Understanding Goodness

WORD 2day: Saturday, 20th week in Ordinary Time

August 21, 2021: Ruth 2: 1-3,8-11, 4:13-17; Mt 23: 1-12

Goodness is Godliness. Last week had been marked by various acts of political tension and violence in Afghanistan, with Taliban claiming power - with those who support them from the international community and they themselve claiming to give a peaceful governance! There are also accounts of violence in certain parts of northeastern India - with so many polarisations within the local population  leading to unrest! There are those who claim to help or to bring back peace! But who is true and who is good? The Word reflected from this background raises a fundamental question - how do we understand goodness?

Is goodness the external appearance of a person sporting conventionally respected images - as a god-man, or a social worker, or a poor-lover, or a cause-believer...these externals do not suffice. And not all are deceived by it, of course some are!

Is goodness all about the deeds and functions? People who wish to create a public image that they are good, try to buy up people by their good deeds and heroism. But is that enough sign of true goodness? Hidden behind the good deeds and acts of people there are agendas and schemes that no one even guesses.

Goodness is all about the basic nature in a person, that is not even seen by the others. Then of what use is it, one could ask. It is nothing to prove to anyone, it is just being good at the core of one's being. That will never change, even if the situation around and the persons around change, for the worse or for the better.

Keeping these in mind, can I really judge who is good and who is not? Indeed, no one can. I can only say whether I am good or not. But it is so important to ask that question: Am I really Good?

How close am I to the salvific design of God?

WORD 2day: Friday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 20, 2021: Ruth 1:1,3-6,14-16,22; Matthew 22: 34-40

"Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God." I remember once, years ago, when I quoted these verses to a group of my youngsters...one spontaneously burst out saying, "what romantic lines!" I had to explain to them with the context, and convince them that it was a daughter in law saying those words to a mother in law, and that too, after the husband-son, had died! A funny experience to recall, but the reflection remains afresh and applicable till date.

We pick and choose people to love - Ruth could have easily walked her way home back to Moab! She was not a hebrew woman, nor was she anymore indebted to her dead husband's mother! In fact, she had a precedence, as her co-sister Orpah had just left at the suggestion of the mother in law. No one would have blamed Ruth for it, she being still a young woman with her whole life in front of her. But if she had done it, we would not be reflecting about Ruth today, as she would not have got into the salvation history, as shining as she does now!

What makes her part of the salvation history - not wars won for the hebrews, not splendid deeds as great judges and prophets, but a choice made in true love! It is true love that made her enter the pages of the History of Salvation. That is exactly what Jesus seems to be telling us in the Gospel: the greatest of all commandments, the most absolute of all criteria to belong to God and to be part of salvific design of God, is the command of Love!

And a true Christian love does not pick and choose whom to love and whom not to... it is a decision to love and to love everyone with a deep sense of genuine commitment. Ruth manifested that capacity and became part of the salvation plan of God. How close are we to get into the salvific design of God?

Few who are worthy of the banquet

WORD 2day: Thursday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 19, 2021: Judges 11: 29-39; Matthew 22: 1-14

We have today in the first reading a strange, and from the standards of today, even ridiculous event - Jephthah sacrificing his only daughter in fulfilment of his vows to the Lord. One can be reminded of another event when Abraham took his son to the mountain to sacrifice, my be also wondering why the Lord did not stop this time, with this girl at stake! Whatever be the explanation, the key to understand the  message from the liturgy of the Word today, is in the responsorial psalm.

Here I am Lord, I come to do your will. There are two elements of doing the will of God that is brought forth for our reflection - one, that it is not that easy to do the will of God, it requires the utmost sacrifices; secondly, just doing the minimum will not get you anywhere with respect to doing God's will, you have to go all the way, there are no short cuts! 

At times, when you tell the Lord, 'here Lord, I am ready to do your will', you will have to sacrifice things that you may consider very dear to you - your dreams, your career, your so-called happiness, your family at times, your legitimate pleasures, your longing for a comfortable or atleast a peaceful life - you have to sacrifice the very things that the world may propose as targets to be achieved in life! Are you ready? 

