God's Venture

WORD 2day: Saturday, 6th week in Easter time 

May 15, 2021: Acts 18: 23-28; John 16: 23-28

Apollos, Priscilla, Aquila, Paul... there is a band of apostles, all working in the name of the Lord. Among themselves and when in company of others, they did not consider their ego as something inviolable. They were ready to give in, to be corrected and to be taught. We see this lived out beautifully in the first reading today. Priscilla and Aquila as elders in the Lord, take Apollos an upcoming preacher aside, and give his further instruction!

This reminds us of the fact that five days ago (on May 10), Holy Father Pope Francis has come out with a Motu Proprio, Antiquum Ministerium, which institutes the Ministry of Catechists in the universal Church, that is giving an official recognition in the hierarchy of the Church, for those who involve in the minstry of Catechesis. Priscilla and Aquila were probably exceptional catechists in their community! However, the point is - how the Church, the faith community, is God's venture! God willed this faith community, so that the Reign of God can be made present here and now. This is accomplished in the very fact that the members of the Church lived in union of heart and mind.

Jesus in the Gospel too, offers himself and the Father as an example of living in union of spirit. They were one and the same - one who sees me sees the Father, one who accepts me accepts the One who sent me, those who love me will be loved by the Father, for the very fact that you love me! Exceptional statements of Christ on the importance of our relationship with him and with each other. 

The first christians, the disciples and the apostles understood this perfectly well. They lived united in heart, mind and spirit. They were able to think alike, plan alike, protect each other, provide for everyone and thus they formed a worthy part of the salvific band of God. 

Have we, you and I, the readiness and the will to be united in heart and mind, to be single-mindedly concerned about God's ventures?

I Chose you!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

May 14, 2021: Celebrating St Mathias, the Apostle

Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26; John 15: 9-17

Every relationship is a response! Relationships can never be forced upon persons. I wish to relate to a person, I choose to relate to the person and then I leave the response of the person, to the freedom of that person! Only then there is a healthy relationship that blooms. It is the same with God's choice too!

You have not chosen me, I chose you!, reminds Jesus today. With the beautiful example of Mathias and Barsabbas, Jesus brings out another element of the election theology! When God chooses, God chooses individuals (not masses), for a unique purpose and specific plan. As God reminds us through Jeremiah, God has a plan for each of us (Jer 29:11) and God alone knows what the plan is and how it would come through. All that we need to do is submit, surrender to that plan and walk by it.

And when God chooses, God chooses not for merely conferring a privilege, or a position or power; but for commitment, suffering and for giving one's life for the other! As the readings of the past Sunday reminded us, we cannot stop with thinking we are chosen therefore we are special! We are chosen, we are special... but it entails further, that we are specially chosen to strive, fight, struggle, suffer and thus, usher in the Reign of God, wherever we are. 

Mathias is today counted into the band of apostles. Of course a privilege, but with that came the burden of being a Messenger of the Word, the burden of being the Elder in the Community and the burden of being a Shepherd of God's flock. St. Mathias is an inspiring example which tells us, the Lord counts on us... the Lord has chosen us and wishes to count us into the number of his apostles!

Yes, the Word and the Saint of today speak to us: You are chosen! Are you ready for all that it entails?

Sorrow or Joy... your choice?!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 6th week in Easter time

May 13, 2021 - Acts 18: 1-8; Jn 16: 16-20

What would be your choice, your natural spontaneous choice: sorrow or joy? Of course, we would all choose joy or at least that is what we think. Today, there is so much sorrow in the world, because we think we choose joy, while in fact we are constantly adding to our sorrows. Is that confusing? Not really. It is an easy perspective that the Word offers today, to understand our situation today. Let us contrast these as the perspective of the world and the perspective of the Word.

The perspective of the world says, with a faulty understanding of the phrase 'here and now', choose what gives you utmost happiness at any given moment and that will add to your joy. This is why people end up frustrated, ruined and wrecked in their life, making all the wrong choices possible, adding to their own woes and to the others'. The disciples could not understand what Jesus was telling them, because they only had a limited perspective of the here and now, until the Spirit arrived to open the eyes and their hearts.

