The Peace that comes from the Lord

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 5th week in Easter time 

May 17, 2022: Acts 14: 19-28; John 14: 27-31a

"It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God," say Sts. Paul and Barnaba (Acts 14:22). Elsewhere in the Acts (see 5:41) we read, "they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonour for the sake of the name" of Jesus, after having received severe flogging. As soon as they were released from prison or from investigation, they were found back again preaching with a greater zeal.

In the Gospel today, after giving his peace, the Lord instructs: 'do not let your hearts be troubled!', for the peace that he gives us is not the peace that the world gives: a peace of compromises and conveniences, a peace of inaction and suspicious silence! But the Peace that Christ gives us is the peace of the Reign, the peace that comes from justice and equality, peace that comes from true love and compassion. It is not contract of just war or war against terrorism; but a total cessation of war or corruption or injustice or any inhumanity! Jesus has given it to us as he promised! It is enshrined in the Word. True love for entire humanity and holy compassion for the least and the last.

Our call is to spread it, take it to every heart that longs, to every corner of the earth, specially those communities of persons where there is war and intolerance. In doing it, we will face troubles, floggings and stonings in words and ways, criticisms, threats and presecutions. The times are making that possible more and more... but let none of our hearts be troubled!

New faith, new community, new world!

FIFTH SUNDAY IN EASTER TIME

May 15, 2022

The Lord promises us new earth and new heaven... these are no empty words. And we know the Lord who created these originally is certainly capable of creating it anew, that is, rejuvenating it, revitalising it and reinvigorating it. The Word does not stop with  reporting the promise that the Lord makes, but lays out how this promise can be logically claimed! Yes, the new heaven and New earth will be experienced, when we renew ourselves in our faith individually and transform ourselves into a new community of the people of God.

New faith, new community, new world... And today a new Saint... 

Today is the canonisation of St. Devasahayam... Thanks to the grace of God for the opportunity to participate in the ceremony at St Peter's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E9L97OblIc&ab_channel=VaticanNews

To be loved; and to love

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

May 14, 2022: Feast of St. Mathias, apostle. 
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; John 15: 9-17

Feast of any apostle is a reminder to each of us that we are called to be an apostle, sent in the name of the Lord. As my Father sent me, so I send you...said the Lord after his resurrection. Though the event of the election of Mathias is overshadowed by the sorrowful and unfortunate end of Judas, the feast has its usual charm of inviting us to an absolute commitment to the Lord.

Mathias is added to the list of the 12… the account presents us with three criteria to be worthily part of the band of ‘Apostles’. It will do us good to look at these three criteria, and correlate it to ourselves, whether we can be counted as being part of the group of apostles. 

The first of the criteria is, a personal, first-hand experience of Christ – not just what we read from authors or heard from preachers, not merely what someone shared or what someone else felt, but the impact of what I have experienced of Jesus, the personal encounter that I have had with Christ. 

The second criterion is being a witness to Christ before the world, specially in a world that runs madly after wealth, ease, power, social acceptance and public image! Doing that, would we be judged irrelevant and meaningless? Certainly, yes! 

The third is the Choice of the Spirit – you did not choose me, no I chose you declared Jesus. It is the Spirit who chooses, empowers and uses one as an instrument! Our responsibility is to REMAIN, to remain in the Spirit and bear abundant fruit!

The Word today adds a wonderful note to the reflection, as they seem to suggest the primary objective in being an apostle, or for that matter a disciple.iIn Jesus' own words...As my Father loves me, so I love you! The primary aim is to receive in all its fullness the abundant love of the Father, through Jesus our friend! And it is in receiving that love, our joy is made complete! 

Let us rejoice in being loved, and love each other in return!

To be God's begotten

WORD 2day: Friday, 4th week in Easter time

May 13, 2022: Acts 13: 26-33; John 14: 1-6

Let not your hearts be disturbed! That, according to Jesus, was the sign of Faith, faith in God and faith in God's only Son. Though we know that Jesus is the Incarnate Son of God, the real glory of his existence is seen in the fact of Jesus' obedience to the Father. 

As St. Paul would point out in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 2), it was because of his total obedience that Jesus was given the name above every name, that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess his Lordship. Even God almighty declares, "You are my beloved Son, today I have begotten you!" It refers to the eternal choice of the Lord to hold us close to God's heart and a response in correspondence to that choice. 

Faith, Obedience of Faith... these could be considered high sounding words, but for us on a daily basis, it is in simple words: doing the will of God. It may sound more simple said than lived! How do we do God's will? It is simple yet again.

Doing the will of God is taking our duties to heart despite the discouragements, putting our heart and soul in the well being of those around us in spite of the possible ingratitude, putting the Lord first and at the center of all that we are involved in ... these are some concrete ways of doing the will of the Father. 

When we begin to live on a daily basis, in these terms, certainly we shall hear it said of us - "You are my beloved child, today I have begotten you!"

