Counting no cost

THE WORD IN LENT - 5th week, Friday

April 3, 2020: Jeremiah 20: 10-13; John 10: 31-42                                                             

Point for Dialogue #30: the crowd of evil and the grace of good.                                                                                                                                                      

Dedication to God's mission and distress are at times inseparable, as the world has forces working intently against God and anything pertaining to God. Apart from that some so-called natural calamities and crisis (I prefer to say so-called natural, because in the final analysis it is we humans who would have created it, in a dominoes effect), that crop up, like the one we are through right now, and challenge that dedication and affinity to God. 

"We must be on the guard against the presence of evil in the world," reminds the Holy Father. Explicitly or indirectly, we are bound to face oppositions, criticism, discouragement and disparaging attacks, when we choose to stand by God and carry God's message to others. If for long we do not find any opposition, it would be high time to review whether we are really doing God's mission, carrying out the design as laid out by God. 

Both Jeremiah and Jesus chose to stand by God and they were derided, tortured, were considered liable unto death. But they were unmoved, unperturbed; they counted no cost and were prepared for anything for the sake of God's will. In my anguish I called to you and you answered me O Lord, they prayed! But what was the answer - death! It did not matter for them, as long as it came within the plan of God and this, the very death, became a saving grace! 

Hence the call today is to  initiate a dialogue within us, between the tendency to fear the crowd, be bogged down by them and follow them to perdition and the courage to stand by good, listen to God, and count no cost.  

Would we be able to repeat what Jesus says in the Gospel today: the Father is in me and I am in the Father. We would be able to do, if only we are ready not to count the cost when it comes to love for the Lord and commitment to the Lord!

The sense of Eternity

THE WORD IN LENT - 5th week, Thursday

April 2, 2020: Genesis 17:3-9; John 8:51-59
Point of Dialogue #29: The passing existence and the lasting eternity

It would have been a shocker, when Jesus said, "Before ever Abraham was, I AM." In this, apart from the statement on the divine participation of Jesus in the One who sent him, there is an important message for each of us and our identity. Specially when we are so absorbed in our fear and anxiety of the situation around, the spreading disease and the threatening death!

The first reading establishes the foundation for this message, as it reminds us of the covenant made with Abraham. We are made sons and daughters of God, in faith. And Jesus assures that, 'if we keep the covenant; if we keep the Word; we will always be sons and daughters of the Lord; we will partake in the eternal life of God.' The Jews were unable to understand that part of it, because they did not have an idea of the eternal life that Jesus was speaking of. 

For us today, it should not be anymore as strange as it was for the Jews. Because Jesus has proved it for us in his own life, death and resurrection - that paschal mystery invites a dialogue between our momentary anxieties and the never failing hope, the passing existence and our lasting eternity.

We believe in resurrection and in life everlasting! And what matters within eternity is not who came first and who came next, but what relationship and what intensity of commitment one shows in relating to God our Father and Mother, who loves us into existence and watches over us every moment. Come what may, discomfort or disease or even death...what matters is that eternal, timeless, unchanging, absolute relatedness to God. 

For Jesus, that relatedness was absolute; that defined everything that mattered to him! And it is to that same absolute sense of relatedness to God, that Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters... it comes with a strong sense of eternity!

In Integrity... He shall walk with you!

THE WORD IN LENT - 5th week, Wednesday

April 1, 2020: Daniel 3: 14-20,91-92,95; John 8: 31-42
Point for Dialogue #28: Private priorities and Public manifestations

'Truth will set you free', declares Jesus today. And if Jesus were to have been asked to define what he meant by Truth, he would have said, 'Truth is what is'... It's no mere philosophy, it is a Spirituality! Remain with that statement a little longer and reflect on it...

Truth is what is, and it never changes. No situation, no circumstance, no crisis will ever change it; if they manage to change it, it had never been the Truth. Compromises, justifications, manipulations, adjustments, conveniences and inconveniences... these considerations at times, drive us away from truth and we experience a sort of split life, split between what we profess and what we practice, between what we believe and how we behave, between what we say and what we are! 