The perspective of the Word says, have the ultimate Joy, the Joy that the Lord alone can give, in your mind. You would then be ready to choose at a given moment even a bit of pain and struggle, because you know you have a joy, a glory, an eternal happiness that awaits you! Look at Paul, Aquila, Priscilla, Titus Justus... they were wantonly choosing trouble and opposition, because they had their ultimate joy in perspective. Paul said that emphatically: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us (Rom 8:18).

With all the situation around us in perspective, now let us consider that question again- what is our choice: sorrow or joy?

The Spirit of Truth

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 6th week in Easter time 

May 12, 2021: Acts 17:15,22 -18:1; John 16: 12-15

The Spirit of the Lord convicts because the Spirit leads us to the truth. We have all the truth right in front of us. We fail to see them and understand them; or we are tempted not to see them or understand them; or we choose not to see them and understand them!

When we fail to see, the Spirit gives us the wisdom and leads us to see it, leading us to light, as St Paul tries to lead the Athenians. The grace comes through the Spirit to overcome our inability to see and observe God present in a situation that is not so obviously manifest of that Divine presence. It is like an ordinary day, when everything seems 'normal' and 'ordinary', that we do not get to observe anything out of the ordinary or anything extraordinary!

When we are tempted not to see, the Spirit fills us with the courage to see it, making us free and bold as children of God, as Jesus promises his disciples. The light comes with the Spirit illumining the darkest moment of our lives. It could be a crisis, a loss, a failure, a disappointment, a delusion that comes up in life and we are tempted to question the presence and real mercy of God. More than ever, we need courage at those moments and it is the Spirit of Truth who can give us that courage and light.

When we choose not to see, the Spirit convicts us, as we heard yesterday and makes us understand how mistaken we are. Peter, Paul, the other apostles and everyone who owes his or her rapport with God to a dramatic conversion, would vouch for this role of the Spirit. What is at play is more stubborness, insensitivity and arrogance of human mind to rebel against the presence of God, than an inability or a genuine crisis. This is a sin against the Holy Spirit and the person here keeps oneself deliberately away from God.

The crux of the message is: that I need to open my mind to the Word, failing which I will laugh at the Word or postpone listening to it, to another convenient moment, as the people do in the first reading today. Then I shall be the loser; a tragic loss at that. 

The Spirit that convicts!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 6th week in Easter time 

May11, 2021: Acts 16: 22-34; John 16: 5-11

Jesus wishes that his disciples moved on to the next level. He is pushing them to it, goading them to make them not merely servants but friends, not merely working hands but leaders, not merely followers but inspirers. He is trying his best to introduce them to the Advocate, the Divine Counselor! This week, the Word presents to us, the varied aspects of a Spirit-filled Christian life... today's readings bring out one important aspect of this advocate, promised by Jesus: the aspect of the Spirit which convicts individuals, communities and all those who truly believe.

The Spirit when around makes things clear - about sin, righteousness and judgement, says the Word. No one can escape from the omniscient Spirit of the Lord, for even the innermost of the sinful tendencies are known to the Spirit. One who is righteous is sustained by the Spirit, that amidst even the worst of oppositions and criticism, the one who is conscientiosuly righteous, knows nothing can affect him or her. One who is in the Spirit knows that the judgement is at hand and lives not by fear, but by righteousness and in abhorrence of sin! In fact, receiving the Spirit, thus becomes a mode of equipping oneself to live a truly Christian life.

Receiving the Spirit is not an ordinary task. It is a divine mission that the Lord promised to those who sincerely ask for it. For when the spirit comes... the Spirit would convict the person. The person automatically goes into a self-examination mode, evaluating and appraising oneself on, how worthy one is, of the life to which he or she is called.

"What should we do to be saved" ... that is the question that would fill our hearts, when the Spirit overshadows us. What should I do to be acceptable in the eyes of God? What should I do to reject sin? What should I do to be righteous in the eyes of God? What should I become to face judgement with hope? We have a great help to answer these questions: the Spirit that convicts!

Help love prevail !!!