The Message and the messengers

WORD 2day: Thursday, 4th week in Easter time

May 12, 2022: Acts 13:13-25; Jn 13:16-20

St. Paul makes a long list of messengers running right upto John the Baptist, and in the Gospel, Jesus speaks of sending his own apostles as messengers. Sending messengers was not merely a need to perpetrate one's own progeny or contribution; it is not the kind of branding that is so often spoken of in the corporate world today. It is not like opening branches everywhere to establish one's monopoly! That is not what evangelisation is all about - trying to play the number games and by some way of the other increasing our strength.

The core of our faith, is the Message. It has been so, it is so and it will always be so! The message was announced through ages through prophets and persons of God (cf. Heb 1:1). At a point in history, the Message became the Messenger... that was the crucial phase of history when the Message, the Sender, the Messenger (or the Medium) all came together in one sacred and mysterious union - in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word.

What was till then being considered a task of a select few among the people, with the coming of Christ, was handed over to the entire people of God and every child of God. We are God's messengers and that calls us  primarily to live the message, and in and through that, to announce the Message to the World.

How conscious am I of the Message? Do I really connect myself to the Message? Do I love the Message as much as to live that message! In what stage am I, towards becoming that Message?

Carrying out orders

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 4th week in Easter time

May 11, 2022: Acts 12:24- 13:5a; John 12: 44-50

These days we are given with certain signs to identify the flock of the One, Divine Shepherd and today we have an instruction very clear:  to Receive and Carry out Orders. 

A life of faith is all about getting orders and carrying them out. We find in the first reading of the day that the Apostles got orders directly from the Holy Spirit, to set apart Barnabas and Paul for a particular task. Elsewhere too in the Acts we see similar accounts of getting orders for the regular running of the Church. In the Gospel, Jesus clarifies that he got his orders from his father and instructs us that we too need to follow suit. Receive orders and carry them out... that is the way you can belong to the fold of the One Pastor!

Two things can hinder us from Receiving Orders: One, not hearing: because we do not listen sufficiently. We are so busy with running our own show that we are thoughtless about the orders that direct us constantly! Even if they arrive, we are are so occupied with so many other things, that we are not in a position to pay attention.

The second reason is a more serious: pretending not to hear! This is a conscious despise of the orders  that are given us. The Lord, the Spirit of the Lord keeps inspiring within us or keeps supplying us with clear cut directions and orders to be on the right path. At times owing to the inconvenience it can cause, or the difficulty it will put us through, we pretend not to hear those orders and proceed with what we think best. And when things turn out for the worst, we begin to panic and blame everyone else, including God.

Can we train ourselves to receive orders and carry them out in our daily life?

To be called Christians...

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 4th week in Easter time

May 10, 2022: Acts 11:19-26; Jn 10:22-30

It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians, evidences the first reading today. They needed a name, a different name to refer to the people of the new way of life! And looking for one, they narrowed down on something with a reference to the One who inspired this way of life: Christ himself.

It takes time to be called a Christian, to be identified with the name of the Nazarene who made a crucial difference in and through his life. Even today, it is the same. It takes time to be identified a Christian: our lifestyle, our attitudes, our priorities, our relationships and our loving ways should merit the name.

Just as Jesus says in the Gospel today, 'the Father and I are one', so should we be able to say: Christ and I are one. What a model we have in St.Paul who declared, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!" (Gal 2:20) And the other apostles, like Peter, John, James, Philip and all others who were doing marvellous deeds like Jesus and in the name of Jesus. 

We have a name; our life has a mission... the name is Christ, and our mission is love! When we love, we shall be with Christ; when we grow to be love, we shall be Christs, alter christus! We will be called Christians, when we grow to be so; when we grow to be love. Until then, our title 'Christians' will remain just a title and not our name!   

One Shepherd, one people!

WORD 2day: Monday, 4th week in Easter time

May 9, 2022: Acts 11: 1-18; John 10: 1-10

We have been reflecting throughout last week, that people listened to the Word, they were touched by it and they joined the disciples and they became a church. A very important point that we need to note in the history of the Church, the people of God is, that the real birth of the Church was only when the Gentiles listened and accepted the Word.

St. Paul declares in his letter to the Galatians, "there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). It is when the whole people are made heirs to the promise made to Abraham, it is only when every one was made into one fold, under one Shepherd, Christ Jesus - the real Church was born.

The challenge is alive until today, to remain one flock, one fold, one people. To stay clear of all discrimination within the Church, to choose not to conform to the standards of the world but to be renewed in the Spirit of the Lord and to put on the mind of Christ - constantly, on a daily basis we are invited to renew our faithfulness to the One shepherd and be transformed more and more into worthy members of His flock. 

This would mean that we grow up from our tendency to discriminate, from our prejudices, from our insensitivity to the other and from our mindset of looking at diversity as a difficulty. Positively, it would mean that we grow in love, not as an act or attitude of condescension, but as a genuine sense of solidarity and fraternity in the One Lord, One Shepherd, One Christ our Saviour. 

THE LORD'S FLOCK

Called, Challenged and Cherished

May 8, 2022: The Good Shepherd Sunday / IV Sunday of Easter
Acts 13: 14,43-52; Revelations 7: 9, 14-17; John 10: 27-30

The Good Shepherd Sunday, as this fourth Sunday of Easter is popularly called, presents to us our identity as the flock of God, and also the way the Lord wishes to relate to us: as the Good Shepherd who calls us, who challenges us and who cherishes us, every bit.

