O LORD! I SEEK!

Seeking today and seeking with hope!

September 20, 2020: 25th Sunday in Ordinary time

Isaiah 55: 6-9; Philippians 1: 20c-24, 27a; Matthew 20: 1-16a

It is your face O Lord that I seek, prays the Psalmist (cf 27:8). Seeking the face of the Lord is the sweet task given to a lover of the Lord. But the Lord declares, I have not told you to seek me in vain, as if I were absent from you! The Lord is always with us and the Lord's countenance sheds its light upon us and that is the joy of our Christian living. But on our part we need to seek, not because the Lord hides, but we hide from the Lord. Adam and Eve, hid themselves and the Lord had to seek; Abel was eliminated and the Lord had to seek; that is the kind of God we have - the one who seeks! On our part are we open to the Lord? With this opening question, let us listen to what the Word has to tell us this Sunday. 

Seek the Lord, says the Word today. We are called to seek the Lord, seek the Lord above all else! Lord awaits to shine forth on us, however it is the need of ours to seek. St. Paul tells us in the second reading today, it becomes even a longing to end this existence on earth so that one could get to the Lord, that we may behold the face of the Lord! But it is not ours to decide, we are expected to live our earthly sojourn as long as the Lord wills it for us; but even within this sojourn the Lord will enable us to behold the Lord's face, if we seek it.

This seeking is not about merely searching, it is longing, it is yearning, it is getting in love it the face of the Lord, never leaving the presence of the Lord, wishing to have the Lord with us all the while in our daily life, never leaving the side of the Lord come what may... it is there that the problems crop up. We get too busy to seek the Lord, too occupied with other things to think of the Lord, too attached to so many things, persons and ideas to give the Lord the highest of priorities in life, too flimsy in our seeking of the Lord that any simple distraction on the way can take us away, like the insects picked by a flying bird! Are we seeking the Lord's face?

Seek the Lord, today! says the first reading and the Gospel parable too. The urgency of seeking the Lord is expressed so well and so plainly by Isaiah, when he urges that we seek the Lord while there is still time! Instead of just standing around and staring at things that will do no good, and focusing on elements that would lead us no where, it is important that we seek the Lord and seek the Lord today, here and now! It is a call to make a choice, to make up our minds, to discern our ways and set on a determined seeking!

The today we just heard is the most demanding part of the exercise! Yes we are ready to seek the Lord's face, but at a later phase in life, definitely not today! There could be three reasons in our minds to justify this: first, that there are more important things to do and it is a waste of time seeking the face of the Lord when there are things that I have to get going with; second, that it looks so outdated to do that, to speak of things that pertain to God and spiritual life and stuffs like that (as the youth lingo goes); third, that it is anyway a futile exercise because finally it is we who have to live our daily life here and now! Look at these reasons! Where is God in my priority list? What matters to me - pleasing the world around or really listening to the inner voice within me? Do I even imagine that I can do all things by myself? It is high time, TODAY, to just stop and ask myself: how long am I going to just stand and loiter around in my life...is it not time to get to work at the Lord's vineyard?

Seek the Lord with Hope, says the parable that Jesus presents. Don't worry even if you have wasted your time till now, make up your mind right now and seek the Lord with hope; do not think if the Lord will accept you or not. First of all, the Lord has not rejected you from the presence of the Lord in order that you need to wonder whether the Lord will accept you back. If at all you found a gap between the Lord and you, it was you who withdrew from the Lord and not the other way. Because the Lord's love is unconditional, and the Lord does not love us to the extent that we deserve it. If only the Lord were to calculate how deserving we are, how many of us can really stand before the Lord and claim the love of God for ourselves? "But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us"(Rom 5:8). 

That love with which the landowner gives the same wages to the first and the last, to those who slogged and those who just stepped in...that is very intriguing and apparently unjust in our logic. But that is what the Love's logic is all about - it does not calculate, it does not weigh the deserving and the non-deserving, it does not wait for an opportune moment to do good. This Love is the hope that Jesus gives us: at no point of time does God reject you! Let us repeat that as often as possible: at no point of time would God reject me! Anytime is good time to return to the Lord and enter his vineyard! Seek the Lord with Hope and you will definitely find the Lord seeking you out in the crowd, in the din and dark that you have created around yourself! 