WORD 2day: Monday, 6th week in Easter time

May 10, 2021: Acts 16: 11-15; John 15:26 - 16:4a

Speaking of the new believer in the Lord, a lady of considerable renown, Paul says she prevailed over us! It is true love that prevails, a selfless love inspired by the newly accepted Good news! The Lord opened her mind to listen to the Word and her heart to be the consolation for the messengers of the Word. The Lord provides through her.

Today, providing for the messengers of the Word, in ways truly numerous, is one way that we can make love prevail. We may have troubles from every corner, opposition from all sides and forces waiting to devour the simple and innocents, the fear-inducing situation around, the hope-draining experiences and information - as we see Jesus telling us in the Gospel today. But nothing of this will block us from going ahead in our task and the challenge entrusted to us, if only we allow love to prevail over us. 

The Lord will open minds, inspire hearts and remove blocks, that we may have all the back up needed to take the message far and wide, the message of hope and life, the message of God's love and unconditional accompaniment. This could have been, or could be at present, the experience of many of us: how many ways and moments, we would have felt the providence of God, at the exact right moment! Persons coming to our aid, friends pitching in their bit, and so many other unbelievable ways in which the Lord provides, or numerous ways in which Love prevails!

The call is simple: that we allow love to prevail and we become ourselves means and instruments for love to prevail. Can we and shall we help love prevail!!!

QUALITY CHRISTIANS

with Christ-ian qualities!

May 9, 2021: 6th Sunday of Easter

Acts 10: 25-26,34-35,44-48; 1 Jn 4:7-10; Jn 15: 9-17

Being Christian today, for that matter anyday, is a demanding task. It is not a simple automatic membership to a community, but a serious, sincere and self-conscious dedication to living the faith that one has received as a gift, firstly from God and without doubt from the community - which includes family, the faith community and every one who stands by the person in his or her faith life. Today, amidst the confusions of the present world dominated by heartless science and selfish designs, this task becomes more challenging! More than a year and a half now, the world has been languishing in disease and death, grief and helplessness, fear and meaninglessness, due to the pandemic that is still ravaging certain parts of the world, India being at the peak of it. What does it mean to live a life that is truly Christian at this point of time - being Quality Christians would consist inevitably of certain Christ-ian qualities, that is, qualities lived, passed on and required by Christ, our Saviour, Master and Model. The readings of this Sunday, point to three qualities that are currently relevant and ever demanding.

1. Catholicism versus Exclusivism:

The First reading declares, 'God does not have favourites'! For long this tendency has haunted the spiritual beings and communities - being close to God or feeling the presence of God in the life experiences, has made people in history, not only holy and righteous as God would desire, but also proud, haughty and self-righteous! The Jews were very particular about their 'chosenness' and considered and treated everyone else as lesser beings, calling them 'pagans'! The Muslim mindset (the generalisation regretted), even today considers everyone else as an 'infidel' and wishes to bring everyone to their way of looking at reality! The sad fact is...in between these two major traditions the so-called tradition of Christianity too, considered itself 'saved' and the rest of the world rushing towards perdition, took a paternalistic attitude and gave into so many mistaken measures. How hard it is to forget the historical errors like the inquisitions and other similar vindicative ventures of the catholic church! However, we have learnt lessons and we cannot fall back into that error! And the fundamental correction is in the very name we have given ourselves - Catholic!

Catholicism is not merely a name, it is an attitude! It has to become our lifestyle as Christians - it is simply being "all-embracing"...it is to believe that God has no favourites...God loves every child of God. And those who hold on to God, feel the presence of God more and those who wish to move themselves away from God, feel it less. And therefore, as true chidlren of God our call is to look at everyone as a loved child of God, and create situations where everyone can feel and get closer to the presence of God, and not judge and place blocks on their way to God. We cannot write off someone as 'condemned' or 'damned' or 'hell-bound'. That is totally un-Christ-ian. Just the other day, someone forwarded on the social network, a video of someone who calls himself a preacher and a prophet, warning and threatening those who are of other faiths that they are all going astray from true God! Do you think, a blatant judgement of this sort will bring them to God? Does one have to threaten people in order to make them run to God? Is it not better to show love, share love and spread love, that those who feel that genuine love, feel the presence of God? That is catholicism...to embrace everyone as friends and share love.

