Being Godly...

WORD 2day: Friday, 8th week in Ordinary time

May 28, 2021: Sirach 44: 1, 9-13; Mark 11: 11-26

The readings today speak to us of an essential dimension of human life: being Godly. If we can showcase some indication of difference between human beings and the so-called 'lower' beings, it has to be the dimension of being Godly. Because, it is only when God created the human persons, does God say, 'let us create human beings in our own image'. 

However these days the social network seems to present us with cases of many of these animals, the so called 'lower' beings, with qualities and actions much more edifying than those of the humans - feeling for the other, caring for the suffering, mourning for the dead, helping those in need, and so on! They seem to excel in their show of love and affection too, some times! Aren't we therefore obliged much more to manifest this Godliness in our lives, as human persons?

The Word today outlines 2 signs of being Godly...

The first is, being rooted in God - finding one's solace and fulfillment in nothing less than God, finding the hand of God in every bit of one's well being, being grateful for and conscious of the good that God continues to do, standing by to find out God's will and accompaniment in daily journeys of life. ..these are signs of being rooted in God.

Another sign is, bearing forth God's fruits - one who bears forth God's fruits will bear it forth for others and not make a living out of it as it was happening in the Temple; he or she will bear it forth in season and out of season, in abundance and always mindful that the fruits belong to God.

Let us become more and more aware of the fact that we are created, to be Godly!

The splendid gift of seeing

WORD 2day: Thursday, 8th week in Ordinary time

May 27, 2021: Sirach 42: 15-26; Mk 10: 46-52

To truly see the nature and observe all that it points to, to truly see the creation and the creatures and all the marvels they possess, to truly see the process of change and rejuvenation inbuilt in the nature and drink in their splendour, to truly see all that happens around and sense the lessons that they offer... it is a splendid gift! Not all do possess it.

The pandemic we are suffering and the waves it is making...is it something that happened just over night? No it has been something that has taken its time to get itself formed and fortify itself and cause this havoc to the entire humanity! If only all of us had been attentive to indications from nature, if only all had been concerned about well being of all and entire humanity, if only even now everyone is worried only about the common good...it could have been averted or it could be better handled. It is the case with many so-called natural disorders too...if only we see things in time and truly understand what is being communicated to us!

Today, we can without exaggeration join Bartimaeus and ask the Lord that we may see, see truly, observe clearly, listen intently, understand deeply and find the splendour of God's presence with us and within us. Without God's grace we cannot see God's presence and receive God's directions for our daily life. 

To see a teary eye and read the helplessness in it; to see the troubled spirit and hear the cry for understanding; to see the disturbed minds and understand the yearning for true love, it is an essential and lovely gift that we can ask God for. At times we speak, we write and we forward lofty ideals, but we are so concentrated on ourself and our own concerns that we fail to see the need, the feeling, the yearning of the one beside us. 

How we need to ask today from God the splendid gift of truly seeing!

A Lord with a difference

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 8th week in Ordinary time

May 26, 2021: Sirach 36: 1-2, 5-7, 13-22; Mark 10:32-45

The Lord: that is how the disciples and the early community began to interpret their Christ-experience. But for generations this Lordship had been a common experience of those people. They knew their Lords who were ruling them...they knew the Lord God who demanded their awe and respect. We see the first reading picture that experience quite vividly.

But when they began to call Jesus, Lord - they had a different kind of an experience at the back of it! They were looking at what they had experienced first hand, with Jesus. There was something radically different about Jesus being their Lord. He served, he loved, he self-emptied, and the height of all, demanded that all be so. Loving each other, serving each other and not 'lording over others'. That was his lifestyle, and the lifestyle that he prepared his community for. 

Very unfortunate, that the community willed and desired by Jesus, the Lord, did not always abide by this experience that Jesus wanted to offer: not lording over, but an authentic self-giving! Within a few centuries it began to grow its own hegemonic system of Lordship, so much a counter witness to a Christ-like living. These systems created got to be reified to such bizzare levels, that any trace of Christ's leadership became a bolt from the blue!

However, there were at every epoch, persons and groups which remained a reminder to the authentic lifestyle of Christ, and constantly challenged the people of God - take persons like Thomas Becket, Francis of Assisi and such saints who were considered misfits, but true sanctity consisted in that: to imitate the Lord with a difference!

Giving joy that is complete, peace that the world cannot give, and love that is life giving, Jesus proves to be a Lord with a difference, and invites us to be the same. To rule over this world in love and self-giving, as people of God and persons of the Lord, with a difference!

