Keys to the Kingdom: Take no one for granted

THE WORD IN ADVENT - December 17

Genesis 49:2,8-10; Matthew 1: 1-17

The first reading speaks of the sons of Jacob, and among them Judah who has to rule! The Gospel reading gives us the whole lineage of Jesus, the Christ who is to come! In both these, there is a reference to the so-called little ones who make a difference at the level of global history. 

We look at those who are around us... we know them all - their history, their geography, their background... and with all these, we think we know them so much... that we can miss the

 Lord who wants to encounter us in them, in their words or gestures! 

Even as the whole world is becoming just a little village with everyone getting to know about every other, we are getting so far away from each other. The irony of our times is that the social network which claims to take communication to the optimal levels, is stopping us from true existential encounters with each other. We are becoming happy with profiles, statuses, likes, shares and comments on the virtual world, failing to really get in touch with persons in flesh and blood. 

And even where we get to live with persons on a daily basis, there is a big danger that we look at some persons so regularly, that they no longer really mean anything to us. That's really a danger of missing the Lord who comes and his Kingdom. The key to the Kingdom that's presented to us today: every person in your life is sent on purpose by God, so, take no one for granted.

CHRISTMAS NOVENA - a tradition so lovely

Novena...'O' Antiphons...Oh what a Tradition we have!!! 

Naturally the last days of the Christmas preparation are a great excitement...
The Church has a beautiful tradition of 
the Novena in preparation of this wonderful festival of LOVE...

And within this novena... 
leaving out the first day and the last day...
there are 7 verses from the prophecies from the Old Testament (Isaiah) 
which announce the coming of the Lord's Messiah...they are named "O" Antiphons.
each of these antiphons, so meaningful and beautiful...

We pray them as Antiphons before the Gospel at the Eucharist these days...
those who pray the daily prayer of the Church (Breviary) pray it in the evening 
with the hymn of our blessed mother, the Magnificat.

16th of December begins the Novena...
on this day, the antiphon, though not an O Antiphon...
sets the tone for the next 9 days...

WE BEGIN A SPECIAL SEASON OF WAITING FOR AN IMMINENT COMING OF THE LORD

Keys to the Kingdom: Rely on the real King

THE WORD IN ADVENT -  December 16

Monday, 3rd week in Advent: Numbers 24:2-7,15-17; Matthew 21: 23-27

Starting today, we begin the next phase of our preparation to receive the Lord. There are certain key attitudes with which we shall be in a better position to receive the Reign. The challenges are multifarious and a person of the Reign cannot go past them without true and absolute choices. 

In today's Word, Balaam asserts, affirms and reaffirms on whose authority he speaks; the Jewish leaders and priests ask Jesus on whose authority Jesus does all that he does. Both Balaam and Jesus, we see in the Word today, were fearless. 

Balaam was faced with a furious whole race and Jesus was faced with a powerful top brass of the society. They make it clear to themselves and to those around, that they rely not on their power, or eloquence, or skill, or talent but they rely on the Lord! Today when the very institutions like the governments and public services, which have to safeguard the common good, start working against equality, justice and human dignity, what do you do! Stand up, speak up and usher in the Reign! No authority can stop us! And we need to please no authority, except One.

An authority that will never be questioned...is the Lord who reigns over all and submitting myself to that Reign and inspiring others to submit to the Reign is the way to establish the Reign of God. It is not Reign that expands by conquest and battles, but by submission and surrender, by a personal choice to absolutely rely on the real King!

WAIT - FOR AND ON THE REIGN

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 15, 2019: Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35: 1-6,10; James 5: 7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Rejoice! Look, the Lord your God is coming... the advent commission today is to Wait for and Wait on the Reign of the Lord!

An expectant couple, a lover on the park bench, a child on the birthday eve, a starved person on a set table... these are vivid snapshots of the joy of waiting! There is a pain involved, but a pain that is part of a greater joy. There are myriads of reasons to be disturbed and be restless about, but they are all overwhelmed by the joy that resides beneath. That is the picture that the Church wants us to contemplate this Sunday: the Joy of Waiting, for and on the Reign. 

This Sunday is called the Gaudete Sunday (Gaudete in latin simply means 'Rejoice')... taking off from the entrance antiphon which invites us to REJOICE, because the salvation of the Lord is near. Note the colour of the vestments today...they are not merely the violet, but purple...to add the necessary element of joy to the waiting! A Christian waiting should be joyful, the liturgy reminds us today - and what are the marks of this joyful waiting?

