The Light for our way!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 6, 2021: Transfiguration of the Lord

Daniel 7: 9-10,13-14; Mark 9: 2-10

The disciples see their Lord in his glory and all that they want is to remain in that state of splendour and delight! There was a proposal also to make tents, and stabilise their presence. The sense of awe makes them feel like reifying that moment and that event. It is nothing wrong, isn't it? However, the call is to climb down, move on and keep walking, taking advantage of the light that the moment has shed! Though Jesus was all the time with them, the disciples needed that experience on the mount to behold his power and glory. 

Our life of prayer, that is, our relationship with God who shares every moment of our life, is punctuated at times with ‘peak’ experiences, to sustain us in the tedium of the daily journey. Retreats, pilgrimages, charismatic conventions, supernatural experiences and miraculous events – these are very useful and important, but cannot become a daily need! Effective substitutes for these that the Church suggests to each of us, are the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation – which when celebrated with the zest and the earnestness that they truly deserve – can become peak experiences on a regular basis. 

To walk with Christ every day of our life - that is the call that we have received and not to go by merely exciting events and extraordinary moments. But the Lord deigns to throw the light of faith in God's own ways. If we are attentive we shall receive those timely gifts and keep marching on every day and every moment, accepting the light for our path. 

The feast of transfiguration that we celebrate today has this call for us: on our daily journey, let us observe the glorious presence of the Lord in the ordinariness of the day. Let the gentle beckoning of God keep sounding in our ears – “This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him.”

Basilica of Mary Major

August 5, 2021

We celebrate today the feast of the dedication of the Basilica of Mary Major, 

one of the four major Papal Basilicas in Rome. 

It has a great historical background as it was one of the first basilicas built 

in honour of Mary, Mother of God. 

The miracle that is said to have happened 

to reveal the exact spot chosen by our Blessed Mother herself, 

the miracle of snow in the mid summer night, 

gave rise to the title 

Our Lady of Snows! 

There is nothing greater than God's plan!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 5, 2021: Numbers 20: 1-13; Matthew 16: 13-23

Moses and Peter – their impatience and impudence come under scrutiny today! Moses, whom God spoke to as a friend, and Peter, whom Jesus called the Rock on which he would build his Church – even they, as leaders give themselves off in a moment of fatigue and overconfidence! 

Discipleship is not a victory gained once for all! It is a daily commitment and a perpetual challenge. Anything can bring down to the ground whatever we have built with days, months and years of hard work and persistence. We cannot afford to grow careless. That is why Jesus teaches us to watch and pray and be vigilant always, that the moment of the enemy may not overtake us (Lk 21:34-36). 

The murmurings and the hardheadedness of the people catches on to Moses and in a moment of impatience and restlessness, Moses instead of waiting on the Lord, decides to act on his own account. While the Lord asked him to speak to the rock (20:8) in order that the water may flow, he strikes the rock with his baton (20:11), to make it dramatic before the people and draw their attention! 

The commendation from Jesus gets to the head of Peter and he turns presumptuous to question the will of God! He begins to think he has to even tell Jesus what is alright and what is not to be done; he wishes to have his way inspite of what God reveals. Not that he was conscious of it; but he was mindless, he was losing his head over his popularity with Jesus.

Both Moses and Peter are promptly indicated their mistake. The lesson is clear for us today – to remain vigilant in our discipleship that we may always remain calm but cautious, confident but humble, persistent but patient, passionate but attentive to the Will of the Master! May these two great men, Moses and Peter, and many such persons of God, teach us by their example: there is nothing greater than God's plan!

Great is your Faith!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 4, 2021: Remembering St. John Maria Vianney

Numbers 13: 1-2,25, 14:1, 26-29, 34-35; Matthew 15: 21-28

Faithlessness or Faith – As you sow, so you reap! 

“As you have spoken I will do unto you!”-“As you wished it shall be unto you!” These two phrases, former from the first reading and the latter from the Gospel seem similar, though they are not! Considering the contexts, they are infact contrary to each other – one a reproach from the Lord and the other an approval. However, the message is same – FAITH. 