Honest and Unattractive Marketing!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 8th week in Ordinary time

May 25, 2021: Sirach 35: 1-12; Mark 10: 28-31

Buy one get two; pay less get more; paisa vasool, festival discount, saldi, clearance sale... these are popular and widespread marketing techniques followed by great business brands or simple local shops! At the most the attempt to be sincere would be marked with an asterisk in smallest possible font size and stated "conditions apply" - all an attempt to hide what it really costs, to make people take it by all means. 

Look at what Jesus does today in the Gospel... he seems to be inviting people promising them 100 fold of what they give up...a marketing technique, but wait! He adds and means it when he says: 'persecutions and death' too shall abound, as inevitable part of the package - so ridiculously plain and clear! Who will take up such a life style? But that is Jesus... so frank and clear. 

The First reading too promises sevenfold of what we offer to the Lord, but insists: 'offer no bribes, these God does not accept! Trust not in sacrifice of the fruits of extortion.' What you give to the Lord is important, it says, but from where you give (truly from yourself?), why you give (to compensate for the unacceptable part of your life?) and with what mind you give (really to give or actually to get?)...these are important too! And they define the quality of your relationship with God. 

These are typical unattractive marketing, but they are honest; brutally honest. The fruits of discipleship is all made known to us, but along with it, also what it truly costs. What will be the price that I really have to pay, without any hidden charges or indirect hooks, is plainly stated! Would I pick up this lifestyle, the disciple-lifestyle for myself? 

It is really a question to ask: will that kind of a propaganda manage to attract many? Yes, many among those who honour honesty and dare to pick up the cross - are we among them?

Mary the Mother of the Church and Help of Christians

THE WORD AND THE FEAST  

May 24, 2021: Mary Mother of the Church and Mary Help of Christians

Genesis 3: 9-15; John 19: 25-34

It is a meaningful coincidence this day - Mary Mother of the Church and Mary Help of Christians - both opening up the vistas of proclamation and evangelisation and that of sustained growth in faith, all one's life! Both these titles to Mary seem a bit problematic at the outset...but infact made sense of from the right perspective, they can be useful ways to understand the precious identity we share as people of God and in relation to the the world at large. Problematic because it could be interpreted in an exclusive sense, for Christians and for the Church! But the scope is much larger. 

Help of Christians  - the title which was historically inspired, stands good in as much as the Church in the world today, does need a powerful intercessor and protector, looking at the challenges that exist from within and without. From within, there are forces which in the name of be it progressiveness or be it adapting to the rest of the world, seem to weaken some fundamental basis of Christian values today. From outside today, as ever, there are those who consider the Church their firm enemy because the Church has stood formidable for two millennia upholding the Reign principles handed down by Christ. The Blessed Mother as she once protected the Church from the ravaging enemies, today has to continue to protect the flock.

Mother of the Church - the recent feast, but one of the most ancient titles to Mary, is a challenge to the people of God, towards forming themselves into people who wait on the Lord, who are filled with the Spirit of the Lord, who proclaim the Lord to the rest of the world, who are united in prayer even if the situation around seems so fearsome or unpromising, who know that the Lord will never let them down, who never leave the side of the Lord come what may and who find solace in each other building themselves up into the living Reign of God, here and now.

These two titles of our blessed mother celebrated together this day present to us a fundamental identity that the Church gives to Mary within our Christian faith: an INTERCESSOR who protects and a MODEL who inspires us, to live our faith to the full. 

Mary our Mother and Help, pray for us!

COME HOLY SPIRIT...WE NEED YOU!!!

Fire, Fruits and Friendship

May 23, 2021: Pentecost Sunday
Acts 2:1-11; Galatians 5: 16-25; John 20: 19-23

Welcome to the birthday celebrations of the One Holy Apostolic Church! Thousands of small communities of the people of God, chosen by God, saved by the Word and animated by the Spirit might exist in the world today - the origin is the One Holy Spirit, the One Spirit of communion and courage, the One Spirit of conviction and consolation who underlies every good thing that comes from God. Hence... let us wish each other today a happy birthday, because we were reborn in the Spirit as the people of God. When Jesus said, unless one is born again in the Spirit of God, one cannot enter the Reign of God - this is what the Lord meant: to receive the Spirit - in concrete it means to feel the fire, bear the fruits and grow in the friendship that comes from the Spirit.

We need the Holy Spirit, now more than ever! Look around us... there is pain and sorrow, fear and weariness, disease and death, grief and confusion, suspicion and conspiracies... the pandemic has pushed not just some parts of the world, but the entire humanity into this situation today! In spite of this predicament, there is still injustice, inhumanity, cruelties, insensitivities, insincerity, exploitation, corruption, dehumanisation, abuse, sexual perversion, self seeking, money mindedness, materialism, relativism, consumerism, egoism, fundamentalism, fanaticism, hegemonism, totalitarianism... every thing working against Truth and Justice! Sinfulness has become the order of the day and every day the level of sinfulness keeps rising and nothing matters anymore than the capacity to fend for oneself. Worse still, it looks like a handful who are affluent and moneyed, could control the entire globe and have their way, come what may. They are able to bulldoze even the so-called transnational organisations and all sorts of historical attempts at setting up neutral watchdogs for human rights and dignity. What a state of gloom the human race is pushed into!

