helping hand, the protecting wings, the sheltering solace of God on a daily basis, we cannot help singing the praise of God in spite of the endless needs and preoccupations we can possibly have in life! That recognition of God's goodness and majesty and our readiness to acknowledge and submit to it, bestows on us the greatest of all gifts, the TOTAL ACCEPTANCE BY GOD. 

God accepts me totally, unconditionally, in spite of all my imperfections and iniquities - this is the realisation out of which a lovely relationship is born - that relationship we call, Prayer.  The second reading today affirms that God has forgiven me, buried all my sins and nailed them to the Cross on which my saviour Jesus died for me! And with the same Jesus, God has raised me to the status of God's child, in my baptism! God loves me so much that God accepts me with all my limitations, with all my childishness, with all my idiosyncrasies. 

Comparing this relationship to friendship in the parable that Jesus narrates today, he subtly communicates a point that we can be sometimes foolish, simplistic and thoughtless in the things that we ask from God or in the way we ask for them. Still, we need not hesitate, we can go right on and do it, because God accepts us as we are. It is that affirmation that gives us the right to stand in the presence of the Lord and be ourselves, as Abraham dared to be! 

Let us treasure this great relationship we have with God, yearn to be in God's presence and live in God's presence as authentically as possible, as innocent and dependent as children, as grateful and obedient as sons and daughters, as rightful and loving as Jesus himself was towards God, whom he revealed to us our Our Father and Mother! 

You cannot surprise the Master

WORD 2day: Saturday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 27, 2019: Exodus 24: 3-8; Matthew 13: 24-30

You cannot surprise the Master; you can never surprise God! With all the goodwill, as the people of Israel said a loud 'yes' to the ordinances of the covenant and made that solemn ceremony of swearing by the sacrificial blood which God instituted as the blood of the covenant. We too make promises galore. When everything seems to be going well,  we find ourselves unwittingly giving into something we would rather not. We can call it infidelity to God, breakaway from God, sin, or merely a mistake! But when we do find ourselves in such situation, lies the challenge that Jesus wants to address today! 

Certainly we have heard people explaining the reason for not approaching the sacrament of Eucharist or reconciliation for years, saying that they feel they are not worthy, that they feel they are too weak or that they keep falling into the same sin again and again, that they don't want to disrespect the sacraments. Here lies the trap of the enemy! A subtle but dangerous trap...the trap of self pity which leads to sad succumbing into one's shortfalls. 

Who is not unworthy? Who is not weak? And who does not have limitations! It is while we are still in sin, that God loves us, affirms St.Paul (Rom 5:8). It is while the weeds are still present the Lord permits the crop to grow, in the parable that Jesus narrates today. You cannot surprise or shock God; God knows everything, absolutely everything (Ps 139). God is patient and kind; with all our impurities, limitations and infidelities, God still loves us and waits for us to grow in our hearts, strong good crops that would outdo the weeds. 

Everyday is an opportunity to suppress a weed and allow a good crop to grow in our hearts and become more and more worthy of the gratuitous gift of love that we receive from God. Let every day be a sacrifice of praise that we offer to the Lord!

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

It's Grandparents' Day!!!

July 26, 2019: Celebrating Sts. Joachim and Anne

Exodus 20: 1-17; Matthew 13: 16-17

The first setting in which faith enlightens humanity is the family, declares Pope Francis in his encyclical Lumen Fidei(52). It further explains that passing of faith in the family happens in the process of shared expression of faith within the family, helping children to become aware of their faith and grow and mature in it. 

Christian faith is always communitarian and it is passed primarily in the family. Recently someone observed to me, sharing on the level of faith being lived (or practiced) in Europe vis-a-vis in India, that one major reason for the degeneration in Europe is the weakening of the institution of the family. Those who hand on faith to us are really God-given. Most important among them, our parents and grandparents who not only give us life but show us also how to live it, from their own experience. 

Celebrating a day to remember the parents of Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, provides us an opportunity to remember with thanks these our fore-runners in faith, as the first reading suggests, 'let us praise famous persons, our parents in their generations. These were persons of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten' (Sir  44:1,10). Infact, thanks to them, we are in a position better than them due to their hard work, great example and their dreams for us! Jesus acknowledges that in his words (Mt 13:16-17) and exhorts us to live up to our blessedness, our giftedness, worthy of the faith and tradition that is transmitted to us, from our predecessors. 

Maybe, a grateful remembrance of our grandparents if they are no more, or a bear hug to them if they are still with us, will be in place today! Let us celebrate them!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Called to Contradictions

July 25, 2019: Remembering St.  James the Apostle

2 Corinthians 4: 7-15; Matthew 20: 20-28

We believe; so we speak!  That was the watchword of the band of apostles, as St. Paul notes in the first reading today (2Cor 4:13).Though there was a time when even the apostles did not understand what Jesus was upto... they looked at Jesus like any other leader, carrying forward his career! But in time, Jesus made them understand that they are called to follow, a leader who is 'crazy' in the terms of the world, a man who was full of contradictions. 

