Renewing Christian Hope: Lift the Lord on high!

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, 5th week in Lent

March 23, 2021: Numbers 21: 4-9; John 8:21-30

 

They thought they were finishing his story off. Little did they know they were giving rise to an all new history. The Lord was lifted and as he had said, he drew all to himself when he was lifted. Today, as always, the blood of some people of God is being spilled for no reason, but it is not a signal to the end of the Reign of the Lord. Let the world beware that the Lord is being lifted up. And when the Lord is lifted up, he will definitely draw people to himself.  

 

All that we need to do is like Jesus himself guarantee that we do not act as we like but according to the will of the One who has called us. As Jesus himself testified it was his doing the will of his Father that gave him the meaning of his life. As the Scripture points through St. Paul it is the obedience to the Father that placed Jesus above every being on earth and gave him the name that is above every name (Phil 2: 8-11). 

When we do the will of the One who has called us, when we dedicate our entire life for the mission that the One has entrusted to us, then let us understand we are lifting the One Lord high! Not all will like it; not all will support it; some will even deliberately work against it...but all the same the Lord will be lifted high! And then the Lord shall draw people to the Reign. 

 

Hence, when there are difficulties around, when there are discouragements felt, when there are deliberate efforts to foil the goodness of the Lord – just look to lift the Lord - in your words, actions and your life! The world shall surely know the True Lord!

True Christian Love: Condemnation or Compassion?

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Fifth week in Lent

March 22, 2021: Daniel 13: 1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62; John 8; 1-11

 

Susanna's story in the first reading and the story of the woman brought to Jesus accused of adultery, are two grand examples of the fact that God takes side with the weak and the vulnerable. They are two crucial dimensions of God’s love – love for the innocent weak and love for the suffering and exploited.

 

At times the so-called just and righteous will wonder what is wrong with God, the way God takes sides with the so-called sinners and the ‘undeserving’! If we were careful not to side ourselves with the self-righteous and self-proclaimed just ones, we would easily understand our call to play God's role in the situations we find ourselves in: the role of taking sides with the weak, the vulnerable, the little ones of the Lord!

 

These are two different perspectives – one, that of the self-righteous and the other, the Truly Righteous God. The difference between the above mentioned two perspectives is simply this: one itches to condemn; the other is moved by compassion. Depending on what stance we take, we would determine which camp we belong to – to the condemnation camp or to the compassion camp!

 

It is compassion that is Godly and we need to grow seriously out of a vindictive spirit, if we want to put on the mind of Christ. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, declares St. Paul (Rom 8:1). It is so, because God is love and True Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things (1 Cor 13:7).

Let us strive to belong always to the Compassion camp!

ON OUR WAY TO ETERNAL LIFE

Embracing suffering and death, towards life

March 21, 2021: 5th Sunday in Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrew 5: 7-9; John 12: 20-23

The talk of the pandemic has filled the air all around us for more than a year now! The talks of cases and deaths, lockdowns and curfews, have only graduated to the next level adding to itself newer terms such as variants and vaccines; there doesnt seem to appear a definitive solution! In such a context, it is highly probable that a person or we as a society, give up hope! There are other equally unfortunate possibilities too - that we drink in the consipiracy theories and spread their negative vibes far and wide, or we grow terrified with the developments and close in, giving rise to depression and delusion! Yet again this year, the Paschal celebrations run the risk of being hampered by the restrictive measures of the governmental organisations... are we in an eschatological era? In this light, the Word this Sunday seems to drive home a very strong and difficult lesson to our Christian hearts and communities. 

First lesson is to learn to embrace suffering.

It is easy, practical, human and highly justified to entreat the Lord with saying - take these sufferings away from us! Jesus poses that pointed question: is that what we need to do? Is it not to suffer that the Son of Man came on earth - a suffering that he embraced in loving obedience to the Lord, says the second reading. The mind of Christ consists in seeing beyond the suffering, the pain and the misery, and noticing the hand of God accompanying us and guiding us. In suffering and pain, we begin to understand the real implication of the concrete choices we make in our daily lives. For instant joys and passing pleasures we choose whatever does not give us a problem or a difficulty or a suffering. Avoidance of suffering has come to be considered almost an absolute goal in life! But is it so? Jesus says, no!

It is in the 'obedience through suffering' that Jesus brought his identity and mission to their fulfilment! He invites us, rather challenges us to the same obedience through suffering. To embrace sufferings of the daily life, and the hardships of a Christian life, is  an essential faith lesson that we have to learn as early as possible in life. The more we learn this lesson, the more livable our life becomes! If not, our life remains marred by questions, complaints and murmurings. As true disciples of the Suffering Servant of God we are called to embrace suffering, on our way!

