To be called Christians

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 4th week in Easter time 

May 05, 2020: Acts 11:19-26; John 10:22-30

It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians, evidences the first reading today. They needed a name, a different name to refer to the people of the new way of life! They were initially called the people of the Way...it was obvious, because Jesus had declared "I am the way, the truth and the light!" But however it was too abstract. They needed something concrete to refer themselves to. And looking for one, they narrowed down on that with a reference to a person, to someone central to their lives and convictions, the One who inspired this way of life: Christ himself. 

It takes time to be called a Christian, to be identified with the name of the Nazarene who made a crucial difference in and through his life. Even today, it is the same: it takes time to be identified a Christian: our lifestyle, our attitudes, our priorities, our relationships and our loving ways should merit the name. There is another subtle but important detail: We have to be called Christians, we cannot be calling ourselves that!

Yes, we have to be called Christians... no use claiming ourselves that name, priding in it or tagging ourselves with it. We have to be called...which means, we have to live. Seeing our lives, seeing our convictions, seeing the difference we make, seeing the ideals we hold on to, seeing the formidable challenges we pose to humanity and the society around, people should be inspired to call us 'Christians'...we should be called Christians.

As Jesus says in the Gospel today, 'the Father and I are one', so should we be able to say: Christ and I are one. What a model we have in St.Paul who declared, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!" (Gal 2:20). What that happens, we would be called Christians, too!

The real birth of the Church

WORD 2day: Monday, 4th week in Easter time

May 4, 2020: Acts 11: 1-18; John 10: 11-18

We have been seeing throughout last week, that people listened to the Word, they were touched by it and they joined the disciples and they became a church. However, the real birth of the Church was only when the so-called Gentiles listened and accepted the Word...until then it was seen just as a rebellion within a group of closed people! 

St. Paul declares in his letter to the Galatians, "there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). It is when the whole people are made heirs to the promise made to Abraham, it is only when every one was made into one fold, under One Shepherd, Christ Jesus - that the real Church was born.

The real spirit of Resurrection is opening up! Yes, it is opening up the closed tomb, opening up the closed minds, opening up the dampened faith, opening up the hopeless spirits, opening up the thoughtless ritualistic minds, opening up the hypocritical prejudiced mindsets, opening up the closed mentalities, opening up the secured borders of kinship to the fellowship of the Reign of God, opening up the world to a whole new Spirit: behold I make something new, a new heaven and a new earth!

The challenge is alive until today, to remain one flock, one fold, one people - which means to stay clear of all discrimination within the Church, to choose not to conform to the standards of the world but to be renewed in the Spirit of the Lord and to put on the mind of Christ, the Risen Christ. Constantly, on a daily basis, we are invited and challenged to renew our faithfulness to the One Shepherd and be transformed more and more into worthy members of the Shepherd's flock.

BEING THE SHEPHERD'S FLOCK

The call to Follow, Obey and Respond

4th Sunday of Easter: May 3, 2020

Acts 2: 14a, 36-41; 1 Pet 2: 20b-25; Jn 10:1-10

The Post Resurrection scene is particularly important for us to reflect upon, because it provides us with an incomparable clarity of our identity as a believing community! Especially with a situation as that of today, with uncertainty all over with the health emergency we are faced with, we are all looking for a way out of this, a ray of hope that could emerge, a light at the end of the tunnel that would broaden and get closer! 

Precisely against this background, on this Shepherd's Sunday, the Lord invites us to realise and understand our special and challenging vocation to be the flock of the Divine Shepherd. The second reading reminds us, "you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." Have we?

The Shepherd Leads...we follow: Be patient in doing good and especially when you suffer for doing good, and that is the way to follow your shepherd, says St. Peter. At times when there is a particular crisis, all the goodness that you have manifested till now, all the generous disposition that you had sported until this moment, could be forgotten and everyone around you might turn against you, might become critical of you and denounce you before your face! What do you do? St. Paul would say, writing to the Thessalonians, "do not be weary of doing what is right" (2 Thes 3:13). 

The Lord leads us by example. Doing good was his nature, no one could stop him from doing it. His own did not accept him, they did not understand him, they labelled him 'out of his mind', the disciples deserted him, many hated him and the authorities sought to kill him! But he held on to his mission of doing good! He knew doing the will of the One who sent him was an absolute mission and he went about it without fear, discouragement or doubt, in spite of the threats and trials. Not only that he did not stop doing what he was doing, he did not even consider it absolutely necessary to stand there and prove to everyone that he was doing good, that he was right and that he was justified! That was infantile and immature, according to him - let him who has ears listen and let him who has eyes see! The Shepherd leads and we as his followers, are called to follow the same path. 