Whoever among you would be the great must be a servant, and who would be the first must be a slave. James and John today become the occasion for Jesus to reinstate his philosophy of life, indeed a tough one. St. Paul understood that philosophy perfectly and he expressed it lucidly when he said, we carry within our bodies the death of Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in us. He says, death was at work in the lives of Apostles, so that life can be experienced by those to whom they carried the message. 

When we would think it is important to abandon death and seek life, the apostles seemingly seek death, to give life! And they invite the others to believe and once they believe, the believers too seek to carry within themselves the death of Jesus, so that the world may receive life in Christ. That is the chain of apostleship that is passed on to us... to be apostles is to carry the death of Jesus within us, that we may ultimately manifest the eternal life in Jesus to the world. 

James, the first of the apostles to be put to death (Acts 12:2) bears a resounding witness to this way of life; a life of contradiction; the life of apostleship. 

To become fertile soil

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 24, 2019: Exodus 14:21 - 15:1; Matthew 12: 46-50

Those who have ears, let them hear; those who have eyes, let them see; those who have a heart, let them feel... how pained Jesus would have been to say this! The people saw him cure the sick, give sight to the blind, make the deaf hear and the mute speak, drive the demons out and raise people from the dead! Inspite of all these the people were not ready to believe him! He was wondering what kind of a heart they had... rocks, or thorny bushes or sandy sidewalks... how he wished they were good fertile soil. 

However Jesus knew what kind of people he was dealing with - the children of the people who saw the plagues one after another in Egypt, but still readily murmured when they saw the Egyptians pursue them; the people who saw the Egyptians perish right in front of their eyes, but still readily murmured when they had nothing to eat; the people who saw the manna fall from nowhere and the quails that fell right into their mouths, but still readily murmured that they would die for want of water; the people who saw water gush forth from a rock in the middle of the desert, but still readily murmured that manna was tasteless and the quails were stale! 

Hard and stubborn as they were, nothing pierced their hearts to make it bear fruit as God wanted from them... the warning to us is clear! How prone we are to murmur against God in times of trouble, forgetting the abundance of graces we have received! The capacity to see God's presence in our daily life will decide, whether we are sandy sidewalks or rocky ruins or thorny bushes or as God wants, fertile soil!

The Will or your whims?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 16th week in Ordinary time

July 23, 2019: Exodus 14:21 - 15:1; Matthew 12: 46-50

The first reading sets us thinking... the greed of the king and his adamant decision to exploit the people led him to destruction! However, the reading is clear, he did not die, his own people did! The Egyptians, the horsemen and all who followed him died! We can be very sure not all of those who died wished to pursue the people of Israel; it was not their wish, they did it because they were enrolled, they were commissioned by the authority. But all the same, the destruction was theirs. 

How close it seems to what is happening today in the world... the leaders who mislead, the leaders guided by warped politics and selfish interests who lead the whole people astray, the partisan mentality of the people who destroy themselves, following the leaders who however remain in their zones of security! Wars, civil clashes, terrorist attacks, border conflicts, nuclear craze, killings in the name of caste and creed - how many of these we find today because of a group of leaders who manipulate everything for their ends! This can end only when every individual is able to think for himself or herself and have the freedom to say 'no' to what one thinks is not right, or what one thinks does not enhance humanity and its existence. 

The unfailing criteria for such decisions and discernments, as Jesus points today, is the Will of God! When human beings are too concerned about having their will established at all costs, be it in personal lives or in social settings, it leads to autocracy or hegemony and subsequently varied forms of exploitation and destruction. The only way to enhance life to its fullness is to do the Will of God, and that is the only way to become 'the mother, the brothers and sisters' of Jesus, the Son of God.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Weeping blinds you... Listen and Look!

22nd July,  2019: Celebrating St. Mary Magdalene 

Song of Songs 3: 1-4; John 20:1-2,11-18

Today we celebrate Mary Magdalene, the first apostle of the Risen Lord. It may be a surprising title to give her, but factually it is so! An apostle is someone who is sent, sent with a message... and the first one who was sent, sent with a message by the Risen Lord was Mary of Magdala! Isn't it true?

Mary Magdalene loved Jesus intensely. She was delivered by Jesus from seven demons, the Gospels tell us. And after that, for her Jesus, her Master meant everything in life. The first reading is given to make us understand how intimately she had loved Jesus. She had encountered, experienced and cherished her relationship with Jesus, while he lived, in such close quarters but now the Risen Lord stands right beside her and she is unable to identify him...  the reason: she is too occupied with her weeping and complaining.

