Following - looking back or going on?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 26th week in Ordinary time

September 28, 2022: Job 9: 1-13,14-16; Lk 9: 57-62

Jesus gives us a hard lesson on discipleship today. If you have made a choice for God, you have made a choice for struggles and situations that will estrange you from the rest around you. So, what are you going to do? Look back and moan? Or look firm and go on?

Job's determination to please God was gradually being shaken by the conventional thinking friends who attributed human qualities of anger, dissatisfaction, expectations and disregard to God. Job declares from his heart that God is omnipotent and omniscient; he places all his trust and honour, but struggles to live his daily suffering, on par with that interior conviction that he had always had.

Jesus declares that it is precisely the determination to surrender oneself and one's total being into the hands of God, that is the hallmark of a follower of Christ. Jesus had a mighty share of suffering, struggle and strife. But that in no way deviated him from holding on to God and looking firm in his choice for God and God's purposes. His life was one long demonstration of what it would cost of you choose God in life!

Think of the numerous pressures that exist in our daily life and context... the social pressure, the economic pressure, the peer pressure, the pressure of the tradition, the pressure of the stereotypes and the pressure that we create with our own self definitions... What are we going to do?

The answer is simple but incredible difficult to live: if you and I have decided to follow Christ, would we look back and moan or look firm and go on?

A God who suffers

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 26th week in Ordinary time

September 27, 2022: Job 3: 1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Luke 9: 51-56

The Word today has a very curious kind of a message to give us! James and John wish to bring fire down from heaven to punish the people who did not accept Christ. Job's friends pressurise Job to curse God and get done with God, for all the suffering that God has caused him unjustly! Jesus rebukes James and John and Job refuses to give into the counsel of his friends. Job is presented as the prefigurement of the suffering servant that Jesus was to be!

It is not just a suffering servant's figure that we see here manifested in Jesus, but the image of a compassionate God who suffers on our behalf. It is not true that it has happened just once in history... it had always happened, and it keeps happening that the Lord feels so much when we are adamant, arrogant and whimsical: a compassionate God who is so madly in love with us!

It is 'Christ'ian maturity and 'Christ'ian mindset, to endure our suffering not blaming God or complaining to God, but seeking to find God during those moments of suffering. When we sincerely seek God, we will find God so close to us that we would understand that even God suffers along with us! "When you search for me you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart I will let you find me, says the Lord" (Jer 29:13). 

Our God is not a God who makes us suffer, but a God who suffers, when we suffer! It takes courage and faith to grow out of the infantile thinking that God is there to set right everything that goes wrong in our life, and to come to the understanding that God is there with us through the thick and thin, when we choose God with the freedom we are gifted with, and when we reject God in abuse of the same freedom! All the time, the Lord is there. Especially in our moments of struggle, let us remember the Lord is with us, the Lord suffers with us. 

The Naked Truth - God alone is!

WORD 2day: Monday, 26th week in Ordinary time

September 26, 2022: Job 1:6-22; Luke 9: 46-50

Naked I came into this world and naked shall I leave it! God gave and God has taken it back. Blessed be the name of the Lord... The Word today presents to us Job as a brilliant example of a child of God! His properties burned, he remained calm. His cattle were taken, he bore it all. His servants were killed he held on to the Lord. His children died altogether, he broke down but in the bosom of the Lord! That was Job, of whom the Lord was proud of - a true child of God.

Jesus teaches a similar lesson too in the Gospel... your ego, your social status, your position and power, your possession and your attachments, your so-called achievements and conquests... nothing can stand the test of time. God alone will. Whether we believe or not, the Lord is. Whether we praise the Lord or not, the Lord is worthy of all the praise in the world. Whatever we do and whatever we are involved in, even without our own full knowledge of it, we are serving the purposes of the Lord. Ultimately that which shall prevail over everything is God's will. 

God alone is almighty and God's purposes alone give meaning to anything that exists. The truth finally is, who ever we are and whatever we have, everything will pass. A child will never have a problem in admitting that he or she is dependent - the child has no ego to safeguard. A child will never scheme to put the other down or to usurp what belongs to the other, for the child everything belongs to every one. That is the logic of the child that Jesus wishes that we grow in. And in that logic there is simplicity and truth, sincerity and humility. 

How important it is for us to realise and recognise the naked truth: that God alone is, and God alone will forever be.

Live, love and experience God

WORD 2day: Saturday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 24, 2022: Ecclesiastes 11:9 -12: 8; Luke 9: 43b-45

Life is short and life is limited, but it offers ample opportunity to do things that are remarkable. It never forces anyone, leaving far behind every one who complains of boredom and monotony. For a Christian, life cannot be boring because he or she has a life task to accomplish and daily directions to carry out, from the Lord. That is why St. Paul would write saying, "do not grow weary of doing what is right" (2 Thess 3:13). 

Doing right... it might in all probability invite criticism, jealousy, opposition, persecution and even crucifixion! But what matters is to do the will of God, and do it willingly. What example more impressive than our Blessed Mother (today is Saturday and the 24th of the Month), who did everything in life, for the holy will of God and for the "yes" that she dared to give to the call from the Lord. 