The Shepherd Directs...we obey: There are moments and circumstances when we go astray or give into delusions. It could be due to deliberate choices or deviant desires or discouraging experiences...but the fact is we go astray, linger off bounds, leave the flock for a while, check out other pastures, be deceived by mirages, feel a bit lost. The Shepherd's voice bellows behind us... as St. Peter speaks up and calls the attention of the people, in the first reading today. To be the Shepherd's flock means to heed to that voice of direction. As the Lord promises through Isaiah: and when you turn to the right or when you turn to your left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "this is the way; walk in it" (Isa 30:21). 

The Word comes to us; directions come to us constantly; it is the capacity of the Shepherd's flock to hear, to listen, to understand and to put it into practice. Those who listened to the apostle were "cut to their heart", the reading says. They took it to the heart and obeyed it to the full. They were more than ready to change their course, redirect their lives and walk behind the shepherd. There are those who listen and allow the Word to go right through their beings causing a transformation; there are those who listen and understand but feel weak to allow the transformation happen within them; and there are those resistant lot who do not allow the Word to even enter their hearts, giving reasons and excuses, justifications and compromises, in order to prove themselves right to the world around, caring the least about that subtle inner voice that cries out to them to heed to the Lord. Which category do we belong to - the resistant ones, the rationalising ones or the ready ones?

The Shepherd Calls...we respond: I came that you may have life and have it in abundance, declares the Lord in the Gospel! We are called to live our lives to the full, and that is the sign of the Shepherd's flock. Amidst fear and anxiety, amidst loneliness and strife, amidst darkness and dreariness, amidst confusion and calamities, amidst struggles and strains, we are called to live to the full, live the moment, live grateful, live mindful of the blessings and make the most of all the goodness that we have received from the Lord. 

The Lord offers us life and life in all its fullness, we are called to respond to this offer by accepting it  and living it. Living to the full means living in faith and not in fear; living in love and not in selfishness; living in hope and not in darkness; living in service not in show-offs; living in compassion not in indifference; living in goodwill not in suspicion; living in joy not in gloom; living in fellowship not in seclusion. Let us embrace the whole suffering world with our arms of true love and compassion, however short and small they may be, because we have a Shepherd who is mighty big, bigger than the entire universe. 

As people of the Shepherd's flock, our lives have to be a witness to life in abundance. The world has to learn from us, and not laugh at us. We cannot conform to the world but the world has to be challenged by our lives! Let us pay heed to the Word today and follow, obey and respond to our Shepherd. Let us also pray for shepherds to be raised among us, shepherds after the heart of the Divine Shepherd. 

To Remain in the Lord

WORD 2day: Saturday, 3rd week in Easter time

May 2, 2020: Acts 9: 31-42; John 6: 60-69.

Two contrasting scenes are presented in the readings today - one, that of the numbers increasing; the other, that of followers leaving Jesus! To heed to pleasant teachings and detest challenging calls, is a normal human tendency. But Jesus does not compromise. It is a fact that we need to understand: that the Lord who loves us, is absolutely loving and at the very same time, absolutely demanding!

We see miracles, signs and wonders always connected to crowds of people wanting to follow it. Be it Aeneas in Lydda or Tabitha in Jaffa, they were just one among the many who were in need and suffering. Their healing and restoration to life, were just a few stranded happenings not everyday and not in every case! Certainly there could have been so many who were looking for miracles and wonders and others disappointed that it did not happen for them! Even today, it is easy to run after miracles and be led by wonders. But the real challenge is to be touched internally by the Lord, be transformed and accept the hard teachings from the Lord... to eat of Him, to become part of Him, and turn out to be him wherever we are!  

That requires accepting great challenges and demands - being ready to be called names at, being prepared to be despised and mocked at, courageous to face the villainising eyes and resisting crowds, and amidst all these being willing and eager to transform oneself more and more into the Lord in our self-sacrifice and total self-giving. Are we ready?

The words of Jesus, "Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these..." (Jn 14:12), comes alive as Peter and other disciples do wonders in the name of Jesus! What made them capable was the fact that they remained in the Lord and that continues to be the challenge for us too: if we wish to face crises and troubles, sufferings and oppositions, ingratitude and enmity without giving into the evil we need to decide, 'to remain in the Lord'!

Work - the likeness of Divinity within humanity

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May day: Celebrating St. Joseph the Worker

May 1, 2020: Genesis 1:26-2:3; Matthew 13:54-58

May day, for a Christian holds much more than mere glorification of work. This is because of the very nature of God that sanctifies this essential aspect of human existence. The first reading underlines the fact that the work of creation is an essential image of God and goes on to imply that right from the origins, it has formed a characteristic part of humanity, which holds the likeness and image of God.