Second lesson is to dare to embrace death.

Death rather than sin - that is what we are given to remember when we reflect on the people of whom the Lord refers to, in the words of Jeremiah. That motto of the teenage saint, Dominc Savio, reflects the covenantal life style that we are called to live. I treasure the covenant that I have made with my Lord to the extent that I prefer to embrace death, but not break the covenant that unites me to my Lord - is that our attitude? That is true Christian attitude, the real mind of Christ. "The people broke the covenant," complains the Lord, through Jeremiah, reminding us of our mindlessness and at times, even wickedness. But that Lord wishes to forgive our iniquities, remove the trace of our wrong doings, forget our unfaithfulnesses... provided we are ready to change our ways, and die to our sinful tendencies and ungodly priorities. 

Unless the seed dies, it cannot give life...unless we choose to die to our selfishness and sinfulness, we shall never rise to eternal life. That is the journey that we have undertaken, from the time we were entrusted with the light at our baptism and beckoned to bring that light through to that encounter with the Lord; from the time that we were adorned with the garments of salvation at our baptism and required to bring it unsullied to the wedding feast of the Lamb. The effort to keep that light burning, to maintain that garment unsullied, is embracing death, on a daily basis - dying to our craving for pleasure, dying to our tendencies of selfishness, dying to our sense of stubborness! 

The third lesson is to focus on the glory of eternal life. 

The season of Lent is a time of refocusing, a time when we learn to perspectivise our life and get the right outlook to continue our journey. We are on our way to eternal life - a life in the Lord, a life of glory and light, a life that is endless and limitless. Our souls may be troubled at times. Our spirits may grow weak repeatedly. Our hearts may cry out in anguish and pain. Our light may go faint losing focus. But what need we do to: just as those people ask in the Gospel today, we need to say, "we wish to see Jesus"... we wish to focus on Jesus, the source of eternal salvation, the glory of eternal life that is given to us by God our Father and Mother, as the lamb of the eternal covenant, as the seal of the everlasting covenant, as the promise of eternal life!

We are on our way to Eternal life and on this way we have to embrace suffering and death, just as Jesus did, in order that we keep ourselves alive in the Spirit. When we do so, the Lord who is lifted up from the earth, shall draw us to himself, to eternal life! 

Renewing Christian Hope: Readiness to Genuine Dialogue

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, 4th week in Lent

March 20, 2021: Jeremiah 11: 18-20; John 7: 40-53

 

Forming opinions about persons or events without actually knowing the whole truth is a judgement, and of course would be a wrong one at that. Incomplete knowledge is dangerous, and not being aware of its incompleteness is doubly dangerous. Half truths are treacherous pits of ruin, for persons, relationships, communities, societies and humanity at large. But the whole world seems to be operating on bits and pieces of manipulated truths today.

We see this phenomenon at work everywhere: the clashes between religious fanatics, the terrifying threats of some fundamentalists, inter-denominational hatred and divisions, interpersonal issues in the families... everywhere this phenomenon is at work. Half-baked opinions and fully blocked minds, do not allow genuine dialogue but lead only to the slaughter of the minority by the senseless majority, or stifling of the weak by the ruthless strong!

 

The Word presents to us the same picture today, with Jesus taking the place of the minority, the weak, the vulnerable, the affected, the sacrificed lamb. It can be that every day we could be sacrificing someone at the altars of our ego and those of our judgments...and in their persons we could be slaughtering the sacrificial Lamb over and over again. 

 

It takes courage to realise and accept the harm my half-baked opinions and fully blocked mind can do, to me and to others! It takes sincerity to work out of such a treacherous style of life and thought. It takes humility to say, I am ready for dialogue, genuine and sincere dialogue! It takes respect for the other to allow the other to be other, to listen to the other and not what I want to hear, to understand the other as the other is and not as I want the other to be. That is genuine dialogue.

 

Let us check our readiness to genuine dialogue. 

ST. JOSEPH, THE SAINT OF THE YEAR

A Saint, Silent, Simple and Sleeping!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST - March 19, 2021

March 19, 2021: Solemnity of St. Joseph

2 Samuel 7: 4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22; Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a.

 

Pope Francis has dedicated this year to St. Joseph, the protector of the Church, as it is 150 years since Pope Pius IX proclaimed the saint at the protector of the Church - he was the protector of Jesus the Son of God, the head of the Church...and logically he is infact the protector of the Church, the mystical body of Christ! 

