The call to burn till we are consumed...

THE WORD AND THE FEAST 

August 6, 2020: The Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord 

Daniel 7: 9-10, 13-14;  (2 Peter 1: 16-19); Matthew 17: 1-9

"A lamp shining in a dark place until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" - a wonderful comparison that St. Peter presents to us, though the second reading is only optional for this day's liturgy (being a week day). That phrase would apply to our faith, our life of witness, our trust, our commitment to the Reign of God and every bit of our faith and its expression here and now, all leading us towards that eternal glory that awaits us as children of God(Jn 1:12), co-heirs with Christ(Rom 8:17), people meant for the future glory (Rom 8:18). 

Our Christian life is rich and its richness will be lost if we lose the sense of mystery in understanding it. Mystery is not merely something that is unknown and incomprehensible, but it is something that is beyond all our rational calculations and empirical conditions; yet it is not totally alien from our experience; it is part of our lived experience, an experience we live on a daily basis, an experience that sustains our faith and offers meaning to our life.

The feast of Transfiguration is a symbol, a prefigurement and a surety of the glory that rests within us, as children of God. However, we are warned not to lose our grip on our daily living, on our concrete initiatives towards ushering in the Reign of God in the pretext of dreaming about a future that is glorious and splendid. 

In practical terms, to be people transfigured is to live our lives with our eyes fixed on heaven and our feet planted firm on ground, to never lose the hope that the Lord offers in Himself and to never rest from our efforts to build the Reign of God here on earth. 

Taking up that imagery of the lamp shining in the dark, today's feast is a call to burn until we are totally consumed, totally consumed for the sake of the mission that the Lord entrusts to us, totally consumed living our daily life to the full, totally consumed empowering every person to live their life to their full... totally consumed in the glory that we have treasured within us - the image and likeness of God and totally consumed in the glory we have promised to us - the Reign of God and God's glorious people.

The Remnant and the Rest

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 5, 2020: Dedication of the Basilica of Mary Major - Our Lady of Snows

Jeremiah  31: 1-7; Matthew 15: 21-28

The theme of yesterday continues, the unending faithfulness and love of God. The Lord renews the covenant with the people in spite of their failures because the Lord had always loved them with an everlasting love. Today the Word warns us that those who will finally taste the fruits of God's faithfulness are the remnant and the rest of the people who come by and stick to the Lord.

The Remnant - these are those who choose to differ from the mainstream inspired  by a genuine conviction and sincere effort to be integral. They are remnant because, they are the few who remain, who choose to remain, combating all the lures of the times and the wiles of the evil one, all for the sake of being with God.

The Rest are those who are least expected to be favoured in the eyes of the Lord. The world has its own criteria of judgement - the acceptable, the chosen, the privileged, the gifted, the special and so on; but the Lord has a totally different set of criteria... single minded dedication to the Lord, genuine love for God's people and authentic life after the mind of God.

A feast like today - the dedication of a Basilica from the 5th century... reminds us of our tradition that dates centuries and even millennia... but what does that matter if we do not today, here and now, within our hearts and in our own personal lives do no live by what the Lord wants: do not conform to the world;  instead be transformed in Christ into new beings!

The grand basilica stands in reminder of the Reign of God which is mighty bigger and wider than this... waiting for everyone to enter and become sons and daughters. But unfortunately, those who will finally enter will be only the Remnant and the Rest!

Note: if you wish to listen to a very short history of this feast day, click the link:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/dedication-of-saint-mary-major-basilica/

Growing conscious of God's faithfulness and love

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 4, 2020: Remembering St. John Marie Vianney, Cure of Ars
Jeremiah 30: 1-2, 12-15, 18-22; Matthew 15: 1-2, 10-14

"You shall be my people and I will be your God" - every time that we hear this statement... we need to be filled with an awe about the unfailing love of God. What does really matter what I do and what my merits are, in front of this boundless love of God? What do my so called great sacrifices and pious practices measure up to, in comparison to the immeasurable love of God? Hence a constant question that should be present in my mind always is this: how worthy is my faithfulness to God vis-a-vis the faithfulness of God towards me? 

