To Reconcile everything

WORD 2day: Friday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

September 6, 2019: Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 5: 33-38

Paul states the ultimate destiny of all creation - to be reconciled in Christ. Humans, animals and all creatures alike ultimately have to be reconciled into one in Christ. That is the essential movement of all reality and any thing that militates against this is from the evil one.

Anything that divides,  separates or stratifies cannot be trusted to be from God. Even if it is a spiritual practice or a theological concept that takes one away from the movement of reconciling everything in the Ultimate, embodied in Christ, it has to be suspected. Be it traditionalism or novelties, be it supernaturalism or practicalities, be it customs or innovations,  the movement should always be towards that one destiny: ultimate reconciliation in Transcendent Being. If that is left out of focus,  even the best of our efforts will either be selfish or ungodly!

Division and discrimination do not belong to God, established Jesus without doubt. Paul stood by it, though he had to fight for it with the Jews and even within the early church. He captures the mind of Christ - that everyone should be gathered to God, in the Reign. All the we do, everything that is said and argued upon, every choice proposed and decision made should be towards this singular goal - to reconcile everything.

How reconciling are my thoughts,  words and deeds?  Is Christ, the Omega Point, always my focus, in all that I say or do?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The Capacity for God-vision

September 5, 2019:  Celebrating Mother Teresa of Kolkata

Colossians 1:9-14; Luke 5: 1-11

Jesus demonstrates to the first disciples an extraordinary capacity of perceiving reality. We can call this God-vision... the capacity to see beyond the apparent. Mother Teresa, an incomparable contemporary Saint, had that capacity too: that enabled her to hear that cry, "I Thirst", amidst all the hustle and bustle of a railway platform! She met God in the railway station, not at the Cathedral!

The capacity of God-vision is the ability to perceive even what is not yet. This is accounted for in two levels in the Gospel today. Jesus seeing the catch of fish where it wasn't apparently and Jesus seeing the possibly of Peter and others with him becoming fishers of men. Jesus promises them that he will develop in them the same capacity: the capacity for God-vision. And he did.

"I am just a pencil in the hands of God", said Mother Teresa, allowing God to design a marvelous portrait of Godself in the works that she began! When we cooperate with this God-vision, God brings out of us the best that we never even imagined. And eventually as persons of God, God will give us the capacity to look at the best in a person even at a point where it is not apparently visible. 

St Paul had become an expert fisher of humans and we see him manifest that quality of God-vision, he perceives in the people of Colossia a people who are called for great things and not merely new converts.

To be true disciples and apostles of the Lord,  we need to surrender to the God-vision and grow in our capacity for God-vision. 

All out for the Word

WORD 2day: Wednesday,  22nd week in Ordinary time 

September 4, 2019: Colossians 1:1-8; Luke 4: 38-44

Paul,  Epaphras,  Jesus...all seem to be on the move. With a sense of urgency and a feeling of detachment they seem to move on from one place to another with the task of proclamation filling their minds. The question today is about our sense of apostleship. Are we filled with this urgency and are we convinced about this task given to us?

Proclamation is not the work of a few, it belongs to each and every one who is baptised. It is not an added feather to our hats but an essential mark of a Christian. Of course there is no one way of proclamation. Preaching or Speaking about it, is just one way;  example,  witness,  convictions,  values,  compassion and limitless love are all ways of sharing that Word with the world. The latter ways speak much louder than the mere words, we know that for sure!

Epaphras taught, Paul spoke and wrote, Jesus healed, spoke, taught, prayed, led, and kept pushing hard... all towards proclaiming the Reign of God which had to be established! It is God's work indeed to Reign...but it cannot be done unless we work for it. The first thing that we have to do is submit ourselves totally to its cause (that is what we see in these apostles, including Jesus, the apostle of the Father). 

And today, thinking so much about these tireless apostles and the Lord Jesus himself, let me ask myself 2 questions: am I convinced of my call to proclaim?  And what is my specific way of proclamation?

The Source of Authority

WORD 2day: Tuesday,  22nd week in Ordinary Time 

September 3, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6, 9-11; Luke 4: 31-37

Jesus spoke with authority,  felt the people. In fact the Scribes and pharisees too spoke to them from pedestals and pulpits. They found a qualitative difference in what was said by Jesus and the way he said it. They saw persons cast out demons but never the way Jesus did it. There was something peculiar about Jesus and the people noted it. 

Jesus' authority came from within,  from his self realisation of who he was in the core of his being. The source of his authority was not some where out in the wilderness or in some far away reality. It was from God whom Jesus felt right within him, present so faithfully and powerfully, the Abba! That is the difference between power and authority! The latter comes from within... you become the author of your own words, ideas, acts and example.

People dominate, oppress, plot and scheme things in order to gain prominence, it is so prevalent around us today. We are no different, mind you. In our relationships too - be it familial or institutional or interpersonal - we tend constantly to establish our identity and supremacy over the other or the others. When that ascendancy is naturally not there, what we do becomes arrogance. When that ascendancy comes naturally from within, it becomes assertion!

