Truly God's Children?

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 15, 2020: 3rd Tuesday in Advent

Zephaniah 3: 1-2, 9-13; Matthew 21: 28-32

At a point in the first reading the Lord says: 'you need not be ashamed of all your deeds...'. Not to be ashamed of myself is a life of dignity and honour; that I am myself and I am proud of it. True love and true regard for each other will give one this dignity and honour. The Lord fills us with this dignity and honour as God's sons and daughters. 

In our moral integrity we are challenged to remain worthy of that calling we have, that is, to be sons and daughters of God our loving father and mother. It consists of the decision we make to hear the voice of God, listen to it, realise the call within it and act on it with love. 

Not hearing the voice would be a total insensitivity to God - a rejection or a shutting out of God from our lives. Not many of us dare to it, atleast not for long in life. Hearing but not listening would be a disrespect - this is more often than not, seen in our attitudes. Listening but not realising the call involved in it, would be foolishness - because why all the effort and attention to listen but finally only to throw it away in the air. Is it not a waste of time and energy? Finally, Realising the call that is involved in the Word listened to, but not acting upon it, would be a deliberate choice that would negate our very belonging to the Lord - that is we telling ourselves and the world, that we are not really, truly, in actuality, children of God!

When we are ready to hear, listen, realise and act on God's word, we would be true sons and daughters of God; and we would never need to be ashamed of ourselves, our deeds or our lives. The point is, are we really God's children!

It's all around you!

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 14, 2020: 3rd Monday in Advent

Numbers 24: 2-7, 15-17a; Matthew 21:23-27

In all ages and times there have been people who make of religion, a fairy tale or a horror story! The recent times have seen bands and bands of such people, writing, preaching, proclaiming and shouting at the top of their voice about signs and events, mysteries and milestones...all exciting but so shallow and Un-Christ-ian! Specially in the pandemic times, the reactions of the so-called people at the helm of Christian communities, have been so much challenged and many a times wanting! However leaving those responses aside, we can reflect on the stimulus that calls for that response!

It is not for us to know the time and the hour...but the call is to be prepared and alert, watching and praying constantly, that we may never miss when the Lord visits us. The Lord visiting us is not an extraordinay event...it happens regularly and daily...provided we are ready and willing to behold that visit.

That visit is not something about which we would shudder and shiver, if we live our every moment according to the will of the One who has commissioned us. If we are true and honest about our experience with God, we would find God and Godly signs and God's call to act, every moment of our lives! It is all around us... in faces that surround us, in events that envelope us, in experiences that beckon our choice and in persons who challenge our priorities. 

That visit is not something waiting to happen....no it is something that is waiting to be beheld, because it is already and constantly happening. All that we need to do is open our eyes, ears and above all our hearts, to observe and behold that presence of the Lord. Let us be convinced of the fact that the Lord is present in our days, living with us, walking beside us all the way! And let this be our prayer that we may never miss the Lord who visits us: Lord teach us your ways!

REJOICE! BE JOYFUL..

A Joy that comes from right priorities!

Third Sunday of Advent: December 13, 2020
Isaiah 61: 1-2 a, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24; John 1: 1-6, 19-28.

Rejoice...again I say rejoice! Today is the Gaudete Sunday, asking us to celebrate in foreboding joy of the Lord and his coming. Rejoice...again I say rejoice, cries out Paul!My soul rejoices in the Lord sings the Psalmist. I exult for joy declares Isaiah! The reason for all these: the Gospel reminds us: the One for whom the whole creation longs is already amidst us! All that we need to do is, take note of the Lord present. And it is only in a holy joy that we can take note of the presence of the Lord.

Joy is the key Christian value. Especially, in today's world, it is an essential message that a Christian is called to give, repeats strongly our beloved Holy Father Pope Francis, every time that he can! He says a christian should be able to convince the world that one can be filled with joy and live one's life inspiring the same joy in those around and in the world at large. With all the crisis this pandemic has created and the resultant factors, it is possible that one gets confused as to what this joy really means. But as to Christian joy, there should be no doubt what it means.

J-Jesus... the first priority and the foundation.

