Return to the child in you!

THE WORD IN LENT - 3rd week, Monday

March 16, 2020: 2 Kings 5:1-15; Luke 4: 24-30

Point for Dialogue #16: the Present and the Path we have trodden

All that Naaman had between him and his cure, was his ego! All that the people had between them and accepting Jesus as the Christ was the same ego and its senseless stubbornness. All that we have today between us and our inner joy, is our ego and its hardheadedness. 

When Naaman cleared himself of his ego and plunged into the humble waters of Jordan, the first reading says, "his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child and he was clean." What we need to do to counter our ego, is to take a closer and more realistic look at the child within us - our origins, our stages of growth, how dependent we were on people and how we would be nothing if not for so many wonderful hearts and souls who have made us what we are!

Jesus invites us precisely to this: to RETURN TO THE CHILD IN US; 'unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Reign of God', is Jesus' stand (cf. Mt 18:3). It is a realistic dialogue between who we are and who we were; between what we are and how we have made up to here; between our present and the path we have trodden so far, because on those pathways are strewn the wisdom that we need to go on with. 

How many times we forget the path we have trodden and allow our ego to take us on an unrealistic trip! How we forget the goodness of God that has sustained us thus far! How we throw away all the great riches we have experienced and go after some new found ego-boost that has come our way! How we can become so numb to all those who have helped us grow, and think we have grown all by ourselves! We will remember them all, only when we take a good look at the child within us.

Truly, when we are capable of undoing the ego and training our hearts to thirst for God, as the responsorial psalm reminds us, we will inherit the Reign of God.   

LIVING WITH THIRST - A DIALOGUE AT CRISIS

THE WORD IN LENT: 3rd Sunday

The Faith-skills during Crisis...

March 15, 2020: Exodus 17: 3-7; Romans 5: 1-2,5-8; John 4: 5-42

Life is beautiful, no doubt; but it never lacks its share of problems, difficulties, confusions, traps and temptations. These moments, world over, are being lived as moments of crisis, a health crisis, an epidemic crisis. The beauty lies precisely in the manner in which a person lives these moments more than the happier ones. Anyone claiming to be a person of faith, has to manifest a level of maturity that shows him or her capable of living with a constant thirst. The liturgy today invites us to get into a dialogue with our moments and experiences of difficulty; with the moments of crisis. And this dialogue will lead us to reflect on a crucial aspect of our faith life - learning to live with thirst. 

Life has its own patches of dryness and no one's life is an exception to it. The dryness is more severe in some, when compared to the others. What matters is not actually how much more or how much less, but how a person handles one's own share of dryness. Handling aridity in life is a faith-skill. We see the people of Israel in their driest patch of their history - the sojourn in the desert. They are brought forth from slavery across the Red Sea, with great and mighty signs and wonders. But once in the desert, they complain for every little thing lacking patience to the core. They long for the onions and garlic of Egypt, they long for the flesh and meat they once had in plenty, they fret that they are without a drop of water! 

It is easy to laugh at them or judge their impatience, but we will do well before that to think of ourselves and our lives. Issues in the family, the employment issues, the financial crisis, the relationship issues, sickness, misunderstanding...and now the fear and anxiety of the epidemic that threatens... as soon as a problem begins in our lives don't we begin to complain too? The Lord teaches us - to TURN TO THE ROCK, when struggling to handle aridity in life. Dying without water, the people get water from the least expected source... in the dry parched desert and worse still, a dry boulder of a rock in that desert. If we turn to the Lord, our Rock... we will see solutions to our problems, clarity to our confusions, help in our difficulties, from the least expected quarters. Let us turn to the Rock.

The second reading instructs us how to comport ourselves while feeling the thirst. When in the thick of a problem or in the eye of the storm, where do we fix our gaze? On the problem: that will only magnify the problem. On ourselves: that will only make us more and more depressed in self pity. On those who are without problems: that is only a deceptive perspective of the reality. 

Instead the Word invites us to fix our gaze on Christ, on the Lord who, even while we were undeserving sinners, was ready to lay down his life for us. Such is the love of God for us and should we fret when we are in a crisis? We are invited to TURN TO THE SPRING, to the saving grace that loves without measure, the love that has been "poured" into our hearts from that Spring. Christ becomes the spring from where we could receive the grace, which alone can quench our thirst and our longing for peace.

In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of a thirst with which we should all live! It is not the thirst for a material good, not a thirst for a interim peace, nor a thirst for a breath of relief but a thirst for eternal life, a thirst for perennial peace, a thirst for fullness of life - a life-giving thirst. He offers to give us the living water, the spring "gushing up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14). "All who are thirsty, come to me and drink" he declared elsewhere (Jn 7:37). 

We are called to live with that thirst, constantly longing for God. Like that deer that yearns for running streams, like the parched land that longs for rain, our soul should thirst for God, teaches the psalm (42). Let us thirst for God, let us thirst for a deeper and deeper relationship with God. let us thirst for the Spirit, let us thirst for the fruits of the Spirit, let us thirst for a life that is united with God, let us thirst for a life that is filled with God. 