2. God's versus gods:

All-embracing, does not mean we say, believing in any God is the same, it does not matter! Then my faith becomes meaningless and pointless. What we are saying is, be sincere about being God's people. When I am serious and committed to being a person of God, people will see it in my life. If I am friends with God, it can be seen in my daily life - a friend of God! As it is said of Moses, that God related and spoke to Moses as a friend would - so does God speak to each of us everyday. Are we aware, conscious, attentive and responsive to that? The more  we grow to be friends of God, the more we shall grow to be friends with every one else, because the love that we experience from God shall get translated into the love that we have for others in our concrete daily life. Just think of those persons who call themselves to be persons of God, but are totally inaccesible to the others around them - either due to their character and temperament, or due to the system they create around themselves and so on! The difference can be understood in the simple fact: whether they are truly God's, or are they making of themselves petty gods?

Specially in a time like today's, when there is so much misery and pain, a person of God reaches out, goes to the most suffering, empathises with the grieved and strives to offer relief to the wearied hearts. They cannot be those who stay up there and judge, pose as great visionaries and cast spells and warnings, make of themselves little gods and exploit the moment for their popularity and glory! That is the worst lifestyle that can be witnessed in any context, much worse in a Christian context! Being God's means being loving - God begets those who love, says John in the second reading today.We are God's as much as we love! When we make of ourselves gods, or when we make for ourselves gods of our name, our popularity, our branding, our riches, our comforts, our safety, our profits, our pleasure, our plans, and so on... we are being counter-witeness to God...instead of being God's, we are being anti-God! Is it not high time we look at the core motivations and intentions we have in our hearts, so that we truly grow more and more loving, thus grow to be persons who are God's own.

3. Chosen versus choosy:

At times we get too choosy in life...we wish to choose whom to love and whom not to, we want to choose what kind of experiences we should have and what not, we want to choose what should happen to us and what should not, we want to choose in which we will follow the will of God and in which we want God to follow our wish and wants! If we are chosen, we just cannot be choosy! We think being chosen is a privilege; yes, of course it is! It is a privilege to be chosen people of God. But at the same time it is an obligation, a demand, a challenge, a call, a task that is given to us and we have so many things involved which we cannot choose! We cannot choose whether to love or not; we cannot choose whether to be truthful or not; we cannot choose whether to forgive or not; we cannot choose whether to reach out or not! It is infact a bit on the reverse - if we choose to love all, we are chosen people of God; if we choose to reach out those who are suffering, we are chosen people of God; if we choose to embrace all in fellowship and solidarity, we are chosen people of God!

Our chosenness is not a status statement, but a mission...You have not chosen me, I have chosen you... the Lord has chosen us and sent us, to bear fruit - fruits of love and compassion! Love is the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us. This I command you: that you love one another! The chosenness has to be revealed, manifested, lived out, in love. Quality Christians are those who in their thought, word and deed, their choices and priorities, in their fundamental perspectives and life-governing principles, are moved by love and love alone! 

Love is the secret key that would inspire and empower a person to move from exclusivism to catholicism; from the tendency to create one's own gods to being truly God's, from being choosy to realisation of being chosen by God! It is the fundamental of the Christ-ian qualities that can render a person, a Quality Christian. 

GPS Enabled?

WORD 2day: Saturday, 5th week in  Easter time

May 8, 2021: Acts 16: 1-10; John 15: 18-21

Almost gone are those days when people bound for a place that they have never been to, find their destinations with the help of people on the road, bystanders, fellow passengers etc. Those who are in their forties now, don't you still remember your childhood days, when you were travelling, asking people for directions to reach a spot, or person asking you for such directions? Those of this generation, the teens of today, may look at that as a nuisance, an invadent behaviour, and uncultured, to disturb a person who is a stranger! This is because, nowadays with the smart phones in all hands, everyone is GPS Enabled: Global Positioning System!