Once you say you are ready, you have to be absolutely ready! No compromises with God...it is not that you will do something and find a convenient reason to leave out something else, you will choose something and safely avoid something else that God wants of you! When you say a yes, it has to be a complete yes! If not, you will know it very well, and it will haunt you from within until you stand in the presence of that just Judge!

A bit alarming, isn't it? That is why many are called, but few are chosen. And of these few, even fewer persevere till the end, a very few go all the way, very few really grow to be worthy of the banquet of the Lord. Are we among that count?

The Lord who approaches...

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 18, 2021: Judges 9: 6-15; Matthew 20: 1-16

There is something that is common to the two readings of today, and that is the clue to the message that is offered us by the Word today. The first reading narrates a parable of trees approaching various trees to rule over them. Jesus narrates a parable in the Gospel, about the land owner who approaches people at various moments of the day for work. The key to understand the Word is here: the Lord who approaches.

In various ways the Lord approaches us - what a marvel and what a privilege that we are approached by the Almighty. It is not that the Lord cannot do without me, but the Lord chooses not to do without me. The Lord invites me to be on the Lord's side. The Lord approaches me to be at Lord's business. 

Three dispositions that I should necessarily have to respond to the Lord who approaches me: 

Listening, to the Lord's call and heeding to the Lord's directions, not despising the message nor the means through which the Lord shares that message with me. The Lord approaches me in varied ways and I need to be truly open minded to listen to the call;

Obedience, to carry out the wishes of the Lord despite the difficulties and delusions. Obedience is not doing something whether I like it or not, but whole heartedly doing something whether it is easy or difficult, simply for the reason that it is what God wants me to do, there and then.

Selflessness, to do whatever I can for the purpose of the Reign and for the people of God, without expecting anything as a recompense, never comparing the good times of the others with mine and doing everything for the other, for the society and for the God who wills them all.

The Lord who approaches me is a very strong affirmation that I am wonderful and awesome in the eyes of the Lord - would I live up to it today?

To know how God sees!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 20th week in Ordinary time 

August 17, 2021: Judges 6: 11-24; Matthew 19: 23-30

The Lord's choices are curious, infact, strange! There is a series of them we can cite from both Old Testament and the New. Today's first reading presents to us one such personality - Gideon, a fear-stricken young man who defines himself as the least of all in Israel - is chosen by God and called, "Mighty Warrior". The numerous others like Jacob the less-stronger, David the puniest of the sons, Solomon the son of the coveted wife and over to the New Testament the uneducated fishermen and despised sinners as disciples and apostles - the list is endless. 

In fact the whole of Salvation History is accomplished in and through the instrumentality of these so-called odd choices. It is very clear: "it is impossible for humans; but for God everything is possible." While the world and we ourselves look for something, God looks at something totally different and expects something totally different from us! 

We look at the external appearance, the capacity to get noticed, the facility with which one makes a propaganda for oneself, the popularity one can attain, the comfort one can create for oneself, the promise of ease and pleasure that one can pose for the present and for the future...these seem to be the set of criteria of judgement and choice. The more saddening part is that even internally each of us is convinced of these criteria and we judge ourselves too on these counts. 

Real liberation of the self and the path to perfection will be possible only when we realise the fact that, what God sees and expects is the most appropriate. And when that coincides with what I see and expect from myself - the miracle happens! In the Reign, the first becomes the last and the last becomes the first!

Leaders are to be nurtured!

WORD 2day: Monday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 16, 2021: Judges 2: 11-19; Matthew 19:16-22

An interesting part of the book of Judges we have today to reflect on - it gives us a pattern of Israel's relationship with the Lord, how short of memory and how terribly ungrateful they were. But the Lord does not react as humans do. Though God's people go away from him, the Lord draws them close and raises new leaders to guide them on. At the right time, the right type of leaders arise because they arise in the eyes of the Lord. It is not leadership that is vied for, plotted towards and grabbed with influences, but intended and willed by God!

May be a point to lament about today - lack of such leaderships, in all spheres, be it the so-called secular or the supposed-to-be spiritual. Corruption, deception and malice which cropped up every now and then in the past to punctuate history with sadness and helplessness, has now become the order of the day. And ironically, we look for and rejoice in one or two who come up, once in a blue moon, to be 'true' selfless leaders and sadly, even that lasts not very long -either they are absorbed into the mainstream corruption or they just disappear out of sight, like shooting stars.

