The Reign Dream

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

December 26, 2022: St. Stephen, the first Martyr
Acts 6: 8-10, 7: 54-59; Matthew 10: 17-22

Persecutions and Martyrdom have never been alien to Christian Faith. St. Stephen is the first Biblical evidence to it. Continuing in the line of the prophets and persons of God who have been treated at will by the world in the Old Testament, we see Jesus and most of his disciples facing the same end in the New Testament.

Religious fanaticism and the consequent discrimination and communalism is dangerously being justified these days as patriotism and conservatism! Be it the 'islamophobia' that is spread globally, or the anti-secular system that is being forced through the fabric of tolerance and conviviality in great enviable traditions, the hate speeches and hidden agenda... these are signs of anti-Reign elements in the world today.

St. Stephen knew what it meant to suffer for the Reign and die for Christ; it meant suffering for the things that really matter; it meant standing for true beliefs and convictions that can elevate your spirit to the heavens open and the angels coming down!

It was Stephen who also imitated his Master literally: while Jesus prayed for those who crucified him and offered his spirit into the hands of his loving Father, Stephen prayed for those who stoned him and surrendered his spirit into Jesus' hands. What an example for us to emulate! Not only praying what Stephen prayed but seeing what he saw: the open heavens - that is open hearts, high ideals, profound humanity, in short, the Reign dream.

CHRISTMAS WISHES AND PRAYERS

 

கிறிஸ்து பிறப்பின் வாழ்த்துகள்

 

Morning Star - saving us from death and darkness!

The WORD in ADVENT - December 24

Christmas Novena - Day 9
2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8-12, 14, 16; Luke 1: 67-79

Awe is the third and most important trait to receive the Lord. Translated as fear of God, it is a sense of spiritual wonder, the capacity to be open to the doings of the Lord. Without a sense of wonder, no one can even perceive the Lord, let alone receiving the Lord.

Very often we think of our spirituality as doing something for God - going to the Church, saying prayers, participating in Mass... all these are important, yes! But more important is our openness to God, allowing God to work in us, listening to God, looking to understand what God communicates to us here and now! Is it you who would build a house for the Lord, asks prophet Nathan to David... God would build you a house!

David who was a simple shepherd boy was built into a house - the House of David: about which both the first reading and the Gospel speak of today. God built David into a house, a house, a lineage in which the Saviour of the humankind would be born. What an awesome feat of God. Imagine if David had rebelled and said, 'No I would by all means build a house for God', after all building the temple of the Lord was a noble thing. 

Doing a noble thing is good, but more important and crucial is doing what God wants us to do and the most noble thing is surrendering to the Lord and allowing the Lord to do what the Lord wants with us, with a sense of awe! At times in our busy 'doing' that we forget 'to be' in the presence of God. Let us keep this as the highest priority today... as we are just a few hours from celebrating the awesome mystery of incarnation, let us stay in awe, remain in wonder at the marvels of the Lord, the immensity of the Love that the Lord shares with us this Christmas! 

Let us open our heart and our mind, that we may receive the Lord in awe! The Lord is not just near... but the Lord is here!!! We celebrate the Rising Star, the Morning Star that announces the break of day! The Lord comes to rule in our hearts, not just the world... let us prepare ourselves... for the Lord is here.

Readiness to receive the Lord who is with us!

The WORD in ADVENT - December 23

Christmas Novena - Day 8
Malacchi 3:1-4,23-24; Luke 1: 57-66

Let us continue today reflecting on the necessary traits to receive the Lord who comes to visit us...the first trait we had said, was eagerness and the second trait that we see today is, Readiness! 

Readiness does not mean a mere passive waiting... it is an active preparation, without which one would miss the moment of truth. The preparation would consist, first of all, of knowing. It's the message we reflected this Sunday... Knowing and understanding, they form the first level of preparedness. 

Being prepared may not be enough. There is an interesting saying: it is not enough to be prepared, but one needs to be ready! There are many, for instance, who keep preparing themselves for a special moment but are never ready to really live the moment! 

The coming of the Lord is a moment of truth for us, and we have to be ready - which is, to be prepared in heart and mind, of course. But along with that, we need to be ready in spirit and in action. To know and to live by what one knows, to believe and to live by what one believes - that is being ready!

The first reading calls us to exactly to this - to be well disposed, to be refined as silver is refined in the furnace, to make our life worthy of the sacred mysteries we are about to celebrate. It is like the period of pain that Elisabeth and the time of muteness that Zachariah had to go through. For us, the sacrament of Reconciliation is a wonderful moment of refinement, a great sign of our READINESS to receive the Lord, this Christmas!