The first reading seems to be a rationalization on the part of Israel, as to why they had to sojourn forty long years in the deserts of Paran – a simple reason: lack of faith! The Lord could not walk them to the land of milk and honey, as promised, because they were stubborn and hard headed, never yielding to the guiding hand of God. 

The Gospel pictures a woman whose request has apparently no place on the 'to-do' list of Jesus that day! But the list had to be changed by all means. Logically as in another place we read, that due to lack of faith Jesus did not accomplish much signs and wonders, here Jesus could not but make that miracle happen because of the grandeur of the faith of that simple woman! 

Grand faith and simple woman, syncs well with the simple man and grand apostle that John Maria Vianney was! He was not a great scholar or a doctor of the Church, nor a Bishop or a cardinal, nor was he a great founder or a prolific writer. He was a simple, underrated priest, who was such a success in the eyes of the Lord, because he brought not just a village but great multitudes to faith! The secret: his faith was really great!  Like Jesus said today to the woman, he would have said to the saintly Cure d'Ars - My Son, Great is your faith!

How blessed it would be if Jesus were to look at you and me today and say, “My Son, My daughter, great is your faith!”

Note: Let us pray for all priests known to us, as we celebrate the feast of St. John Maria Vianney, the patron of all priests! May our priests be as simple as Vianney and as profound in faith as he was!

Like the men of God!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 3, 2021: Numbers 12:1-13; Matthew 14: 22-36

The Word speaks of two Men of God today - not merely by the popular title but by their very life style and the way they respond to tough situations. 

Moses, against whom the very people whom he served grumbled, including his closest collaborators. What did he do? Held it against them? No, that was not becoming of a man of God. Even when Miriam stood affected by her own sin, he intercedes with the Lord, obtaining her health back. he proves to be a man of God.

Jesus the Son of God, the ideal man of God proves himself so, by being so unaffected even when he knew his own disciples knew him not. They did not understand him, they thought him to be an evil spirit. In spite of it, when Peter wishes to walk on the water, he gives him that privilege. He was so patient, kind and gentle with the disciples, because that is the mark of a person of God, a God who abounds in mercy and love.

How many circumstances present themselves to us today, to remind ourselves and testify to those around, what it means to be persons of God. In our personal lives, in our family situation, in the social scenario, in our reaction to the global happenings... in all these we need to show ourselves to be persons of God, by our lives and especially by our choices! 

Yes, the call is loud and clear - to live for God, for God's people and above all for the strengthening of the Reign of God, here and now.

Discouragements, the right mode and the right persons!

WORD 2day: Monday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 2, 2021: Numbers 11: 4-15; Matthew 14: 13-21

Discouragement in the life of a disciple, has to be a moment to take stock and bounce back! Moses feels overburdened today, with the weight not just of carrying the people along, but of their obstinacy not to perceive all that is so good and blessed around! The signs and wonders notwithstanding, the people decide to be unhappy and never to be convinced of the goodness that surrounds them. 

As a disciple in ministry sometimes, all the good that is done and all the troubles that are taken seem to be ignored and much worse, interpreted wrongly! We see this discouragement in every person of God – apart from Moses presented today, Jeremiah (20:14-16), Paul, ... the great prophets and disciples experienced it – Jesus was no exception. 

Today we find Jesus, withdrawing to a secluded place after hearing the execution of John the Baptist. As if to have been reminded of his own fate to come, Jesus resorts to a time of solitude with the One who has sent him! 

Discouragements in our life too can be made moments of blessings if we opt to spend those moments with the right persons – first of all with God, who is always with us; then with persons of God who are given to us as reminders of God’s presence! When they are utilized well, as moments to take stock, we can bounce back into action with a renewed spirit, as it happens with Moses, who grows so strong in his rapport with Yahweh who stood by his side all the while; like Jesus who comes up with the feat of feeding the multitude, as Yahweh did in the desert! 

Discouragements are part of the package of our experiences – they have something to tell us, something to offer us. If we are ready to wait on the Lord, we will surely gather every bit of the blessings in store!