St. Joseph occupied a huge space in the climax of God's salvific plan which was accomplished in Jesus - still he remained a quiet, noiseless and unassuming person! In a noisy world of today which claims recognition for every little thing and clamours for attention, his mode of living his life, carrying out his mission and responding to his call is a lovely lesson. Apart from this, there are three dimensions of this saint that we can notice emerging from the Word today.

Silent Protagonist: He had a very important role to play within the historical events that were unfolding in time, and he played it to perfection. The extraordinary quality that we see in this personality is the silence - how he remained recollected in his depths, to receive the directions from the Lord and execute them to the letter. The pre-figurement of this image is seen in Abraham, presented to us in the second reading - how he spoke very little too! He listened and obeyed! St. Joseph too listened and for that he chose to remain silent!

Simple Person: He was simple as a person... this does not mean he had just an old-fashioned dress and no sandals on feet - that is how 'being simple' is understood these days! Simple is opposed to complicated! He was not complicated in anyway - a yes meant yes and a no meant no. He had decided to reject Mary, he was told to accept and he accepted. He thought of returning to Judea, but was told not to and he went to the district of Galilee. He was a simple man who had no air of ego around him nor any self-interests to hang on! The figure of David is presented to us in the first reading drawing our attention to a way of life that was simple. Though the man had limitations within him, he had no ego absolutely. When he was pointed out, he repented immediately. He was called to be a servant of the Lord and even as a King he remained so! St. Joseph never complicated his role or his person, he remained as simple as he was called.

Sleeping Prophet: Sleeping St. Joseph is a popular devotion by now...a renewed perspective reminded by our Holy Father a few years ago. It is not a mere novelty of thinking but a perspective of faith: the Lord provided for God's beloved even as they sleep (Ps 127:2). It is one lifestyle to spend sleepless nights thinking about something. It is completely a different life style to leave it to the Lord and sleep over it, for the Lord takes care of me even when I am asleep! It is a prophetic sleep when it is out of total surrender to the Lord - Joseph of the Old Testament, the namesake of the saint we celebrate, is a beautiful example of this lifestyle. He surrendered himself totally to the Lord and lived his life like a dream. St. Joseph too was so surrendered to the Lord that even as he slept, he felt protected and directed. 

True Christian Love: The capacity to look into yourself

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, 4th week in Lent

March 18, 2021: Exodus 32: 7-14; John 5: 31-47

 

The one who loves more will be hurt more! This is an ordinary experience of life. True love never counts the hurts, nor does it give up, fearing hurt. God's love for us has proved this to us time and again. We see in the first reading today how the people were absolutely insensitive to God's love and went behind their need for a concrete and tangible expression of a passing love. All that they needed was to just take time and look into themselves, to look back into their lives, to look at the way they had come by! Moses had to come down, break those tablets amidst them and call their attention to those very things, and they realised their folly!

 

We may wonder reading this account, how was it possible for them to do it! After all the great experience of wonders and marvels in Egypt and in the desert, how could these people think of making a god for themselves! Let us not be too fast in this. Let us just pause and look at ourselves. How better are we?

 

How swift we are to give up on the Lord and Lord's ways, even after having experienced the Lord so much! We give it up for gods of our own making - our time more important than spending few extra minutes listening to the Word of God, our work more important than giving God the due that we should, our pleasures more important than taking up a few sacrifices for God and for God's plan... aren't these the same as what the people of Israel did?

 

Go into the depth of your hearts and look at the way you have travelled, the way God has loved you all this while, the way you have been nourished by the love of God, you will understand where you are going wrong! Be courageous enough to turn back, re-tread your ways to the Lord. 

To grow in true Christian love, revive your capacity to look into yourself, every now and then!

 

Growing in Christian Faith: A Sense of belonging to God

THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, 4th week in Lent

March 17, 2021: Isaiah 49: 8-15; John 5: 17-30

 

My father is working and so I should be working too...these words of Jesus make the fellow Jews angry. They accuse Jesus of equating himself with the Father, with God! Jesus affirms it yet again and tells us too...you too are! You too are just like God, bearing the image and likeness of God, children of God, chosen ones of God - this is not a privilege but a responsibility. It is a task, a challenge to make God present to the world that constantly distances itself from God! But God's love never distances itself, it reaches out. It reaches out to everyone, the whole world, the entire universe!

