To become part of Him...

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

May 6, 2022: Celebrating St. Dominic Savio

Acts 9: 1-20; John 6: 52-59

'The one who eats me will have life because of me', declares the Lord today. As I draw life from the Father, so shall that person who eats my body and drinks my blood, draw life from me, the Lord explains. It is simply, like a stem that draws life from the root and the branches and leaves which draw life from the stem in turn - a call to be connected, a call to be united, a call to feel one with! 

Saul turns Paul, the persecutor turns proclaimer... an absolute transformation that changed history for ever - simply because he experienced Christ personally! The experience gripped him, grafted him on to Christ and thus united him to a root that changed the entire sense of his life. There was a radical transformation, because Saul found his real root, from where his life came!

The Lord invites us to a personal experience of himself... eat my flesh, drink my blood, become part of me; remain in me and I shall remain in you - and we shall be one! As the Father and the Son are one, the Son invites us to be one with him; thus we can tell the world - I and the Lord are one. Paul dared say that: be imitators of me as I am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). Can we? I can say that only if I really strive on a daily basis to unite myself with the Lord, to become one with the Lord, to become part of the Lord. 

Everyday is an opportunity to grow closer, and more and more connected personally with Christ! Every Eucharist we celebrate is a moment to become increasingly part of him, to remain rooted in him and to allow the Lord to remain in us. Being imitators of Christ is not merely a matter of doing things, rather an essential change, a radical transformation of our very selves - it is to become more and more, a part of Him!

Dominic Savio, the teenage saint whom we celebrate today, was intent on this - to become part of Him, to remain totally united in Him. There were instances when the little Dominic was lost in ecstasy with the Eucharistic Lord for a whole day! What a lovely reminder this little giant of sanctity is, to the call that all of us have: to grow to become part of Him!

Drawn by our Daddy!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 3rd week in Easter time

May 5, 2022: Acts 8: 26-40; John 6: 44-51

The readings taken together have a wonderful message for us: if we have the christian faith, it is not by chance; it is by choice... not ours, but the Lord's! You did not choose me, I chose you, declares the Lord. No one can come to me, unless drawn by the Father who sent me.

We have come to know the Lord, drawn by our Father and Mother in heaven! It is the Lord who has willed to draw us to Godself. Our 'yes' at Baptism and a reassertion of it at Confirmation has been our response to this initiative of God. The point of discussion is, whether we are faithful to this yes, all our life and at every moment of our daily life.

Let us look at the way Philip was transported from one place to the other, in order that he could bring people to know the Word, to know the Lord and to get into a relationship with the Lord for life! People were being drawn to the Lord and the apostles were instruments in the process! It is with the same love that God continues to draw us to our Lord and Saviour, so that we may experience what that love of God forever and in its fullness. 

The Bread of life and the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant, are the nourishment in this journey, towards the Lord and towards the experience of that inexhaustible love. All through the journey the Lord accompanies us and instructs us... if we really listen, we will soon realise how special we are; and how we are drawn by our Father, our loving Daddy!

Joy as Testimony!

WORD 2day: Wednesday. 3rd week in Easter time

May 4, 2022: Acts 8:1b-8; John 6: 35-40

There was great joy in the city. Inspite of having to desert their hometowns and go into diaspora, the community of believers bring joy wherever they go. It was because, they carried the Risen Lord in their hearts. No wonder, the evil spirits came out shrieking! 

The resurrection experience filled them with a joy that could not be replaced by anything else under the sun. The words "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom 8:35) was a concrete life experience of the early Christians. The source of this experience is the total and loving self giving of the Lord. 

Those who escaped persecution, went from place to place preaching the Good News, says the reading today - they escaped only to endanger themselves again with their resolve to preach the Good News. Apart from the resurrection experience that gripped them, the after effects were taking them to newer heights of commitment and dedication. Their joy was breaking bounds, as they discovered their new lives with their Lord.  

Imitating their Lord and Saviour, they were filled with hope and were emanating a divine joy. They were testifying because they had boundless joy and their joy was their greatest testimony! How joyful is our testimony as Christians?

In the footprints of the Master

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 3rd week in Easter time 

May 3, 2022: Acts 7:51-8:1a; John 6:30-35

We are given the picture of the martyrdom of Stephen... the height of discipleship, giving one's life up for the sake of truth. The real courage that is exhibited today by Stephen consists in daring to say what he saw and heard, or what he was given to see and hear. The Gospel presents the same courage that was manifested by Jesus, challenging the Scribes and the Pharisees and offering himself as the bread of life; infact, Stephen is presented to us as an ideal disciple who did what Jesus did, who lived the way Jesus lived and who died in the manner his master Jesus died.