The whole creation groans as with pangs of childbirth...for a peaceful, prosperous, perfect world. Every religion and every spirituality is a yearning towards that state of existence, called in various names. We believe it to be the Reign of God; "We are seeking God's Kingdom" reminds the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(180) of Pope Francis. This waiting, this Christian waiting for the Reign of God is a joyful waiting, not a miserable waiting, not a servile waiting. That is why this Waiting cannot be only a waiting for the Reign, as if it is a passive inaction, totally depending on an external factor. No, it has to be also waiting on the Reign... yes, the Reign is here, the Lord is here and the more faithful we grow to the Reign, the more present it becomes. It has to be an active making present of the Reign, here and now! The Word today brings to our attention the marks of this kind of a waiting: 

The first mark is the Assurance of Faith. The first reading is full of words like, gladness, joy, exultation, rejoicing, shouting, leaping, singing... all these words are used by Isaiah, when the people of Israel are still in Exile...but they know their liberation is imminent. What fills their hearts and their lives is faith - a joyful and total abandonment into the hands of God, one who creates and directs history. A total assurance that the Lord is for them; the Lord stands in favour of them and the Lord will lead them to the prosperity that they are waiting for. 

Our life, to be truly Christian, to be truly worthy of the Reign, has to be based firmly on this assurance of faith, that the Lord is with us and the Lord is for us. When God is for us, who can be against us! When evil plans of the villainous powers arise and grow stronger, it is not a moment to be frightened and retract our voice; it is a moment to stand firm and raise it to the skies. That is the sign of faith, that we believe we can do everything in the Lord who is with us and strengthens us - the assurance of faith.

The second mark of a joyful waiting is the Aspirations of Hope. The first reading, the responsorial psalm and the Gospel are filled with imageries of the lame walking, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the dumb speaking... the aspirations of a heart, the desire for a better world, the yearning for a bright tomorrow, the thirst for justice and truth, these are infallible signs of the Reign. That is what we are invited to hope for, and only that hope will thrust us into action, into doing our little bit, our essential part in making those dreams come true! 

We need to be filled with that vision, to reach the promised land, each and every one of us hand in hand. Things will change, justice and righteousness will prevail, peace and joy will flower... we need to wait on the Reign - that is, promote the cause of the Reign. Keep speaking of justice, keep standing for righteousness, keep pushing the initiatives of peace, keep multiplying the occasions of true joy... we need to keep promoting the Reign, the dreams and the aspirations of hope.

The third mark is Associations of Love. The second reading touches upon a crucial point: yes we wait, but in the meanwhile what do we do? how do we comport ourselves? There are various modes of waiting... angry and restless... anxious and nasty... irritated and tensed... But the joy of waiting for the Reign has to be a wait that is filled with a "prophetic patience", says St. James. An abundance of patience that cherishes every moment that is spent in waiting. A patience that is expressed in our loving rapport with every brother and sister. 

Our relationships have to express to the world that we are people with a difference, we look for something that not everyone is looking for, that we are people who have our gaze fixed on the Lord and the Lord's Reign that everyone around seems beautiful and precious in our eyes! It has to tell that world that we are not only people who wait for the Reign, but we are people who wait on the Reign, that is those who serve the Reign with all our heart, through all our associations of love.

We are waiting... we are waiting for the Reign... but the Reign is already here, the wait is to make it more and more visible, it is waiting on the Reign! Each of us has the responsibility, to make the Reign of God felt, here and now, through living with an abundance of assurance of faith, with limitless aspirations of hope and divine associations of love with each other. The joy of waiting for the Reign, has to radiate that joy to every one, everyday in every way.

Repent and be ready to behold the Lord

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second Saturday

December 14, 2019: Remembering St.John of the Cross

Ecclesiasticus 48: 1-4,9-12; Matthew 17: 10-13

Read the Life of John of the Cross

Today we are given to reflect on three great personalities... the first one as we reflected yesterday, is the person of the week John the Baptist, credited by Jesus as greatest of all who are born of a woman. The second one is Prophet Elijah of the Old Testament, who is considered to be the greatest of the prophets. The third is St. John of the Cross, considered to be the greatest mystic and doctor of the Soul! Why were all these people 'great'... not because they were in power or were the most influential of their times!

