We and the Holy Spirit...

WORD 2day: Thursday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 23, 2020: Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36

The presence and coming of the Spirit and witnessing to the Lord and his resurrection, are very closely knit and that is what the Word brings out today. If we have to witness to the salvation that we have experienced in the Lord - firstly, it is possible only with the Spirit: for no one can proclaim that Jesus is Lord except through the Spirit. Secondly, it is the Spirit that makes the witness efficacious. 

When we submit to the Lord, the Father fills us with the Spirit says Jesus today in the Gospel...and that is what is needed utmost in our lives. It is happily surprising to see the way the Apostles looked at, understood and related with the Spirit... in the Word today we have an interesting and inspiring episode. 

The Apostles declare, 'We and the Holy Spirit are witnesses to these things!' It was not so easy for them to witness to the Lord until a particular point of time in their lives, when everything changed. There was something within them, with them and around them, that made them extraordinarily strong, fearless and passionate about the Lord. It was so clear for them that it was the Spirit. Indeed, for them the Spirit was someone who lived with them, within them - just like anyone of them. That is why they spoke of the Spirit as one who lived with them, to be taken count of: we and the Holy Spirit.

Today, our Christian witness would go a long way in bringing the Lord to the people and bringing the people to the Lord, if the Spirit becomes our constant life companion, as someOne who lives with us!

Conformity or Conflict? Conviction or Convenience?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 22, 2020: Acts 5:17-26; John 3:16-21

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light; whoever lives the truth comes to the light! Light is given as an imagery of openness, transparency, outspokenness, integrity, conviction and courage. Darkness is hiding, double play, people pleasing, hypocrisy, convenience and comfort seeking.

The world contains four categories of people in relation to right things. 

The first category are those who do the right - they are people of Light, courageous and convinced. The second category are those who assist those who do the right - they are people for the the Light, convinced and seeking the truth! 

The third type are those who hinder anyone doing the right, these are people tending towards darkness and they stand for spreading that darkness. There is the fourth category, and the worst - they are those who are involved in doing the evil directly and acting against any light! We find all the four categories referred to in the readings today. 

The primary call we have today is to analyse our choices, our preferences and our priorities and see for ourselves, sincerely, to which of these four categories we would belong. Secondly, there is a lesson for us today, that while we strive to be people of the light and do the right, we can come across persons of all the four categories. What would our reaction be? What would guide our response in situations such as these... 

Conformity? or Conflict? or Conviction? or Convenience? 

Life in the Spirit

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 21, 2020: Acts 4:32-37; John 3:7b-15

Unless you are born in the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God...but how do you see that one is born in the Spirit? It is only through the life that is lived. There can be no space between belief and life... we are expected to live what we believe and what we believe has to be translated into our lives. That is the essence of a Christ-like life, the formula for life in the Spirit. 

What do you call those who claim to be people of the Spirit but have their selfish interests, hidden agenda and connived plots? How about those who consider themselves 'very religious and pious' who panic at the earliest pressures, lose heart at the easiest of burdens and give up at the first of trying situations? How do you understand some one who is deemed by the society as an atheist or an agnostic, but is ready to even give his or her life for the wellbeing of the other and for the common good? Isn't there a paradox involved here? That paradox is the secret... the Spirit is like the wind that you know not where it comes from and where it goes... but you feel it, your experience it, you sense it!

Life in the Spirit has to be verified on a daily basis. As Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruits; so the signs of our life in the Spirit has to be seen in our day to day choice for love, our capacity for sharing, our willingness to give up for the sake of the Lord, our readiness to think of the other before ourselves and our sense of oneness in the Risen Lord!

Let us examine our daily choices: do they reflect a life in the Spirit? Or are we living a life born from below? Let us be born from above, let us be born of the Spirit! Let us continuously grow in our life in the Spirit.

Let the earth be shaken up!

WORD 2day: Monday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 20, 2020: Acts 4:23-31; John 3:1-8

With Christ having risen from the dead and the disciples having realised its effects, history opens to the next phase! The people of God who were made into Easter people, now get ready to put on another identity as the people of the Spirit... "a Spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline" (2 Tim 1:7). 

It is like asking the believers to grow up and take charge, not to live in the shadow of fear and timidity but to speak up with courage the Good news of the Lord. It is like we are challenged today with this crisis: how are you going to rise up from here? what is this contagion and the resultant suffering and anxiety going to do to you? Is it going to dominate you and make you a totally defeated person or are you waiting to spring back to joy, optimism and renewal? 

