The First Ecumenical Council of the Church

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 5th week in Easter time

May 13, 2020: Acts 15: 1-6; John 15: 1-8

There is so much talk about the Vatican Council II, an ecumenical council that has revolutionised the Church of late. There are those who look at it as the rebirth of the Church in the Modern times and there are others who criticise it saying it was the deconstruction of a solid faith! That apart, today we have the account of the first ever ecumenical council held - the Council of Jerusalem! It stands as a wonderful Christian model of handling crisis and confusion: getting together in brotherly dialogue and faithful communion. 

The Community of faith gives us a splendid possibility of remaining united as branches to the one Vine, Jesus the Lord. That is the key to Christian Unity and Spiritual Communion. Today, when crisis and confusion arise, how many human methodologies we follow to handle them: writing anonymous letters, spreading calumny about others, raising unchristian slogans, speaking an unholy language, using all means to destroy the other and unleashing uncharitable actions... 

Is it truly a 'Christ'ian way of approaching a problem or a dilemma? What are we aiming at? Establishing our ego? Gaining our political mileage? Assuring our social and economic security? Making ourselves relevant and craving to prove ourselves to those around?

Let us remember - division among us is the worst scandal we can give to the World, as people of God. Let us be strive to be united with the one Vine, nourish ourselves from that vine, be filled with the sap from that vine and give fruits worthy of that vine. Or else, we will have to be pruned and charred!

Troubles or No Troubles...Fear Not!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 5th week in Easter time

May 12, 2020: Acts 14: 19-28; John 14: 27-31a

"It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God," say Sts. Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:22). Elsewhere in the Acts (see 5:41) we read, "they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonour for the sake of the name" of Jesus, after having received severe flogging. The apostles startled the world around them with their fearlessness! Nothing could contain them or control them. They were overwhelmed with enthusiasm, for they felt the presence of the Risen Lord with them.

In today's Gospel, after giving his peace, the Lord instructs: 'do not let your hearts be troubled!', for the peace that he gives us is unlike the peace that the world gives. The peace offered by the world is a peace of compromises and conveniences, a peace of inaction and suspicious silence! But the Peace that Christ gives, is the peace of the Reign, the peace that comes from justice and equality, peace that comes from true love and compassion. It is no contract of just war or war against terrorism; but a total cessation of war or corruption or injustice or any inhumanity! 

This peace, Jesus has given us as he promised! It is enshrined in the Word. If only we live the Word we shall realise that our life shall be founded on true love for the entire humanity and compassion for the least and the last. How blessed it shall be, if we realised this truth. And once we do so, we are called to witness to it and challenge the world to do the same. Our call is to spread it, take it to every heart that longs, to every corner of the earth. 

When we begin doing it, we shall certainly face troubles, floggings, stonings, criticisms, threats and persecutions. The times are near for that and in some cases it is already here... but let us fear not; and let not our hearts be troubled!

The fad called Mothers' Day

To be signs of God's power!

WORD 2day: Monday, 5th week in Easter time

May 11, 2020: Acts 14: 5-18; John 14: 21-26

Jesus seems to be winding up his earthly phase with his disciples and he bids them farewell as if to say they have to take his place there after. This whole week we shall listen to this series of sayings from Jesus. He had assured them, that their faith in God and their faith in him, will stand them in good stead... they will do all that he did and even more (cf. Jn 14:12). Today he promises an added facilitator: the Holy Spirit. All these promises were not mere words... they worked.

The People saw in the apostles great prowess... they healed the paralytics and gave life to the dead. The people found it so overwhelming that they thought that the gods had descended on them. If we really believed in the Lord and beheld his risen presence with us truly, people would see great things in and through us. The world needs people of God today; the world longs to see the real majesty of God revealed in ordinary things and we ought to be the instruments in the hands of God.

Especially during moments such as what we are traversing right now, the world and the suffering humanity needs people of God - not those who "use" the name of God to run their businesses, not those who manipulate the situation to instill the fear and guilt that would make people run to God, not those who make use of the opportunity to make themselves "on demand" and "popular" - but true people of God, who would make the presence of God felt in all simplicity and silence, sincerity and service. That requires that we surrender ourselves to God and remain totally disposed to God's will.

How prepared am I to dispose myself into the hands of God? Can I allow the Spirit of the Lord to take hold of myself and reveal through me the merciful, loving and powerful presence of the Lord today, to those around? 

A PRIESTLY PEOPLE

Chosen to belong forever

5th Sunday of Easter: May 10, 2020
Acts 6:1-7; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12

God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God in love” (Eph 1:4). That is the core of our identity; we are a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, God’s own people in order that we may proclaim the mighty acts of God, the God who has called us from darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9). 

What is my identity of myself?