Does God love all in the same manner? Of course, God is never partial but what would love mean if it is the same with everyone, everywhere! God's love is specific says the Word today. God's love comes to respond to the need of each one proper to the void he or she experiences in life.

A mother's expression of love to a hungry child is feeding it; her reaching out to a frightened child is to caress it reassuringly! God's love is such, declares the Word today: even if that mother were to forsake, God would never forsake us! It takes special effort to respond to each one proper to their need, at times the needs of each person vary, at times even clash one against the other!

God alone knows the trick of reconciling them and making the right thing happen at the right time. After all, is it not true that, all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to God's purpose (cf Rom 8:28)? 

Let us revive our sense of belonging to God, our child like attachment to God and the world will soon be set right!

Growing in Christian Faith: Getting ready to flow on!

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, 4th week in Lent

March 16, 2021: Ezekiel 47:1-3,9-12; John 5: 1-3a,5-16

 

We have a wonderful imagery today to ponder over: the flowing water that enlivens! Ezekiel speaks of it and John presents it; Ezekiel underlines the presence of the flowing water by the Temple while John points out the very presence of Christ as the life-giving spring! 

For that man who had been waiting for years to get into that life-giving water, the fact that Jesus approached him was like the waters came to him, instead of he going to the waters. But it is not all that comfortable, when the waters really flow! That is why Jesus asks him that question: do you want to be well again? 

We may think it is a dumb question to ask - but it matters! What if the man was comfortable drawing pity from the others? What if the man gained much more than what he could have with his limbs alright? Hence, the need for Jesus to ask him, if he really wanted to be healed! It is our choice to be healed, to be well, to be wholesome!

We may blame people around, the situation around, the events and experiences and remain in self-pity! That will never lead us to wellness, health or wholeness. If we really want to live our life to the full, we need to receive the flowing grace willingly. It might require of us certain changes...which may not be comfortable - the man was asked to pick up his mat and wall. All this while people were carrying him around! Are we prepared for the inconveniences of grace?

The Lord reaches out to us, flows into our lives to enliven us and Jesus invites us to become the waters that enliven people around us, that we reach out to others and flow into their lives, enlivening them!

 

Let us ask ourselves, is our faith matured enough? How ready are we to flow on?

 

Renewing Christian Hope: A Journey from Sadness to Gladness

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, 4th week in Lent

March 15, 2021: Isaiah 65:17-21; John 4: 43-54

 

Yesterday we celebrated the fourth Sunday in Lent which had the call to Rejoice! Yes, we are sinful, we have fallen and failed, we are unworthy but in spite of that the Lord loves us and that is a great reason to Rejoice. The call continues into the week!

 

From sadness to gladness is the journey the Lord invites us to. It is surprising that many a person finds it a journey either unnecessary or unrealistic. They feel they can remain with sadness and that they are destined to remain with such sadness. They don't wish to embark upon that journey so easily. 

 

Interestingly, a major part of the journey consists in making the decision to turn and walk, as did the royal official in the Gospel account today. How long are we going to stand staring at problems and confusions and misgivings and misunderstandings in life?  

 

At times, there are people who share their problems. From the very sharing of the problems we can sense the fact that they have not even thought of leaving those problems and walking ahead - every suggestion you give meets with multiple reasons why it is not workable; every challenge you pose against the problem is judged as an insensitive approach to the person! If you have to walk out of your problems, first you have to decide to stop, turn and walk away from it!

 

To stop, turn and walk is an act of faith, to surrender our life into the hands of the Lord and to allow the Lord to change our sadness to gladness! The Lord tells us today: just believe and turn and walk towards the peace and serenity that I offer.

 

Are we ready to set off with faith and hope, on that journey: from sadness to gladness!

ON OUR WAY TO BEING GOD'S LOVE

Channels, Admirers or Bearers?

March 14, 2021: 4th Sunday of Lent - Laetare Sunday

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2: 4-10; John 3: 14-21

For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Son, that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life (Jn 3:16)... the Word presents in this verse, the crux of the mystery of God's love! St. Paul would elaborate on this when he says, "God who did not spare God's own son, will not withhold anything from us!" (Cf. Rom 8:32). God's love for us has been so undeservedly deep! What is our response? 

The fourth sunday of Lent is called the Laetare Sunday...or Rejoicing Sunday, within the Lent! It is because we are already prompted to think about Resurrection right in the middle of the season of the passion of Christ. Just to remind us, despite all suffering and temptation, what awaits is the crown that the Lord has prepared for us - because God loves us! Not because we deserve it, but because God has decided to love us, right till the end!