Let nothing disturb us...let nothing separate us from God...hardships or distress or persecution or famine or perils or sword, not even death; let nothing separate us from God. Let these days of lent and the days or crisis that we are facing, help us to TURN TO A LIFE-IN-GOD. 

Decide to return to the Father's Heart

THE WORD IN LENT - 2nd week, Saturday

March 14, 2020: Micah 7:14-15,18-20; Luke 15: 1-3,11-32

Point for Dialogue #15: God's Faithfulness and Our faithfulness to God

Faithfulness of God to God's people is expressed in God's boundless mercy. We are called to be faithful, because God is faithful to us. Just as St. Paul writes to Timothy, even if we are faithless, God remains faithful (2 Tim 2:13). It is the faithfulness of God that inspires and gives us the strength to be faithful.

The first reading explains how this has always been so in history; and in the Gospel, Jesus presents this fact with a parable which  pictures the Father's heart with an incredible clarity: a heart that is forgiving, welcoming, compassionate, merciful, kind, unconditionally loving and absolutely faithful. 

The Word today invites a heartful dialogue between God's faithfulness and our faithfulness, not to only to remind us how undeserving we are, but above all to insist on the grace of God's closeness to us and God's unfailing love for us.

When once, I shared this with a group of youngsters, one of them asked - 'but why should God forgive me and why should God be so merciful?' The answer was so simple, 'because "God is Love" (1 Jn 4:8)'. It is not merely that God loves, but the fact is, God is Love! God is madly in love with us... and that immense love is greater than any of my sin, it is greater than any force that blocks me from getting closer to God. 

All that I need to do is to DECIDE like that son, "I will rise and go to my Father!"; all that I need to do today, is DECIDE to return to the Father's mercy; avail of the bountiful gift of forgiveness at the sacrament of reconciliation and be drenched in the mercy that flows from the Father's heart.

Life in God and our hidden thoughts

THE WORD IN LENT - 2nd week, Friday

March 13, 2020: Genesis 37: 3-4,12-13,17-28; Matthew 21: 33-43,45-46
Point for Dialogue #14: God's will and our selfish motivations

A common phrase we come across in the two readings of today is, "Come let us kill him". The world today is no different - there are people who are prepared to even kill the other, for the sake of achieving their ends: be it killing them literally, or  in sense of a character assassination or killing the dreams of the other, killing the prospects of the other... it is a clear demonstration of obstinacy of one's personal will. 

A reflection on this predicament of humanity leads us to a conscientious dialogue of ourselves with our innermost thoughts and motivations - whether what matters is my selfish will or God's holy will. When I surrender myself to God's will, I am certain of ensuring myself and to the entire humanity, real well being.

However intricately we plan and however clinically we execute it, we are bound to have a restlessness in our hearts that will overtake us at some point or other in life. We will experience true peace and serenity in our hearts, when and only when, we are able to surrender our lives and all its aspects into the hands of God, and live according to God's will, bearing the fruits expected of us and bearing witness to the unconditional love of God! 

When we surrender to God's will, we will rediscover the true meaning of life in God. 

Where do I draw my priorities and perspectives from?

THE WORD IN LENT - 2nd week, Thursday 

March 12, 2020: Jeremiah 17: 5-10; Luke 16: 19-31

Point for Dialogue #13: External Actions and Internal Motivations

Religious Commitment is not merely about rites, rituals, performances and practices! Christian faith is primarily about priorities. Even in our daily life, what we do first, what we give up for the sake of something or someone, what we choose over another, what we are ready to sacrifice for the sake of a particular reason, what we prefer over something else - all these are concrete indicators to what really matters to a person; his or her priorities!

Having the right priorities is essentially a grace from the Spirit - as it involves extraordinary sense of wisdom and discernment. And whether we have the right priorities is an obvious fact that can be easily gauged from the decisions and choices we make. But whether they are truly our priorities and whether we are truly convinced of it, is a matter of the heart, apart from oneself, God alone knows it - for God pierces the heart and knows our thoughts.

What the Word today leads us to is a sincere dialogue between what we do and why we do, between our external actions and the internal motivations. Because it is in this dialogue can we understand how far we are from ourselves. And the Word insists, what we would be judged for, is our unseen motivation and not our seen activities. Blessed is the one who has not much to cover between these two.

Life and all that it involves is a gift from God, and it makes meaning only as long as it is lived with that perspective clear and strong. At times the values that the times teach us, the priorities that the society promotes, makes us look at riches, comforts, social status, economic security, personal attachments as things that matter most. Taken well, these can bring us to realise, understand and cherish the giftedness involved. But taken amiss, they can confuse our priorities, as it happens with the rich man in today's parable. 

Jeremiah draws our attention to trees planted by the course of a river - without even anyone seeing they draw heavily from the river to live their daily life! That is what we could do too, to grow and flourish in grace and giftedness; draw from the Lord, our priorities and perspectives and that would certainly transport us to the bosom of Abraham.

