ENTER THE NARROW DOOR

Strong, in Communion and Patient!

August 21, 2022: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 66: 18-21; Hebrew 12: 5-7, 11-13; Luke 13: 22-30

The experience of standing in a queue, the tedium of entering the metal detector at places with extra vigilance or waiting for the token number at the bank… these are no rarities in our ordinary life. Jesus draws a simple example, one similar to these, our experiences.

The door to the Reign of God is narrow, not many take that door, though everyone is invited to enter the Reign. There are many other doors, which seem more comfortable, more spacious and more adorned and people prefer them, knowing least that they do not lead to the Reign of God, the greatest treasure in store for us!

Entering the narrow door is a task quite demanding – the readings today point to three traits that are needed to be able to enter the Reign through the narrow door. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel, many try to enter but they cannot.

To able to enter the door, one should be strong! Strive – says the Lord – Strive to enter – To strive means to struggle, to make all the efforts possible, to try real hard. One needs to be strong in mind, heart and soul to strive to enter the narrow door into the Reign. It is Spiritual strength we are dealing with here. Be Strong, but avoid Spiritual Obesity, warns the Lord. If you are obese, you cannot enter the narrow door – it’s obvious! Spiritual Obesity – Pride and Elitist mentality – which gives into self righteousness and judgmental attitude can never get us into the Reign of God. I am baptized, I am a born-again, I am a consecrated religious, I am a Sacred minister – nothing can get you in! From the east and the west, the north and the south everyone will enter and sit at the table in the Reign says the Lord. Mind you, there are no reservations here in. A bit of disciplining, as the second reading suggests, can get us in shape.

To be able to enter the door, one should be in communion! The way is long, we reflected on that last week. Communion with each other and Communion with those who have managed to enter the door before us, can really make the task easy and enjoyable. Our forerunners are our example, our model and can even be our helpers – but finally, the one who has to enter is me! It is you! That is why we are warned today – Be in Communion but avoid Spiritual Infantilism. At times we make our faith so infantile that we think everything depends on the candles we light, the formulae we repeat, the food we give up and the coins we drop. These are means to strengthen our relationship with God – but they are not everything. What matters most is our personal life of commitment and integrity. You cannot enter the narrow door in groups… one by one you have to do it. That means you cannot ride on the goodness of the other, either the living or those gone before you!

To be able to enter the door, one should be patient! The wait is long, for the door is narrow! Waiting on the Lord is a spiritual talent. To wait patiently, amidst failures and pressures, amidst temptations and struggles, amidst dark nights and heavy burdens, it is the only way one can be prepared and prompt when one’s time comes! There is a warning here too: Be Patient but avoid Spiritual Lethargy. In the name of patience I cannot procrastinate my commitment and postpone my conversion to a later moment. ‘Repent and Believe, for the Reign of God is near’ says the Lord. Being patient is not being busy with something else till my turn comes… but persevering, enduring and constantly working on myself that when my turn comes, I am in shape, prepared enough and fit to enter the narrow door that leads me to the behold the eternal glory of the Lord Almighty!

I am the door, if anyone enters through me, he or she will be saved (Jn 10:9) declared the Lord elsewhere! Jesus is the door, the narrow door, the demanding door – He is compassionate, yes; but at the same time uncompromising. The choice is ours to choose the narrow door, make ourselves strong, united and patient, to endure our everyday life and make straight the path for our feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed (heb 12:13). The door is narrow but there is enough space to enter, if we are in ready and willing.

We, the glory of God!

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

August 20, 2022: Ezekiel 43: 1-7; Matthew 23: 1-12

The talk of the glory of the Lord reminds us immediately of the famous saying of St. Irenaeus, "the glory of God is the human person fully alive." It is so true, that the Lord does not glory in the whole universe, but in the human person that God has created, precisely because the Lord created the human persons in God's own image and likeness. 

Bearing God's image and likeness is much more than just being a special creature; it is being God's own, it is bearing that dignity that comes from God, it is having God as our father, our mother, our Master, our Lord, our source, our destiny, our model, our meaning... our all! Thus, at the same time that it is a privilege, it turns out to be a great responsibility, for each of us - to be bearers of the image and likeness of God. 