If we have to come back with new life, that needs a transformation - a real, total, concrete personal transformation leading to a transformation as a believing community. The courage and the conviction of faith of a true believer will shake the earth, describes the readings today. People have to look at us and wonder, how do they manage it: optimism in the face of suffering, hope in the face of anxiety, love in the face of all the turmoil that could come their way!

Let the earth be shaken up today, because of our convictions. Let the humanity which seems to be on a down-slide with regard to its spirit, and more regard to its values and morals, be shaken up because of our Spirit-filled lives. Let us not be overcome by evil; but let us overcome evil with Good (cf. Rom 12:21).

MERCY - THE MARK OF A CHRISTIAN

The Identity, the Source and the Embodiment

2nd Sunday of Easter: April 19, 2020
Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20: 19-31

This Sunday is liturgically called the Low Sunday which marks the end of the Easter Octave. "A week later" or "eight days later", indicates the Gospel today; it was a week later that Jesus appears to all the eleven, including Thomas and patiently, mercifully and lovingly leads them to true faith. The feast of Divine Mercy was instituted and fixed for this day by the  Pope Saint John Paul II, who was very much attached to this devotion, inspired by the Polish saint Sr. Faustina and her visions.  The central message of this Sunday is - MERCY!

The first reading speaks of how the early community of Christians becomes a mighty witness to the Lord. They were the epitome of the command that Jesus gave, 'be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful'. Mercy becomes their way of life, or rather their renewed way of life. As a mark of being a Christian, mercifulness to each other specially to those in need, becomes the point of attraction for many...and as the reading goes - the Lord added to their number everyday! Mercy is the high point of Christian identity. We do not gainsay that in anyway, but what matters most is how it is lived on a daily basis. It begins with our life at home: with our dear ones, elderly parents, sickly loved ones, troublesome children, rebellious youngsters... how is our relationship? What level of patience and acceptance do we manifest? These days with the lockdown and the quarantine, our patience must have been tested to its limit... what have we discovered about ourselves, about our levels of mercy, towards ourselves and towards others?

The Second reading speaks to us of the Source of mercy, God the father of Jesus Christ who in mercy sent the only Son for our salvation! The Mercy of God is given to us as an example and a scale to measure our "genuineness of faith"! Preaching and believing in high ideals of love and compassion, if we but hate people and divide families, envy others and detest their wellbeing... we are far far away from God, the God of Mercy and compassion. This is one of the loudest messages that Pope Francis wants the entire world to hear - you cannot call yourself a Christian nation, or Christian society, or Christian community and speak of war, division, discrimination, exploitation, retaliation and so on. What a shame to call ourselves 'Christian' and still stick to these terms of thinking and acting. Do you think blaming it on others who provoke such act or attitude, would justify this tendency in anyway?

Jesus' encounter with the disciples after his resurrection manifests a special quality of mercy... it is an encounter that is full of unlimited forgiveness and unconditional love! There is no demand that the disciples have to render an account for having abandoned Jesus at the crucial moment of suffering, for having betrayed him or having denied him!  There is no accusation that they refused to believe in Christ and his resurrection in spite of the numerous times and ways in which they had been taught about it. There is no taking to task Thomas and others who were stubborn in their unbelief even after multiple testimonies! All that Jesus does is, tell the disciples that he was always with them and invite them to be his witnesses throughout the world. That is the Embodiment of the mercy of God in the incarnate Son, the mercy which dwelt among us in flesh and blood and dwells among us today in the Spirit. Mercy, hence, has to be lived today in forgiveness and love; there can be no place for grudge and grievance, envy and slander, cheating and stealing, killing and enmity. 

In a world that is weighed down by exploitation of the weak, domination of the powers, threats of the arrogant, indifference of the affluent, selfishness of the elite - Mercy has to be exercised and manifested in our proclamation of the true Gospel: the liberation of the captives, the consolation of the suffering, the restoration of the exploited and the dignity of every human person. The Joy of the Gospel has to be announced to the whole world, calling the exploiting lot to justice and the exploited hearts to God's goodness.