The reason: radical commitment to the truth and intimate relationships with the Divine are scoffed at. As Jesus challenged the the young man in the Gospel today, our young generation has to be challenged with not just words and concepts, but with life, experience and witness. True Godly leaders do not appear from nowhere; they are nurtured, grown and raised in our households! 

Apart from lamenting our times, is it not high time to appraise our lifestyle and start living for truth in communion with the Lord, so that an all new generation of persons of God can be awaited with hope!

Participating in the Fruits of the Risen Lord

Solemnity of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary

August 15, 2021: Revelation 11: 19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab; 1Corinthians 15:20-27a; Luke 1: 39-56

"...The revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages"

These were the words with which Pope Pius XII in the year 1950 defined the dogma of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother, in the document Munificentissimus Deus (art.40). Mary is presented to us as the first fruit of the Redemptive mission accomplished by her Son and Son of God, Jesus her Saviour. Though it is a Sunday, the Church insists on celebrating our Blessed Mother this day, because in her and in her Assumption we celebrate the Salvific grace of Christian vocation - that we are chosed, called and blessed with the gratuitous gift of God - the eternal redemption. On this beautiful occasion Holy Mother the Church invites us to celebrate a solemnity on three major counts.

First of all, we are invited to Celebrate the Faith, the Faith of Mary, the young girl who cooperated with the Divine Plan and totally abandoned herself into the hands of God with her words - Be it done unto me according to your Word. The first concern for her was the Word - the Word of God which became flesh in her womb - and she became the Temple of God, the Ark of the Lord as we read in the first reading today. God acknowledged her faith, her response of faith, her obedience of faith with wondrous gifts! If the Immaculate conception is understood as the grace that God gave in preparation for her role in the Salvation history, Assumption can very well be understood as the reward that God blessed her with for her Absolute Cooperation! We are called to celebrate this faith, which Elisabeth acclaims in the Gospel today - Blessed is she who believed in the fulfillment of what God has spoken!

Secondly, we are invited to Celebrate the Hope, the hope of Resurrection, the core of our faith. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in sin" says the part of the epistle that just precedes the second reading of today! Christ is the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ, we hear in the reading. God anticipates that for Mary as a sign of hope for us who belong to Christ, to show us that we are destined to be fruits in the line of Christ. Everyone who thinks and laments of death and the darkness of death, is today invited to open his or her eyes in hope and look at the fact that Christ has overcome death and each of us is called to overcome death, as Mary, a human being just like you and me, has overcome that death. Nothing, not even death has any claim over us... God alone, God's only Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ alone can claim us to Himself. We are called to celebrate this hope, which St. Paul affirms that death will be the ultimate enemy to be destroyed!

Thirdly, we are invited to Celebrate the Love, the love that God Almighty had lavished on his predilected daughter, the love that Jesus showered on his sweetest mother, and the love that the Holy Spirit covered the most beautiful handmaid of God with. Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus (art.25), makes a splendid reflection saying, the primary reason for belief in the Assumption is "the filial love" of Christ for His mother. Mary herself knew how much God loved her - she proclaimed "My soul magnifies the Lord, for the Lord has looked with favour on me and done great things for me!" Just like Elisabeth who felt the blessings of the Lord by the mere presence of Mary, we too will feel that love, that favour, that blessings from the Lord, if we stay close to Mary, our sweet loving mother. We are called to celebrate the abosolute and unconditional love of God which is poured into our hearts, just for us to behold it and be transformed by it.

Today, Celebrating the faith we are called to become like Mary, persons who listen to the Word and thus become bearers of that Word, like she became the Ark of the Lord! Celebrating the hope we are called to fix our eyes on the Saviour and ever yearn to belong to Him, so that we can taste the fruits of his Resurrection, as Mary participates in the fruits of the Risen Lord. Celebrating the love of the Lord, we are called to become personification of this love in our contexts, and inspire people as Mary did, to praise the Lord in the words that our Blessed mother gives us today - My soul Magnifies the Lord!