The cue is the prayer: "Into your hands I commend my spirit". While Jesus makes that prayer to the Father, Stephen makes it to Jesus: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". This is the first prayer we see, that was addressed to Jesus. The height of discipleship consists in the courage to imitate the master in every little detail...in our life, our prayer, our convictions and our priorities. 

It was totally natural for the first community to imitate their master and saviour - they lived as a community, as he did with his disciples and friends; he owned nothing for himself and so did they decide to own nothing; he taught them to reach out to the hungry, to the naked, to the sick and to the captives, so did they live as people with one heart and mind, reaching out specially to those who were less fortunate and as a result, as the Acts of the Apostles tells us, there was no one in need among them; and the ultimate was they dared to give their life for the sake of their relationship with Christ, as Christ was ready to do for the sake of his relatioship with his father. 

Question that stands out: how close are we in our lifestyle to Jesus, our Lord and Master?

Child of God and the face of an Angel

WORD 2day: Monday, 3rd week in Easter time

May 2, 2022: Acts 6:8-15; John 6:22-29

The readings today remind us of our vocation and gift. 'What are we called to?', that was the question that the people meant when they ask Jesus in the Gospel today, "what can we do to accomplish God's works?" "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one God sent": that is our vocation, and that is our gift!

Vocation because it is our life task, to know the Lord, love and accept Him as our personal saviour and testify to him unto death. It is a also a gift, because in doing it, we become children of God (cf.Jn 1:12), we are given the power to become the children of God; we are graced with the privillege to be considered children of God; we turn into co-heirs to the Reign (cf Rom 8:17), and by that, we acquire the face of the angels - as it is said of St.Stephen in the first reading today. For God made us little less than a god, in God's own image, to be angels, to be presences of God wherever we are.

Our faith and our commitment to faith adorn our face with a light and beauty that makes it look 'angelic'...  that is, it brings out the original image, original likeness, the original nature, with which we were willed into existence. The call and the gift, beckons us to realise our hidden face of an angel, to preserve and persevere in our efforts to grow in the full stature of the angels - close to God and ever at God's service!

The Uncompromisable Christian Priority

WORD 2day: Saturday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 30, 2022: Acts 6: 1-7; John 6: 16-21

Jesus was with the disciples, speaking to the people all through the day and after having fed them and been in all that din, he sends the apostles away to the other shore but he himself goes alone to pray. Something that we cannot miss to see about Jesus: he was very firm on his priority!

The Apostles, as they began their ministry amidst the new found faith, they had their model clear and straight: Jesus! Their priorities were challenged at every step and thoroughly. But they had a Master and Friend who never gave up on his priorities. Added to that he never judged them on the basis of his priorities, though he constanly challenged them on it. 

The first reading brings to our attention, one of the occassions where the apostles seem to have kept that uncompromisable priority, they learnt from Jesus: the primacy of God. When there were so many important things to do, all of them good and all of them for the right ends, they knew they cannot consider less the priority of praying and preaching. That was uncompromisable for them.

Nothing can substitute our personal relationship with God: we may claim to be working for God and working in the name of God...but a personal relationship with God is not the same as all of those! How many persons, congregations and communities of faith have really lost their basic orientation, getting lost in a sense of activism. Our priority for the primacy of God cannot waver, cannot be compromised! It is a fundamental relationship that gives the essential sense of our life ...the human-divine relationship, the chief priority of a Christian life.

Levels of Spiritual Growth

WORD 2day: Friday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 29, 2022: Acts 5: 34-42; John 6: 1-15

In undertaking spiritual acts we can notice ourselves at three different levels: the first is the level of Human Approval. Doing things in order that others see and look up to me. Jesus was upset with the Pharisees and the Saducees because they were at this level and refused to grow up. That is a clear message to us, not to go by the approval or disapproval of the crowd, or recognition or criticism of the circle around.

The second is the level of Self Edification: This may look good apparently, but it is not good enough says the Lord. The disciples and apostles were mostly at this level originally. They did nothing for public approval, but they wanted to gain every personal mileage out of the things that were upto. They wanted seats of authority, they wanted to bring down fire and brimstone on people, they resisted anyone else using Jesus' name to cast out demons...the tendency of self edification is found in us too. Going to Church everyday for Eucharist, praying everyday regularly, keeping all the holy routine strictly...these can be ways of my self edification; that I feel happy that I am doing all that I can do! That is not bad, but for Jesus it is not good enough.