The Lord is with me, the Lord lives with me, moves with me and sustains me! But it is up to me to seek that presence of the Lord, seek that grace of the Lord and seek that face of the Lord so that the light of God's countenance may illumine my daily life! Seek, Seek today, Seek with hope, and the Lord will find you!

Sowing, growing and what is in between...

 WORD 2day: Saturday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 19, 2020: 1 Corinthians 15: 35-37, 42-49; Luke 8: 4-15

The Word today speaks of sowing and growing, and what goes on in between these - dying and being reborn! Dying and being reborn, is not merely an other-worldly experience as we immediately tend to think. It is a daily experience - think of the breathing process... every time we breathe out it is an experience of death (that is why it is called 'expiration' - breathing out) and every time we breathe in again, it is a new lease of life that we take in. Every night we go to rest, the entire system of our body comes to rest, it can either get to a halt or replenish itself - that is a daily miracle. Scientists say about 300 million cells die every minute in our bodies and equal numbers replace them! But with regard to our spiritual regeneration, how prepared are we to die and to be reborn?

The aspects of dying to ourselves and being reborn in Christ is a criterion for Christian living (cf. Rom 6). Many of us who claim to be followers, disciples and apostles of Christ, still refuse to die to certain tendencies, elements within our selves, which militate against the Spirit of the Lord who wants to dwell within us, for we are called to be the dwelling place of God, the temples of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19).

Of course, there are situations that are against our becoming totally the dwelling place of God: like the parched land or the scorching heat or the choking thorns. It could be a dry patch in life, or a difficult phase, or an intense suffering, or a repeated pounding of physical or spiritual pain. That is everyone's experience (of course, the intensity varies) and hence, cannot be ever a valid reason for our personal lack of commitment to belong to the Lord and for our lagging in efforts to grow closer to God. 

God has sown. God has called us and chosen us and appointed us, each in our own life and in our own context. What matters now is our personal commitment, perseverance, and loving decision to belong and to grow into the image and likeness of the One who has caused us and called us. What is in between sowing and growing is our effort, our commitment, our willingness to die and to be reborn!

The Resurrection Effect

WORD 2day: Friday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 18, 2020: 1 Corinthians 15: 12-20; Luke 8: 1-3

The Word today points to an identity that is so fundamental to a follower of Christ - the Resurrection Effect! 

The first of all effects that Christ has on his followers is the Resurrection effect. It is a life filled with hope! If Christ were not raised from the dead, our faith would be in vain - declares St. Paul today. We are filled with a hope so great that nothing, not even death can take away the meaning of our life. Especially today when we are faced with a life threatening situation and a crisis that eats into our peace of mind and serenity, it is essential to reinforce this source of meaning in life. The pandemic experience can result in two extremes - one, looking at everything as meaningless and flimsy...that would be hopelessness; or, looking at everything with a sense of fear and trepidation... that would be overcrowding our minds with anxiety and nervousness. Both of these are, as said already, extremes. The point of serenity lies in hope - that is a resurrection effect. 

Secondly, we find today Jesus amidst the first community that he himself had initiated, the proto community, the seed that he planted - the Twelve, and some women! That is another resurrection effect - the fruit of rising above all the pettiness of the world, discarding the divisions, despising differences of gender or geography, and becoming one people! We are all baptised into the one Spirit - Jews or Greeks, free or slaves, we are all filled with the same Spirit, St. Paul would instruct (1 Cor 12:13). The resurrection effect is uniting, synthesising, harmonising and creating communion, and never division and discrimination. The capacity for communion and solidarity - that is another resurrection effect.

Today, let us look at our faith communities - it could be our family, our religious communities, or parish communities: is it one body? Is it united in the Risen Lord? Is it truly 'following' the Lord? Does it have the 'mind' of Christ? Are we really Resurrection Community, Resurrection people, with the Resurrection effect?