The simple reason was that they were fired with a burning love for God... Elijah shut the heavens, brought down fire, all because he wanted the people to see the glory of God! The Baptist remained a voice in the wilderness, warning everyone of their sins, ready even to die for the Reign of God. John of the Cross was a great reformer of the religious life and an ardent agent of counter reformation, standing by the Church during the tough times of Reformation, filled with the zeal for the Reign of God.

The reflection however is not about their greatness - that is by now indisputable. The question is: what do we do with these persons of greatness, what do we do with these revelations of the glory of God? In our daily experience, we see things and encounter people, that are grandiose revelations of God, provided we are ready and willing, prepared and capable of beholding those revelations. In fact this is one of my firm convictions: Miracles (and here revelations) abound for those who are prepared to see them around. We are prepared by the Word, but are we ready?

The Reign of God is near...if we wish to receive it, we have to be filled with that same fire! The fire, the zeal, the yearning, the thirst for the Reign of God, which should shine through every word, thought, deed and choice of everyday life. The Word invites us, Jesus, Elijah, John the Baptist and John of the Cross - they challenges us today, to Repent and be ready to behold the Lord!

Repent from childishness to child-likeness!

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second Friday

December 13, 2019: Remembering St. Lucy

Isaiah 48: 17-19; Matthew 11: 16-19 

Read the Life of St. Lucy

If we had noticed carefully these days, there is a constant reference in the Gospel this week to John the Baptist. From last Sunday, the Gospel and the preface keep presenting to us the figure of John the Baptist, to challenge us regarding how prepared we are for the Coming of the Lord! 

Today we are made to reflect on the difference between "being childish" and "being child-like." Unless you become like a child you will not enter the Reign of God - but that in no way means you remain childish! Jesus gives a simple example - being childish is being so centered on yourself that you wish everything around you happens as you wish and everyone does what you wish... and said literally, that every one dances to your tunes!

Being childlike, instead, is being prophetic, being like the persons of God who abandon everything into the hands of God with total confidence in God and in God alone. One such example we have in St. Lucy the fourth century martyr whom we celebrate today - a life of total abandonment into the hands of God, as a child into the hands of its father or mother!

Another quality of typical children - that they are single minded. You tell them, 'do this', they are all taken up with that until they do that - their entire mind is occupied with that. Look at the mindset of John the Baptist... or Jesus for that matter... so single minded in their faithfulness to the One who had sent them. Another prophetic character in them.

Let us be like children, let us be child-like; let us single mindedly walk in the path God has planned for us, with our hands in the hands of God. Let us not remain childish, looking for our immediate happiness but grow to be child-like, prophetic and God-loving. Let us Repent from childishness to child-likeness!

Repent and trust in the hand of the Lord!

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second Thursday

December 12, 2019: Isaiah 41: 13-21; Matthew 11:11-15

News about violence everyday, cry of injustice and unfettered exploitation of the weak, persecutions in the name of religion and venomous maligning of persons and groups owing to the religious and moral values that they hold on to, conniving laws and strategies in the making, outright squashing of truth with might and muscle - these are what we hear on a daily basis these days. Jesus seems to tell us, that this is nothing new! "Since John the Baptist came, upto this present time, the kingdom of Heaven has been subjected to violence", he says. And the first reading adds hopefully, inspite of all these, "Do not be afraid, I shall help you." 

The image that we can behold and ruminate, is that of a child holding the hand of the father or the mother, and braving the whole world around. There may be a whole world of strangers around and some of them may be intending to hurt or harm too, but the child is blissfully secure in the hands of the Father or the Mother... that is what a Christian should be!

Let us never forget that one quintessential truth of Christian faith: we are never alone! The Lord promises today: I, the God of Israel, shall never abandon you! We are preparing to celebrate this truth; that God came to dwell with us. And ever since, God has been with us; and God shall never abandon us! This is one important truth to which we have to repent very often, because we forget it, drift away from in and in the meantime deny it by our actions and choices!

Let us heed the voice of the Lord today, remind ourselves of the ever-present hand of God and Repent and trust in the hand of the Lord!

