LEARN FROM TRANSFIGURATION - THE DIALOGUE OF DAILY LIVING

THE WORD IN LENT: 2nd Sunday

Transfiguration and the lessons for daily living

March 8, 2020: Genesis 12:1-4; 2 Timothy 1: 8-10; Matthew 17: 1-9

We are invited to meditate on one of the marvelous incidents in the life of Jesus and his disciples - the Transfiguration. Peter, James and John were the three privileged ones to be there at this spectacle. But was it only a spectacle...what purpose does it serve within the whole picture of Christ's life and mission? That would be an interesting question to ask, as  it comes very close to the end of Jesus' public mission. More interesting fact is that the Church invites us to this reflection during the season of lent...a season when we are intensely thinking of the sufferings of the Lord. 

For Jesus, the suffering did not start merely at the moment of the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane! It was there right through...there were moments when the people rejected him, wanted to throw him off from the cliff, despised him saying they knew him too well, endlessly asked for signs and wonders as if he were some street charlatan, and failed miserably to understand him! Jesus would have been anxious too, about how his ministry was really going on! Jesus felt the special call from the One who sent him, to stand up and to voice the call of the Lord to the people! And when he set off to understand that call and realise it in his life... he was faced with a myriad of problems. Might be that Jesus himself needed that wonderful assurance from God as a preparation for what lay in store for the coming days - the passion and death that awaited him. Secondly, it could have served as a trailer, a sneak peek for the disciples, who were in for a great trial within a few days. And the Church wants us to learn exactly these for our own life of faith too. What are those lessons?

The Glory of the Lord is always present within us. All that Jesus had to do was to merely go by himself up the mount. The Glory of the Lord is ever present within us and all that we need to do is to make time to be by ourselves. Amidst the din of daily life and trying responsibilities, we may not manage to really be by ourselves. Even our prayer moments could be so filled with thoughts and preoccupations that we fill them so much with words, figures and plans which take away the space that we could share alone with God, who wants to speak to us! 

Being by ourselves... a dialogue with the core of our selves... is an important spiritual exercise that we need to do every day... call it meditation or contemplation or merely prayer or retreat or recollection spiritual exercises or yoga or whatever name you wish. It is being by ourselves that matters - alone with the Alone; alone with the One who alone matters! It is when we are by ourselves that we can really turn to that glory of the Lord which resides within us. As long as we are not by ourselves, the glory lies hidden, it remains latent. 

Understanding the Glory sends us back to our daily life. Experiencing the glory of the Lord is not to get stuck there, reminds us Jesus. Peter's spontaneous response is usually what we wish in life - when we experience the Lord's presence close to us, may be at a miraculous happening, or a mysterious turn of events, or a joyful coincidence. But in fact it is merely a preparation for a moment that is hard and trying, for a moment when difficult things would come by, for a moment which cannot be explained in normal logic, for a moment when we need an extraordinary strength to remain faithful. Let us not lose the miraculous moment in excitement, but draw the necessary strength for a later dry patch! The transfiguration of Jesus would have been running through Peter's mind all the time during the moments of darkness - the death of Jesus, the crisis of faith and the hidden life in the upper room. That is why he makes sure he writes in his letter about this event (2 Pet 1: 17-18). Peter wanted to remain in that glory when he saw but Jesus reminds him to return to his daily life! 

Spending time with God...a dialogue with the source of our being... is not to remain there in that sanctuary, rapt in glory and praise, but it is to return to our daily life and live it more meaningfully; it is to take that experience into the daily life and make meaning out of it. It would become dichotomous if we experience highs with the Lord and soon return to the lows of life and keep digging there until we return for another high moment in life. No... every intimate moment spent with the Lord has to percolate into our daily life, making it more and more, however little by little, receptive and fertile. Hence the spiritually exciting moments are not so much for themselves, as they are for a sustained experience of the presence of God during the rest of our lives. 

The Glory of the Lord sheds new light on our days. The experience on the mount could have strengthened Jesus to walk with assurance towards Jerusalem. The experience of the disciples would have given them a new insight into who Jesus was. In a life filled with normal commitments and extraordinary sufferings, the experience of God's glory can clarify and illumine our path, preparing us to live them with newer meaning and fresher strength. St. Paul reminds us of that in the second reading today, asking us to derive strength from the Lord to bear our share of hardships. 