St. Joseph pictured as a worker, the working hand and the leader of the Holy Family, is not merely an imagination but a practical possibility and the Church today capitalises on this possibility to draw inspiration from a saint who reminds us of this essential element of our human existence and the way to go about it with serenity and simplicity. 

Work is a participation in the Creative initiative of God. Work can never be a slavery; it can never be carried out solely for an external gain or out of external pressure. Work when it is done merely for the material returns, it becomes a commodity and that is where exploitation and alienation begins. Every person has the right to work and the duty to do his or her part in the upkeep of our common home, not in damaging it to ruin. How lovely it would be when every person does what he or she can to make this world a better place..that would be paradise, the garden of Eden, the Reign of God here and now.

Today, let us promise to respect the dignity of labour and look at our opportunity to contribute through work as a personal participation in the image and likeness of God and in God's creative mission.

Drawn by your Daddy!!!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 3rd week in Easter time

April 30, 2020: Acts 8: 26-40; John 6: 44-51

The readings taken together have a wonderful message for us... if we are Christians, it is not by chance; it is by choice... not ours, but the Lord's. You did not choose me, I chose you, says the Lord. The Lord has chosen each of us by name and if only we are aware of it and convinced of it, we shall see an immense difference in the quality of our daily living.

We have come to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, drawn by God our Father and Mother in heaven! It is the Lord who has willed to draw us to Godself. Our 'yes' at Baptism and a reassertion of it at Confirmation are our response to this initiative of God. The point of discussion is, whether we are faithful to the yes all our life, at every moment of our daily life.

Especially at moments when we see we are surrounded by tests and trials, sickness and death, fear and threats, oppressions and corruption, decadence and exploitation, anxiety and helplessness, boredom and hopelessness,...we are called to remember that we are all drawn by the Almighty, that we are being guided by the Lord who has drawn us all in name of God. Will our lives today manifest that difference, making the world understand the power we possess in our call?

But that difference does not come just in an instant. It is a long journey in itself. The Bread of life and the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant, are the nourishment in this journey. All through the journey the Lord accompanies us and instructs us... if we really listen, we will soon realise how special we are; and how we are drawn by our daddy!

Testimonies of true joy!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 3rd week in Easter time

April 29, 2020: Acts 8:1b-8; John 6: 35-40

There was great joy in the city. In spite of having to desert their hometowns and go into diaspora, the community of believers bring joy wherever they go. Earlier we read, that the apostles where flogged for having preached Christ and when they left, they went with joy because they were able to suffer for Christ. How was it possible for them! It was because, they carried the Risen Lord in their hearts. 

The resurrection experience filled the apostles, the disciples and all the believers with joy, with a joy that could not be replaced by anything else under the sun. The words "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom 8:35) was a concrete life experience of the early Christians. The source of this experience is the total and loving self giving of the Lord. 

Jesus was so filled with his Father that in his total self-giving he rejoiced and brought joy to all around him and to the entire humanity. Imitating their Lord and Saviour, the first Christians were filled with Christ, and in their self-giving to each other and to God, they brought true joy and eternal hope to each other. We are today called to accept the challenge of living our Christian vocation, even in these moments of crisis and anxiety, emanating divine joy, in our joyful and loving self-giving. 

How joyful is our testimony as Christians, today? 

The height of discipleship

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 3rd week in Easter time

April 28, 2020: Acts 7:51-8:1a; John 6:30-35

We are given the picture of the martyrdom of Stephen... the height of discipleship, giving one's life up for the sake of Truth. The real courage that is exhibited in the passage of today, where Stephen dares to say what he saw and heard, or what he was given to see and hear. 

The Gospel presents the same courage manifested by Jesus, challenging the Scribes and the Pharisees and offering himself as the bread of life; infact, Stephen is presented to us as an ideal disciple who did what Jesus did, who lived the way Jesus lived and who died the exact way Jesus died. The cue is the prayer: "Into your hands I commend my spirit". While Jesus makes that prayer to the Father, Stephen makes it to Jesus: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". This, incidentally, is the first prayer that we see, addressed to Jesus, in history. 

The height of discipleship consists in the courage to imitate the master in every little detail...in our life, our prayer, our convictions and our priorities. Today surrounded by a health crisis, what is our mental disposition? 

A disposition of fright would right away disqualify us from being convinced disciples. A disposition of rash and ruthless denial of reality and insensitive breach of the consensus for common good, again is a disqualifier for a disciple of Christ. Instead, sensitivity to the suffering, faith to see the presence of God even amidst the darkness that surrounds, the readiness to state the facts and stand for truth, the compassion to look not only at our need and our boredom but at the needs and anxieties of the hapless lot, and finally the trust in entrusting ourselves and the entire world to the Will of God - these would be true signs and the height of our discipleship today.

How close are we in our lifestyle to Jesus, our Lord and Master?