Humility and Gratitude - signs of a spiritual person

WORD 2day: Thursday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 17, 2020: I Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 7: 36-50

By the grace of God I am what I am, declares St. Paul in today's first reading. That statement brings out two salient features of a truly Spiritual person. The first is Humility; the other quality which flows from it, Gratitude.

Humility is a sign that one knows oneself, understands oneself, places oneself in the right perspective and accepts what the Lord has called one towards. It is not abasing or belittling oneself - that would be a misunderstanding of the virtue. Humility is knowing who one really is, accepting it wholeheartedly and striving to grow into what one is called to be! Where does this clarity come from: from the very source of our being. Yes. humility is looking at oneself from the perspective of God, from the eyes of the One who made, who loved us into existence!

Gratitude is an inevitable quality if one really wishes to identify oneself as "spiritual". Because a grateful heart is a holy heart, and only a grateful heart can really be holy! At times we come across persons who call themselves 'spiritual' by their self-proclaimed status or by the role that they play in the common life of the society or by the others proclaiming them so - but as soon as they begin to speak, or as soon as they begin to act, there is so much of paradox! They boast of themselves, they come across arrogant and they despise everyone who is not in keeping with their views and opinions! Can these be really the 'spiritual' people that they claim to be? This arrogance and boasting actually comes from lack of gratitude, not acknowledging the fact that they have been raised to that position despite their unworthiness by God who is the Lord of history.

Looking at the woman who was forgiven in the Gospel today, we see that she was offered a totally new life and that made her so exuberantly grateful that she did not hesitate to express it through all means she thought would help. She was really a spiritual person, not those who sat around judging her! 

The episode of this woman, the example of St. Paul and the Word altogether today remind us of a crucial truth: a humble person is spiritual and a grateful person is holy.

Love is all what matters!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 24th week in Ordinary time 

September 16, 2020: 1 Corinthians 12:33 - 13:13; Luke 7: 31-35 

Reflecting on the famous passage from the first reading today, one can be reminded of the saying from Buddha: in the end, only three things matter, how much you loved, how gently you lived and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you! Jesus had further simplified all this and said: Love one another as I have loved you; that alone matters! St. Paul understood his Master so well, and he centred his teaching on the hymn of love that he presents us with today. St. Augustine, who was a faithful follower of Pauline perspective of Christ, surely was not exaggerating when he said: love and do what you wish! Oh! what a lineage!

In fact, the only condition that Jesus places in sharing his identity with us was LOVE. We find that in Jn 13:35, when Jesus gives us an identity card - by this they will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. We know this very well, and we do not fail to understand it too. But we hardly live it, because we stop with knowing and understanding. When it comes to interpreting and practising, we have an altogether different logic of thinking - a logic that is opposed to that of Christ!

That is what Jesus is calling 'dancing to the tunes and crying to the dirges' of the world! Yes, at times we can be deceived by interpretations and cultural fads around us. Look at how today, love is considered a relative, emotional feeling. Is it truly a 'Christian' understanding of love? Christianly speaking love is not a deceptive concept...it is an absolute criterion; love is not a mere feeling, it is a commitment; love is not about pleasing and pleasure, it is all about giving and suffering for the other! That is why St.Paul so beautifully lists the characters of true 'Christian' love. 

Those traits the Word offers us today are fool proof ways of being a Christian. Pleasing others, dancing to tunes, earning name and fame... these actually should not matter. After all, for a true Christ-ian, love is all what matters!

Remembering the Mother of Sorrows

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 15, 2020: Remembering the sorrows of our Blessed Mother
Hebrews 5: 7-9; John 19: 25-27

A heart pierced with an arrow is a famous symbol today, a symbol very romantic. But there was a heart that was once told: one day a sword shall pierce you! And that heart remained patient and open, and bore that piercing for the sake of that one "yes" that was pronounced at the beginning of the string of those events.

The Mother of Sorrows is an icon that challenges us to understand the meaning of Christian living. As St. Paul would say, 'the reign of God is not a matter of food and drink, enjoyment and fun, a romantic feeling or a colourful happening'. It is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 14:17). Righteousness, requires a hunger and thirst for it (cf Mt 5:6); Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit consist of doing the will of the God, come what may. 