In the first reading St.  Paul reminds us of the fact that we too, possess the same authority that Jesus had because the source of all authorities, resides within us. 'Alive or dead,  we should always be united in Christ' says Paul. And our authority would come naturally from this union at the core of our beings. That's the true source of real authority.

Are you a practical atheist?

WORD 2day: Monday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

September 2, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Luke 4: 16-30

One of our philosophy professors would often refer to what he called 'practical atheism'. We know what atheism means: it is saying there is no God. It is much safer and clearer than practical atheism which actually is a stand of subtle self deception.

Practical Atheism is the way of life where a person lives his or her life as if God did not exist,  though theoretically the person claims to believe in a god. For all practical purposes there seems to be no difference between the life of an atheist and this person who claims to believe in God. At times we can live our life with values and priorities that are so ungodly,  with mere external practices that seem religious.

Much worse implication of Practical Atheism is this: if we consider an atheist as a person who lives against God and against everything that God stands for - love, universal brotherhood and sisterhood, justice, righteousness and peace - then a practical atheist would be one who in practice is actually working against these values, although he or she may be in the garb of a believer!

Now just imagine things that are going on around us in the world today... people who claim they believe in God but do things exactly against what God would stand for, are they not practical atheists? Wait a little... it is easy to answer that question... but let us reformulate that question a  bit: by any chance, am I a practical atheist? 

Let me not answer that question immediately... let my thinking , my attitudes and my life style answer it. The readings today invite us to examine our deep seated convictions and judge for ourselves how much our beliefs truly transform our lives.

BLESSED ARE THE HUMBLE

Mark of the People of the Reign

September 1, 2019: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary time
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21,30-31; Hebrew 12: 18-19, 22-24; Luke 14: 1,7-14

Humility is one lesson we learn so hard. Blessed are those who are humble by nature. The best of our qualities and talents would amount to nothing when we lack this one single virtue: Humility! The Word today invites us not only to be humble, but also to be with the humble and to be all for those who are humble, that we may be people of the Reign of God. 

The Guru of the ashram was old and dying and he announced to his band of disciples: 'I wish to appoint the humblest of you all as the next Guru.' The bickering began among the disciples, each one trying to prove he is more humble than the other. There was one among them who stood still and away from all debating. The Guru seemed impressed. He thought to himself, 'that should be the right one to succeed me, perhaps!' and he called him over to himself and asked him: 'what about you? are you not interested in the contest?' The disciple replied, 'Oh you don't get it, how much ever they fight among themselves, they will never find anyone more humble than me!' The Guru was heart broken and he dismantled the whole ashram before he died! Spiritual Masters say, the moment you think you are humble, you cease to be so! How true it is!

Be Humble - that is the first message today. Being Humble is not putting up an appearance. It is not doing something to prove to others that I am humble. It is going about my duty with such sincerity and integrity that I may not be even noticed for the good that I do - but that does not disturb me at all.  

At times there are people who make a big show of the so-called good that they do, and sometimes even of their own simplicity! Do you remember the posters of our politicians posing with a broom in their hands claiming to be simple and committed to cleanliness of the nation. Or similar ones where they pose with some poor people in their huts and gullies. They would have spent a fortune on those hoardings and advertisements! Let us remember - we have nothing to prove to anyone, not even to our own selves. All that I need to do is, be truthful, be real, be authentic. Humility is acceptance of truth. 

Be with the Humble - identify people who are truly humble. Jesus had the special eye for the humble ones. Be it Mathew, or Zacchaeus, or Nathaniel, or the Centurion, or the Pharisee who asked him about the commandment of love... Jesus recognised the humble and sided with them. In another episode like today's, when Jesus was at dinner at Simon the Pharisee's, he was able to see through the sinfulness of the woman and identify her humble repentance. She was gifted with his empathy. Jesus sided always with the humble, not with the haughty. 

If we are truly people of God, besides being humble ourselves, we would look out for the humble and stand by them. Just become aware of your tendency... among a group of new people whom you meet, who is it that you feel drawn to: the most brandishing among them or the quiet insecure of the band? Or when you deal with persons who depend on you, whom do you promote: the so-called talented and gifted or the rare ones who never get to reach the limelight? There is a statement about myself, in whom I choose to be with. 

Be all for the Humble - being the voice of the voiceless, the stronghold for the weak. When we stand by the humble we stand with the Lord, because the Lord always stands by the humble. This is the third message that the Word offers us today. Be for the humble of heart, stand by them, empathise with them, support them and spread the spirit so that the Reign of God may be felt amidst us, here and now. 

Today, we see reports of so many humble persons being taken for granted, exploited and drained of even the little that they have. We have truthful and integral individuals taken to task, punished and crushed by the demonic culture of corruption and greed. Those who fight for justice and truth are labelled rebels by the authority and derided as jobless by the public. What is our response as people of the Reign?

The Word today invites us to understand that the humble are blessed in the sight of the Lord. Those who are humble, those who are with the humble and those who are all for the humble, find favour in the light of the Reign of God - they are truly the people of the Reign.