The only concern that should fill my mind is how to translate that awe into attitudes, attitudes of absolute gratefulness, total obedience and boundless humility towards God. If these attitudes develop in us, how peaceful we can grow to be! They would reduce to the minimum our tendency to judge others or consider others unbearable. How irritable we get and how fast we lose our patience with people. Between husbands and wives, between friends, between colleagues, between collaborators in the same team...how forbearing are we? How patient and non judgmental can we prove to be! That would be a reflection of how conscious we are of the unending love and unfailing acceptance of God.

John Maria Vianney whom we remember today, stands out in this character. He was not a great intellectual or an aristocratic legend who commanded respect instantly! He was a simple man, humble person but profound in his consciousness of God's faithfulness and love. It is with that quality that he brought the entire faith community around him, back to a filial relationship with God. How much we become people and persons of God depends much on how conscious we grow of God's faithfulness and love!

Note: For a few pictures taken at Ars where the Saint laboured...go to link:
https://www.facebook.com/antonychristy/media_set?set=a.2126828617388398&type=3 

Real Prophets or Prophets for a profit?

WORD 2day: Monday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 3, 2020: Jeremiah 28:1-17; Matthew 14: 22-36

The readings today remind us of our call to be a prophets... how far are we aware of the fact that each of us baptised in the Spirit is called to be a priest, a prophet and a prince (or princess)? Of course, knowing is one thing, and being convinced of it is another; but being it, much less said, is totally a different thing.

Today we have umpteen number of preachers, prophets and evangelists... all proclaiming from rooftops and laptops, day in and day out. Especially during these moments of crisis and lockdown... there are numerous of them, everywhere in every form! Let us beware dear friends, as the first reading points out, being a prophet is not speaking things that others would love to hear from us -like the myriad of fortune tellers, prediction prodigies, healer wheelers, and prosperity preachers today who do things to woo more and more  'customers'. Jeremiah warns Hananiah today in the first reading against his false sense of prophecy! And we know the sad end of Hananiah. 

The Gospel has a symbolic message in the same lines. Jesus chides his disciples for their lack of faith, especially Peter. It might look a bit too demanding on Jesus' part to expect the disciples to remain unperturbed when they are almost sinking, and Peter to remain calm when he was almost drowning. But the point that the Master makes is that his disciples should be perturbed by nothing, absolutely nothing! 

"Let nothing disturb you", he would say to them often. In today's world so immersed in numerous kinds of concerns, with the crisis all around us, wouldn't it be truly prophetic to live a life so unperturbed! Not to be prophets for profit, but real prophets who live with a serenity that comes from knowing that 'it is the Lord' who is in charge. The Lord says that today: do not fear, It is I. 

THE FULLNESS THAT SATISFIES

Are we ever satisfied?

August 2, 2020: 18th Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 55:1-3; Romans 8: 35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21

You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing! The hand of the Lord feeds us; the Lord answers all our needs. Lovely words that we pray at the Responsorial time this Sunday. How good it would be if it were true in every sense!

Are we ever satisfied? Why all the bickering among the richest on the planet, everyday trying to outdo the other in business and trade - because they do not have what they need? Why all the political ploys and underground scheming among the rulers and the leaders - because they they lack the basic wants? Why all the craze among the richest medical facilities and pharma firms even amidst this pandemic to make the most of the people's plight - because they have to feed their empty stomachs? Why all the border disputes between already vast nations and sovereigns - because there is a matter of life and death? Even within each of us... why all the fret and frenzy in our daily life - because we have to ensure the next square meal? 

If only we pause, calm down and ask a few questions to ourselves, we shall come to know so many things about ourselves, so many things that we needlessly think about, so many decisions we unnecessarily take, so many activities that we go about without realising its futility, so many important values we dump for worthless substitutes and so many treasures that we have covered with the sludge of the so-called conventions of the society around and walk on them lamenting our miseries! 

The Word this Sunday presents us with three questions:

What is the Lack?

Recently we reflected from prophet Micah those words: you shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you; you shall put away, but not save; you shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine (Micah 6: 13-15) - does that not seem the experience of many today? We strive and strive, but are never satisfied. We struggle with all our lives, but we never feel fulfilled. But stop, think a while... what is the lack? what is the real lack? Lack of things? Lack of resources? As the Lord asks us today, why do you spend all that you have, on something that does not satisfy you? What is the real lack?