Life is short and life is limited; let's live it to the full, let us do all the good that we can to every one around. Let us not waste our life in envying, calumniating, gossiping, judging and spreading hate! 

Let us live to the full, love each other and experience God close to us, beside us and within us!

In God's own time

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 23, 2022: Remembering Padre Pio 

Ecclesiates 3: 1-11; Luke 9: 18-22

Two great enemies to spiritual health, as spiritual masters point out are: Anxiety and Curiosity! 

Anxiety is against faith because it points to a lack of trust in the Lord. It is an unrealistic worry about the future, in a particular way not helpful in anyway to prepare oneself towards a health encounter with that moment that is yet to come! Think of the times when we are wailing about a possible failure or a probable difficulty, although it is not yet a reality.

Curiosity is lack of patient acceptance of the present. It is trying in vain to pry into the time that is yet to come, in no way helping a peaceful experience of whatever is happening around at any given moment. Think of those moments when we are dying to know the results of somethings that we have not even started yet - all the craze from a playful guessing to a gamble-filled foretelling, fall under this category! 

To both anxiety and curiosity, as to many other spiritual ailments, the corrective offered is Surrender! In short, surrender can be described as the inner assurance that in God's time everything will happen, for good. Patience, trust and the unfailing confidence in God's goodness, are the ingredients of this mentality of surrender. Especially when things aren't going the way we would want them to, we need this quality to remain sane and secure.

In the Gospel today, we find Jesus as a personification of this quality. He was neither curious nor anxious about his mission on earth. That is why he was more interested about the personal conviction of everyone and not the mass public opinion; and he was stern that they don't go about frenetically spreading their conviction and forcing it on people, but to let people arrive at that conviction, each one through their own experience! 

The saint we remember today, Padre Pio, can be considered a great example in following on these footsteps suggested by our Lord. That serenity on Jesus' part and that sense of the Divine that we see in Padre Pio, came from the attitude of Surrender, an assurance that everything will be made beautiful IN GOD'S OWN TIME.

Seeking Christ is a vanity too!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 22, 2022: Ecclesiates 1:2-11; Luke 9:7-9

Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity... says the first reading today. There is nothing new under the sun, what are we toiling for? What are we seeking and searching and anxious for? That is the wise question that the philosopher raises in the Word today. It is important to take note of this question - routine, monotony and boredom are not reality that are external... they are attitudes and dispositions that are internal. How we look at things, how they matter to us, how they affect us and how we relate to them - that makes all the change that is possible. 

Seeking Christ... today Herod seeks to see Christ. All of us have this wish; we seek and experience Christ. But is that a vanity too? Yes, that will turn out to be another vanity, vanity of all vanities, if we do not seek for an internal change, for a transformation of the heart. If we seek, see, pray and claim to experience Christ, but there is no change in our inner disposition and attitude to life and to others, then that seeking would indeed be a vanity too!

Vanity of Vanities... everything is a vanity, if we do not allow ourselves to be touched, transformed and continuously made anew in Christ!

In plenty and in want...

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 21, 2022: Proverbs 30:5-9; Luke 9: 1-6

We have today persons who earn exhorbitanly high salaries, in some fields. There are otheres who put in a lot of work, even more than the former sort, but earning not even just enough for their upkeep and their family's. But no one bothers about the other! The one who gets more still aims for more and the one who gets less goes on slogging for more! People in want and people with plenty are living side by side, as two worlds that exist within one! There are those in want dreaming of  shortcuts to get rich; and those in plenty, who seem to have forgotten the one who gives.

Jesus instructs his apostles on being a messenger of God. The crux of his instruction is not merely about whether to have or not to have, whether to possess or not to possess, but it is all about depending on God or not! Poverty within the worldview of the Reign of God, in terms of Jesus' thinking, is a fundamental dependence on God. Being grateful for what God gives, and being expectant like a child to be given things in love.

It is more than what the book of proverbs suggests in the first reading today. While the passage from the proverbs carries a tinge of cynical realism, the Gospel offers a proactive sense of dependence out of true human freedom, that defines a true disciple and a dedicated apostle. This is the same as St. Paul suggests, to learn to live in want and in plenty, because we can do anything through the one who strengthens us (cf. Phil 4:12,13). In plenty or in want, what matters is how mindful we are for the true wealth of a Christian - not what we possess, but the One who gives that to us.  

The Right thing to do!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 20, 2022: Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13; Luke 8: 19-21

Doing the right thing is better than sacrifices says the first reading today. And the right thing... how do we know it? It is imprinted in our hearts. All that I need to know is listen to my heart, listen to that inner voice that instructs me, provided that voice is protected, promoted and purely cultivated. 

The Word of God, comes to us through various ways: direct proclamation is just one among these many ways! There are situations and persons whom we come across who bring us a challenge to face and respond to. The Word of God comes along, instructing us on what is right and what is to be avoided. There is the inner voice within us, that "sound of sheer silence" (1 Kgs 19:12), which tells us what is that right thing to be done at the right moment. 