Following immediately the Exaltation of the Cross, the feast of today, establishes the truth that, in living a Christian life, there are a certain things clearly difficult and demanding. It requires an absolute choice to live a truly 'Christian' life  to the full. Mary was not merely the biological mother of Jesus, she was the first disciple who heard what Jesus said and put them into practice - thus becoming mother even by the definition that Jesus gave: those who hear my words and put them into practice, are my mothers, brothers and sisters. 

Mary made that choice and stuck to it right from the beginning and right up to the end and thanks to that choice, she had to undergo great traumas and odds. That is what we celebrate today. In fact, this humble but great person has shown us what it means to be a disciple of Christ, the Lord of the Cross! 

May our Blessed Mother, strengthen our spirits, increase our endurance and deepen our faith, to believe in the Lord, in and through our sufferings. 

Look up and be loved!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 14, 2020: The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Numbers 21: 4b-9; John 3:13-17

We have today a beautiful remembrance, the celebration of the Christian symbol of Love: the Cross. The Cross is taken more often than not, as a symbol of suffering! Yes, it was a symbol of suffering, until the loving Lord took it into his embrace, on his shoulders and climbed on it to give his life for us...all this out of the limitless love he had for us! He changed its meaning and ever since, the cross has come to symbolise love, the unconditional, limitless and boundless love that the Lord has for us.

Hence the feast that we celebrate today gives us a fundamental lesson for living our daily life: Look Up to the Lord and Be Loved!

Look Up: 

At times we are lost in the troubles that we have, in the daily struggles and everyday chores; so lost in those that we have time only to murmur, to lament and to complain. We do not have the patience and the capacity to look up! Look Up, look beyond, look upon high and you will see the horizon that will give you hope. Our troubles are big, our concerns are challenging, but the horizon is there, the silver lining is there...we have to look up to notice that. Hope is the key to Christian way of life. 

Look to the Lord:

Let us look to the Lord; it is from the Lord that our help comes! The Psalms further insist: Look upto Him and be radiant (34:5). 'Looking Up' alone is not enough, we can be deceived or distracted or misled. Looking to the Lord is the key to Christian Problem Solving. Unless through the Son of God who has come down from heaven, no one can go to the Father who is in heaven, says the Gospel today. The real solutions to our problems lie in the hands of God: it is in looking to the Lord that we will have life, life in all its fullness. It is a call to refrain from telling the Lord that our problems are big; but a call to tell our problems that our Lord is big and mighty!

Be Loved:

The Lord is filled with love, a total self emptying love that does not count the cost! God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that we have eternal life. The Son so loved the world that he gave everything up, and showed his love in the total self-giving on the Cross. We are promised a measure of love that no human mind can comprehend, because it is eternal and limitless. Such is God's love for us, but nothing can be done if I keep myself away from it. When I claim that love, in total obedience and surrender unto the Lord, I feel loved! When I rebel and keep myself away, I prevent myself from experiencing that love which is so present all around me. The key is allowing myself to be loved by God, seeing myself as being loved by God, identifying myself as the beloved child of God. 

As we exalt the Cross today, as we sing praises to the One who is lifted high for our salvation, let us resolve to Look Up, to Look to Him and to Let ourselves be loved! 

A LESSON ON FORGIVENESS

Memory, Meaning and Matter-of-fact

September 13, 2020: 24th Sunday in Ordinary time

Ecclesiasticus 27:33 - 28:9; Romans 14: 7-9; Matthew 18: 21-35

This Sunday we have the most Christian of all lessons - a lesson on forgiveness. That is the key not only to a true Christian life but also to a truly happy life. 

The crucial question of the lesson today is, Why should we forgive? Why should we forgive, if someone has done harm to us? Isn't it against justice? If the one who has offended continues to offend, do I remain on the ground, receiving everything lying down? Jesus seems to be answering these questions as he speaks those words to Peter - not just seven times, seventy times seven. Jesus teaches us to forgive not just our friends but our enemies, and to pray for them. Apart from that response and teaching of Jesus, we have three reasons underlined today in the readings... Let's dwell on those one by one.