The real lack is the lack of knowledge: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge", cries the Lord through prophet Hosea (4:6). The lack of knowledge is destroying us all; it is destroying humankind; it is destroying the entire universe! The lack of right knowledge, the lack of right thinking, the lack of right choices, the lack of right priorities - this is the lack that is killing us all. Just as the Lord felt it so badly, while he was speaking to that woman at the Samarian well, "if only you knew"... yes, if only we knew! If only we knew the real lack that is in our hearts... if only we realised the real lack that is there in our families... if only we accepted the real lack that affects the society and humanity as whole today...we would be in a better position! If only, we knew what really satisfies! That leads us to the next question we need to ask.

What really satisfies?  

Fullness alone! Nothing else can satisfy us. We think "more" of something will satisfy us. It cannot. More will never be enough! More can never satisfy us. We think of increasing something, hoarding up something, stacking up, stocking in....nothing will satisfy us truly. It is fullness alone, that can satisfy us. More pleasure... will it satisfy? No, it will lead to more of it. More wealth... will it satisfy? That is not what we see, those who have more, look for more. More power... will it satisfy? Not until there is someone who still is not subdued. "Give me more," the world cries... but after that? There will only be more cry for more, and more, and more! Only one thing can satisfy...fullness. Imagine a cup immersed in a tub of water... do you think, it is filled? No, it is in fullness, it does not need to be filled. 

Fullness alone can satisfy us. Jesus feeds that crowd of people, with such serenity and calmness and all their frenetic anxiety earlier wondering how to feed and where to get food for so many, just vanishes into thin air. They did nothing to remove that anxiety. They just allowed themselves to be in the presence of that Fullness. The Fullness filled them; the Fullness fulfilled them. Fullness alone can fulfill us too. How much we need today to learn to be still, to be still and know that there is Fullness around! 

Where is this Fullness?

Yes, the Fullness satisfies, fulfills, heals, calms... it is true. But where is this Fullness, some can ask. Where is this Fullness, when we are suffering; where is this Fullness when we are so battered by disease and death; where is this Fullness when we are so broken and helpless before forces that are totally out of control? It is again this lack of knowledge that makes us fret. It is a wrong question to ask, where is this Fullness - because we are in the Fullness! Just imagine that fingerling who asked her mother fish, 'mamma, but you said you will show the ocean... where is it?'  

It is such a redundant question to ask, where is this Fullness, because we are in the Fullness, we are surrounded by the Fullness - that is what the Lord said: for I am with you till the end of times. Nothing can separate us from Christ, declares the second reading, because we are part of Christ and Christ is part of us. Now, this Fullness that satisfies us, how does it do?  

Fullness invites us from within, to come, eat and drink from God's love, from God's generosity, from God's compassion. In moments of need and struggle, in moments of our crises, the Lord reminds us of Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, the Fullness who satisfies.

Fullness has chosen us from before the foundation of the world, never to part from us. Just as the disciples tell the Lord that they could send the people away, there are so many things in life that wants to send us away from the Lord... our weaknesses, our sufferings, our temptations, our wrong choices. But the Lord insists, to stay on. Yes, the Fullness remains, because God has chosen to remain with us forever. That is the covenant: I shall be your God and you shall be my children.

Fullness remains with us whether we are conscious of it or not. Nothing separates us from the Lord except our decision to keep ourselves away from Him. In our need, in our troubles, in our struggles, in our concerns...the Lord promises to be with us and provide us with every bit of care we need. Not even death... nothing except our free choice to leave God, to go against God, can separate us from God. That places the entire burden on our part to remain with the Lord.

The Fullness remains, never to part from us. If we choose that Fullness, we shall be immersed in that Fullness...and nothing can separate us: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord, the Fullness of the Image of God, the Fullness that loves us and remains for ever with us! This Fullness alone can satisfy us! 