Serving God or Using God?

THE WORD IN LENT - 2nd week, Wednesday

March 11, 2020: Jeremiah 18: 18-20; Matthew 20: 17-28

Point for Dialogue #12: God's will or Hidden Agenda

We are presented with two worldviews today - Jesus and Jeremiah representing one of the them, the people, the disciples and most of us (hopefully it is not all of us) today representing the other! The first is a worldview that comes from being connected to God; the other comes from using even God for our motives. The former is the logic of God's plan, while the latter is a logic of my hidden agenda! The first liberates, the other enslaves!

Look at Jeremiah, being plotted against. They were planning to get rid of him, not because he was evil, but because he was good, he was too good, he was putting them into discomfort always bringing in the point of view of God. And Jesus was condemned, as we know well, for having spoken what the One who sent him wanted him to. They were out to do God's will and they had to face the consequences.

Look at the other party involved... the people who wanted to get rid of Jeremiah, the people who condemned Jesus, the disciples who utterly failed to understand the real teachings of their Master and Lord... they were preoccupied with their plans in mind: getting rid of the disturbing prophet, getting rid of the prophetic Messiah, making use of their closeness to the Master to get positions of power, climbing the ladder and securing their career! 

The contrast that is shown here in the Word, challenges us to enter into a sincere dialogue between our call and claim to do God's Will and our agenda to win our own ends with the hidden agenda we have. At times this agenda is so crooked, that it tends to even "use" God, for our own advantages. See those who are trying to make a living in the name of God, who try to make their career in the name of God, who try to dominate and overpower others in the name of God. 

Whether we are out to serve or enjoy being served...that depends on whether we wish to do what God wants or we are intent on achieving our own ends. God's will or Hidden Agenda...which is my choice today?

Growing in integrity

THE WORD IN LENT - 2nd week, Tuesday

March 10, 2020: Isaiah 1: 10,16-20; Matthew 23: 1-12

Point for Dialogue #11: Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis

"Do what they tell you but do not do what they do" - how would I feel if someone said this of me! However, the world is not far from saying that to us Christians...when Mahatma Gandhi said, 'I like Christ, but not Christians', what he meant was exactly this: that we call ourselves Christ-ians, but we seem to be far, far away from the way of life that Christ stood for. Look at the in-fights we have and the kind of stand we take on very many issues. Are they not indicative of this hypocritical lacuna? 

My deeds have to speak the words of faith, and my faith has to be demonstrated by congruent and consistent deeds. This situates us at the centre of a dialogue between Orthodoxy or right belief and Orthopraxis or right living. Believing the right thing, understanding what I believe and my earnest effort to live daily what I believe, will lead me to doing the right thing and standing by right values. 

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis are two things that cannot be separated one from the other. Humility, Mercy, Forgiveness, Compassion and True Love...if these do not describe my person, I am no Christian! The more I grow in these, the more I grow to be a Christian. Have a look at those verbs that Isaiah presents to us today - wash, clean, learn, search, help, be just, plead, come, walk and listen! 

Often we pose a question: but what do I gain from doing the right things and standing by right values, apart from the problems and disadvantage that I get into? Not for any gain or not for any advantage, but not to lose the integrity of my person that I need to grow in these. Sans integrity, life as a Christian will be a farce! 

The integrity that Jesus had, gave him the authority to stand up and speak, be it in the Sanhedrin or to the Herodians or before the Roman Governor. If my Christian life has to have real meaning, I need absolutely to grow in integrity.

The real being good - from within

THE WORD IN LENT - 2nd week, Monday

March 09, 2020: Daniel 9: 4-10; Luke 6: 36-38

Point for Dialogue #10: tendencies of distraction and the ultimate vocation

Lent is not merely a moment of some rigorous self control but it is essentially a moment of enhancing our goodness, the goodness that lies deep within us because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Let us not exaggerate on the fact that we are called just to return to the dust from which we supposedly came, but let us realise that we are ultimately invited to become one with the eternal living God - the eternal life promised by God, through Christ the Son and our Saviour. 

The challenge therefore is to enter into a constant dialogue between our tendencies of distraction and the ultimate sense of vocation. Yes, we are called to grow in the image of God, that is placed within us as a potent seed. That is our vocation. There could be distractions and deviations that come our way. We cannot, in anyway, lose our orientation towards that ultimate call. 

Let us beware of some distractions and deviations. For instance, in being good or doing good, it is possible that we are guided by reasons like - expecting a good return or not incurring the wrath of justice; or we could be looking for an adulation or at least wishing to present a picture of a good self to the others! Be it positive or negative, a distraction is a distraction and a deviation always misleads.

The most Christian of all disposition is to be good, because it is my vocation; to do good because it is my essential nature! Being good, merciful and holy because the Lord who has made me, is good merciful and holy - that is the real meaning of being good! It is not for anything or anyone, but because I am made so. This is Being good from within and this will never be taken away from me, come what situation may. 

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.