We have to forgive because our past demands it from us. MEMORY teaches us that we have to forgive. Looking at what God has done for us, the experience of our own past, where we have been excused so much, pardoned so abundantly and loved beyond all our limitations, we have no excuse; we have to forgive. Look at that man who was pardoned such a large amount by the ruler - what should he have done? Forgive, isnt it? If only he thought a bit about what he had experienced from his ruler, he would not have been so mean. It is important for us to develop this memory, the Memory of the Mercy that we have been granted in abundance.

Memory keeps our humility alive... at times we prefer to forget he past, the path we have tread to reach where we have, imagining as if we the most perfect persons and most justifiable people on earth. This lack of humility makes us arrogant and self righteous and we are quick to judge others, not to understand them and be compassionate to them. Just imagine the teachers who forget their behaviour when they themselves were students, or the senior officials who forget what grievances they had to their superiors when they were subordinates...when they forget that they become equally pain inflictors as the others were. Paulo Freire in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed would reflect on how the oppressed become oppressors when an opportunity presents itself, if they were not conscientious of their experience. Viktor Frankl would speak of those in the Nazi concentration camp who were put supervisors form among their own people, who proved more cruel than the Nazi authorities. These are unfortunate forgetfulness that lead to total disaster of one's personality.

We have to forgive because our present requires it from us. We are Christians, or so we call ourselves! If we are Christians but we do not live what Christ taught and lived for, then our life has no MEANING at all. The very Meaning of the life that we are living right now, comes from the fact that we take our name from Christ himself. If so, we need to live faithful to that name.Whether we live or die, we are for Christ, we are with Christ and we belong to Christ. Only this gives meaning to our existence, or death, or sufferings or every bit of our daily experiences. Without forgiving can we call ourselves Christians?

Just give a thought to this strange fact: it is easy at times to forgive people who are our enemies, people whom we know are against us, people who are far away from us. But it becomes so difficult to forgive our own close friends, at times spouses, or parents or siblings... those who are all the time with us, persons who enjoy a great part of our confidence. We even have a theory coined for it and justify saying it is alright to forgive enemies, but not the traitors! But can we really justify this tendency to deny forgiveness? Look at the model presented to us by Jesus in his own life - he not only forgave the Jews and Romans who killed him or the soldiers who treated him with contempt, but also the closest of his collaborators who turned against him or abandoned him acting indifferent towards him. Jesus forgave Peter's denial and made him the shepherd of His flock. He forgave the rest of them who deserted him and assured them they were his beloved apostles despite their failures. He forgave Thomas' stubbornness and gave him the proofs that he demanded. Only Judas had made a hasty move to eliminate himself - that is a queer case of not accepting forgiveness, and we need to dwell on it at length, may be in some other occasion! But the lesson is very clear, isn't it: if I need to live a meaningful life, here and now, I better learn to forgive.

We have to forgive because our future depends on that, as a MATTER-OF-FACT. As the first reading says so simply and the parable that Jesus narrates in the gospel points out, if we need to be forgiven, if we have to be accepted as children of God; if we have to qualify as disciples of Christ, we should forgive and there is no option to it. It is a matter of fact, there is no two opinions about it. Jesus is crystal clear, the Word is insistent and the Spirit inspires us to forgive, because only through that we make ourselves worthy of the forgiveness of God. 

Consider some well known images... of Nelson Mandela who remained in the prison for 27 years due to racism and when he stepped out he chose to forgive and work with the authorities towards abolition of apartheid... of Gladys Staines, the wife of the slain pastor Graham Staines who was killed with two of his sons and how the woman of God announced with firmness, I forgive those who killed my loved ones... of the family of Sr. Rani Maria who was stabbed to death and the assassin who is now a Christian because he was forgiven and accepted as one among them by the family... of Pope Saint John Paul II who forgave the one who attempted to assassinate him - Mehmet Ali Agca and how the latter came back after 31 years to Rome, to St. Peter's, to John Paul the II's tomb to pay his homage. He called the late pontiff, his 'Spiritual brother', and  uttered the words, "a thousand thanks, Saint!" and "Long Live Jesus Christ"!  