At a time when persons are used and things are loved, relationships are strategised and families are sacrificed, marriages despised and commitments belittled - Mercy has to take the form of daily forgiveness and authentic love for persons, mutual acceptance of weaknesses and humble admittance of mistakes, loving care of the affected and reaching out to the weak: that is what a family is all about. It is in families that the Mercy of God has to be first infused today. The Joy of Loving each other has to fill this world with the presence of God and the real mercy that upholds personal and interpersonal dignity.

Amidst crisis that we are going through at this moment, let us not forget the various other crises we were fighting already before this COVID-19 episode began - the depleting water resource, the escalating pollution, the fossil fuel issue, the extinction of beings, the imbalanced accumulation of wealth, the deprivation of the powerless and so many others - Mercy has to take the form of loving the creation, every aspect of it, from the perspective of the Creator, the attitude of giving praise to the Lord by caring for our common home... that is true and practical Mercy.

As we celebrate the Divine Mercy of Jesus... let us understand and accept Mercy as our mark of identity as God's own children, the distinctive character of persons who call themselves Christians! Let us be merciful as our heavenly father is merciful, every day of our lives.

To be recognised as his companions

SATURDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

April 18, 2020: Acts 4:13-21; Mark 16:19-15

"They recognised them as companions of Jesus", says a verse (13) in the first reading today. From the things that happened around them, from the words that the disciples were proclaiming and from the life that they were living, 'they recognised them as companions of Jesus.' 

Mark summarises the week after Easter in the passage that we read today in the Gospel. Again, the crux is to speak of, to announce, to proclaim Christ, whom they have experienced. Mary of Magdala 'went and told his companions'; the two of them 'returned and told'... Finally the Lord gives us the command: Go and Proclaim!

The two fold call that we have today is... 

First, to identify ourselves as companions of Jesus, to know that we are walking everyday with the Lord, that we are not alone on our life's journey and that all that happens in our daily experience has a tremendous impact on ourselves and others; that we need to be attentive to every little thing that is happening and see what the One who is with us wishes to communicate to us in and through them - specially in experiences like what we are going through these days. 

Secondly, the call is to 'proclaim'...to begin with, through our mindsets, attitudes and lifestyle and then explicitly through our words and speech. Look at the statement of the apostles at the Sanhedrin, "it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard!" It was so strong in them that they could not but talk about it - if we do not speak of God, or manifest our attachement to God, could it be that we have really had no strong experience with God? It is an important element to think about. 

Here is the point: have we seen and heard, that is experienced Jesus personally? How compelling a need is it for me to speak of Jesus to others? Are we really filled with the zeal to stand for Christ and speak of Christ todayy? Only if we feel that strong bond with the person of Christ, will the world ever recognise us as his companions, his friends, his associates, his disciples, his ambassadors. 

In whose name?

FRIDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

April 17, 2020: Acts 4:1-12; Luke 21:1-14

In whose name?...that is the crucial question today in the readings. The question was alive and agitating in Jesus' times, as every one kept asking him in whose name was he doing all that he was doing! The question lingers on even today, as each of us live our Christian call - in whose name do we do all that we do! 

The first reading while notifying us of how the apostles were posed with that question, explains to us how the rejected stone turns into the corner stone, a name which they wanted to wipe off from the history of humankind was rewriting history. There is a twofold lesson given to us here:

One, to grow to be cornerstones and the other, to recognise our corner stone, here and now!

We are called to imitate the life of the Corner Stone, becoming ourselves corner stones to the Reign that the Lord wishes to establish within us and through us. Just as Jesus lived to do the will of the one who sent him, we are called to discover the unique plan that God has for us and live it to the full. Just as Jesus was who he was and did what he did, all in the name of his Father - so are we called to do everything in Jesus' name, that we become, grow to be the corner stones that humankind needs today to stay firm. 

Secondly, we need to readily recognise the corner stone of our lives, the Risen Lord Jesus! That feeling, "it is the Lord" and the readiness to jump into the waters of daily life to encounter the Risen Lord standing on the shore, are but just two of the many compelling examples that the apostles and their early communities give us. How prepared are we to recognise our corner stone and accept Him to be truly our firm foundation: it is the Lord! How ready are we to jump into the chores and anxieties of our daily life, certain that the Lord awaits us on the other bank!

When we live our life "in His name" on a daily basis... we not only recognise the corner stone of our life but also train ourselves to be corner stones that create communities of joy and hope, wherever we are and in whichever situation we are!