The antiphon of the Novena today, O Emmanuel (based on the famous prophecy of Isaiah 7:14), is the key to understand the mystery of incarnation. The presence of God with us is the greatest of all the promises that we can think of. Christ comes as the fulfilment and the most complete expression of that promise: as God among us. The symbol given is the virgin with the child in the manger. The manger is a lovely symbol that unites the heaven and the earth, the Divine and the human!

The prayer today is that the Lord our God, save us by God's saving presence... in simple words it is beseeching the Lord to stay with us, to live with us, to sanctify us, to make us worthy of God who is always with us! 

Our King - the source of joy and meaning!

The WORD in ADVENT - December 22

Christmas Novena - Day 7

1 Samuel 1: 24-28; Luke 1: 46-56

The spirit of exultation is in the air, we are close to the celebration of the joyful event of the incaration. The Lord came, in history, to ensure that humanity knew its the image and likeness in which it is made. The Lord comes in every experience and person which acts as the source of meaning to life and life's choices. The Lord shall come wherever and whenever there is a search for signifcance in life, a search that can offer hope to life that is ahead.

The Word made flesh who identified with us - a great reason to rejoice and exult. True joy comes from the fact that we are united in the Lord, from where comes our identity, the real meaning of our life. No success or failure, no social status or title, no accomplishment or lack can define me. It is only the image of God within me that can give me true joy! 

This day invites us to contemplate this image of God, made flesh, become human and nourishes as the source and spring of our very being and of its true joy.

The antiphon of the Novena today, the King of nations, based on Isaiah 9:6, 2:4 and 28:16, is a yearning of the people of Israel. They wanted Yahweh to be their king always, even when they had a human king ruling them. That is why they did not give in to the Emperor worship that was so widespread in the dominant cultures of their times. God is the king, forever and over all! The Symbol presented is the crown and the sceptre, that signifies the central place that God has in our personal and universal history; and the authority that rests solely with God.

The prayer today is to save the human kind, from slaveries of sin and death, and to lead to the freedom of the children of God, for that is what we are, children created in the image and likeness of God. It is to grow in this identity and dignity that the coming of the Lord invites us. Let our soul glorify the Lord, forever and ever.

Light - to see with the eyes of the Lord

The WORD in ADVENT - December 21

Christmas Novena - Day 6

Song of Songs 2:8-14; Luke 1:39-45

If we had noticed, we would be aware that we have been seeing some dangers of missing the Lord these days in the Word. From today, we shall reflect from the Liturgy, on some necessary dispositions to behold the coming of the Lord and to behold the Reign amidst us. 

One of the needed traits to receive the Lord, pointed out in the Word today, is Eagerness! Looking forward to meet the love of your life - that is the kind of disposition required if we really want to behold the coming of the Lord, counsels the liturgy of this day. The Song of Songs expresses the longing that one has for the beloved. Waiting for the Lord is not a passive waiting, but an active preparation, an active seeking, an active going towards the Lord. Waiting for the Reign too, is not an inactive procrastination, but an involved collaboration towards the Reign. 

The eagerness that we need to have for the Lord, is like that innocent sweet child who, at the end of her busy day of birthday celebrations, asked her father with a broad smile, "Daddy, when will my birthday come again?" That eagerness, that longing, that yearning like the parched land for water, like the deer for the running streams, like the drowning person for a breath above the waters... that is the eagerness we need to have, if we really want to encounter the Lord who visits us this Christmas!

The antiphon of the novena today is based on Isaiah again (9:2 and 60:1-2). O Oriens... the latin term literally means O Rising Sun or Dawn. For poetic sense translated as Morning Star, it refers to the power of God's light to lead us from ignorance to knowledge and from mere knowledge to enlightenment. The Symbol is the Rising Sun, which dispels the darkness of the night and wakes the light of the morning, inviting all to life and activity. The coming of the Lord for us is a wake up call, an invitation to live as people of the light and not of darkness!

The prayer today is for enlightenment, that in these times of confusion and crisis, confounding choices and staggering philosophies, we might remain always in the light of faith, that not only helps us see the Lord, but see with the eyes of the Lord (Lumen Fidei).