Why are we talking about GPS... because, today in the first reading we find the apostles too, GPS Enabled. They are instructed where to go and where not to go. Only that the GPS here is... God's Powerful Spirit. Some time ago we read about Philip, reaching out to the Ethiopian court official in his carriage, so accurately... that was with the help of the GPS too: God's Powerful Spirit. 

Jesus warns his friends, wherever they go there will be people against them, because they are his disciples. But he also says, nothing to worry,  because they were all GPS Enabled: God's Protecting Spirit. They need not prepare their cause, they need not be anxious and they need not be afraid of the powers that can harm them, because they all had with them their GPS: God's Protecting Spirit.

And we see the disciples, no less daring than their Master. They were schooled so well and nothing could stop them from proclaming the Gospel, because they were all GPS Enabled: God's Propelling Spirit. The apostles, the disciples and the first christians, were unstoppable. Come what may, with all the troubles and persecutions they went on, even to the level of giving up their lives, because they were powered by GPS: God's Propelling Spirit.

Today, amidst all the confusions and troubles we are having all around us, the invitation to us is to be disciples of Christ in our daily life - in spite of all its struggles and temptations -  that is to be true disciples of Christ, who are GPS Enabled!

We, the Holy Spirit and Love!

WORD 2day: Friday, 5th week in Easter time 

May 7, 2021: Acts 15: 22-31; John 15: 12-17

It has always been a fascinating formulation that we see in the first reading today; the apostles when they communicate their decision after a long discussion and discernment on the crisis, they say, "it has seemed good to us and to the holy spirit"... To us and to the Holy Spirit!

What happens really when this link is truly strong: me and the holy spirit, we and the holy spirit! The gospel speaks to us of this: when the Holy Spirit takes hold of us, all that we do, all that we choose, all that we decide will be guided by love and love alone! We see that the apostles and the first christians, were ready to give up their tradition, their heritage, their laws, all because they loved their new brothers and sisters in Christ. They did not want to over burden them. 

Jesus had already gone a step further, when he said: not just traditions and laws, but even your life; you should be ready to lay down even your life for the sake of the other, because that is true love. If the Son of God had given up everything for the love that he has for us, why do we hesitate to give up anything...especially our ego, our selfishness, our vain glory, in response to that love that we have received, so underservedly!!!

Now coming back to that formulation we started with, we and the Holy Spirit, if we are in constant rapport with the Spirit of the Risen Lord, we will be filled with true love! If we are filled with true love, then we would make of ourselves true disciples to Christ, the Son of God who is Love! 

We, the Holy Spirit and Love, we will together make a wonderful "Christ"ian Community. Shall we?

A joy that is complete!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week of Easter

May 6, 2021: Acts 15: 7-21; John 15: 9-11

The ultimate wish of the Lord is our joy, not a joy as that which the world promises, but a joy that is complete, wholesome, flawless. The so-called joy that the world gives is conditional, limited and time bound. It lasts for a while and leaves a vacuum when it disappears due to some reason. It comes from what we do, what we achieve, what we prove to the world...after the noise of the celebrations are over, the emptiness is back, the meaninglessness resumes and everything rests in its precariety. Isn't this the reason we find some unexpected persons, like those who have been success stories and celebrities, deciding to end their lives themselves because they found it unbearable?

The joy that the Lord gives comes from what we are; it comes from the fact that we are loved, that we are accepted unconditionally and that we are united to the One who never changes! It does not come from what we do, what we observe as obligation or what we put up as our appearance. This is what the first Christians, led by the apostles, understood as one of the first lessons of being the People of God. 

The Christian Community understood from theSpirit of the Risen Lord, that  it is not the various rules and regulations that we uphold that truly matter but love! Love is all that matters! Knowing how much the Lord has loved us, and knowing how much we are indebted to that love; knowing how unconditionally we have been accepted by the Lord and knowing the folly of the conditions that we place for loving others; knowing how close the Lord is to us every moment of our lives, and knowing how we tend to remain so far away from the Lord in our thought, word and deed! It is in knowing that love, accepting that love and responding to that love wholeheartedly that we can find our true joy, a joy that is complete!