Witnessing God so close...a dialogue that invites us to look and behold the mighty Presence... every Eucharist we celebrate is a transfiguration event, and it is an invitation to live our life with increased meaning and commitment. Should we remain the same after a Eucharistic Celebration, either we have not been by ourselves on that mount or we have been blind to that resplendent glory. After so many Eucharistic experiences, when we think of a Catholic son or a daughter leave this privileged faith community for another which lacks so many crucial revelations of the Lord, be it for whatever reasons... it is an agonising blunder. After all the eucharistic encounters if we panic at a crisis situation, be it a world level health crisis as the Covid-19 we are facing now or a national socio-political crisis or a personal crisis, what have we really beheld in those miraculous encounters that we have been celebrating? We need to realise that the voice of the Lord resounds at every Eucharist: "This is my beloved Son,...Listen to Him." If we manage to gaze at the glory of the Lord and listen to the voice of the Lord, our life will be transformed and transfigured.

To turn to the glory that resides within us, to return strengthened to live our life with increased commitment and to relearn the real meaning of Christian life of faith: that is  a dialogue of daily life that we are called to engage in as children of God. Our daily life has to be a fruit of this dialogue and this lenten Sunday challenges us to intensify this dialogue. May the Spirit inspire us ahead.

The Perfection called Love

THE WORD IN LENT - 1st week, Saturday

March 07, 2020: Deuteronomy 26: 16-19; Matthew 5: 43-48
Point for Dialogue #9: What we are or What we are to be!

The first reading presents to us Moses the law giver and the covenant that he mediated between God and the people of Israel. In a parallel sense, the Gospel presents Jesus the new law giver and the covenant that he mediates between God and us. 

The figure of Jesus as the new law giver is not in despite of the old law, but an invitation to perfection, a perfection that involves an endless journey of transcendence right upto realising within us the image and likeness of our Creator. That sets off within us a fundamental dialogue between what we are and what we are created and called to be. It is fundamental because, it is the very ground of our Christian existence.

In fact, it is a process of becoming conscious of our primary and original identity as children of God, an identity that makes us never satisfied of the perfection we have reached at any point of time - because the perfection of God is the goal that is presented to us by Jesus. 

Arriving at that perfection is a life time task, a task that invites us to keep walking, to keep learning, not just to keep the law and fulfill its requirements but to keep loving persons without measure, like God who loves us so unconditionally. It is an invitation to understand that for a Christian, law is spelt L-O-V-E. 

Let us engage in that continuous, daily dialogue, in everything we say, do or think - journeying towards that perfection of our God almighty, the perfection called Love. 

Perseverance is perfection

THE WORD IN LENT - 1st week, Friday

March 06, 2020: Ezekiel 18: 21-28; Matthew 5: 20-26
Point for Dialogue #8: Momentary goodness or Persevering perfection

Every social institution teaches one how to be good and how to act acceptable to the rest of the society, within a context. Religion is the easiest and most efficacious means of enforcement in this regard. What is good and what is bad, what is binding and what is recommended, what is essential and what is aesthetic - these are given to us already well defined. But does perfection consist in all these? 

Jesus today makes a difference between a simplistic understanding of religion and a profound sense of faith: faith as a personal response of a person to God, and requires a perfection of a greater quality. It is not merely a life that is concerned about keeping the law, but it is all about going beyond it - in being sensitive to the feelings of the other, staying attentive to the needs of the other, and reaching out to the other in a self-giving love! 

An effort at understanding this would lead us to a concrete dialogue between our momentary goodness and our capacity to persevere in that goodness. In fact every thing that we do, however small or insignificant they may be, can add to our perfection, if only we are absolutely convinced of persevering in our goodness, and not satisfied with just some momentary manifestations of it.

Whole life cannot be spent on avoiding evil; we are called to grow in goodness, personify goodness and spread goodness wherever we are and in whatever we do, or say, or think. This is persevering in goodness. Jesus invites us to relearn what it means to be righteous; to surpass the righteousness of the world and set standards that are really worthy of the children of God.

Let us strive to understand the goodness or the perfection that Jesus proposes, consisting in selfless love for the other; and let us persevere in that goodness every moment of our life. Be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect!

Where exactly is your strength?

THE WORD IN LENT - 1st week, Thursday

March 05, 2020: Esther 4:17; Matthew 7: 7-12

Point for Dialogue #7: Natural selfishness or Supernatural sensitivity

Queen Esther's episode in the Bible is a typical theme of faith. The Bible is full of such crucial situations - Moses before Pharaoh, David before Goliath or David before Saul, Elijah before the whole band of prophets of baal, Jeremiah before his own people who wanted to kill him... they were all situations like that in which we find Esther today! 