Are we merely people who are looking up to God for some favours? Are we people who wait on God to come and solve our everyday problems? Are we merely people decrying the crisis around us and complaining about it to God? Are we people who are grudging about those around us who are not living up to our expectations, disappointing us, troubling us, not understanding us or causing us grief? Can we take a breath and reflect a moment about what identity God has invested in us and to what level we have diluted in our daily living of our faith.

We are Chosen…

It is not by chance that I am a Christian, I am chosen. Anandhi (name changed) a girl of another faith, came to a priest asking to be prepared for baptism. She was in love with Alfred (name changed), a Catholic and wanted to marry him in the Church. After all the preparation, finally the priest asked her a simple question, “who do you think brought you to this intention of receiving Baptism?” Without any hesitation, Anandhi seemed to have replied, “Alfred.” The priest gently smiled at her and took the opportunity to tell her, ‘It is really Christ who has brought you to Baptism.’ 

It is the Lord who has chosen us and it is definitely not the other way around: “You did not choose me, but I chose you”, says the Lord (Jn 15:16). It is the Lord who has chosen you and me, and all that we need to do is happily walk holding his hand at times of gladness, boldly walk with the one who strengthens us beside at times of hardships, hopefully walk with the light of the Lord at times of darkness and doubt...all because we are certain and  assured that we have been chosen!

We are Chosen to belong…

Last Sunday we celebrated the Good Shepherd Sunday and we would have specially prayed for vocations to Priesthood and Religious Life. That is a special call, a call for a ministry, just like Stephen and the 6 others are chosen today in the first reading for a special task – that is what we call Ministerial Priesthood. But there is another call that is universal… that is the call to Royal Priesthood… each and every one who is chosen in Christ, who is washed in the waters of baptism, is called to this priesthood. Yes! We are all priests unto the Lord! We are Chosen Race, Royal Priesthood… We have a special call to belong to the Lord. That is the crux of this priesthood. The ordained priests are ordained for a special ministry, while all of us share in the priesthood of Christ. 

The Priesthood of Christ consists in belonging to the Father. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” says the Lord (Jn 14:11). The priesthood that we share with Christ is to be in God, the Father and Mother; to belong to God, to be grafted on to God, to remain in God as the branches remain in the wine and give fruit. It is to show at every moment of the our life, in our action, in our choices, in our relationships, in the way we look at challenges and difficulties in life, in the approach to sickness, disease, isolation and death...at every step, belonging to the One who has chosen us and called us. 

We are Chosen to belong forever…

In belonging to the Lord, in remaining with Christ, in sharing the priesthood of Christ we inherit the greatest of all patrimonies: a dwelling place in the courts of the Lord. That is what is prepared for us, that if we belong in our life to God, we would belong to God forever - even in death. 

At times when we face difficulties and crises, we behave just as any other person - without confidence, without hope, without any faith, without any divine element within us, without any spiritual strength, without really mindful of the fact that we have been saved by the sufferings of the Lord, without acknowledging the fact that we have been healed by the wounds of the Son of God! We are not chosen by a mere almighty power, or a universal force... no, we are chosen by a Person, a Personal God, our Father and Mother, our Saviour and Master, our indwelling accompanier who loves us without conditions or limits! 

God our Father and Mother had chosen us, had sent the Chosen One to remind us of our chosenness, and continues to live as chosen people every day of our life.  Christ has gone before us to prepare this place for us, and when he comes we should still belong to God, we should still be his Priestly People, that we may receive that dwelling place prepared for us! Every day is an opportunity, through our ordinary tasks and daily duties, by our conscious choices and deliberate decisions, to deepen our belonging to the Lord, to realize we are chosen, that we are chosen to belong to God, chosen to belong forever, as a chosen race, a Priestly People!

The Word, joy and the Holy Spirit

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

May 9, 2020: Acts 13: 44-52; John 14: 7-14

The event narrated in the first reading can be analogically compared to a concept that most of us are familiar with, working on a Word document in a computer... whatever has been selected can be deselected; what has been done can be undone; whatever has been undone can be redone; whatever has been keyed in can be edited, deleted, copied, pasted... all this is possible until that moment of saving the document! Once the 'save' command is given, there is apparently no way of going back (though with technicalities there are other possibilities). But the analogy ends there, let us not probe too deep into it. The point is: let us not think the good we do, the grace we received, the blessed choices we once make would remain forever! Just yesterday, we heard the Lord telling us: "you are my child; I have begotten you." This would not remain forever true; if it has to, then we have to make a definitive, life long choice of belonging to the Lord. And this has to be seen in our lives. Analogical to saving a document, it is allowing ourselves to be saved by the Lord!

The first reading identifies that jealousy, opposition, contradiction, calumny, derision, persecution and vices of the sort abounded against the believers as they embraced their new found faith in the Lord. But amidst all these, the Word says, the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. That was the reason the Word spread all through the region. The Word spreads with true inner joy, with true interior choice for God and God's purposes. Jesus already spoke of this connection between the Word and joy: I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (Jn 15:11).