Look at all these images... what do they communicate... a lesson on forgiveness! Forgiveness gives peace of mind calming our memories, serenity at heart a true meaning to our lives, and becomes a matter of fact that we are Christia-ians! This is what the Lord wants to leave us today, as a lesson for our lives. And this lesson has to be lived on a daily basis, beginning right from where we are - our families, our parish communities, our religious communities, with the spouse, parents, children, siblings, neighbours...and every one we can think of or come in touch with every day! 

Let us take this lesson on Forgiveness, that the Word gives us today, to our heart and consider seriously practicing this teaching. If not, we would remain far from what we claim to be - that is, Christians! 

Differences, disputations and dialogues

WORD 2day: Saturday, 23rd week in Ordinary time

September 12, 2020: 1 Corinthians 10:14-22; Lk 6: 43-49

We live in a world of absolute pluralism today. Gone are those days when societies in Asia like India or many such were singled out for their pluralistic nature. Not just those, but almost every society, all over the world experiences a context and culture of pluralism. Everyone finds one's neighbour different - different in his or her creed or convictions or value systems. In this regard, there are those who appreciate this fact, and there are those who find it too difficult to manage - either due to its complexities or due to their own self centered motives. 

In such a situation, what should be a true Christian disposition? Can it be one of disputation, debate or delirious defense? The result would range from a kind of disrespectful cynicism to a hateful dissent. Are those fruits proper to a tree that is Christian? It if has to be called 'Christian', how can anything be its fruit other than love:  for by this they will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other.

If so, what would be the right disposition? Compromise? Relativism? An anything-is-ok mentality? No, Never, says St.Paul in today's first reading. Between Controversies and Compromise, there is something called Comprehension. That, that alone is the need of the hour today. An attitude of mature Dialogue.

What would be the use of talking so much about God as love and about Christ's teachings of a forgiving and forbearing love, if we do not begin to live it, wherever we are? Will we not be foolish builders, building our beach side castles? Let us form ourselves into solid buildings of enduring love and never failing faith, that we may teach the whole world the lifestyle of true love - that would consist of celebrating difference, handling disputations and growing towards genuine dialogue!

The need to be 'trained'

WORD 2day: Friday, 23rd week in Ordinary time

September 11, 2020: I Corinthians 9:16-19, 22b -27; Luke 6: 39-42.

The readings today insist on the need to be trained in being an apostle. 

We are all apostles; each of us, by virtue of our baptism. That call is not merely a privilege, it is an obligation too, a duty and a demand placed on me. Considering it merely a matter of boast leads to some unfortunate developments within the faith community, situations such as infighting, ego clashes, jealousy, unchristian 'politricks'...and other demonic tendencies. The Gospel calls those with these tendencies: blind leading the blind and both into the pit! 

Instead, taking the call seriously leads one to a fuller realisation of the gift that it is and of the demands it places. One of the important demands is to be trained! Both St.Paul and Jesus, today speak of this training. This apprenticeship of life and life style is a task, not merely of the intellect or the skill-set... it is a matter of holistic shaping. 

It would consist of fundamentally three things: first, humble acceptance of the call to be an apostle. This would mean a balance between a boastful claim of the status of an apostle and a unwarranted debasing of oneself based on the human frailties that are common to all. 

The second need is, attentive listening to the Word that comes to us. This would mean keeping one's eyes and ears open to observe every bit of what the Lord wants to communicate through events, persons and extraordinary signs. Once we lose them, we cannot be truly messengers of the Lord, that is apostles. 

The third is, a diligent practice of the Word that is heard, seen and experienced. Hearing and not acting is lying, St. James would say. And Jesus would compare that to building your home on a loose sand - your fall from glory will be too soon, and too grave.

Falling short of these three steps in our training, would make us either arrogant bigwigs or pretentious bullies but never trained disciples and apostles. Hence the need to be trained is precisely for this singular purpose: to gradually grow into the image of the Master, who has called us!