The simple orphan-girl-turned-queen, taking over the corrupt powers of Persia for the sake of the oppressed Jewish people. Is it not applicable today to the minorities of people struggling for their rights, the minority of righteous persons caught up in the ocean of corruption and evil, the weak and vulnerable masses trying to establish their presence confronted with powerful moneyed and muscled bigwigs...at times also Christian minority suffering at the hands of the other dominating powers.

In all the above referred to Biblical situations and specifically today in that of Esther, the message is the same, as Jesus points it out in the Gospel: when you think of the good of the others and not your selfish ends, when you are intent on doing to good to the suffering, the oppressed, the needy and the downtrodden, when you want to stand by God and God's people, you will be faced with hurdles heavy and high. 

It is here that we are challenged to a dialogue between a natural selfishness that would crave to dominate within us and the supernatural grace of sensitivity to the other and the other's sufferings! That is the true strength; a strength that comes from above, from within us, from the totality of strength, God our loving father and mother. 

Turn to your real strength which lies just a cry away, turn to your strength which is there ever present for you to take note of... turn to God and stand firm in faith; for the battle belongs to God (1 Sam 17:47).

The signs and the sack-cloth

THE WORD IN LENT - 1st week, Wednesday

March 04, 2020: Jonah 3: 1-10; Luke 11: 29-32

Point for Dialogue #6: Signs of the times and Readiness to change

Act now! The house is on fire! - heard that slogan somewhere? The famous slogan of the Swedish teen, Greta Thunberg which has drawn drastically mixed responses. Besides the millions of those who believe the climate-change crisis is something urgent to be addressed, there are those who slam these protests and the movement as senseless, as leftist, as baseless and ask for proofs after proofs. There are some who call it a myth, a fiction, a hoax. May be in these young voices we have a prophetic message, who knows? Are we ready to listen to it. Let us turn to the Word today...

The prophetic protests of the youth today resembles the message of Jonah. And 'the sign of Jonah' - what really does Jesus mean by that? Is it merely a reference to the fact that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days? According to Luke, No. The Gospel and the first reading taken together makes the message clear. And of all times, at the present times, the message seems so perfectly applicable! 

The world is going in a direction so bizarre and in a pace so reckless; everything seems acceptable and basics seem crammed up. Respect for persons, dignity of life, value of truth, sensitivity to the other, sense of self-donation, respect for nature and its resources, respect for the rights of all - these seem to be totally alien to the world today. It is against this background that the Word calls for a dialogue between the signs of the times and our readiness to change; that is truly conversion.  

But the final word, however, is not hopelessness: that is the message! Listening to the call of Jesus, if we stop, think, and return to right living as the people of Nineveh did at Jonah's words - it will surely become a better world to live in. But are we ready? 

There is no alternative. If we really do not want to ruin the world and our existence further, we have to stop clamouring for further signs but return to our sack-cloths, in all humility, begin to change ourselves and our ways. 

Prayer - the Word and our words!

THE WORD IN LENT - 1st week, Tuesday

March 03, 2020: Isaiah 55:10-11; Matthew 6: 7-15
Point for Dialogue #5: the Word and our words

Prayer is not about well-worded phrases and ultra decorated utterances; it is about turning one's heart to God. It is not about saying things, nor about making things clear to God - for the Lord knows it all, even before we say. It is all about laying bare ourselves before the Lord, right from the core of our hearts.

The Word today teaches us how our prayer should be, drawing inspiration from the very Word of God and its nature. The prayer that we make should rise from the heart, it should be a self-communication that brings us close to God! When it happens so, every word we use will have its effect; the words will not be empty phrases but concrete commitments to the Lord and our relationship with God.  Each word we use will be modelled after the Word.

We are invited to look at true Christ-ian prayer as a challenging dialogue between the Word of God and our words. Our words are the expressions of our heart and the Word of God is the self-communication of God - when these two meet and the Word influences every word of ours, there is the most beautiful of all prayers. 

Jesus presents us with a model for this dialogue in the 'Our Father' - glorifying God's name, desiring God's Reign, submitting to God's will: aren't they concrete commitments? true acknowledge of the Word made flesh in my daily life situations? 

Let not our prayer be empty phrases, legalistic performances and rigorous rituals, but a total self-surrender and a concrete commitment as children of God and disciples of the Lord. In simple terms, prayer is a constant and daily effort to turn away from things that distract us and getting in touch with the living Word, thus making every word and action of ours worth of our Lord! 