Christian Joy is to place Jesus first in life. When the Lord is given the first and the central place in life, every thing else falls in place. Relativising every thing else in relation to God is a source of an immense serenity. John the Baptist knew that well and bears witness to this serenity! When he gives himself an identity in relation to the Lamb, as the voice crying out in the wilderness, John the Baptist is not belittling himself, but identifying the role assigned to him. And it is in terms of that role, the kind of treatment that was meted out to him, became tolerable to him. His joy was in waiting for the Lord and identifying the Lord, when he came! 

The foundation of Christian Joy is the Lord himself. It involves a grateful recognition of all that God has done to us. When we are mindful of it, like our blessed mother we would break into a song of praise and thanksgiving: my soul magnifies the Lord; for the Lord has done great things for me. Like Isaiah today and like Jesus himself who would quote the very same verses of Isaiah... we would acknowledge the working of the spirit on our behalf. Our joy comes from the Lord and the Lord alone!

O-Other... prior to me and the principal criterion.

The other... has to come prior to the self in true joy. True Christian joy would take into consideration the other immediately after the Lord, who is the source of joy. Selfishness and avarice, pleasure and exploitation cannot form part of Christian joy. The corporates who find means to profit at the cost of the multitudes, the powerful giants caring nothing about the little poor ones being trampled upon, the institutions fending for their own existence caring nothing about the truly needy and the suffering...these can never be signs of true joy and the other does not matter to them at all.

The very principle of Christian joy is the community and the sense of the people of God! The Don Bosco Youth Centres in Chennai have this tag line attached to them: No one has the right to be happy alone. The call "rejoice" today, comes to the community as a whole to rejoice in the Lord who has willed to act on their behalf. Not just in seasonal acts of kindness, or sporadic events of reaching out, but constantly the other has to be placed before 'me'...the other has to become the criterion that guides my choices and my decision making. What the prophets insisted and what Jesus lived out was this: that nothing mattered to them, when the other was in need, when an other was suffering, when an other was unjustly crushed by selfishness, insensitivity and indifference. The Other has to lead me to act...that is true joy in Christ-ian terms.

Y-You... of course last but not the least

You come at the end nevertheless "you" matter much to the Lord. You come at the end because, you are the protagonist. You should not get lost in your need and suffering, your worry and burdens, your problems and plans... Yes... you have your need, problem, issue, challenge... but the other draws your attention more and the Lord becomes the constant support, that you are able to transcend the troubles and struggles...logically, the fruit is joy, an incomprehensible joy that comes from within. People who see will wonder how you are able to be serene regardless of what you are going through...but you know it...it comes from the Lord and from the priority you give for the other.

You matter much to the Lord. It is not true to think that Christian spirit requires that you negate yourself to the extent that you think your self is evil! No, it cannot be; it is not! You are precious in the eyes of God and you form an integral and important part of God's salvific plan. That is why the Lord comes in search of you, comes to your heart, comes to your home! Recieve the Lord! Experience the Lord! Rejoice in the Lord and you will see, how things can change in life! Your tears shall change into joy...not because the situations around you change...but because your heart changes, with the Lord coming! That is true JOY.

Rejoice... is the call today. Let's rejoice in the Lord and prepare ourselves more intensely with that joy, to receive the Lord when He comes.

Face the fire!

THE WORD IN ADVENT 

December 12, 2020: 2nd Saturday in Advent

Sirach 48: 1-4, 9-11; Matthew 17: 9a, 10-13

Elijah arose like a fire, the Word says and John was the expected Elijah! Elijah was a mighty big challenge for the people of his times - the people revered, the kings trembled, and the other false prophets fell flat before him. This is why, the powerful people in the time of Jesus wondered why Elijah should come back, because for them Elijah meant trouble. Obviously, they could not, rather they did not want to see Elijah in the Baptist. And Jesus pointed it out on their face. 

For us today 'Elijah' would be those persons and situations that challenge us to greater commitment and total dedication. And 'John' would be those people who put us into a spiritual uneasiness by their witnessing life. At times we do not want to have anything to do with them. Worse still, we try to interpret their actions and attitudes to be too rude or pretentious,  thus writing them off from the public face. The worst, when we try to get rid of them, whatever it takes.