Speaking of the shepherd we are immediately inspired to think of our leaders and pastors - the ecclesiastical leaders and the responsible authorities in the civil society. Yes, they have an obligation on their part to be instruments in the hands of God, in taking care of the people, for God has willed into existence every human person on earth. Wherever a person or persons suffer due to injustice and iniquity of the other, the leaders and authorities are responsible for it and they owe an explanation to the Lord. Added to it, the people or the human persons, are called to understand their relatedness to each other, arising from the common origin that all have - the Divine. Anywhere a person or a section of humanity suffers, every human person in one way or the others, is answerable for it. This being the universal picture that is projected by the Shepherd Sunday, there is a particular message for the so-called people of God, those who have responded to that special call to belong to the community that is identified as the Lord's Flock.

Firstly, the flock is CALLED - called, picked, chosen, offered an opportunity, called by name, chosen from the rest, privileged with an invitation, given a vocation... that is what we are! This can be realised more and more today, with all the pluralism that exists, pluralism of all kinds in the very choice to believe in a God or now, the choice of the creed of experience, the choice to make it a life choice or not, the choice of expression in its degree, kind and level - in all these we need to realise that we are called. The first reading presents that reality in concrete - there were those who considered themselves traditionally 'chosen'...but there were others who were predilectively 'chosen'. It may be true that we have chosen or we have made the choice to believe or to respond to the call of faith, but going into the depth and analysing, we see we could not have done it if we were not chosen, in the first place. Is this not what the Lord says: "You did not choose me; I chose you!"

Exactly because of this, the flock is constantly CHALLENGED - you cannot take for granted that you belong to the flock once and for all, automatically once you have entered into it in a formal sense. No. One needs to keep confirming it consciously in three ways - listening, following and belonging. Listening to the voice of the Shepherd, the voice that is heard in a myriad of ways - through the Word daily, through the tradition and the authoritative teaching, through the word from the neighbour or brother or sister, through the events of the day, through the sufferings of people, through the cry of the poor, through the unrest of the soul, and so on. Listening to the voice is an essential need of a flock of God. While listening is the first step, following the Lord, or doing what the Lord would do in those circumstances is another duty. Hence, to stand of the truth, to voice the cries of the voiceless, to decry the unjust order in the world, to point out the road to perdition often chosen by the masses, to live and die for the Reign, are marks that can set us apart as Lord's flock. Belonging to the Lord, never to stray away from the Lord, never to let ourselves be stolen by the evil one or the enticing forces of the world, is another fundamental requirement to be the Lord's flock!

Thus attached and united to the Lord, the flock is CHERISHED by the Shepherd, and the Shepherd holds back nothing from this flock. The second reading reveals to us the heart of the Shepherd who wishes to make of the flock, a marvellous and splendid people, who have no hunger or thirst, who have no tears to shed, who are nourished by the springs of living water and who will never fear anything, not even persecution or death. That is the strength that the Lord wishes to give, if only we are ready to receive it, and live in the presence of the Lord, in th tents of the living God, day and night, for all eternity. We are loved, we are affirmed, we are strengthened, we are empowered, we are cherished by the Shepherd who dares to give everything for us and for our eternal happiness. 

We are the Lord's flock as long as we understand this call we have received to be the flock, to be the flock that listens, follows and belongs to the Lord. Once we make that choice, however weak and failing we could be, the Lord cherishes us and continually cleanses us and rejuvenates us in his blood and in his Spirit! May we grow in our commitment to the Lord in order that we may dare to say: we are God's people, the sheep of the Lord's flock!

To Remain in the Lord

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

May 7, 2022: Acts 9: 31-42; John 6: 60-69

Two contrasting scenes are presented in the readings today - one, that of the numbers increasing; the other, that of followers leaving Jesus! To heed to pleasant teachings and detest challenging calls, is a normal human tendency. But Jesus does not compromise. It is a fact that we need to understand: that the Lord who loves us, is absolutely loving and at the very same time, absolutely demanding!

The people called it, 'intolerable language', when Jesus spoke the bare truth to them. Today, we see the same and hear the same, when somethings have to be pointed out and when persons do it, there is an attempt to silence the truth and move away from it. It is easy to be selective about judgements, fending for one's own comfort and convenience. Testifying to the truth would require, accepting hard changes and difficult challenges. 

It can be very exciting to run after miracles and live by wonders. Persons doing wonders, places with miraculous reports, and claims of strange signs and messages - these should not take us away from the real faith. The real challenge is to be touched internally by the Lord, be transformed, accepting the hard teachings from the Lord. To eat of Him, to become part of Him, as we reflected yesterday and to Remain in Him!

The words of Jesus, "Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these..." (Jn 14:12), comes alive as Peter and other disciples do wonders in the name of Jesus! We know how simple ordinary this apostles were in reality, but they turned so marvellous and powerful. What mattered was, that they remained in the Lord; and that continues to be the challenge for us too: to remain in the Lord!