The Law of Love

THE WORD IN LENT - 1st week, Monday

March 2, 2020: Leviticus 19:1-211-18; Matthew 25: 31-46

Point for Dialogue #4: Law or Love

Law and Holiness had a very intimate connection for the Jews. For them, a strict observance of the law meant a sure way to holiness. As time went by, they began to identify the law and holiness, forgetting what lay in between... the relationships that the laws were meant to ensure! This is what Jesus point out to their indignance.  

Laws were given to enhance the relationship between the people and their God and among people with each other as a community. And that is exactly what Jesus stresses on, in the Gospel: the relationships! As St. John questions, how can anyone who does not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, love God whom they have not seen? (cf. 1Jn 4:20). 

Jesus aroused in the Jews of his times, and in all those who heard him, a deep dialogue between law and love! He questioned their sense of security which was ensured by law and made them feel for their brothers and sisters, making them vulnerable in front of their daily situation - torn between the ideals of the so-called world and the ideals of the real Spirit. They had to make that choice for what was 'good' in Christ-ian terms.

Jesus places the same as an absolute condition to us - in and through the dialogue between law and love, the concrete correlation between faith and love; when they combine there is hope; if not, the very fundamentals are under question. 

Let us relearn our basics this lent - let us begin within our family; let us love each other genuinely and that will be the best starting point to grow in holiness, to be people of the Word of God is not to merely know it and speak it, but to live it, in love: that is the law of love!

GROWING THROUGH TEMPTATIONS - THE DIALOGUE OF SALVATION

THE WORD IN LENT: 1st Sunday

Temptations: Crisis, Choice and Clarity

March 1, 2020: Genesis 2:7-9,3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

Temptation is a daily experience, sometimes consciously lived through and some other times unconsciously. However much we try to, we cannot live a life without temptations - that would even make life uneventful and our commitment less challenging. Big, small, mighty, risky, simple, profound, drastic... temptations can vary in their dimensions and gravity but the fact is, they are there! The Word today invites us to look at these moments of temptation as Spiritual moments, moments out of which we can grow, moments through which we can deepen our faith experience and re-found our footing in our journey towards spiritual perfection. This happens when we are ready to enter into a profound dialogue with God, our Father, our Mother, our Master, our Maker, our Model, the one who challenges us to perfection: Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect!

Temptation ...is a moment of CRISIS. Crisis, is probably the word that is heard the most today. World economic crisis, the political crisis in parts of Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle east, the ethical crisis, the faith crisis and so on. Crisis is simply the experience of a drastic reduction of something that has to be. Lack of money, lack of political stability, lack of ethical certainty, lack of adherence to faith... at the ground of it all there is a fundamental lack - the lack of meaning, the lack of sense of worth, the lack of real fulfillment in life. 

The Gospel today gives us a beautiful insight into this situation of crisis, the moment of temptation. 'At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil'...and the insight is this: The Spirit of the Lord is present with us, as ever, even at the moment when we feel tempted! That is a tremendous insight. When we go through a moment of crisis, a moment of difficulty, a moment of tendency to sin, a moment of pressure to give up, we think we are all alone. No! We are not alone. The Spirit of the Lord is with us, ever present beside us. All that we need to do, is to turn to the Spirit - in a profound dialogue. Listen to the whispering of the Spirit and speak our heart out at those crucial moments, as did Jesus in the Gospel today. And the Spirit will give us the strength to fight and overcome those temptations unscathed. 

Temptation ...is a moment of CHOICE. Every crisis requires a categorical choice to be made. When Eve was faced with that situation standing in front of the tree, she had to make a choice - to be God's or to be like gods! And Adam, when he was faced with a situation, in front of Eve, he had to make a choice to conform or to challenge, to compromise or to stand firm! Jesus makes that choice... not to make himself a king or 'like god', but to belong to God always and remain the loving son of God; not to conform to the power seeking, pleasure-mad world order but to challenge it and to stand firm in his identity as the son of God. 

All that we need to do, turn to our innermost self in dialogue, look at our origins and see who we really are. As the first reading of today says, we have the breath of God within us; we are sons and daughters of a God who has loved us into existence. I remember the counsel the Director of Novices, when we were novices, used to give us: when you are faced with moments of crisis in your religious life, think of the first moments when you felt called by God. That is a wise counsel, and the Word today gives us the same. When you are faced with a difficulty, a lack of meaning, return to your origins... the moments when you felt loved by God, called by god, chosen by God and commissioned to live this life... and the life will become meaningful with all its ingredients - sadness and joy, love and suffering, loneliness and celebration. Turn to your inner self in dialogue, you would see there the real you! Restart your journey from there.

