Me, the Spirit and the Reign!

WORD 2day : Thursday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 11, 2021: Wisdom 7:22 - 8:1: Luke 17: 20-25

The Reign of God is among you, says Jesus in the Gospel. While the first reading gives us the cue where to initiate it in concrete: from the Spirit who dwells within us. This is the crux of Christian life in the world today!

It is the Spirit's doing that initiates the Reign in this world. Hence the call that we have received to establish the Reign of God, begins with realising the Spirit within us. It is to become aware of the indwelling Spirit and live a life that is worthy of this inner presence, that waits to spread itself into a light that would lead the entire world from within each of us.

The second need is to keep the Spirit alive and nourish it with our choice for God on a day to day manner. When you sow flesh, you grow flesh; when you sow the Spirit, you grow in the Spirit, counsels St. Paul elsewhere. Our growth in the Spirit depends on the interest we manifest in feeding our selves with Spiritual nourishment. When the Spirit grows within, the Reign around me springs!

Thirdly, we are challenged to live that Spirit out, manifest that Spirit, bear witness to that Spirit, make the Spirit felt in our very beings, with courage and commitment, inspite of the threats and troubles around us. Once we choose to live our life in the Spirit to the full, the Reign of God begins to dawn on this world.

There is a crucial connection between the Spirit and the Reign, and the connection is ME!

Faith is to respond!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 10, 2021: Wisdom 6: 1-11; Luke 17: 11-19

The readings seem to converge on one thought today... that the Lord wishes, expects, and demands a response from us! Our God is a self revealing God... through signs and wonders and prophets and wise persons and finally through God's only Son, and continuously even today in and through God's Spirit, God continues to reveal Godself to us in various ways.

The more we are given, the more we are expected to respond! It is not that God gives, so that we would repay! No! But it is that, we are given so much, we are filled with such goodness, we receive "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16), that we realise it is right and just to give God thanks and praise!

To know the right thing to be done at the right time and choosing to do it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit...we would be blessed to possess it. And the Lord says today, "set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed!" (Wis 6:11). Doing the right thing, at the right time, is a response that we give to the Lord and that response is what is expected from me! When I don't respond, I waste what was entrusted to me, as a gift, a treasure!

Our response to the self revealing God - that is our faith. Growing in faith is learning to respond more and more adequately. Failing to respond is dwindling in faith. Let us grow in faith everyday - let us be attentive to respond to the Lord in every way!

Be, Build and Beware!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

November 9, 2021: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12; (1 Corinthians 3:9-11,16-17); John 2:13-22

Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of St. John at the Lateran. This basilica is special because it is one of the four major basilicas of the Church in Rome. It becomes more special because it is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, which is the Holy Father himself.

The feast of today gives us great insights into living an authentic Christian life!

The first insight is to be the Temple of the Lord, in our personal dedication to the Lord, in our unselfish and pure relationships and in our capacity to hold God out to people who come in touch with us.

The second insight is to build up the Temple of the Lord, that is the People of God. Today we see a tendency to invest crores on constructing and renovating churches, while the whole world is helplessly looking at misery that swallows scores of have-nots so easily pushed to peripheries because the majority are bothered only upto themselves. That too with this pandemic scene that has devoured the world situation, we need to be really careful what we wish to build - the edifice of the church, or the People who are the Church!

The third insight is to beware of breaking or dividing or scattering or demolishing this Church, the living body of Christ. The sealed churches, the schismatics, the dissident clergy, the churches that divide people with lies for ulterior motives - these are anti Gospel elements which not only delay the coming of the Reign of God but actively block it. If we are really the Church of God, we need to beware of our motives in doing all that we do!

Today, as we thank God for the great history that we have as a faith community of God, may we BE, may we BUILD and may we BEWARE to take optimum care of the House of God here on earth.

Holiness - faith lived at its core!

WORD 2day: Monday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November, 8, 2021: Wisdom 1:1-7; Luke 17: 1-6

Holiness is a matter of the innermost being. It does not consist merely of the external signs and public shows. Words not said, thoughts not expressed, acts merely contemplated, reactions withheld... these determine my holiness more than what the world around perceives me to be. That is why the strange link between faith and forgiveness in the Gospel today. Forgiveness too is an absolutely private truth; its genuinity escapes any external expression!

While Jesus teaches his disciples to forgive brothers and sisters, they respond saying - 'increase our faith!' It can sound strange, but only apparently so! One could say, should the prayer not be, 'Lord help us to forgive!' why do we see, the apostles praying: increase our faith? The connection is very profound, and typically Christ-ian. One cannot consider oneself to be a person of faith, holy and spiritual, if one's relationships with others is not right. If faith is relationship with God, forgiveness is relationship with my fellow beings! If the latter fails, the former is meaningless. If we want really to be spiritual, we have to forgive, accept, and love our brothers and sisters, as God does with us!