Hence the Word today underlines an essential dialogue that has to take place between the image of myself that I wish to give others and the real me that I nurture within me; a dialogue between my unseen private priorities and my public functional manifestations.

The absence of that split is called Integrity. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were persons of Integrity and no one doubted them on that. Neither were they ready to give up their identity. And they found God walking beside; it was cool in the furnace. In the midst of the crisis we are living through these days, if only we wish to sense the Lord walking beside us, we need to grow in our personal integrity - giving up on the gap between what we say and what we do, what we believe and how we behave. 

Let us heed the call of the Liturgy today...to heal ourselves of all splits that we may learn to live in integrity of life, an integrity that would set us free. In integrity, the Lord shall walk beside us, all our life. 

To be people "from above"

THE WORD IN LENT - 5th week, Tuesday

March 31, 2020: Numbers 21:4-9; John 8:21-30
Point for Dialogue #27: Standards of the world and Standards of Christ

To look to what is lifted up or the one who is lifted up, or in short, to be people 'from above', is the crux of the Word today. 

The first reading speaks of the bronze serpent that was made and lifted up and that anyone bitten by the serpent who looked to it, lived. In the Gospel Jesus speaks of himself, that when he is lifted up, the world will really know him. The readings invite us to take seriously a dialogue between the standards of the world and the standards of Christ, between what is from around and what is from above, in our daily life. 

Jesus invites us too to be lifted up, in our thinking, in our attitudes, in our priorities and in our perspectives. He challenges us to be 'people from above'...that is, to have the mind of Christ, as St.Paul puts it in his letters (Phil 2:5). Do not conform to this world, but in Spirit become an acceptable living sacrifice, St. Paul would instruct elsewhere (Rom 12:2). This is what it means to be people from above!

To look at God and the relationship I have with God, in the same way as Christ looked at; to look at my brothers and sisters, with compassion, empathy and commitment, as Jesus did; to look at everything that happens to us and around us, from the perspective of the Reign of God as Jesus did: this is what Jesus means when he says, "I belong to what is above" (Jn 8:23). And we need to belong to it too, to what is from above.

Let us not give into small talks, gossips, prejudices, judgments, selfishness, rancour, greed or anything of that sort. Let us turn to look to what is above, thus enabling ourselves to be people from above. Thus we will be worthy to repeat Jesus' words: 'I always do what is pleasing to Him."

The meaning of Christian Empathy

THE WORD IN LENT - 5th week, Monday

March 30, 2020: Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62; Jn 8: 1-11
Point for Dialogue #26: Our self-pity and insensitivity!

"Slow to anger and abounding in love", those are the attributes oft repeated about God. If we have to speak of our tendencies today, we should put it this way: 'Quick to judge and totally merciless!' Regardless of who the person involved is, it has become a culture to pass unjust judgments, circulate untrue gossips and entertain unwanted evaluations. Nowadays with the thought of the pandemic around, 'the other' is more and more defined and seen as a threat, a threat that could infect you, a threat that could cause you sickness and even death.. Is it truly a Christ-ian attitude? 

The first reading tells us - even if the whole world around you joins together to tear a person into pieces, you stand aloof and act by the Spirit. The Gospel reminds us - even if it were true that a person has made a mistake, give the person another chance, for God has been endlessly patient with you! Aren't these truly Christ-ian attitudes?

The Word today invites us to deepen a dialogue within us between our tendency to expect everyone to stand by us when we are in trouble and our eagerness to stay clear of any trouble when it comes to  standing for someone in their times of trouble, a dialogue between our self-pity and insensitivity! 

And these are possible only when we empathise with the affected person. Christ empathised with the woman brought to be stoned, he empathised with Zacchaeus, with Matthew the tax collector, with the Samaritan woman at the well, with Peter who denied his master... Christian Empathy, does not approve of the wrong doing or the limitation, but loves and respects the person who is involved. That love and respect, inspires the person to 'Go and sin no more.' 