Look at the scenario today: the increasing compromises in Christian living and the senseless alienation of daily life from the Christian belief; duplicity of motivations in what we speak or do in the public domain; the underground discussions and partnerships that aim at toppling the righteous persons who burn with the fire of the Reign!

Let us keep the figures of Elijah and John in our minds for a practical and concrete dedication towards our call to be people of the Reign. Let us recognise willingly people with such fire within them! Even if we are not one of them, at least let us  learn to face them... let us learn to face the fire, with holy awe!

To find your depth...

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 11, 2020: 2nd Friday in Advent

Isaiah 48: 17-19; Matthew 11:16-19

If only you were... we use this expression very often when communicating our disappointment over someone. Today the Lord uses it in relation to the people of Israel...if only you had listened to me, and proved a little more faithful! There is a spark of an inspiration from the first reading today, speaking of faithfulness to God being like waves! In fact the Gospel too takes off from there. 

Waves ebb and flow, come and go, rise and fall, proceed and recede...but look at them at their origins - the deep sea. There they are calm like a sleeping giant. That is what faithfulness to God is all about. Though you may be involved in frenetic activity and never ending responsibilities, never lose that inner serenity where your being truly resides. 

Jesus gives a beautiful allegory - like children who play, we live our lives with numerous expectations on the other and disappointments within. We expect and get disappointed; or we get anxious to meet the expectations of the other or others, and feel stressed out. Jesus is simply suggesting to us: can you just stop and ask yourself, what are you up to? What are you toiling for? What are you stressing yourself out for? What are you really trying to prove and to whom? 

Jesus has this to tell us today: you have nothing to prove! You are what you are in the depth of your being. Discover that, realise that, and try to live that to the full. Do not get lost in the externals of show and appreciation or disappointments and critiques. You can do that only when you are able to find your depths. That is why the key to a truly 'happy' life, is finding your real depth and getting truly in touch with it.

The Reign suffers!

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 10, 2020: 2nd Thursday in Advent

Isaiah 41: 13-20; Matthew 11: 11-15

Jesus speaks of the Reign that suffers at the hands of the violent. It follows from Jesus' assertion that the Reign of God rests amidst us. Yes, the Reign lives in those who live the values of the Reign. Most of the times our discourses and discussions on the Reign of God, end with a dubious note, a never answered question: "are all that we speak of, possible?  Is it not merely Utopian to think of such ideals? Can we really establish such a Reign in our context?" 

Jesus would today tell us: it is not all about establishing the Reign. The Reign already exists, in the persons who stand for love and mutual care, in persons who thirst for justice and truth, in persons who are ready to give up even their lives for the sake of fullness of life for all. The question is, do we form part of that Reign already in our life or not. And if we do form part of it, it would be seen in our everyday choices, our priorities and the causes we stand for and speak out for. 

When we do it, we will surely not be left in peace. Look at persons who are taken to task, in different parts of the world, merely because they insist on living the values of the Reign - the values of justice, equality, and fraternity! Jesus himself is our model who went right up to the cross and eventual death, for the sake of the values of love and sacrifice that he held on to. Living these days of crisis, this life style of Jesus is a big challenge to us. 

When we intend to live as Christ did, we will certanain have troubles from every corner and the Lord assures us in the first reading today: 'Fear not! I will help you!' Because the Reign of God is the Lord's doing and we are all agents of that the Reign here on earth - and we have the Reign right within us! When we fail to realise that, the Reign suffers!

To never grow tired!

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 09, 2020: Second Wednesday in Advent

Isaiah 40: 25-31; Matthew 11: 28-30

To run and not to grow weary, to walk and never to tire... that is the call that the Word has today. That is clearly a sign of God's people. Think of a person like Mother Teresa, she fought all her life against everything that drains humanity of its dignity, did she succeed? Or a person like Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in the prison to stand for equality and political freedom, did he totally succeed? Succeed... that does not matter. They never grew tired - that was the sign of their greatness, their godliness! Nothing could break them. They were putting out their wings like the eagle, every time the oppressive powers tended to curtail them.

It is like the techniques that are taught to the sprinters... having just a hundred or two hundred meters at their disposition, to prove themselves, they cannot afford to look back, compare with the other or console oneself in comparison with the other! Till the very last moment the person has to keep the pace up, because even in the last moment, one can be easily overtaken! 