God's love for us is so deep, so undeservedly deep! And what response do we give...the Word educates us to it, this Sunday. There are three persons presented to us and may be we can take a lesson from each of them. 

The first person is Cyrus, the King of Persia, who released the people of Israel from their exile in Babylon. Cyrus, was not a believer in Yahweh; neither did he know the Lord or come to accept the Lord. But he was considered by the people of Israel as a messiah who acted on behalf of Lord God and gave them the long-yearned-for freedom. They could come back to their homeland and once again feel loved by God. Cyrus becomes a channel of the love of God... not that he experienced the love of God! Though he might have had the opportunity, we do no judge the person of Cyrus, but he chose to remain a mere channel through whom the love of God came to the people, without even affecting him in any decisive way. 

This is one kind of response we can give to the love of God - that we become passive channels of the love of God. God in God's almightiness, can use any means to communicate God's love. And we can become one such channels - it is a very instrumental understanding of the role we play... nothing of myself is changed but through me others might feel the love of God. But what a loss for me, that I did not drink in, what I was passing on to the others. Some examples that come to our mind in this context are persons who are considered good, loving, lovable, kind and gentle...but suddenly they take an unfortunate decision to end their lives by themselves! Everyone known to them, starts wondering, what was wrong, because so many experienced goodness through these persons, but they themselves end up so desperate. When so many are capable of seeing, experiencing God's love in me, but I myself do not really recognise it or enjoy  it or be transformed by it...I am just being a channel of God's love, because God uses me! But how unfortunate that I don't know what I am missing - God's love so undeservedly deep.

The second person we are given to encounter today in the Word is, Nicodemus, a just Jew! He was someone who admired Jesus, he even loved Jesus, he was eager to listen to Jesus, but the sad thing...he could not decide to follow him! He was too afraid of his circumstances, the respect of his fellow Jews, the fear of losing the status as the teacher of the rabbis...he did not dare even to meet Jesus in the broad day light. That is why he comes today in the cover of the night to meet him and listen to him - oh, how he admired Jesus, but what is the use?

When Jesus the love of God is revealed to us, we could also respond this way: as just admirers; admirers from far, admirers in secret; admirers under cover. We know so much, we understand it all, but we cannot speak about it or witness to it...for fear of so many things. Because we fear being called old fashioned, because we don't want to be called pietistic, because we are afraid of being branded 'religious', because we wish to be modern or post-modern, because we want to keep abreast with the latest fashion of questioning everything and making fun of everything, because we want to identify ourselves with the so-called scientific world...we at times are prepared to forego the immense love that awaits us, the love that comes across to us in varied ways! In spite of knowing well what it is and what it is that we are missing, we choose to miss it, because we consider something else more important! How sad it is again, that we remain mere admirers of the love of God without really getting it into our selves - our body, heart, mind and soul!

The third person we meet today, is the one through whom the Word speaks so powerfully - St. Paul, the Apostle... he uses the very same terms of Jesus: the words, 'God loved us with so much love, that...' - they sound just as Jesus said, 'for God so loved the world, that...' St. Paul understood how much God loves us, how God chose us from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), how God does not spare anything for our sakes (Rom 8), how God sent God's own son even when we were sinners (Rom 5:8) and how God's love is poured into our hearts (Rom 5:5). He was someone opposed to this love, thinking all the time about the law and the rule and the Jewish supremacy, but when he was touched by that love, he gave in, he gave himself up fully! He admired God's love, became a channel of God's love and he grew gradually towards becoming that love - be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1), he said.

This is the response that we are expected to grow towards: to become God's love ourselves. Just as Jesus was God's love, we are called to become God's love - that is, persons who bear God's love to the others, specially to those who are in need of it most. Being bearers of God's love would presume that we have known that love, tasted it, and are filled with it, that we share it with everyone whom we come into contact with. Bearing God's love to the other is not merely doing something for the other, it is not giving something or making something for the other - it is being God's love to them. Our very beings need to be transformed by God's love. The lenten practices should lead us to that: not merely to some self inflicted pain that bears no fruit for the other, but a continual and gradual transformationof selves, that we become God's love to those around us!

However, with the personal weaknesses and the temptations, with the kind of characters around and the troubling situations, with the concerns we have and the burdens of worldly responsibilities, it becomes tremendously difficult to pursue that call: to be true bearers of God's love! But that should not worry us, as long as we are constantly, in our will and in our efforts, on our way, on this journey towards being God's love to the world and everyone around us!