PREPARE FOR A TRANSFORMATION - THE DIALOGUE OF THE PEOPLE OF LIFE

THE WORD IN LENT - 5th Sunday

The Call to be People of Life
March 29, 2020: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

The signs of life are newness, change, growth, freshness, development, and all of them put together, Transformation. We are called to be People of Life, people who are prepared for a transformation, through sufferings and struggles. This message comes out very strongly in the current context - with the world wide lock down and the so called Social Quarantine! Even apart from this, being people of life is not that easy today, because we live surrounded by a culture of Death. 

Death is signified by a state of stand still, a state of no change, a state of decay, a state of giving up, a state of discouragement - if we are going to look at this situation as an isolation, as a punishment, as a terrifying threat to self preservation, we are giving right into that culture of death. The world today is filled with these signs - there seems to be a panic, a self-centered survival instinct unleashed everywhere, a objectifying look that makes everyone other than me a virus out to attack me! Are these signs of a people of life? Can a Christ-ian take this stand towards life?

The Word today invite us to enter into a dialogue proper to the People of Life... because we are children of the God of Life. There is constantly the conflict between the forces of Life and those of death, right before our eyes, in our very own lives, in daily situations and the choices we have to make concretely. If we are people of life, we shall enter into a dialogue of life, being prepared for a transformation. When the Lord promises new life, it does not come out of nothing, not without the process that we have to put ourselves through, not without the struggle, the effort, the self-giving that we need to be prepared for. It is a kind of Spiritual Alchemy that gives rise to a real transformation within. The Lent, and this time of pandemic crisis, is a moment to prepare ourselves for a Transformation.

IN FAITH: God gives us life and constantly renews us. Life is not our making, it is a gift! The more we realise that the more grateful we shall become and the more responsible we would grow in handling it. The first reading, invites us to reflect through Prophet Ezekiel, the gift of Life that is given to us by the very author of life, that is God. I shall give you my Spirit and you shall live, says the Lord. 

In faith we have a relationship built between God and us: You shall be my people and I shall be your God...that is the alliance that God has made with us, and is faithful to. You shall be my children and I shall be your father and mother; You shall be my flock and I shall be your shepherd; You shall be my beloved and I shall fill you with my love..says the Lord. Today the Lord promises us amidst all the darkness of the world and the shadow of death, to fill us with God's Spirit and make us live. As those dry bones, gathered together and stood up to life, so can we rise up in this world as people of life, IN FAITH.

IN HOPE: We are constantly challenged and threatened by the darkness that surrounds us, as the darkness that surrounded Lazarus in the tomb. Just as we are crying out to the Lord, "Lord its been four months the world is grinding through this epidemic crisis," we see the people there telling Jesus, "Lord it's been four days since he has been laid there." Four days...the Jews believed that from the fourth day after death, the process of decay began. The decayed body comes to life, the situation of total hopelessness is brought to life by the Hope of Resurrection.

In hope we need to behold what Jesus declares: I am the Life and Resurrection. In Baptism we are all united to the death of Christ on the Cross, and that gives us the hope of sharing the Resurrection of the Lord. We are called to live as People of life, people who look to the light, people who look up to resurrection, people who are filled with joy and optimism, people who are prepared to be Transformed IN HOPE.

IN LOVE: If we are people of life, it has to be seen in our daily life, in our constant transformation... we cannot live a life that is like anybody else and call ourselves people of life. We cannot grumble and mourn like everyone and call ourselves people of life. We cannot give up and groan like the rest of the world and call ourselves people of life. We cannot panic and get frustrated looking at the suffering, and call ourselves people of life. We cannot look at people as viruses and call ourselves people of life. We cannot become insensitive to the most affected, just because we are also affected, and still call ourselves people of life. We cannot just succumb to sinfulness and evil and still call ourselves people of life. 