The plight of a true prophet

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 1, 2020: Remembering St. Alphonsus Marie Ligouri

Jeremiah 26: 11-16, 24; Matthew 14: 1-12

Constant threat to life, drastic insecurities of life, total unacceptance from the rest of the so called normal people, pressures of helplessness...these form part of the usual plight of a prophet, not just in the days of Jeremiah and John the Baptist but even today. That explains why real prophets are a rare phenomenon. However, it is an undeniable and curious fact that the difference between a true prophet and a self-righteous egoist is very thin and dangerously subtle.

The first element that can demarcate the two is the FOCUS. When Jeremiah spoke to the people and the princes, he never looked for support or people who can come to his defence. His focus was determinantly on what God wanted him to say and nothing else.

The second element is DETACHMENT from the result. Though the message is definitely pointed towards a change, a result,  the prophet is not excessively anxious about it. At times a self righteous person can be on a ego trip claiming credits and proving his point. A true prophet desists this tendency naturally.

The third element is absolute FEARLESSNESS. A fearlessness that makes them hard people to handle for the authorities and the hierarchy. But that fearlessness comes from their unwavering trust, confidence and hope in the never failing presence of the Lord!

Just yesterday we celebrated a prophetic founder, St. Ignatius and today we have another: St. Alphonsus Ligouri, the founder of the Redemptorist Congregation - a great theologian, lyricist (incidentally, those who know the famous Italian carol tu scendi dalle stelle, it was he who penned it), musician, pastor, writer and thinker. He was a true prophet too and he had to pay its price. As a bishop and as a founder-leader he was a demanding prophet. We cannot judge the internal matters of the Congregation he founded, but anyway, the fact was that he was expelled from very congregation he formed and he suffered this trauma in the last years of his life. However, his focus, his detachment and his fearless love for the Lord, kept him going. 

Are we courageous enough to remain focused, and fearlessly attach ourselves to truth and the Truth? That will make us prophets, but are we ready to face the plight? 

Hearing what I want to hear???

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

July 31, 2020: Remembering St. Ignatius of Loyola
Jeremiah 26: 1-9; Matthew 13: 54-58

Have you been to a Hearing Test centre? Get in touch with a technician there, and the person would explaining to you: there are different kinds of deafness... mild hearing loss, moderate hearing loss, moderately severe hearing loss, severe hearing loss and profound hearing loss! At times spiritually too these hearing losses can be calculated in a similar fashion, but we need to add one more crucial type of hearing challenge. That is, Selective Hearing Loss! 

Thanking God for a great saint today - St. Ignatius of Loyola, we are are reminded of something that was very close to his heart: Discernment! Discernment of what to do, what to choose, how to decide and how to live! It is hardly surprising that the present Holy Father, a Jesuit himself, insists so much of this - accompanying the young on their path of discernment. One of the deadliest enemies of a sincere discernment is the same as what we have just spoken of: Selective Hearing Loss.

It is nothing but, hearing only what I want to hear, or refusing to hear what I do not want to hear merely because it causes me inconvenience. This is the syndrome that we see the people are in, in both the first reading and the Gospel. When Jeremiah spoke to them about the impeding danger and their need to return to the Lord, they deemed him liable to death. When Jesus spoke to them on issues that really challenged their daily life, they looked at him with suspicion and despised him for the "ordinariness" from which he hailed.

The Word of God keeps rushing into our hearts. It would cleanse it, refresh it and fill it with life, if only we allow it to. If we are guarded, biased and suspicious, we would break no ground towards perfection. On this day when we remember Ignatius, a tough man who made tough choices to do everything for the greater glory of God, let us allow the Word to melt our hearts and inspire us to work out of this syndrome of 'hearing merely what we want to hear'! Let us hear the Word and accept its challenges, on a daily basis!

Doing it God's way

WORD 2day: Thursday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 30, 2020: Jeremiah 18: 1-6; Matthew 13: 47-53

Have thine own way Lord, 
have thine own way

Thou art the potter, 
I am the clay

Mould me and make me, 
after thy will

while I am waiting 
yielded and still.

What a beautiful prayer it could be for us to make this day, inspired by the passage from Jeremiah... to accept the Lord as the potter, who makes me, moulds me and uses me to behold the glory of the Lord and share it to the world! If only this is always the case, that we are in the hands of the Lord and that we do just what the Lord wants us to do - the world will be a paradise, the Reign of God here and now. For is that not what we pray: May your will be done, here on earth, as it is in heaven!  