Repent and be renewed in the Spirit

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second Wednesday

December 11, 2019: Isaiah 40: 25-31; Matthew 11: 28-30

There's a legend said of the eagles, that they have 70 years of life! But to reach that seventy they have a decisive phase to go through... in their 40s, they say, their talons lose their flexibility and become useless, their beaks become bent and unable to pick any prey. They become weak and malnourished because their prowess is all blunt, with such talons and beaks. What do they do? That is where the beauty lies - they go to a high mountain by themselves pluck out their talons one by one and break their beaks down against the rocks, and wait till they grow back; when the new talons grow they pluck every feather and wait... wait till the new ones grow... with new feathers, new sharp talons and new strong beak, they take off, for a new lease of life! A new life, a renewed life!

What an imagery for the season of advent... to wait on the Lord! Waiting here is not a passive waiting, it is an active renewal, as we said of the eagle... repenting of our ways to put on new life! And those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles! The readings today are profusely filled with hope, a hope that comes from the abundance of love that the Lord has for us! 

It is strengthened by that love, that we can run but still not get weary; even if we are weary, the Lord again invites us, come to me all who are weary, for I shall give you rest. When we feel burdened and stressed, let us picture before our eyes, the Lord with his open arms, like the open wings of the eagle...inviting us into God's love, into God's protection, into God's peaceful presence!

Let us accept this invitation in this season of wait, to Repent and be renewed in the Spirit!

Repent and feel the love of the Shepherd

THE WORD IN ADVENT - Second Tuesday

December 10, 2019: Isaiah 40:1-11; Matthew 18: 12-14

The image we are given to contemplate today is that of the good shepherd with a lamb in his bosom, caressing it with compassion and love! That is what we are in the hands of God. 

It is an humbling experience everyday to realise how much the Lord loves us - in spite of our weaknesses and limitations, repeated failures and endless mistakes. It is enough to contemplate this picture when we feel we are overwhelmed with struggles and surrounded with troubles, we will feel the warmth of his embrace and the consolation of his whispers; despite the enemies that surround us, we will feel a sense of security; and there we will find the strength to begin anew and resume our walk with the Lord. 

"The grass withers, the flower fades"... our life is like that and our promises are so frail. "But the Word of our God will stand for ever" and we are never lost, for the good shepherd will always come in search; will always find us and will gently lead us on! The first reading brings to us this promise and the psalms sings the joys of it. The Gospel instead presents the image to be kept in mind.

The image to be remembered is not only the Good Shepherd who goes in search but also the lamb who lets oneself be found and who cuddles into the warm hands of the caressing Lord. The sacrament of reconciliation, the reconciliation of hearts with the brothers and sisters, a reconciliation to the justice of the Reign as we remember the World Human Rights day - these are concrete itineraries to make our way right back to the Lord. 

Let us Repent and feel the love of the Shepherd!

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY

December 9, 2019: Reminders from the Solemnity

Genesis 3: 9-15, 20; Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11-12; Luke 1: 26-38

We celebrate the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother today, 
yesterday having been a Sunday of Advent.

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Mother - the dogma of faith that Mary, from the moment that she was conceived in her mother's womb, was preserved without the stain of original sin. The celebration of today has 3 reminders for us:

Reminder 1: God's plan for each of us is eternal! God chose to preserve Mary even before she was born, from the moment of her passing from non existence to existence! How true when the Word says, 'You know me even before my bones were being formed in the womb of my mother.' God knows each of us and has a mysterious plan for us from eternity. Is it not true that God has chosen us before the foundations of the world, as St. Paul says.

Reminder 2: It was indeed a grace that Mary was spared from the stain of original sin, but she on her part remained faithful, sinless and wholly belonging to God all her life that she brought this grace of holiness, right upto the end of her life when she was found worthy of another grace - that of Assumption. We were freed from the bond of original sin too, at our baptism. Is it not our duty to bring this baptismal innocence right through to the end of our life that we can find ourselves in the company of saints and angels in union with God almighty!

Reminder 3: For Mary it was a remote preparation to behold the Son of God within her in God's own time. The feast occurs during Advent and reminds us that we are in that place too... to prepare ourselves to behold the Son of God, who wishes to be born in our lives this Christmas.

The Message is clear: God has chosen me from eternity to belong to God. It is my faithful response to this call that will determine my status as God's son or daughter. When I listen to God's word and live by it, God dwells in me, God's word will be born in me, making me the dwelling place, the tabernacle, the temple of the Living God!