Jesus challenges us to a third level - the sense of Divine Purpose. I do something because God wills that I do it and I am certain there is a Divine purpose to it. When I have this sense of Divine Purpose, I will not clamour for my glory, I will not be upset when people don't give me my due credit, I will not be looking to prove myself to anyone! God knows me through and through and has a plan for me. I carry it out for God's glory and for my salvation. Gamaliel refers to that sort of a spirituality and Jesus lives it in action. After that great sign of the multiplication Jesus could just move on because all that he wanted was that God be praised.

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam - all for the greater glory of God! That could be our password to growth in our spiritual accomplishments.

The Holy Spirit and We...

WORD 2day: Thursday, 2nd week of Easter

April 28, 2022: Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36

The presence of the Spirit and witnessing to the Lord, are two very closely knit phenomena. The Word brings out powerfully today. If we have to witness to the salvation that we have experienced in the Lord - firstly, it is possible only with the Spirit: for no one can proclaim that Jesus is Lord except through the Spirit. And it is the Spirit that makes the witness efficacious.

Secondly, the presence of the Spirit is desired and felt only by those who are passionate about witnessing to the Risen Lord! The more passionate a person is about witnessing, the more filled with the Spirit is he or she and that is seen and experienced by the world around. What matters here is the heart, the readiness, the willingness and the eagerness to witness to the Lord. The disciples in their fear and trembling after the crucifixion had to be prepared, before they could receive the Spirit - the preparation was the increase of their readiness and willingness to witness to the Risen Lord. 

When we submit to the Lord, the Father fills us with the Spirit says Jesus today in the Gospel... and that is what is needed utmost in our lives. It is happily surprising to see the way the Apostles looked at, understood and related with the Spirit: They were comfortable enough to say, "We and the Holy Spirit" are witnesses to these things! For them the Spirit was someone who lived with them, within them!

Today, our Christian witness would go a long way in bringing the Lord to the people and bringing the people to the Lord, if the Spirit becomes our constant life companion! Are we in as much communion with the Spirit to say, "the Holy Spirit and we..."?

Conformity, Conflict, Convenience and Conviction!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 27, 2022: Acts 5:17-26; John 3:16-21

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light; whoever lives the truth comes to the light! Light and darkness are the two extremes presented for our imagination, but not just that. There are a so many between these two... the shade, the dim glow and so on. The Word infact presents to us four categories of people in relation to right things. 

The first category are those who do the right, the second category are those who assist those who do the right, the third are those who hinder anyone doing the right and the worst are those who are involved in doing the evil! We find all the four categories referred to in the readings today. 

God calls us to love and serve, and has showed by example this divine style of life - in relation to this light, this ideal vocation, the apostles and the disciples were those who did what the Spirit said; the people and persons like Nicodemus, were those who supported and stood by the right things; the officials and the captain who acted against the apostles were those who hindered the right thing to be done; and finally the high priest and the Sanhedrin who contemplated evil in their minds and translated it into acts. We have two reminders from this situation, for our personal lives. 

The first call for us is to analyse our choices, our preferences and our priorities and see sincerely to which of these four categories we would belong. The second lesson for us is that while we strive to be people of the light and do the right. In our circumstances we would certainly come across persons of all the four categories: what would our reaction be? Conformity? or Conflict? or Convenience? or Conviction? - what would guide our response in such situations?

Life in the Spirit

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 26, 2022: Acts 4:32-37; John 3:7b-15

Unless you are born in the Spirit, you cannot enter the Reign of God...but how do you see that one is born in the Spirit? It is only through the life that is lived. There can be no space between belief and life... we are expected to live what we believe and what we believe has to be translated into our lives. That is the essence of a life that is Christ-like, the formula for life in the Spirit.

Life in the Spirit has to be verified on a daily basis. As Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruits; so the signs of our life in the Spirit has to be seen in our day to day choice for love, our capacity for sharing, our willingness to give up for the sake of the Lord, and above all in our readiness to think of the other before ourselves!  

The effect and the source of looking at the other, thinking of the other, or being concerned about the other, is identified in the Word today - it is the capacity to have a common point of reference, a singular sense of focus, and a common vision that takes the whole people of God forward together. The concern for the other or the empathy with the other cannot be an extraordinary quality with regard to a disciple of Christ - it is infact the distinguishing mark of a Christian and of a Christian community. Hence, not having that is a lack, a deficiency, a lacuna, an imperfection in Christian terms. 

Is it not therefore essential for us to examine our daily choices: do they reflect a life in the Spirit? Or are we still living a life from below? Let us be born from above, let us be born of the Spirit - that is the sign of the disciples of the Risen Lord.