Let us not be carried away by the scandals on earth and the misleading examples around. Let our eyes be fixed on that one source and summit. The Lord alone is our Master. When we journey on this way, we will have with us those who have gone before us, those who are struggling along with us, those who are on the verge of giving up, those who are contemplating to commence the same journey and so on. 

Let us feel a sense of solidarity with all, encourage each other and grow up (cf. 1 Thess 5:11), to be true sons and daughters of God , manifesting the glory of the Lord here on earth. Just as Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord enshrined in the Temple, let the world today see the glory of the Lord in us, the living temples of the Lord (1 Cor 3:16).

The Dry bone syndrome

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

August 19, 2022: Ezekiel 37: 1-14; Matthew 22: 34-40

The world is experiencing a time that is strange in all its sense and meaningless in its totality. There is some invention or development every single day in the field of social networking, making it ever more easier to stay in touch and communicate to each other. But the paradox is, that world is growing colder by the day towards those who are suffering, those who are struggling, those who are left without hope, those who are exploited and targetted, denied their rights, robbed of their dignity and incessantly dehumanised. No one bothers about these weak and the least, there is only the mighty and the moneyed who have their way in everything.  It is an experience we can call the dry bone syndŕome. Bones strewn all around but having nothing to do with each other.

The spirit, the breath of the Lord that the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy about, is nothing but the Spirit of the Lord, the love for God and the love for one's neighbours. It is Love that can give life to this heap of dry bones. It is the love that God lavishes upon us and the realisation of it, that can urge us to love others (2 Cor 5:14).

Looking at the war situations and stand-offs between nations that create feelings of fear and insecurity among people... are they not clearly experiences of dry bone syndrome? And what else can be the solution proposed, if not, love, genuine love and committed love, inspired by the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord!

The task of becoming God's people

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

August 18, 2022: Ezekiel 36: 23-28; Matthew 22:1-14

The readings today seem to underline the urgency of responding to God's invitation. The urgency in no way does away with the demands of the criteria. The demand is not just to be good people, but to be God's people. However we may try, that task seems to be practically impossible, with all the traps and trials around in our living conditions. 

The Lord offers to fill us with Lord's own spirit. It is only through that, one can live according to the norms of the living Lord. By God's invitation to becoming the Lord's people, God wishes to display God's holiness in us... what a realisation if only we understand what God wants to communicate by this invitation to us. 

At times we reduce our human nature to sinfulness and wickedness, jealousy and egocentrism, lawlessness and insensitivity. The truth is not that: the truth is that we possess within us the holiness of God, the splendour of God, the glorious and majestic image of God. If only we realise it! 

We are called to be holy, we are given with the task of becoming God's people...holiness here is knowing the right perspectives of life and living with right priorities, on a daily basis. We claim to have accepted the invitation of God, but if we do not have this balanced perspective and wholesome priorities, we are doomed to be cast out from that presence of the Lord, for it is no holiness that does not result in concrete wholeness!

The Sign that saves

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

August 10, 2022: Ezekiel 9: 1-7, 10, 18-22; Matthew 18: 15-20

Do you remember this symbol? Some years ago this mark was trending at the world level... 

In 2014 it had come to symbolise the Christians suffering in Iraq. It was drawn or spray painted on the doors of the houses of Christians, to tell the plunderers and soldiers that those houses are accessible at will. The Christians were made to live in a constant fear and anxiety.

In the first reading today we see in the vision of Ezekiel, the angels were given a symbol on the forehead of people, by which they are spared! 

Jesus too gives a mark by which we will be known as people of God... the mark of loving forgiveness. "By this they will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:35). 

In the Gospel today, Jesus explains what this 'having love for one another' is. It is to forgive, to care for each other and above all to pray together, with one heart and mind. This is the mark that Jesus expects of us, as our identity, as a sign that saves us! It is not those who call him 'Lord Lord' who would be saved but those who do the will of the Father (Mt 7:21), Jesus would say. 

The sign that can save us is our life of daily forgiveness and undying love.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Obey and be not rebellious

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

August 09, 2022: Ezekiel 2:8-3:4; Matthew 18:1-5, 10,12-14.

When a child places its trust in someone, be it father or mother, or a loved one, or a teacher or a friend, the child obeys without questions. That is what makes a child so vulnerable in front of those. That vulnerability makes the child so special and so valuable in the eyes of the Lord. Obedience, docility, humility, surrender - these are the dispositions that are expected of a child of God, in the presence of God.