We would be missing the whole point if we do not get more and more in touch with God everyday of our life. Jesus would ask us too the same question: 'Have I been so long with you and you still have not got really in touch with me, my father, my life style, my passions, my values and so on?' Once we get truly in touch with Jesus, and thus with God our Father and Mother, with the Spirit who enlightens us each day, we will emanate a joy that is irresistible. Let us remain united to Christ, who is united to the Father and thus give the world the joy that it longs for.

To be God's begotten

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

May 8, 2020: Acts 13: 26-33; John 14: 1-6

Let not your hearts be disturbed! That, according to Jesus, was the sign of Faith, faith in God and faith in God's only Son. Because in Christ's parlance, faith was not believing in some doctrines, nor was it in keeping some sacred rules and regulations, it consisted in a solid and personal relationship of loving surrender to the self-revealing Divine. 

Though we know that Jesus is the Incarnate Son of God and that there is a glory involved in that very fact, the real glory of his existence is seen in the fact of Jesus' obedience to the Father. As St.Paul would point out in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 2), it was in his total obedience and a consequent self-surrender to the Father's will, that Jesus stands out and is given the name above every name, that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess his Lordship. That is where, God the Father almighty declares, "You are my beloved Son, today I have begotten you!"

Faith, Obedience of Faith... could be looked at and explained as highly theological words, but for us on a daily basis, it is simply, doing the will of God. Taking our daily duties to heart despite the discouragements, putting our heart and soul in the well being of those around us and those entrusted to us in spite of the possible ingratitude, putting the Lord first and at the center of all that we are involved in ... these are some concrete ways of doing the will of the Father. 

When we are up to it, certainly we shall hear it said of us, "You are my beloved child, today I have begotten you!"

Called to be messengers

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

May 7, 2020: Acts 13:13-25; John 13:16-20

St. Paul makes a long list of messengers running right upto John the Baptist, and Jesus in the Gospel, speaks of sending his own apostles as messengers. Messengers are people of God, people of the Message, people who carry what the Lord wants God's people to know, persons who share with the world what the Lord wants to. 

The Message, is the core of our faith. It has been so, it is so and it will always be so! The message was announced through ages through prophets and persons of God (cf. Heb 1:1). At a point in history, the Message became the Messenger...that was the crucial phase of history when the Message, the Sender, the Messenger (or the Medium) all came together in one sacred and mysterious union - in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. 

After this crucial phase of the identification of the Message with the Messenger, in Christ the Message of the loving Father made Messenger we see that, what once was done by a select few among the people, has been handed over to the entire people of God and every child of God. This is indeed the call of every Christ-ian.

We are His messengers and we are called primarily to live the message and in and through that, announce the Message to the World.

Am I aware of the Message; Do I really know the Message? Am I convinced that I am a messenger? Do I love the Message as much and in order that I may live that message!

The duty to be Saints

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

May 6, 2020: Remembering Dominic Savio, the Young giant of Sanctity

Wednesday, 4th week in Easter time: Acts 12:24 - 13:5; John 12: 44-50

We remember a boy, hardly 15 but, who remains a giant in the sanctity he achieved within that short span. That is what Pope Pius XI described Dominic Savio as, 'a towering giant in spirit.' Dominic wanted to be a salesian priest and in fact had just started the journey, as an aspiring young boy in Don Bosco's Oratory. But he died a month before completing the 15th year of his earthly life - many called it premature but a deeper look would prove that  judgement totally wrong. He was ready, prepared and eager within those years to crown his earthly sojourn, with an incomparable union with his Eternal Saviour. More than anything else, more even than being a priest, he wanted to be a saint and that he did!

This call to sanctity that Dominic felt, was something that bound him, impelled him and at times even frightened him: he feared he would not measure up to that call. He believed his life would be a waste of time, if he did not work towards becoming a saint. This was because he was convinced that it was not just an achievement to become a saint, but it was a duty to be a saint. Yes, according to him, it is our duty to become saints; that is what he understood in the Spirit, guided by Don Bosco. How convinced are we that it is our duty to be saints?

The Word insists on the same today- Paul, Barnabas, John Mark the young lad with them, those who prayed for them and sent them with an anointing...  all of them were convinced they were living their lives as God wanted them, as the Saviour called them, as the Light of the Spirit led them. Yes, the Light had come into the world. And every one who hears the Word, sees the Light, has to listen to it, live by it, follow it faithfully. If not, they are condemned by their own choices, says the Lord in the Word today.

We are called. We have heard the Word. We have seen the Light. How mindful we need to be with our daily choices... just as Dominic Savio was! Let the Light of the Spirit enable us and empower us to realise our duty to be Saints.

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!