A Roadmap to being Witnesses

THURSDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

April 16, 2020: Acts 3:11-26; Luke 24:35-48

You are witnesses of these things...says the Gospel today. We are witnesses of the great works that the Lord has done in and through us! Just imagine, how many decades we will be recounting the stories of these days - the days of crisis, quarantine, the lockdown and the closure of all institutions including the churches! As trues sons and daughters of God and the disciples of the Risen Lord, we are called to witness to something different! And the readings today give us three steps towards being such witnesses. It would do us good to reflect on these steps.

To see - The first reading reports the discourse of the apostles to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem after the cure of the crippled man. This is the first step: to see our history through the eyes of faith. They were able to interpret things from the past, the things of history from a new light - the light of faith. How prepared and capable are we to see things and interpret them the true light of faith?

To be Challenged - The second step is to be challenged by understanding history from the perspective of faith. It does not begin actually with interpreting for others, but primarily from within oneself - sincerely being critical with oneself. The apostles who deserted Jesus, hid themselves away and looked to escape into their past, were challenged by the Risen Lord as we see in the Gospel. And they accepted the challenge and managed to understand, relearn everything that happened, from the perspective of faith that Jesus opened up to them.

To Challenge - The call, thirdly, is to challenge the others towards a commitment of faith! What Peter does today is not to accuse the Jews of anything, but challenging them towards a personal experience of the Risen Christ. He was mindful of the weak person that he was, the act of cowardice that he fell in to in moments of crisis - but he has risen from those moments and now he is able challenge his own brothers and sisters. We need to become aware of our moments of weaknesses, grow out of them and never cease to challenge each other to perfection - only through that we can become true witnesses.

To see, to be challenged and to challenge - that is the road map to be true witnesses!

Recognising the Risen Lord

WEDNESDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

April 15, 2020: Acts 3:1-10; Luke 24: 13-35

To know that Christ is with you, is an incomparable potential. I shall be with you till the end of times, is the promise that Christ gives and keeps! Regardless of whether we realise it or not, acknowledge it or not, recognise it or not, the presence goes with us.  In moments such as what we are going through right now, in a situation health crisis all over the world, do we really make the effort to realise the divine presence with us!

The two disciples on the way to Emmaus, did not recognise Jesus nor acknowledge his presence. Peter and John, were mindful of the fact they had nothing much to offer on their own. The disciples walk all the way back to Jerusalem and the apostles make extraordinary things happen, the moment they become aware of the presence of the Risen Christ with them. 

But we can see what really made them realise that presence... the breaking of the bread. Just look back how during these days of the Holy week the catholic families all over the world, broke bread in their homes as a Universal Church lead by their caring pastors.... weren't they truly moments to recognise the presence of the Lord amidst us, right where we were! That is the presence that the Risen Lord wants us to experience and live by, draw strength from and share with others. 

When I know and am conscious of the presence of the Lord with me, I become capable of living life with an incredible serenity! The Lord's presence with me is a gift; recognising it on a daily basis, is my responsibility! 

My father and your father

TUESDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

April 14, 2020: Acts 2: 36-41; John 20:11-18

"My father and your father" - what a beautiful expression to hear from Jesus today. The first reading presents repentance and baptism as a way of being accepted as children of the God who raised Jesus from the dead: Jesus' father and our father. Our faith is all about relationship: the relationship of a covenant that has been lived from eternity, between God and God's own.

There is a problem that sometimes faith can be reduced to what has to be carried out as an obligation, as demands, without really understand why something is done and what is being accomplished is the process of doing it. It is a sad situation to behold that rules and regulations take the dominant place in these considerations - and not the persons who are involved - me and my God! Me and my God - that is where the relationship begins!

There is another danger that a true Easter faith warns us of. At times our vision of God can be blurred, when we are too focused on our own whims and fancies and are stuck to our own selfish desires and decisions. Openness to hear what the Lord wants to communicate, is fundamentally the openness to a strong relationship with God, which presumes a cordial, responsible and loving relationship with each other, with one's brothers and sisters in Christ.

Fundamentally, this is what the Risen Lord and the Easter faith wishes to communicate to us: fix you gaze on your relationship with God, the person of God, the person who loves you without ceasing, the person who has given up everything for your sake - even oneself in the Son who was sacrificed. Jesus calls that person: My father and your father!