Let's ask the Lord to "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5); increase in faith means what the first reading tells us: honesty, simplicity of heart, shunning deceit, being truthful, in short: being godly at the core of our being, not merely in the external show! Yes, holiness is faith lived at the core of our beings. Faith is our daily life lived in the presence of the Lord. The more we grow conscious of the continuous presence of the Lord the more holy we shall grow!

WHAT TYPE IS YOUR GIVING?

To gain, to get or... ?

32nd Sunday in Ordinary time: November 7, 2021

1 Kings 17: 10-16; Hebrews 9: 24-28; Mark 12: 38-44

The widow at the gates of Sidon, the widow in the Temple of Jerusalem and God who gave God's only son as a sacrifice are given to us as models of giving, in today's Word. Giving is one act that can be done out of many a kind of motivation. Not all giving are of the same kind or type or degree! Analysing the models presented to us, we are called to reflect on our type of giving... reflect along and find out at the depth of your heart, what type is your giving!

Giving to Gain:

There is a lot of giving that is going on today. There are people or agencies or corporates who give even tons of money, but they are particular about what they stand to gain. They calculate the gain and then proceed to give: it could be a tax exemption, or a favour in return, or an end to achieve, or a popularity to earn! But apparently it is seen to be an act of generosity, an act of great magnanimity! But the hook is attached to the indirect returns - that's a gain.

However big and enormous this giving is, it would not be truly giving; it is in the final analysis, a getting, a begging, a receiving, a business, a gain! At times when we give, however small it is, from our time or energy or effort, if we are particular about our calculations of gain, our plots of selfishness, then our giving has no value in itself, its value is merely what we have gained.

Giving to Get:

This is the safest form of giving, where one is sure what one gives is not merely thrown in the air but it will return. I do a favour to someone expecting a favour in return; I be nice to someone expecting the person to be nice to me in return; I claim to love someone with the expectation that i will be loved in return! This is so direct - giving, inorder to get!

Though it is not about gain or profit or expecting a glorious image of oneself, this is a plain give and take, a barter mentality. There is no giving actually involved in here! It is an investment technique and when the plan fails people cry, shout, curse, claim, fight, sue, and make all noises possible! Forget giving, this is simply investing.

Giving to Give:

This is truly divine, truly Christ-ian! I give, because I find fulfillment in giving. I don't stand any chance of getting it back or I don't think anyone else will ever know, but I give, I give whole heartedly, of my time, my effort, my energy, my concern, my resources, because it is in giving that I find the true meaning of my life. During the last week Jesus instructed us, when you invite people to feasts, invite the poor, the maimed, those on the streets...reason, simple: they cannot invite you in return!

God gave God's only Son because God loved the world to that extent; it was an expression of God's love, not an expectation of the same in return! Jesus gave his life, his body and his blood, and what did he expect in return? This is true GIVING... giving after God's heart, giving after Christ's mind.

Just become aware of some of the phrases we hear (or sometimes say):

I am doing all this for him or for her or for them, what am I going to get in return?

Oh, I did all these to you, and is this how you respond?

Is it safe to give this, or do this, for this particular person, will it come back?

I did this, with so much of effort and money, and they don't even thank me in public!

These kinds of statements are candid indicatives of 'giving' that is not after the heart of our beloved Lord and Saviour. Because with the Lord we are called to give without measure. Freely freely you have received, freely freely give! Here the giving is not to gain, not to get it back; it is just to give, and nothing more!

The Urgency of the Reign!

WORD 2day: Friday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 5, 2021: Romans 15: 14-21; Luke 16: 1-8

Jesus may be slightly intriguing in today's Gospel, as it seems as if he is justifying the shrewdness of the steward or approving of his lies. The point that Jesus is bringing forth is completely different. He wants us to realise how efficiently and time- consciously the evil doers proceed with their affairs, while those who are committed to the cause of the Reign, find themselves taking their own sweet time, hesitating, calculating, planning endlessly! 

Isn't it true? Just think of the multinational corporates, the ideological lobbies and antidemocratic political forces which are dictating terms to the humanity at large today. Did they spring into existence, just overnight? Where were the so-called Reign thinkers and Reign persons all the time that these were brewing in the dark, to emerge so forceful and see the light of day! Certainly they were watching, warning each other, talking about it and reflecting on it al the time, but had not acted in such a way as to stop these forces of compromise. Even today, isn't the same happening? There are these forces of division, oppression, and antihuman politicisation, slowly gaining ground. We see it and what are we doing? In the name of creating support systems that can help on a difficult day, building defence faculties, devising and revising strategies, so on and so forth, are we failing to live up to the demands of the day?