The first reading so figuratively presents through the experience of Ezekiel, the message that Lord gives to each of the Lord's sons and daughters: to be children, to obey and not to be rebellious, but to receive the Word of the Lord, take it in, savour it, understand it, live by it, and announce it to the world.

"Obey and you will not have sinned" says the famous monastic rule. And that is the strength of obedience. The first sin recorded in the Word is of rebellion, and the atonement for it was offered in Obedience, on the Cross! 

The Word instructs us today, if you are to be called children of God: Obey and be not rebellious!

Really Knowing...

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

August 8, 2022: Ezekiel 1: 2-5,24-28; Matthew 17: 22-27

Growing in Faith is not merely growing in knowledge of something - knowing more about scriptures, knowing more about religion, knowing more about values etc. It is much greater than that but one of the most fundamental requirement is knowing: knowing who oneself is! That self knowledge and self definition determines much of one's choices! 

The Word today reminds us of the true nature and glory that is embedded in our very beings, which we very often forget, neglect and reject. When we do not realise the glory that is within, we go in search of very many other replacements, which can in no way fulfill our lives.

Added to that fact, the way I understand myself affects the way I look at others. The way I look at others determines the way that I relate to them. The way I relate to the others is plainly expressive of the kind of concept I have of God. For instance, when we look at others as strangers and foreigners then we expect that they deserve every thing that we do for them. When we look at the other always in communion with ourselves, all that we do for them we actually do for ourselves. And, looking at the other as unconnected from me puts my very belief in One God to question. 

It is high time we look at everything being one whole, connected to each other - that is true Spirituality!

The Glory and the Call

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 6, 2022: The Transfiguration of the Lord

The disciples see their Lord in his glory and all that they want is to remain in that state of splendour and delight! 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. St. Peter in the today's reading warns us against laxity and invites us to walk in Christ’s light every day and every moment, accepting the apostles’ testimony as a light to our path. 

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 all this day – “This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him.”

True blessedness from God

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

August 5, 2022: Nahum 2:1-3, 3:1-3, 6,7; Matthew 16: 24-28

Today we hear the hope giving words of Nahum. But just a few days earlier we heard from Jeremiah a sharp criticism of the self proclaimed prophet Hananiah, saying the prophecies of prosperity can be accepted as such only after the things prophesied come to pass. However the words of Hananiah were soon proved to be mere search for popular acceptance!

Nahum's promise of the restoration of God's people is not merely a pleasing statement on the part of the messenger. It comes combined with a call to be prepared, alert and girded. Jesus takes that a step forward to say, it takes a ready acceptance of the daily cross and a loving preparedness to walk in the ways of the Lord, to experience the true "blessedness" from God.

Prosperity, fame, popularity, joy, sense of fulfilment, peace and a sense of being loved... these are ofcourse signs of God's blessings. But they cannot be the main focus in our daily life, instructs Jesus. When we strive to live acceptable in the eyes of God, all the rest will follow.

Thus, what really matters is..the true "blessedness" in the sight of God!

A heart worthy of the Covenant

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 4, 2022 - Remembering St. John Maria Vianney
Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Matthew 16: 13-23

The day will come when you will not have to teach your loved ones to know God...for every one will know God in those days, promises the Lord. Jesus applauds Peter, saying his knowledge of Christ was exceptional, because it was God given! The day had come when Peter would know who the Lord was, as we read in Jeremiah.

The reality is that, God reveals Godself to us and we get to know God so intimately. But our memories are so very fickle and short lived. We give into our human tendencies so easily and readily as if there were nothing so great between us and God! Our memories may be thus short, but not God's. God forgives, waits and and readily renews the covenant that God made with us.

John Maria Vianney, remained a great reminder of this fact to his people. Not just his parish of Ars, but the whole region in and around that small little village, came to know the immeasurable love of God through the sacraments and the life of the holy pastor Vianney.  Today too, we are called to be the signs of the promises of the Lord, and challenge humanity towards a heart worthy of the Covenant, beginning right from ourselves. 

The Lord promises to give us a new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart that takes after the sensibilities of God, a heart that sees as God does, a heart that hears as God does, a heart that feels as God does, a heart that loves as God loves... a heart that is worthy of the covenant that God has made with us.