In the parable that Jesus tells us today about the Reign of God, he brings out a fundamental element of either belonging to the Reign or not belonging to it. The angels will separate the good from the bad; the wicked from the righteous; the docile from the obstinate; the obedient from the rebellious; the discerning from the naive. Yes, the criterion is: doing the will of the Father, being clay in the hands of the Divine potter, not rebelling, not disobeying, not trying to act too smart!

Have you heard it said, that the anthem in heaven is, "I did it God's way"; while in hell it is, "I did it my way." The secret is here: doing it God's way! Living our life, God's way!

The Lord with us

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 29, 2020: Remembering St. Martha

Jeremiah 15:10, 16-21; John 11: 19-27

I am with you to save you and to deliver you...says the Lord in the first reading today. At times we battle with thoughts similar to what we hear from Jeremiah and we wonder if the Lord has abandoned us or abandoned this world all to itself! When things go wrong and so drastically out of control, as it is being experienced today world over, we feel like complaining as did Martha to Jesus, "if you were here, my brother would not have died"... 'if you were really here, these things would not be happening to us!' 

Just as Jesus challenges Martha to journey further in her sense of hope in the Lord, today the Lord tells us: I am with you to save you and deliver you! Do you believe that? It is like what St. Paul says about Abraham in Romans 4:18, that Jesus invites Martha to hope against hope - and us too! 

Martha's confession about Christ has nothing less short of the confession of St. Peter! The faith that Martha had in Jesus was so profound that she believed when Jesus was around nothing could go wrong. Jesus acknowledges the trust that Martha had in him, but invites her to go a step ahead and trust that even if things went wrong, she had nothing to fear for the Lord was with her always!

It is simple in times that are pleasant, to trust in the Lord; it is not that very simple to trust in the Lord "always". Even when things go wrong, or especially in such situations as today: disease, death, fear, panic, anxiety, uncertainty... we are called to be calm but vigilant; seeking solutions but not begging remedies. 

Not looking for any immediate and ready made solutions anxiously, but daring to remain patient with the issues of life, is a clear sign of total trust in the Lord, that the Lord is with us, that the Lord will never abandon us, that the Lord is there with us to save us and to deliver us! 

Time to return to the Lord - today and now!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 28, 2020: Jeremiah 14: 17-22; Matthew 13: 36-43

Rescue us, O Lord, for the glory of your name - the response for the psalmody inspires us to pray today, words that would mean so much in today's context. Tears, fears, death, sickness, hunger, unemployment, migration, terror, wickedness, enmity, slandering, sledging and all that is happening all around us - how tiring it has become to live our human existence today! Who has been the reason for all this: is it true that God has abandoned us? Or is it that we have abandoned God, and God's ways?

All that God sowed into our lives has been good and nothing but good; where does this hatred, exploitation, greed, manipulation, violence, vengeance and the rest of the evils come from? All from within us; from our evil thinking, from our evil tendencies, from our evil choices, from our abandoning of God. And if we want things to be set right, there is only one way out - that we leave this way of the evil one and return to the Lord, in hope, faith and love!

And when do we do this? Wait for the last minute possible? It is fine so, if we are ready to face and endure all these evil till that last minute and remain still strong enough to cling to the Lord. That is what the world seems to think today: there is time; there is time for thinking about God and all that pertains to God. We can always make it up to God, there is no hurry - people think - because God is loving and merciful and at anytime that we turn to the Lord, God will receive us into God loving mercy! 

Yes, it is true...God is loving and merciful, ready to forgive and ever willing to reach out to us in embrace. That is on God's part. But imagine, if I go so far away from God that it would be so difficult for me to return to the Lord! In my thoughts and choices, attitudes and actions, decisions and priorities, if I am so far away from God... even if I decide to turn to God - it would be a herculean task to return. That is the experience of so many today, people wriggling under the pains and slaveries that they wish to get away from, but unable to. Should we wait for that last moment? Is it not time to return to the Lord, today and now?