What do we need to do? First of all, be attentive: attentive to the Word that comes across to us. Secondly, be sincere: sincere to admit that we have received the Word and to recognise the demands that it places. At times because of the demands that the Word places on us, we pretend not to have heard, or not to have understood the real meaning of the Word. It would serve no purpose and we in fact would deceive ourselves by doing it. Thirdly, our task is to be diligent in carrying out, amidst all struggles, what the Word tells us.

The Gospel today assures us that when we do all these three we would be considered not merely disciples, but mother, brother, sister, in short, coheirs with Christ to the Reign of God. But when we stop short of them, we would be deceiving ourselves warns the letter of James (1:22).

Think good; Do good; Be good!

WORD 2day: Monday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 19, 2022: Proverbs 3:27-34; Luke 8:16-18

The first reading today has a wonderful set of practical tips for a happy living. Those tips can altogether be summarised in the phrase: think well of all; speak well of all; do good to all. This can be called the runway to happiness, but rarely taken by many! We prefer to complicate our lives, make it distrustful, enigmatic and suspicious, losing all the goodness that we can create, share and experience. Neither are we happy nor do we allow others to be happy.

To a person who was sharing about a problem in the family, I had to ask, "What is your choice: to be happy or not to be?" And the person said, "of course, to be happy!" and immediately added, "but I am afraid I won't be able to do the things that you told me to. The others would take me for granted and make me look more and more like a fool!" Then I had to conclude, "so, you choose to be unhappy!"

At times, that is the sad fact! We choose to be unhappy and we are experts at making ourselves unhappy over anything at all. Jesus today seems to tell us, "you want to be happy? choose it! manifest it! Let it be seen in your lives, in your choices!" Lighting the lamp and putting it on the stand, is the metaphor to living a life that is God-worthy and making it known to others that they may be challenged. 

The simple formula to begin with this kind of a life is, to live as said in the first reading. That can be summarised in simple words: think good of all, you will not have things to worry; do good to all, at least your heart will be light; and above all, be good within you! Let that goodness be your nature, not just your external show!

WWW: WEALTH, WELLBEING & WORLD

The Web of Life in today's World

25th Sunday in Ordinary time - September 18, 2022
Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16: 1-13

We have needs, wants and desires... they are but human. One has to be attentive about the difference between these three- how many times we confuse among these! Our wants and desires fill our minds so much that we make of them much too big than what they ought to be - we are happy only when we get some desires come true, we are fulfilled only when we get things that we want... yes, we turn these ordinary wants and desires into needs! Just imagine today, the number of things that we have made necessities of life: are they really needs? or just wants and desires? Be what they may be, the fact is that, only when they are fulfilled we are happy and grateful; when they are not, we keep beseeching the Lord, sometimes requesting, sometimes begging, sometimes obstinately pressurising, sometimes fighting, sometimes complaining and so on! 

Prosperity, from the time of the theology of the promised land, has always been looked at as a blessing from the Lord. Even today how many preachers take up this as a way of alluring people - whether tey are alluring towards God or towards themselves - we are not here to judge! The focus here is on that so-called prosperity... in simple terms, Wealth.

Wealth makes our life easy and our living pleasurable. By the very fact that it is a blessing, it is obvious that it is 'given' and it is to be given. Wealth is a means provided for one not only to live his or her life, but also extend his hand to the needy, the unfortunate, the underprivileged, the have-nots, so that their life becomes blessed through someone's instrumentality. Wealth, is a blessing, and more over a means, to be a blessing to the others! Prophet Amos minces no words in the first reading today. Swindling the other, manipulating the other and hurting the other for one's own well-being, is not Christian attitude; and it is no well-being at all.

Well-being is not merely one's individual pleasure and possession! Even if one possesses everything, if there is no harmony in his or her surroundings, he or she cannot cherish those possessions. How many individuals who possess enormous riches but lack a internal serenity bear witness to this fact. How many nations today which seem rich and affluent but lack peace and security attest to this fact. Authentic Well-being is harmony in every sense, within oneself, around oneself and with the entire universe! It is the 'quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in everyway', that St. Paul speaks of in the second reading. Selfishness and Greed can never lead us to this well-being. Concern and Compassion, a collective thinking of 'all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth' - only such an outgoing spirit can grant the world, a real Well-being.

The World and the life we live today is an opportunity given to us, reminds Jesus in the Gospel with his intriguing parable of the prudent steward! Intriguing it is, because it seems to advocate slyness and fraud. But that is not the point. The focus lies on another perspective, and it is: however limited and burdensome, the present life we live is all that we have, here and now, to make our journey toward our 'eternal abode' pleasant and meaningful. It is said, how we live our life here will define and determine how we will exist hereafter.

We have the gift and the Giver: of these, what matters to us is the crucial question. It cannot be that both gift and the giver are important - one cannot serve two masters, warns Jesus. Once we give the first place to the Giver, the Eternal giver, the Loving giver, the Wonderful giver, everything else falls in place. Wealth becomes a means, Well-being becomes harmonious living and the World becomes an opportunity for us to create a paradise here and now, as we live our life in peace and harmony with our brothers and sisters!