St. Paul is given as our model today: a man with an urgency to make Christ known and with a compelling clarity as to what his task was: to take Christ to those who didnt know Christ. The Urgency of the Reign comes precisely from these three factors: Clarity of our task; Conviction that I have but a short time; and a Commitment unto death.

How strongly is imprinted on my mind, the urgency of the Reign of God? And how ready am I to respond to its demands here and now?

The Reign Persons!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 4, 2021: Remembering Cardinal St. Charles Borromeo

Romans 14: 7-12 ; Luke 15: 1-10

Two attitudes in contrast today bring out the quality of a person who belongs to the Reign of God. The so called sinners and publicans were seeking to be in the company of Jesus while the pharisees were busy complaining that Jesus was eating with sinners and meeting with the outcasts. Jesus says he cared two hoots about what the pharisees thought, because Jesus' task was so clear cut and absolute for him: the Reign of God.

Reign of God is a mindset fundamentally. It is a mindset that gives priority to the Lord, a mentality that considers nothing more important that the will of God, a disposition of welcoming all that pertains to God and a lifestyle of celebrating every moment of life, every person around and every possibility of promoting love through genuine relationships. Although eating and drinking, and feasts and gatherings are an important part of the spirit of the Reign, they are not all, decries Jesus! Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17)... that's the Reign of God. 

Reign of God consists of our choices, daily and radical choices, wherever we are - choices such as, whose company we seek; what do we decry; what is that which disturbs us when we look at the society today or our own life today, and so on... these are the pertinent elements that will make me truly a person of the Reign!

Charles Borromeo, born in a great noble family gave up everything for the sake of Christ, although he was entrusted with great authority and power, chose to live a life of austerity and total dedication to his Master. He has made a great contribution to the Church during the tough times of counter-reformation. he was really a person of the Reign and challenges us all today to grow into Reign persons!

Ready for the battle?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 3, 2021: Romans 13: 8-10; Luke  14: 25-33

Love... it's a term that is by far the most spoken of, not merely from a Christian perspective but that of the whole reality today. But that is no statement that guarantees the right usage of the term, because more often than not, it is misused and abused. A great percentage use it to mean a kind of feeling, a sentiment, an emotion that warms up one's heart.

Love is not all those.. love is a decision, a choice, a commitment that would demand so much from me that, I would find myself in a battle. Yes, responding to the call to love is like undertaking a whole expedition, against evil and hatred, for goodness and genuine fellowship. In choosing love, I am challenged to reject a whole lot of evil that is so widespread and prevalent around me today!

To accept to genuinely love, means being ready for any cost that I would have to pay. At times I may find myself alone, with the whole society against me. While everyone acts on the logic of give and take, tit for tat and an eye for an eye...I will have to declare that I love the one who has hurt me, I love the one who keeps offending me, I love the one who is the cause of so much suffering. That does not mean I approve of what he or she does...but the person, I cannot reject or hate! Oh, what a complicated choice it is! Love does not rejoice in evil; it rejects evil. But it never judges anyone or rejects anyone; it is patient and kind, forbearing and forgiving!

As a Christian every follower of Christ is obliged to take up this battle of love! And after having launched myself into this battle, if I turn back and find myself wanting, I will be considered unfit for the Reign. On a daily basis let us hearken to this call to love...which insists that we take a commitment every day which could be dangerously demanding. Am I truly ready for this battle?

Hope - that makes us Christian!

All Souls' Day: November 2, 2021

Wisdom 3: 1-9; Romans 5: 5-11; Mark 15:33-39, 16:1-6

What is the difference between a Christian and an unchristian outlook on anything?

Hope! The difference is hope. It is hope that makes us see a possibility even in the worst of our daily problems. Hope gives one the serenity and tranquility to approach every day problems with grace. One big unsolved question for the whole humanity is how to understand the end of life and beyond.

For a Christian, life is changed, not ended; it is transformed not terminated, explains the preface of the Mass for the dead. Jesus' resurrection fills us with hope and that hope does not disappoint us. The hope is towards eternal life, it is the eternal destination that characterises the culmination of this journey on earth.

Death is just the horizon beyond which we are not able to see what really exists; for if we see, there is no more place for hope (Rom 8:24). All that we see is the Risen Lord, who lives with us and lights our path. And in the Risen Lord is our hope. We hope to see every one of our brothers and sisters gone before us, united in the Risen Lord, as do the saints we celebrated yesterday and our prayer today is that these brothers and sisters of ours join their ranks and that we, at the end of our journey, join that wonderful family, the family that is founded on faith, united in love and kept alive in hope!