Temptation ...is a moment of CLARITY. If we go through the moments of crisis and difficulty in dialogue with the Spirit, in dialogue with the Word made flesh, and in dialogue with the counsel of the persons of God, we shall come out of those trying situations with a clarity that has never been there before. It is not merely the calm that comes after the storm, but a step further in one's maturity, a state deeper in one's self understanding, as the person relearns the basics through the experience. 

St. Paul affirms this, in the second reading as he reminds us of the 'abundance of grace' and the 'gift of justification' that comes from Jesus Christ! In and through the moments of temptation, if lived in dialogue with the Spirit, we shall learn to love God above anything else, as Jesus exemplifies. More than the needs of food and drink, more than proving himself powerful to the world and more than having the dominion of the world, Jesus chose God, chose to remain faithful to God, chose to love, serve and worship God and God alone! The lesson is clear to us: Give God the central place in our lives, the prime place in our lives, come what may. 

Let us live our lives, every moment of it, in dialogue with the Spirit, specially moments of difficulty and crisis! Inspired by the Spirit, strengthened by the Word of God and nourished by the Sacraments, our daily dialogue shall become salvific. During our moments of temptation, let us turn to the Spirit, and the Spirit will remind us to return to our Origins and we will learn to the love God above all. 

Let our prayer today be - A clean heart create for me O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me! Amen.

Return to your Original Glory

THE WORD IN LENT: Saturday after Ash Wednesday

February 29, 2020: Isaiah 58: 9-14; Luke 5: 27-32

Point for Dialogue #3: the Real or the Present

Note the terms that appear today in the readings: Remove, Renew, Repair, Restore, and finally Repent! It is a clarion call to Return to our original glory, the glory of the children of God. And that return is not an easy task - it involves a great effort of discernment and deliberation.

The Lord invites us to return to the wholeness, with which the Lord created us. The image and likeness of God, the fullness of life and happiness that the Lord is, the glory and the brilliance that reside in God, the love and forgiveness that mark the nature of God - this is what we are called to return to. 

In fact, the Lord wants to initiate a dialogue between what we truly are and what we have made ourselves into. It becomes a tough call, not merely because the dialogue is difficult, but because we are so convinced that we are what we have made ourselves into: our weaknesses, our failures, our selfishness and so on. There is of course a stand off here between the real and the present - the really real and what we are at present!

Look at the world around. Cold wars and coups, cross border terrorism and international crisis, fanaticism under various garbs and the resultant polarisation of societies, the luxurious spoils of the first world and the empty crying stomachs of the unfortunate sections of the globe... the disparities and the disdain - they arise from the fact that we have lost our original innocence and glory, and think that this is what human nature is all about. 

The prophetic invitation today is to realise our original glory, and return to that glory of oneness, of unity, of brotherhood and sisterhood, of love, of mutual concern and of true peace. Let us return to our original glory, the glory of the Children of God. 

What you do or Who you are - which matters?

THE WORD IN LENT: Friday after Ash Wednesday

February 28, 2020" Isaiah 58: 1-9; Matthew 9: 14-15
Point for Dialogue #2: A Show or the Spirit

What you do matters, of course. But why you do it and how you do it matters more. The reason for choosing to do something, and the way that something is done, depends so much on the person that you are! Yes, what you do receives its true value from who you are as a person and it is not, or at least it should not be, the other way about! 

The prayers said, the rites performed, the sacrifices undertaken, the vows made and fulfilled, the practices kept up - all these will have their value, depending on the quality of daily life, types of ordinary choices and the respectful interpersonal relationships that one has in life. 

What a scandal it is to have a wide gaping space between one's beliefs and one's practices, between one's religious practice and one's personal relationships, between one's religious convictions and moral values. And that is precisely why there should be a profound dialogue between what I do and what I am, between a mere show and the real spirit! 

The readings today invite us to turn to integrity - to speak what we believe and to live what we speak; to stand up for what we believe and to live personally what we stand up for. Integrity gives one the authority that comes from Truth, in a way, it comes from God! 

Let us remember today, that real godly persons are those who live a life of integrity. A life of integrity is where my actions come from what I believe and my belief is conspicuously beheld in my daily life, in my words and in every one of my actions.