LIVE THE CHRISTIAN DIFFERENCE

Feel, live and make that difference!

August 1, 2021: 18th Sunday in Ordinary time

Exodus 16: 2-4,12-15; Ephesians 4: 17, 20-24; John 6: 24-35

Feel the Difference – the Lord is around! The Lord with you makes all the difference for you. How important it is to feel the difference. The famous reminder of Pope St. Leo the Great says it all: O Christian, Realise your dignity! How important it is for me to know the dignity and the greatness that the Lord has invested in me. That I have been given life, is the first gift given to me. That I am given human life, is a greater gift, knowing the image and the likeness in which I am created. And that I am called to live a Christian life, is such a great treasure that is placed within me, however undeserving or incapable I am! That is the difference that the Lord is making and with the never ceasing presence of the Lord, the Lord continues to strengthen and empower me towards living this call, with a difference!

Live the Difference – let them see who are around! If you truly feel the difference, you will live it, and the world around you will see it. Is it not the best mode of proclamation – to let the world see the difference, that you feel within? As they say, a flower does not bear a placard to invite the bee in search of honey, nor do the ants need a google map to reach the source of their sweet feed. It is seen; it is felt; it is sensed; it is obvious. Your daily life has to hold out to the world the difference that you feel within! That is what the great saint from Assisi meant when he said, ‘preach unceasingly; use words only when necessary!’ Our life has to manifest the difference that we feel within, due to the Lord’s presence with us. If we fall into the same category as the rest of the world, if our lifestyle has nothing much different from what the rest of the world has to offer, if our priorities are nothing different from what the consumeristic world holds on to, then I don’t live any difference! It is unfortunately a sign that I really feel no difference within me, being with the Lord and belonging to the Lord. But if I really be with and belong to the Lord, it will be seen in my life!

Make a Difference – wherever you are around! The Word today invites us to make a difference wherever we are, in the lives of whoever we are with and in the world at large! The Reign of God is all about difference, the difference that we make in other’s lives, the difference we make in the humanity at large and the difference we make specially for those who are suffering and are oppressed by various forces of the power centred systems. Making a difference would happen through our words, through our deeds and through our commitments – but at the foundation of all these, difference will happen when we have the Lord in our lives! Making a difference without really feeling the difference within us, would become an empty promise given to others and would prove short-lived. Making a difference without living the difference in my own life would be so artificial and meaningless that it would soon be resented by others and resound the emptiness within us.

We have a call this Sunday from the Word to feel, live and make a difference, the difference of the Reign of God here on earth. And the Word gives us three important injunctions to achieve the task:

    - If you wish to make a difference, Stop Complaining... and start feeling the presence of God says the first reading.

    - If you wish to make a difference, Stop Running after passing things... and prioritise God in your life says the Gospel!

    - If you wish to make a difference, Stop following the crowd... and as a Christian, make the crowd turn to follow you, says St. Paul.

We need to feel the presence of the Lord who makes a difference for us! We need to start living that difference in our life, on a daily basis, by showing to the world that our value systems are different, that our priorities are different and that our foundation is different. We will then surely make a difference, wherever we are!

The Difference is God! Make God felt, in and through all that you are, and you will certainly make a difference!

A Righteous Celebration

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 31, 2021: Remembering St. Ignatius of Loyola 

Leviticus 25:1,8-17; Matthew 14: 1-12

In spite of all the talk about recession and tough times, crisis and economic slowdown, and even the pandemic, celebrations do not seem to have reduced or ceased! Especially in the religious realm, celebrations find their importance and significance intact, though there do exist a number of restrictions and the rest. At times these celebrations are exaggerated too, to the extent of being detested. Should we, or should we not, celebrate? 

 

The Word today presents us two modes of celebration: one, an exploitative celebration that is irresponsible, insensitive and a mere show of arrogance; indifferent to the other and absolutely self centered, with no thought of contributing to the good of the other or the common good. The other mode is a righteous celebration. Let none of you wrong the neighbour but fear the Lord your God, instructs the first reading today, which is all about jubilee among the people of God.