In love, when we decide to live our lives, as St. Paul makes it clear in the second reading today...we are to live our life in the Spirit, not the life of flesh. Life in the Spirit is filled with light, radiance, joy and above all, Love. The Spirit of the Risen Lord has to fill our life and thus we will be light to the nations, witness of God's love to the people around, testimonies of the Resurrection that is promised to us and signs of the eternal life that we are called to. The foundation is love...to live a life that is filled with love, love for God who loves us abundantly and love for our brothers and sisters, with respect, dignity, sensitivity and solidarity with every child of God. We will stand for, radiate and uphold life as people of life, IN LOVE.

Let us heed the call that the Word gives us today: to be prepared to be transformed into people of life, in faith, in hope and in love. Turning to the God of life in Faith, returning to the Life and Resurrection that is Jesus Christ in Hope and transforming ourselves to live these moments of trial in the Spirit, in true Love. Let these moments, not be moments of mere isolation or alienation; let these be moments of true internal and communitarian transformation.  

To look for Truth in love

THE WORD IN LENT - 4th week, Saturday

March 28, 2020: Jeremiah 11:18-20; John 7: 40-53
Point for Dialogue #25: Our Goodness and the Goodness in the Other

"Then each went to his own house" - that is how the Gospel passage of today ends (v.53)! In spite of the witnesses who saw that there was something extraordinary in Jesus, in spite of the good that Jesus accomplished, in spite of the wonderful things that they saw, the pharisees took pride that they did not give into believing Jesus. This is the danger that we have to fight every day! We prefer to be in our safe homes, than get out and get to know what the Lord wants to reveal to us. This why Pope Francis keeps crying out for a Church that is in movement, a people of God who are constantly open to the revelations of the Lord in every day events and encounters.

The meaning of pride is not merely lack of humility, but it is lack of openness to truth! When one is open to Truth, one is ready to face struggles, persecutions and threats to stand by that truth, as Jeremiah tells us in the first reading. When one is stubbornly closed up against anything other than what he or she knows, one is locked up in "one's own house." We are called by the Word today to enter into a dialogue between our eagerness to be right and our earnest search of truth; between our belief that we are good and our capacity to see the good in the other. 

The experience of Massah and Meribah where the people tested the Lord because of their stubbornness of heart, is what continued in Jesus' life as they refused to understand who Jesus was. In fact, it continues even today, when we are selective in our perceptions and choosy in our reflections. We take what is convenient for us and neglect what is not.

Truth does not matter to us as much as living without trouble. Truth does not matter to us as much as having everyone nod to our thinking and choice. When they don't agree, we tend to neglect them, sideline them, persecute them, hate them, or at least ignore them! Is this a Christian attitude? What do we prefer, to return to our own house, our own thinking, our own fixed judgements as soon as possible, or to truly look for the Truth in love?

Transformation - True Knowledge of God

THE WORD IN LENT - 4th week, Friday

March 27, 2020: Wisdom 2: 1A,12-22; John 7: 1-2,10,25-30.
Point for Dialogue #24: Mind for Information and the Spirit of Transformation

The prime question today in the liturgy is "knowing God"... what kind of knowing is truly knowing, when it comes to the knowledge of God? What matters most is not knowing about God, but knowing God. Are we aware of the difference between knowing about God and knowing God? Are we even mindful of the fact that there is a difference! 

Knowing about, is information and Knowing, is transformation. These days going through the crisis of the present pandemic, we see every day (also because people are all shut down into their houses) a flood of information - right, wrong and worthless alike. People look for it and keep spreading it... simply because the human mind is curious for information. Will those information alone save the situation? Coming back to the theme of the Word today...

Knowing philosophical concepts and theological finer points is merely information, but allowing those to affect our lives, forming our values based on those and living a life that is coherent to our beliefs is more than mere knowledge; it is more than just knowing about God; it is knowing God! The Word invites us today for a dialogue between that curiosity of our mind for information and the readiness of our spirit for transformation.

The people in the Gospel today, knew so much about God, but they did not know God when God really lived and moved amidst them. Knowing the biblical verses by heart and quoting them in season and out of season, reflecting on the depths of theological ruminations and reaching the heights of mystical formulations will not guarantee true knowledge of God. 