Yes, we have this course to run, called life. But we cannot become tired of it, we cannot complain about it. There are difficult moments and tiresome experiences. But there are also precious treasures that the Lord has in store for us - wonderful experiences, inspiring people, captivating values, sanctifying virtues, everything is there. We cannot grow tired. 

The Lord assures his sons and daughters that God will be with us strengthening us in this life and all its  trials...you will run but will not grow tired, you will walk but will not grow faint...if and only if you have God with you! The Lord expresses God's wish to comfort us and assist us, it is upto us to receive this grace and accept his accompaniment. 

We are God's people, only in as much as we develop our capacity to never grow tired!

God's Plan: Not Magic but Mystery!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

December 8, 2020: Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother

Genesis 3: 9-15, 20; Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11-12; Luke 1: 26-38

Today's feast is not so much to celebrate the Blessed Mother of God, as to celebrate the Eternal plan of God. God has a plan for each of us, from before the foundations of the world, reminds us the Liturgy today. At times we look at this plan as something magical and try to guess it through means of mediums and methods of all sorts: palmistry, star signs, fortune tellers and prediction professionals! God's plan is not a magic for us to manipulate; it is a mystery to be lived. God's plans unfold moment by moment, as and when we live. 

Today we see, in time immemorial the promise that God made that God will set a woman and her offspring against the evil tempter of the world. And we celebrate how this plan at the foundations of the creation, unfolded in total obscurity, in the womb which bore the womb that would bear the Son of God. What a great mystery!

It is not for us to guess God's plan or calculate God's moves: that is a radical impossibility. But we are called to believe in the God's plan, accept it and cooperate with it! God has chosen us before the foundation of the world and therefore we are not here by chance; God has willed us into existence! It is our task to discern what God's plan is for us at any particular given time and carry it out, as did our Blessed Mother all her life. 

The aspect we celebrate in our Blessed Mother today is the total cooperation that she offered to the plan of God, because of which she lived all her life, holy and blameless. Let us fix our minds on the Word today: that we are chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God in love.

Strange things or Miracles: learn to see

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 7, 2020: 2nd Monday in Advent

Isaiah 35: 1-10; Luke 5: 17-26

When things happen in an unexpected way, we exclaim - 'what a coincidence!' A worse expression is to say, 'how strange!' A truly Christian outlook would be to cry out 'it is a miracle!' Yes, at times people think miracles are few and far between...no they abound. Miracles abound for those who are ready to see them around.

The Gospel today says the people said: we have seen strange things today. Worse still, there were those who were finding fault with Jesus who was the reason for things that were happening. Who were truly disciples of Christ: those who were, from the beginning able to see what Jesus was upto...his compassion, his love for the crippled man, his passion for God and God's children and finally the act of forgiveness and healing...every bit of it was a miracle for them!

The first reading speaks of deserts flowering, wilderness turning a haven, wild beasts disappearing and glory of God filling all the earth...it would sound strange for some. Worse still, for some it would sound foolish and infantile and too spiritualising. For true disciples of Christ, it will be a miracle to be expected, prayed for, and beheld when it happens. 

In all these what is the difference between the outlooks: the capacity to see, observe and behold miracles. Miracles abound for those who are ready to see them around. 

Let us learnt to see miracles, on a daily basis they keep happening to us in our ordinary lives. A smile from a person when you just need it; a tap on your shoulder when you are all down in spirit, a call from a dear one when you feel you are totally down and out, a glad news from someone when you are gloomy and blue, a surprising encounter with a person when you least expected it...all these account for miracles, of only we learn to see in them what the Lord wants to accomplish through these and communicate in them. It is a special capacity we can acquire only in the School of Jesus...let us learn to see!

W A I T

Prepare the way!

December 06, 2020: 2nd Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3: 8-14; Mark 1: 1-8

One fourth of the Advent is gone; and soon it will be Christmas! The Lord will be here anytime, warn the readings today. Last week liturgy invited us to watch, and this week it invites us to WAIT.