We need the FIRE of the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to face the Truth! When things go wrong or go in the way we would never want them to, we need the courage to accept it. When things seem to be dark and so in incomprehensible to us that we are lost in our life's ways, we need the light to decide our next steps. When we look around and see everything around us justifies what the Lord considers 'evil' and perpetrates darkness and doubt, we need the fire that burns the evil away, the fire that lights up the true Christian way! That fire that was lit in our hearts (though when we were still in our mother's womb, yet concretely and externally) at our baptism; the fire that we were commissioned to keep burning till we return to the Lord, that we may see clearly the way set out for us and show it to our brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours.

We need the Holy Spirit, now more than ever! When selfishness is justified and glorified as success mindset, when violence is looked upon as a way to make one's dreams come true, when money and wealth come before humanity and peace, when politics means nothing but dominating the masses in whichever inhuman means possible, when happiness means pleasure and excitement at the cost of anything and anyone, when love means possessing and marriage means merely a contract, when the suffering persons become just numbers of cases and people dying become merely masses to be dealt with,  what difference are we called to make today as people of the Spirit? 

We need the FRUITS  of the Holy Spirit, that we may live true love and teach it to the world, that we may have the inner joy and show it to those around, that we may spread peace that creates heaven where we are, that we may have the patience to endure the evils holding firm to the good, that we may possess the kindness to see beyond the failures of people, that we may have the generosity to give of ourselves for the good of the other and the entire humanity, that we may ever be faithful to the One who has called us and commissioned us, that we may challenge the violent world with our gentleness, that we may possess the self control that puts us in control of everything else - this is the difference we are called to make - can we?

We need the holy Spirit, now more than ever! How do we picture ourselves today: As people of the Spirit, people of God, people of Redemption...if so, our identity has to be different from that of the world. The world identifies itself with power, possession and prestige. Persons are ready to do anything to have power - power over others, power over means of wealth, power over systems and power over everyone else! The craze to possess, ruins any humanity that could be. To possess things and to possess persons have come to mean the same and the world differentiates no more one from the other. Prestige and ego, seem to rule everything and the society seems ready to sacrifice anything for it. Today the experience of the pandemic proclaims so loud the fragility and the vulnerability that lies under the covers of our claim to know everything and be in control of everything! 

We need the FRIENDSHIP of the Holy Spirit, to understand the true identity that we have. We are friends - made friends of God, called to be friends to each other, commissioned to be friends to the needy, the broken, the afflicted, the suffering, the discouraged, the lonely, the grieving, the weak and the downtrodden! It is the Spirit that gives us the heart and the capacity it takes to be friends... the Spirit unites, makes us understand each other, synchronises our thoughts, synergises our capacities and moulds us together as One People of God. Where there is division and hatred, there is no Spirit because the Spirit of God, is the Spirit of love and wisdom, communion and friendship.

Yes, let us pray together this day:
Come Holy Spirit, we need thee!
We need your Fire to burn and to light up,
We need your Fruits to raise this world up,
We need your Friendship to truly grow up!
Come Holy Spirit, we need thee!

With the Holy Spirit - it starts all over!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 7th week in Easter time

May 22, 2021: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31; John 21: 20-25

Don't you find a sense of winding up in the readings today? A type of 'and-they-lived-happily-everafter' narration! Paul seems to settle down for good in Rome as an honoured guest in house arrest, while Jesus seems to be bidding his final bye and the book of John comes to an end, with the concluding note of the author... But the end is for a new beginning... because the Church awaits the all important feast of the Pentecost tomorrow, an outpouring of the Spirit that led to a renewed life and radical witness.

With the Spirit, everything begins all over! It may look like an end, or as if everything is done and dusted. But the Holy Spirit is someone who renews the face of the earth, renews it constantly, with new life, new vigour, new enthusiasm, new power and new energy! All that we need to do, is resolve to follow Christ, to remain in Christ and be open to the Spirit.

Yes, the message today is our call to 'follow Christ' in season and out of season, whether we are free or captive, whether we live or die, whether we eat or drink! Good news has to be announced by all means and the responsibility is ours, irrespective of our state of life or situation at present. Our readiness and submission to God is sufficient, the Spirit is there to renew, energise and recreate  us!