Ignatius of Loyola whom we remember today, was a man of that logic, who would do everything according to the mind of God! From the thirtieth year of his life, when he came to know the Lord and fell so madly in love with Him, he was ready to do anything "FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD" (ad majorem Dei gloriam) – a passion that led to the great movement of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and so many other movements related to that; a celebration of God’s glory for the sake of the people of God, that has produced scores and scores of holy men and women in the last 5 centuries, right up to the present Holy Father our beloved Pope Francis! 

A celebration that is godly should not be at the cost of the other, but for the sake of the love for the other. A true Christian celebration should reaffirm the meaning and joy of living. That is why everyday eucharist is a celebration, a reminder of the life that we are called to live in the Lord, in communion with our brothers and sisters!

Do you see Jesus?

WORD 2day: Friday, 17^th week in Ordinary time

July 30, 2021: Leviticus 23: 1,4-11,15-16,27; Matthew 13: 54-58 

 

Due to their lack of faith, Jesus did not work many mighty deeds among them, says the Gospel today. Someone might argue, “but if God could not do a miracle, be it for whatever reason, is it not a limitation or a weakness?" Let us pay attention, it is not God's weakness, but the strength that God has shared with us. What do we mean? 

God created us in God's image and likeness and this likeness ensures that we are hardly different from God (Ps.8)! That makes us also persons with inviolable freedom, a freedom which not even God would take away. Though many resent it saying it is the cause of scores of evils in the world, it is that which makes us human, and gives us the dignity as the images of the Creator. Without the 'personal freedom' we would be no more than the animals. 

Faith and Freedom have a great deal to do with each other. Faith is a response given in freedom, a total absolute freedom of the inner being of a person. Jesus in his freedom chooses to enter the synagogue to pray with his people and the people with their freedom choose to see only the apparent facts of Jesus, as the son of the carpenter and a son of their soil. They were not able to see the divine import of his actions, his words and the signs that he was accomplishing. 

Today, it can happen so if we look at Jesus as someone kept aside for Sundays, special days and some particular moments of other days! It is an oft repeated warning from the Lord, not to make our spirituality legalistic and our piety pharisaic! 

Are we able to see Jesus in our everyday life?

Celebrating Home-makers

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

July 29, 2021: Remembering Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus 

Exodus 40: 16-21; John 11: 19-27 (or) Luke 10: 38-42

 

Let us begin with an interesting fact that today's feast (till now feast of St. Martha) is a fruit of a mistake... a mistaken identity in history which equated Mary Magdalene with Mary, the sister of Martha. If you remember exactly a week ago (on 22nd) we celebrated the feast of Mary of Magdala, calculating a week from there, in history they wanted to celebrate the alleged sister of Mary, that is Martha!?! Though a mistake, a happy mistake and we should be happy to celebrate today the feast of this person, who was all preoccupied to express her love for Jesus Christ in every way that she possibly could. Ironically, her sister Mary, whom the Lord said chose the right part, has had no celebration specific to her... of course, from this year we celebrate the siblings together - the two sisters and their brother Lazarus, together on this day!

Focussing a little on Martha, in today’s Gospel from St. John, we have the scene of Jesus' arrival after three days of Lazarus' death. Thanks to this passage of John, it redeems the image of Martha as a workaholic and helps us identify in her a person who had a deep understanding of who Jesus was. 

The affirmations that Martha comes out with shows how practical her faith in Christ was; that she set out and ran towards Jesus indicates the eagerness she had to meet him; and the openness she had towards the Lord and the Lord's power over any circumstance shows how deep her faith was. An active love for God and an unwavering faith in the Lord - these are the two lessons that Martha teaches us. 

How relevant they are for the world of today, which is characterised by a godless spirituality, inhuman development and unethical rationality! However, on a practical note, it is a good day to express our gratitude and felicitate the home-makers (the so-called house-wives!!!) who make our lives so pleasant! It could also be a great day to celebrate the sanctity of the siblings together - sanctity in a family!