Waiting can be of two fundamental kinds. The first type is a passive indifference - you wait helplessly; you wait doing nothing, because you think you can do nothing about it! You are passive and you are inactive...whatever you are waiting for, has to happen by itself and you feel you have no part of it, until it really begins to happen. The other type of waiting is, an active preparation - you are totally involved in the expectant events. Though you know you cannot do much about what you are waiting for, but you can do all the preparations for it, and you do it with such enthusiasm, that when it really happens you begin to live the moment to the full. 

A Christian waiting can never be an indifference or a passive helplessness regarding things that happen. That is what the world calls fate. The difference between the concepts of fate and will of God, is the love that is involved in the latter. A love with which a person lives to the full the moments of preparation, in order that the event itself could be meaningfully experienced. Yes, a Christian Waiting at advent is an active participation in the historical events that announce and usher in the Reign of God.

What does this WAIT concretely consist of? The liturgy today offers a clarity on this.

To wait is to Wish the coming of the Lord. True Waiting begins with a real wish, a want, a true desire that the Lord comes. It cannot be based on a dubious or a half hearted acceptance of an inevitable situation. A truly Christian waiting for the Lord should begin from an ardent desire that the Lord should visit us. Sometimes this wish or desire can be half hearted because of the fear of the changes that the Lord can effect with the coming.

There were those who did not wish the coming of the Lord - just imagine Herod becoming troubled at the news of a child being born. Recall those people of the Gerasenes (Mk 5), who did not want the Lord to come into their village. Let us not take this condition for granted - the condition to wish the coming of the Lord. At times, even we may tell that Lord, 'please do not enter my life...I cannot afford to change anything there right now!' 

To wait is to Allow the hand of the Lord. Isaiah today speaks of the changes that we need to look forward to; that the valleys be filled and the hills be leveled! It cannot be a true Christian attitude to want the Lord to come but not being ready to do anything or give into any change personally or as a community. It is a readiness to allow the Lord to challenge us to perfection.

Yes, if we truly wish the coming of the Lord into our lives, we need to allow the Lord to have his way! Today I want to dine with you the Lord said to Zacchaeus; and the very moment he began climbing down that sycamore, Zacchaeus started planning his itinerary already...I will change; I will become better; I will repent; I will restitute what I have unlawfully taken from others; I will relinquish my comforts for the right way of living. That is allowing the hand of the Lord to work on me, on my life, on my daily decisions.

To wait is to Inhabit the dwellings of the Lord. The second reading speaks to us of the need to conduct ourselves in holiness and devotion. The Gospel presents to us a people who went in search of the man of God that they may get closer to God, purify their ways and dwell in holiness and devotion. How eager are we to dwell in the courts of the Lord? How prepared are we to inhabit the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord promises us?

The coming of the Lord is a figurative phrase! It is not that the Lord has to come from somewhere, as if the Lord is not already with us. But it is a fact that we need to come home to the Lord. We are busy elsewhere, while the Lord waits at home, with arms wide open. We have neither the time nor the patience to recognise the Lord present and the arms that wish to console us, calm us, enthuse us and energise us. We need to inhabit the dwellings of the Lord - the Lord's favourite dwelling is our being...our inner being where the Lord resides...let us come home to this dwelling and get in touch with the Lord there.

To wait is to Tremble at the presence of the Lord. Let each one work out one's own salvation with fear and trembling, St. Paul would instruct elsewhere (Phil 2:12). John the Baptist personifies the need to prepare oneself in earnestness for the day of the Lord. He gives the ways and means of being prepared for the Reign of God. When the people looked for a saviour in the Baptist, he admits it with trembling before the Lord that the One who comes after him is mightier than him. And not just that, but that we need to prepare with haste for the day of the Lord.

There are no fixed formulae nor some short cut pathways to reach the salvation that God has in store for us..it is something that we need to work out on a daily basis: it is working out to be fit for the Reign. As John the Baptist indicates, each of us, depending on the state of life that we are in and the daily commitments that we have and the context in which we live our lives - we need to plan our itineraries. The journey we began last week is fast running its course out. We cannot take it at ease, or wait inactively for an opportune moment. We need to make decisions here and now...to change, to grow, to prepare more in concrete for the coming of the Lord.

Lets WAIT... wish heartily the coming of the Lord, allow the hand of the Lord to change our lives, inhabit the dwellings of the Lord and tremble at the presence of Lord. Let us take stock of the journey so far and continue in earnestness.