Come Holy Spirit! Come renew us! 

Christian Leadership - a crucial gift of the Spirit!

WORD 2day: Friday, 7th week in Easter time 

May 21, 2021: Acts 25: 13b-21; John 21: 15-19

Jesus seems to be preparing the second level of leadership. Peter he appoints already before he goes and Paul he seems to be taking to all the ends of the earth that he may bear witness, true to his promises. These leaders prepared by Jesus, and the way they are prepared and the qualities expected of them can also be contrasted with the other leaders who are implicitly present in the readings today - Festus, Felix and Caesar, the Roman officials and the Jewish leadership which did away with Jesus and now wants to do away with Peter, or Paul or anyone else who has got something to do with Jesus.

In his mode of preparation and commission of his second line leaders, Jesus offers us an insight into Christian leadership: it does not consist in power and position but in bearing witness and serving the community of faith. Infact, in such a perspective, every baptised person is called to play a role as a leader in their own level - witnessing to the goodness of the Lord and serving the people of God.

Today, taking a look at the context - our communities, be it parish communities where the laity scheme their way to positions of honour and fame, or the members of religious congregations or the clergy playing political games and construing divisive plots... true understanding of Christian leadership seems to have taken a back seat. With the pandemic wrecking an havoc, we are getting to see the colours of true Christian leadership and self-centred pseudo leaderships! 

The Gospel Acclamation reminds us today that the Spirit will teach us the truth and all the truth. May the Spirit of the Lord rekindle our faith and lead us towards true sense of Christian leadership, because it is indeed a crucial gift of the Spirit!

Spirit, the love dwelling in us!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 7th week in Easter time 

May 20, 2021: Acts 22:30 - 23: 6-11; John 17: 20-25

As in Jerusalem, so in Rome! Just out of one danger in Jerusalem, Paul is promised more of them, in Rome! Courage! says the Lord. We can live our life with courage and confidence because the Lord dwells in us, or atleast wants to dwell in us! He prays to his Father, 'that I may be in them!' 

Jesus is praying for us, as he says... I pray for these and those who will come to believe through the words of these. We have come to believe and the Lord wishes to dwell in us - the sign of his dwelling, is the love of the Father: that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them. The love that exists between the Father and the Son, is the Holy Spirit...the indwelling Spirit.

The most concrete sign of the indwelling Lord is not so much performing miracles or speaking in toungues, as living united to the Father in Christ, it is being united to each other in love! The more we grow to be one, as Jesus prays today, the more we become people of the Spirit. All that we need to do is remain united, remain one, witness to the oneness we see between the Father and the Son. 

Jesus prays that we may be one because, that would be the first witness to the Reign that he longed to establish on earth - that we live to be one, that the world sees us one! Jesus promises us the glory that God alone can give, that comes from the perfection of being one! That determination, that decision to remain before the world one and bold, will be the work of the Spirit who is the fellowship between the Father and the Son. 

Wherever we are, let us be aware and convinced that we possess the glory that the Lord has promised, and live up to that glory, to that gift, to that person who has called us to be one; one, in the Spirit, the love that dwells within us!

The Spirit that makes us One!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 7th week in Easter time

May 19, 2021: Acts 20: 28-38; John 17: 11b-19

From parting mood to prayer mode... the Word today captures both Jesus and Paul praying for and praying with their beloved followers. They invoke the Spirit who unites, and they warn the followers of the spirit of discord. Both those, the invocation and the warning, are a lesson for us today!

How we can discern the right direction to take in the face of differences among us - that is the question that the Word answers today. Be it in a family or in a community of faithful, given the fact that we are thinking individuals, there is bound to arise differences of opinion. First of all, the conviction to grow in, is this: that differences of opinoins are not a problem. They are a richness! They enrich the point of view, but as along as the motivations are right and well oriented. 

The differences, as long as they are from the Spirit, they shall lead only to growth and renewal, enrichment and empowerment. Hence we are invited today to invoke the Holy Spirit on ourselves and on our communities, not to abolish all differences and make us monocultural and monolithic in nature, but to help us see the oneness through the difference, to discover the harmony that exists in the diversity that we celebrate. 

We are warned here against the differences caused by the ravenous wolves and treacherous beasts. Ruled by ego, dominated by envy, and animated by competition, these differences are aimed at destroying the unity of the people of God. It does not enrich, impoverishes; it does not empower but enfeebles the community; it does not harmonise and build but breaks and destroys! It is clearly from the evil one.

Anything that comes from the Spirit unites us, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit that makes us one! Let us remain in the Spirit and remain united in love above everything else. May we live worthy of the prayer that Jesus made for us: that they may be one!