To be overpowered by love alone!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 14, 2021: Remembering St. Maximilian Kolbe

Joshua 24: 13-15; Matthew 19:13-15

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, declares Joshua before the people. He leads them by example! Just like Jesus who made it clear to the people that following him was not always a pleasure trip – ‘the foxes have their holes and the birds have their nest, but the son of man has no place to lay down’ – Joshua too makes it clear that choosing to serve God and giving a word on that, is a challenging task! 

But for children to depend on someone, without too much of thought to their own ego or pride, is a natural capacity. That is what prompted Jesus to say, ‘Unless you become like children you will not enter the Reign.’ And today in the gospel too, Jesus presents the children as the paradigm of the Reign of God. Innocence of the children is from the absence of pride and their docility is from the absence of ego. If we have to remain with the Lord and forever be God’s, the prime enemies we have to do away from within us are – our pride and ego! 

We remember today Maximlian Kolbe, a saint of our times whom I personally look up to with awe! He lived with courage, his call to be a Christian, that is his call to choose God above all else! He took seriously 1 John 3:16 - "... we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren." That is the sign given to us to testify for the absolute choice we have made for God. But how much we cry and complain when someone causes us trouble, or spoils our name, or ruins our prospects...that is a sign that we have other choices which matter to us more! 

Right enough, at the canonisation ceremony, Pope John Paul II declared him as 'the Patron Saint of our Difficult Century'. A saint from the greatest of all tragedies of the just gone century in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, where Kolbe chose to die in place of another (that was Franciszek Gajowniczek, who was present at the canonisation of the saint). 

Let our choice for God be absolute. If that is the case, nothing can ever overpower us, except love!

Love: can there be a measure?

WORD 2day: Friday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 13, 2021 - Joshua 24: 1-13; Matthew 19: 3-12

The gratuitous love of God and the conditional love of humans – that is the contrast the Word brings to the fore today. Taking the reins from Moses, the young Joshua consolidates his people reminding them of the great history of faith and wonders that they have behind them, the great things that God had accomplished for them though they deserved none of them! What a way to begin a leadership, reminding ourselves of the unconditional love of God!

The love that God lavishes on us, and the measure in which God does it, we do not deserve it at all. It is a gratuitous gift from God and God has never counted the cost, even to the extent of sending the only Son of God as a ransom on our behalf (cf. John 3:16). That love is the model set before us, by Jesus. It is not a mere polemic on the part of Jesus, it is done deliberately.

When Jesus changed the commandment of Leviticus (19:18) from ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn 13:34), Jesus made a deliberate choice to propose God’s love as the model. Having God, who is Love itself, as the measure, can we ever love enough? Accepting one another, forgiving one another, being good to one another, wishing the good of the other with all one's heart – in all these we are called to measure up to none less than God, who is Love itself! 

If we truly accept Christ's teaching on love, we cannot stop loving at any point and for any reason! Can there really be a limit, a measure?

The dry ground phenomenon!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 19th week in Ordinary Time

August 12, 2021: Joshua 3:7-11,13-17; Matthew 18:21 - 19:1

The presence of the Lord with the Israelites was a solid and concrete presence - the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud that we have seen and today the splitting of Jordan when the bearers of the Ark step in. The presence made a great difference in the lives of the people and at times the Lord made it concrete because they were constantly forgetting the fact. 

Today we have the Jordan splitting itself - the upper Jordan and the lower and they saw the dry ground. It is a repetition of the experience when they crossed the Red Sea with Moses, they walked on dry ground even then. In our life too, there are experiences of dry ground - we walk through them without our feet getting wet or dirty or stained or soiled, not by our own merit but by the grand mercy of God. 

That is what Jesus is reminding us of - when you find fault with your neighbour, when you judge your brother or your sister, when you call them names, when you have your finger pointing at your fellow persons, remember the dry ground phenomenon. You are standing on a dry ground, your feet unsoiled because the Lord has had mercy on you. Remember, your dry ground is not your merit, it is God's mercy. When you are mindful of it, you will surely be a member of the Reign.