At times in our lives when troubles come by and trials abound,  we fumble and falter as if we are all alone. We fail to recognise the Lord who sticks so close to us,  because we are too busy weeping and complaining.

If only we opened our eyes and saw;  if only we opened our hearts and listened;  if only we believed in the words of the Lord,  "I have conquered the world"... we would leap for joy and love to cling to the Lord. Mary Magdalene gives us a clear message: stop weeping;  weeping blinds you;  look, listen and you will leap for joy, for the Lord is with you now and always! 

GOD VISITS US...

Behold! I stand at the door and knock...

July 21, 2019: 16th Sunday in Ordinary time

Genesis 18: 1-10; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10: 38-42

Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me - Rev. 3:20 summarises the liturgy of the Word today! The Lord visits us, everyday; in various ways, in ways ordinary or wondrous, the Lord visits us. What is our response and what should it be - that is the question we are invited to reflect on. 

The first reading pictures God visiting Abraham. It is interesting to read the first three verses and a great lesson awaits us there. The first two verses say, that the Lord appeared and Abraham lifted his eyes and saw three men! Not in glorious light or in flaming clouds, but in three simple men, that the Lord visited Abraham. Reading further the second and the third verse together, gives us another detail, Abraham saw three men and he addressed them, "My Lord, do not pass by." Though Abraham saw the men, he was able to behold the presence of the Lord. The Message for today is established right there! Our God visits us... on a daily basis.. in one way or the other, in ways ordinary or in ways wondrous, the Lord visits us. Through extraordinary signs of awe-inspiring events or heart-breaking happenings; through a person whom we come across on a dreary daily routine, an extra smile or an overshadowing grief on the person's face; through a habitual joy that brightens the day or a repeated bad news on a newsprint; the Lord visits us! 

'I fear the Lord passing by', said St. Augustine, in simple words expressing the grief of not being ready to behold the visit of the Lord, due to the hustle and bustle of the day or the ordinariness of the experience. The Word today points to us the special capacity needed for someone in order not to allow the Lord pass by... 

The Capacity to Receive: Hospitality is not in things; it is a matter of the heart! It is not the fact that some one can afford, that makes him or her hospitable to the other. It is the heart, the love that is there in the heart, the warmth that fills that heart, that makes a person go out of one's way to extend hospitality to another person. In the ancient Israel, a stranger to the land was treated as a guest of honour, and a guest became a messenger from God! In the ancient Indian culture too, we have the age old saying, 'Adhithi devo bhava' (meaning -the Guest is God) and the great Tamil Classic, Tirukkural dedicates a whole chapter of 10 couplets on Hospitality, that is receiving guests and treating them with love and honour. 

The Capacity to receive the Lord, is seen in one's capacity to observe everything in life with a sense of gratitude and wonder, one's capacity to encounter a person every time with a new perspective and without judgments and prejudices. It is the capacity to see God in everything that is around and every person who is around. Abraham was able to encounter God in the three men that he saw; St. Paul was able to encounter Jesus in the light that threw him down from the horse and listen to his voice, calling out to him!

The Capacity to Listen: Encountering God, is basically listening to God! Every visit brings us a message. Every encounter has something to tell us for our daily life. It is a special gift to listen to the Lord, to discern what God wants of us, to hear the Lord's voice telling us 'do this' or 'be this' or 'become someone' or 'denounce something'. 

The Lord speaks in every encounter, through every person, through every event... we are expected to act, to respond and carry out the task entrusted to us. But the point of departure is always the feet of the Lord! To sit at the feet of the Master and drink in every bit of wisdom and knowledge, that when it is time for me to go forth, I am prepared to be God's presence to the others, that when they encounter me, they can feel the presence of the Lord!

The Capacity to Suffer: Encountering God is a challenge to make a choice, a fundamental choice for the Lord or otherwise! St. Paul made that choice, a 'U' Turn for the Lord - and the ultimate choice is to choose to suffer for the Lord. The Lord prepares us - Abraham was prepared to wait endlessly for the promises to be fulfilled; Martha was prepared to run about doing things for the love she had for Jesus, Mary was prepared to sit at the feet of the Lord mindless of the criticisms hurled at her, and St. Paul was prepared to say, "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake!" 

When God visits us, it is a dangerous event, a risky experience - because after that nothing can remain what it was before. There will be a drastic change and we have to be prepared for that. The change, certainly, would not be always for the better or for a more pleasant development - more often than not, it would be towards a hardship, a task, a cross!

The invitation is clear dear friends... to behold the Lord who visits us, to let the Lord speak to us and be prepared for an encounter with the Lord - on a daily basis. Doing this our daily life will become meaningful, challenging and TRULY CHRISTIAN.