Jesus says of God: "I know the Father because I am from the Father" and that is the true knowledge of God. Knowing God is to belong to God, to be open to God's promptings, to listen to the Word and to see God's will in it, ever ready to accept, live and stand for God's plan, will and design. To carry out God's will is the direct route to true happiness; it arises from right rapport with God translated into right, respectful, just, genuine and loving relationships, in our daily living. 

Remaining with the Truth - compromise versus commitment!

THE WORD IN LENT - 4th week, Thursday

March 26, 2020: Exodus 32: 7-14; John 5: 31-47
Point for Dialogue #23: Impatience of mind and Endurance of the will

Testifying to oneself, others testifying, God testifying, the Word testifying... testifying to the Truth is an important element of Christ-ian Spirituality. Jesus speaks of all these today in the Gospel. The point he makes is: a hard-hearted person will never see the truth, however clearly it might be presented. 

Human mind gets too easily tired of seeking the truth! It prefers to ask the question 'what is truth' (as Pilate asked) and much worse the question, 'is there a truth', without really making all the efforts to ask the question, 'how best can I get to it?' The call here is to set a dialogue up between my impatience to hold on to something immediate and my endurance to remain in the draught until I get the closest possible to the truth, that is, between an easy compromise and an enduring commitment.

The people of Israel in the first reading are an ample illustration of the lot that easily gives into compromise, so impatient in mind. In spite of the wonders that they witnessed in Egypt, at the red sea and in the desert, they had the hardness of heart to settle with the gods made of their own hands - just because they could not wait, they could not endure the time that Moses was taking, they could not wait on the Lord anymore! 

Confusions of our daily life, troubles of our regular days, temptations amidst our ordinary experiences, struggles to carry out one's duties, and intense experiences like the one we are through these day with the health crisis  - these can some times make us forget the Truth that we have always experienced. 

Deserting one's faith, abandoning one's traditions, going in search of easy substitutes for the cherished experiences of life... things of these sorts are nothing strange to the world today. It is simply because, the human mind is so impatient and prefers compromise to commitment! How well founded is our faith expreience? In whom have we placed our hope? Let us recommit ourselves to endure any situation to remain always close to the Truth!

Plan, Project and Proclamation

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

March 25, 2020: Solemnity of Annunciation

Isaiah 7: 10-14,8:10; Hebrew 10:4-10; Luke 1: 26-38

God's salvific plan is an eternal design in God's endless love for us, the children of God. The feast of Annunciation is beautiful reminder of how every little thing that happens fits into the wonderful design of God. 

Inspite of the undeserving nature of persons as depicted by Ahaz episode in the first reading, inspite of the impossibility of conditions as expressed by Mary in the Gospel scene, inspite of the improbability of human calculations as evinced by the example of the aged Elizabeth, God's plan of salvation works, and works for the good of those who love God (cf. Phil 8:28). Looking at the situation that the world is facing right now - the crisis of the pandemic... we look at how helpless we are, how weak and vulnerable we are, how suspicious and dangerous we could grow to each other. Everything looks grim and gloomy but it is only a faithful heart that can behold the streak of light that comes through that gloom!

That which makes it possible is the willingness to carry out God's will. St. Paul affirms in his letter to the Romans, as one man's disobedience brought death into this world, so does one man's submission to God's will bring salvation to the entire human race! (Cf. Rom 5:19) Mary, is presented today as the type, the model, for human cooperation! We see in Mary's 'yes', the human version of the obedience of the Word Incarnate: "Behold, I come to do your will". She brings it much more closer and makes it more compelling on us, to listen to God's word, treasure it in our hearts and carry it out to the details, to be persons totally dedicated to live the will of God on a daily basis. 

In God's eternal plan, there is a project made for each of us and every time we cooperate with the plan of God, we proclaim in our own way the majesty of God's love for humanity, as does Mary today in her fiat.