It is hope that makes us truly Christian!

HEAR...MY CHILD!

With your Ear, Heart and Spirit

31st Sunday in Ordinary time: October 31, 2021
Deuteronomy 6: 2-6; Hebrew 7: 23-28; Mark 12: 28-34

Hear O Israel... we read those words repeatedly today! Hearing... is one important faculty physically; we would talk about it in another occasion when Jesus restores in a deaf man his capacity to hear! Today we are more concerned with the spiritual faculty of hearing, a hearing that becomes fundamental to a truly spiritual person, to a son or a daughter of God, to a true child of God! God who is heard more than just a few times in the Word, crying out to God's people: Hear O Israel, Hear O my people, Hear my beloved, speaks to us today, those very same words: Hear, my son, my daughter, my child... hear me today!

How can we hear God? The spiritual faculty of hearing has three levels of perfection through which we are challenged to grow everyday.

Hear with your ears... that is the fundamental requirement, the physical hearing, the basic openness to what is around, what can be perceived, what is told, what is shared, what is right in front of one's eyes and one's ears. This is sympathetic listening...to what one says and what one communicates. There are so many who cannot really hear, what is said. They hear what they want to, what they have already made up their mind to hear. Even before a person opens his or her mouth to say something, we have heard what the person wants to say. That is, we have a bias that does not allow us to hear what is said! 

We are so prejudiced that we cannot really hear what the other person is saying, what the other person is sharing. About everyone around me, I have already made a judgement within me, that I am not able to hear what they are saying at all... all the time I am busy hearing what I want to hear, what I have prerecorded in my mind. Have you heard the sad story of a mother who thought her kid was trying to bunk school crying that his shoes were hurting, and forced him to go to school, only to receive a call from school a little later that the kid died of a scorpion bite, a scorpion which was in the shoes!

God communicates everyday through so many persons and events. If we do not really hear what is being said, If we do not perceive what is being communicated, we are missing a great lot of God! Can we really be God's children if we do not hear with our ears? That is why the Lord call our attention: Hear O Israel, hear my children, hear what I have to tell you everyday! However, hearing does not end here... this is just the first level, the sympathetic listening. We have to grow towards the next level...

Hear with your heart... 'heart' has an 'ear' within it: look at how it is spelt... h-ear-t; interesting isn't it? We are called to hear beyond our ears, not with our prejudices but with our genuine openness; yes, we are called to hear what is not said, what is not shared, what is not verbalised. This is empathetic listening... to what is communicated without words, in silence, with tears, with reactions, with some choices! This is a higher level of hearing, which is so attentive that I am able to hear not just what is said, but even what is not said, even what is stifled within, even what is meant by the simple words or gestures! This can happen only if I feel myself in the position of the one who is sharing, not when I stand in judgement of the other. 

A real educator will know that the naughtiest of the kids in the class is the most needy of attention; a true liberator of the oppressed will know that even the sheer silence of the oppressed is a big hue and cry for emancipation; a real prophet will know that every experience of suffering is a sign of hope from the Lord. Hearing things with the heart, would go beyond the events and understand its meaning, it will go beyond words and understand the experience.

God sends God's message through a myriad of experiences that come our way everyday. If we do not hear beyond what is said, beyond what is seen and beyond what is apparent, we are missing an important message that we are given from God. Jesus saw these, heard these and experienced these and that is why no one could dare question him or find fault with him. Today if we hear beyond the words that are spoken, if we see beyond the things that are noticed, the Lord will tell us too: 'you are not far from the Reign of God'. You are not far, but you haven't reached it yet...and therefore the need for the next level...

Hear with your spirit... hearing with your spirit is, hearing from within. This is Spiritual listening, that is listening to the Spirit who speaks from within! Jesus who has offered himself once and for all, as our redemptive sacrifice, has given us the Spirit who dwells within us: the Spirit who speaks to us, the Spirit who directs us, the Spirit who calls us from within. Are we in touch with this Spirit? If we get in touch with this Indwelling Spirit, and only if we do so, we can be considered people of the Reign, because we will make the Reign of God present wherever we are. This is why Jesus said in another place, Reign of God is within you (Lk 17:21).

Hearing with our spirit is being in touch with the Lord, being in communion with the Lord, remaining in constant relationship with the Lord. Do you think these are too big a matter to think of - then consider a simple term that explains all of this in one single word: PRAYER. Prayer is hearing, hearing what the Lord has to say to us, hearing with our ear, our heart and our spirit. Hear, my child, invites the Lord - are we ready?