The Face of an Angel

WORD 2day: Monday, 3rd week in Easter time

April 27, 2020: Acts 6:8-15; John 6:22-29

The readings today remind us of our vocation and gift. 'What are we called to?', that was the question that the people meant when they ask Jesus in the Gospel today, "what can we do to accomplish God's works?" "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent": that is our vocation, that is our gift! 

Vocation, because it is our life task, to know the Lord, love and accept him as our personal saviour and testify to him unto death. Being a vocation, it is a task at all times, notwithstanding whether they are good or bad. More precisely, specially at trying times, because it is a challenge to remain faithful to the Master!

It is a gift, because in doing it, we become children of God (cf.Jn 1:12). It is a state of grace where we turn into co-heirs to the Reign (cf Rom 8:17), and we acquire the face of angel - as it is said of St.Stephen in the first reading today. 

Our faith and our commitment to faith adorn our face with a light and beauty that makes it look 'angelic'... let us realise our hidden face of an angel; let us preserve and persevere in growing to the full stature of the angels - close to God and ever at God's service!

GOD REVEALS... AND WE?

Receive, Realise and Respond

April 26, 2020: 3rd Sunday of Easter

Acts 2:14,22-33; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35

Christ is the fullness of Revelation of God. What God has been revealing through various means and varied persons, God finally revealed in fullness through God's own Son and there is no other revelation that is fuller than this. However, Revelation has not ended with it. It goes on even today, it continues, it progresses! What is most important is what we do in the face of this continuous, progressive revelation.

There is an entire mindset and disposition that comes into play when we reflect on this aspect of revelation! First of all, one has to believe that there is an ongoing revelation from God - that God speaks today, here and now! Not that everything is said and done, recorded and sealed and there is nothing new to know! God reveals, in and through each and every thing that happens to us and around us. At this point of time there is a global happening that is filling the minds of every one invariably... the health emergency that the entire planet is facing. Apart from the great sadness and suffering that it is causing to persons and communities, there is a revelation here in too...this is where our eyes of faith have to become sharper to observe and understand, look and learn, spot and personalise.

Secondly, when we say God reveals in situations, it is not that God creates a situation so than it could be revealed... let us not give into that naive interpretation that is doing the rounds (in fact every time a so-called natural disaster strikes this interpretations is revived). It is so unintelligent and unChristian to say God sends some disasters to remind the human beings how they have gone astray! The term so-called natural disasters is purposefully used here, because how many of these natural disasters are really and literally "natural"...if only we analyse them enough, we would see that ultimately they were human-made, the cause be greed, exploitation of the resources and insensitive approach to the common home, the planet earth and the universe. It is never that God sends disasters... God sends reminders and messages through persons who speak up and protest and call the attention of the world. But we are so negligent of these sign right upto the moment when the disaster breaks open! How blind are we to neglect the induced climate change that is ticking the globe's way to annihilation. How hard headed are we to believe that using an extra automobile or cutting an odd tree in a locality or polluting a little rivulet in the vicinity would do nothing to the global wellbeing! 

Having these reflections at the back of our mind...let us listen to the Word giving us three commands this day: Receive, Realise and Respond to God's Revelation - only then shall you be truly considered God's own people! When God reveals Godself and the essential truths to live by in our daily life...

...We receive. The disciples as they walked, when the Lord offered to walk with them, they accepted it, they received him. When Jesus began to speak to them about a lot of things that have happened they listened with patience, they received it. When they found Jesus had something divine to offer them, they invited him to stay with them, they received him in their house. Today as the Lord offers us revelations, we need to be in a position to receive, to welcome the message, to really listen and truly see what the Lord wants to communicate.

...We realise. Once Jesus broke the bread, they realised it was the Lord. Once we experience a unique sign from the Lord we would realise that it is the Lord who is at work. The Lord communicates himself to us, we need to realise how great we are to receive it and realise how wonderful it is to have the Lord with us. We need to realise our own frailties, faults and most of all the responsibility that we have right now, right here - to do whatever we can, however small it might be!

...We respond. The disciples as soon as they realised it was their Master, they could not wait, they left and returned to where they started from, to meet the apostles. They didnt mind the distance they had covered, nor the effort or the tiredness, they wanted to respond wholeheartedly and they did it. Responding to the revelations of the Lord, many a times, will demand much from us and we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared to put ourselves into some inconvenience, some suffering, some challenge and some call to reach out and to change our ways.

Even today, in and through the proclamation of the Word, through the experience of people shared, through the events that take place around us, through the majesty of the nature and power of the miracles, the Lord keeps revealing Godself to us. Let us not give into naive interpretations and fictional narratives! Let us get truly in touch with the Lord and sit at the Lord's feet, ready to receive, realise and respond to God's self revelation with love, faith and hope.