Sanctity: Doing my part!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 21st week in Ordinary time

August 31, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 4: 9-11; Matthew 25: 14-30

‘To aspire to live quietly, to mind your affairs and to work with your own hands’, is the practical tip for peaceful living that St. Paul gives his spiritual children at Thessalonica. It seems that gossip and judgments about others has been a problem for centuries on.

Uncharitable curiosity about others’ lives, passing judgments and spreading prejudices about others, looking out for an opportunity to blame my negligences and failures on someone else, villainising someone merely because I do not agree with him or her – these are fast becoming “normal” in a society that is influenced by a maddening media craze!

Yesterday, the Word invited us to reflect on personal sanctification. However, holiness does not consist of my private life alone, it involves my social relations, my willingness towards contributing my mite to the social order and my commitment towards making this world a better place to live! 

A mentality like, I care nothing until it concretely hurts me, coupled with the inhuman tendency to seek self-centered goals at any cost, is doing all the damage possible to the world today. It looks like we are acrimoniously endangering humanity and accelerating its end at a demonic speed.

It is no reason or moment to lose heart. However little, let us do our part, so that the Lord may rejoice in us, and address us, “Good and faithful servants!”

Personal sanctification - not to run out of Spirit

WORD 2day: Friday, 21st week in Ordinary time

August 30, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-8; Matthew 25: 1-13

This is God’s will: your sanctification! St. Paul has the gift of saying the greatest of the things in simplest of terms. Today, he puts across in straightforward terms the life task that we have – our personal sanctification. 

Our personal sanctification comes as a result of our self understanding. ‘Don’t you know that you are the temple of God?’ (1 Cor 3:16), St. Paul would ask elsewhere. That self-understanding as the dwelling of the Spirit of God, is the starting point for a whole journey of personal sanctification. 

At times we tend to understand sanctification in terms of the other, deciding for ourselves who that other will be, depending on our convenience. We wish to do better than someone and derive satisfaction that we are good. We propose to ourselves some one as a point of comparison - either adulate him or her making ourselves little or judge and criticise them in order to feel so pathetically self righteous. Both of these do not fit into the mind of Christ.

My personal sanctification: it is not a victory gained once for all but it is a constant vigilance and continuous labour, explains the parable that Jesus narrates in the Gospel. The lamp of our life needs to keep burning; the oil is given by God – ‘God who gives the Holy Spirit’. The Spirit is the oil that we need to keep our lamps burning, burning always with the desire to remain sanctified dwellings of the Spirit! Not to run out of Spirit, is what I have to ensure towards my personal sanctification.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The call to be prophets – Remembering the Martyrdom of John the Baptist

August 29, 2019: Jeremiah 1: 17-19; Mark 6: 17-29

The call to be prophets, like Jeremiah and John presented to us in the Word today - is not an elitist call, that is reserved for a club of specially chosen specimen. No, it is a call that is addressed to every baptized child of God. But what is the world in general moving towards?

The world seems to be at home with a culture of sin today! Be it social or economic or political or cultural arena – there is a cloud of sinfulness that pervades and waits to consume everyone present. Religious and Spiritual realms, unfortunately, are no exceptions to this in any sense.

More treacherous than this situation, is the lack of sense of sin, that justifies sinfulness, sometimes without even the conscious assent of the persons involved. We have become so mindless of sin that certain of them do not even appear to be so... judging the other, discriminating the other in our minds, giving into our prejudices and not really giving a chance to the other and so on.

The question posed to us by the feast today is, which part we would rather play? The seducing forces that draw people to sin; or the wicked plotters who play the protagonists in spreading sinfulness; or the passive infected who continue to perpetrate sinfulness by their mere inaction; or the silent spectators who aid the spread more than do anything to stop it – all these groups are represented in the Gospel today. There is also John the Baptist, who dares to stand for truth and righteousness, even at the cost of his own life! 

What would be my choice?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

A life of Integrity – Remembering St. Augustine

August 28, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 2: 9-13; Matthew: 23: 27-32

Yesterday was the mother, and today the son! St. Augustine is known for his passionate search for truth! And in the process he came across the Truth beyond all truth, the One Truth that accounts for all other truths and he declared, “Late have I known thee!” 

The Word of God both encourages and challenges us, explains St.Paul in the first reading and it depends on each of us, what we make of these encouragements and demands! And Jesus lashes it out at us; he minces no words: the demands are so categorical and so inescapable. We can of course pretend and wield facades that create an aura that is all hoax... but how long and to what extent? What would we achieve at the end of it all? 

Augustine tried it - he created a make-believe world around him and wanted to live in that preposterous state all his life. Thanks to the mercy of God, through the tears of his mother he saw the horizon of truth. He learnt to understand the call from God, as St. Paul says today, "as God's message and not some human thinking". That made all the difference.

Being worthy of God is the project that the Word and the saint of today propose to us and it is a matter of the inner self. No amount of exterior adornment or  rationalisations or self-justifications can give the internal peace, which comes only from a life of communion with oneself, with others and with God. This in one word could be called, “Integrity” – and that is what Jesus calls us to: a life of integrity.