Growing in Christian Faith: To be in distress for the Lord

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

March 26, 2021: Jeremiah 20: 10-13; John 10: 31-42

 

Jeremiah seems a perfect foreshadow of Jesus, but in one case! He was in distress too for the sake of the will of the One who called him; he was cornered for nothing and taken to task for his dedication to the Lord and the task handed to him by the Lord. It is just like today, how those who do good to the society in the name of Jesus are taken to task because they are doing it in that Name! And when such acts of atrocity happen, many of us Christians express sentiments of anger and call on the Lord to teach a lesson to the perpetrators of evil!

 

But differing from Jeremiah, and from us all, Jesus does not wish vengeance, or to see that the Lord would take on those who did not heed the call, those who were persecuting him for wrong reasons, those who refused to see such an obvious point made by Jesus' words and deeds. Jesus wishes that they turn to him, believe in him, in his words and in his works and realise that he is in the Father and the Father is in him.

 

To be in distress for the Lord, is a call in itself. Both Jeremiah and Jesus, give us an example of persons in distress for the Lord: Blessed are those who hunger for justice and peace, for they shall be filled; Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Be happy when they persecute you, revile you, call you by names and denounce you unjustly, because they did the same to your Master – isn’t that the powerful message we get in the Word today? How prepared and ready are we to be in distress for the Lord! 

Let us learn what it means in our day-to-day life, to be in distress for the Lord!

GOD BEGINS...

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

March 25, 2021: The Solemnity of Annunciation of the Lord

Isaiah 7: 10-14, 8:10; Hebrews 10: 4-10; Luke 1: 26-36

 

Some prayer books still carry those subtitles in the prayer of the Angelus: God Begins; Human Cooperation; and Incarnation! That is exactly what we celebrate today – the way God began the climax of our salvation history, the plan that God has had in eternity for the salvation of all God’s children.

 

Our God is not merely a God who responds...Our God begins, God initiates, intervenes at the right time even without an asking. That is why St. John proclaimed, we love God because God first loved us (1 Jn 4:19). The feast of Annunciation is a splendid manifestation of this nature of God, the nature of intervening at the appointed time.

 

We see three people involved in the event that is recalled today, who in unison give humanity a holistic and life-giving message. 

 

The Angel, who stands for Faith - a concrete sign of God's relationship with us. Angels are God's spokespersons, God's messengers and God's extensions which make present God to us. Our Faith is that God continues to live with us, even amidst all the worldliness that we are surrounded by. Angel Gabriel announcing the message to our Blessed Mother was a sign of God’s continual participation in our life and existence, our sufferings and concerns. The call us simple: that we become extensions of God’s presence, announcers of God’s good news to those who suffer.

 

Mary, who stands for Hope - a concrete sign of our relationship with God. Mary shines as a counter witness to the hopeless humanity today. Indifference and Individualism marks the humanity of today. The other matters nothing to me, I either use the other for my benefit or just ignore the other because he or she matters nothing to me! It is against this background that Mary's 'yes' resounds as a revolution that spells hope to the world and to the entire humanity. That there can be commitments taken for the sake of the other, not always for me, mine and my own good.

 

The Child, who stands for Love - a concrete sign that God still loves the World. God has not given up on us and God will never do! A love that is ready to give totally of Itself (Rom 8:32). The Child that is promised is a sign of God's everlasting and unconditional love that gives life and light to the otherwise darkness filled world today.

 

Annunciation invites us to first of all recognise what God is doing for us in history. The further call is to say our ‘yes’ to God’s will that we may become God’s messengers to the world. And the most important of all, that we may become signs and bearers, manifestations and expressions of ’od's concrete love for each other, especially those who are in special and urgent need.

 

May our faith, hope and above all, love make us announcers of good news to the whole world.

Growing in Christian Faith: Decide to be Free

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

March 24, 2021: Daniel 3: 14-20, 24-25, 28; John 8: 31-42

 

Look at three types of people in the first reading today: the officials who reported three youngsters to the King merely because they were against them and against the King being so much for them; then the King himself who acts on the words of the officials and later gets upset with the officials as if they alone were responsible for the injustice done to the three youth; and then the three youth, you did not consider even burning in a furnace worse than turning away from the Lord - who of these was truly free?

Those officials who were caught up in the prison of jealousy and rancour, wishing the destruction of the other, plotting and scheming, losing their peace of mind and tranquillity of life? 

 

Or the King who is so full of himself, that he cannot see the facts, that he goes by hearsay, that he has not guts to take the blame on himself and tries to blame it on the officials?

 

Or the three young men... who were bound in no way...they were free when they were in the Royal court, they were free as they refused to worship the statue of the King, they were free when they were locked up in the furnace and they were free when they were taking a stroll at the heart of the fire. They were free, because they had the truth with them. Truth will set you free.

 

Once you decided to be true to your innermost self, you will see the tranquility, the serenity, the peace that can come over you! Yes, truth will set you free, decide to be truthful, decide to be free!

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!