Liberation: the way opening to fullness of life

The WORD in ADVENT - December 20, 2022

Christmas Novena - Day 5

Isaiah 7: 10-14; Luke 1: 26-38

When troubles surround or challenges abound, we try to manage our lives with our own strength or seeking those who can give a solution, notwithstanding the fact that they themselves are persons with similar problems and puzzles. Fortune predictions, numerical calculations, geographical adjustments, material omens... how many substitutes we run to, instead of the Lord almighty who alone has the ultimate power! 

Ahaz, in the first reading, represents that world of reducing the Lord God to our thinking, our calculations and our predictions! How many times we keep pressurising the Lord, with our clamour for signs and demands for favours, all in the name of prayers! It is in this context that Mary stands a great a model and a challenge who is remarkable in her silent acceptance of the marvels of God which are beyond any of our imagination, even at the most trying moment of our lives.

The Word today warns us of yet another danger of missing the Lord who comes to visit us: It is reducing God to our own petty thinking, our human thinking, that when God acts in history we do not even notice the wonder of God's presence. We want God in our own terms, not in God's own terms!

The antiphon of the Novena today, based on prophet Isaiah (22:22, 9:7 and 42:7), makes a reference is to the sovereignty of God's Reign. That the throne shall have no end, is a Messianic prophecy that God will be always remain the Lord of history! Liberation of the oppressed and the fullness of life of all, is the sign of this Reign. The symbol of the key to signifies the authority that God has, in creating, changing and structuring the whole history.

The prayer today is for liberation... that the Lord opens the way that leads towards fullness of life, that is the experience of the Reign on earth. It is also a commitment to work towards, to contribute one's might and mite, towards establishing the Reign here and now!

To hope without limits

The WORD in ADVENT - December 19, 2022

Christmas Novena - Day 4: Judges 13:2-7,24-25; Luke 1: 5-25

The Word today presents to us two women, considered and categorised as 'barren', who miraculously bear their firstborns and dedicate them to the Lord! There is Manoah's wife, the mother of Samson and thereis Elizabeth, the wife of Zecchariah. The two newborns, Samson and John, even before they were conceived were meant to be God's messengers! One was a nazirite from the mothers womb and the other was capable  of identifying the One who comes in the name of the Lord, right from when he was in his mother's womb! 

What the world considers impossible, the Lord proves possible; what the world cannot even think of, the Lord has planned from eternity and executes in God's own time; what the world thinks natural and normal. the Lord manifests how spectacular and wonderful it is... life - a great gift from the Lord to each of us. 

When moments seem troublesome and weary, dark and dreary, confusing and out of control... we tend to give up hope, become desperate and fall into the danger of hopelessness! With the sense of desperation, one can miss the most obvious and grand signs of the magnificence of God that appears on a daily basis! This is a real danger that can push us to the state of missing the Lord who comes: a sense of desperation, the tendency to Hopelessness!

The Symbol is that of the shoot growing on a dry bark... signalling the hope that the Lord offers in times when everything seems dark and dead. The exodus event, the miracles in the desert, the water from the rock, the guidance by day and night - everyone of these was a sign of God's promises being fulfilled. The final fulfillment and the pinnacle of everything was - Incarnation, that which we are preparing to celebrate.

The prayer today is to reinforce that HOPE...that we may always look forward to the deliverance that the Lord can offer! Never let anyone rob you of your hope, reminds our Holy Father.

BEHOLDING THE PROMISES

The Reign amidst us

The WORD in ADVENT - Christmas Novena - Day 3

December 18, 2022: Fourth Sunday in Advent

Isaiah 7: 10-14; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1: 18-24

Promises, prophecies and prodigies fill the history of our Christian faith. Promises are from the Lord, prophecies are from persons of God and prodigies are for all of us to see, provided we are ready to see it. One thing is God revealing Godself, it is entirely another thing that we receive it! We are at the threshold of the feast for which we have been preparing for the past three weeks, and today we are in fourth Sunday of Advent and we are already in the novena - but are we ready to Behold the Lord, are we disposed to behold the promises of the Lord? This is the question that the Word wants us to raise within ourselves.

The drama of the God-Human interplay begins with a promise from the Lord: let us consider that promise from the Old Testament - when the humankind fails miserably and disobeys God, God instead of disowning the humankind, chides the evil one who led God's children away, something which the prince of lies continues to do even today. God does not only just chide the evil one but challenges to save the humankind to eternal life - against the wish of the evil one to lead them to eternal damnation. The challenge was in the form of a promise: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offsping and hers! That was a promise which amounted to say to us: I shall never leave you at the mercies of the evil one! But has the human kind always lived up to it? In other words, has the human kind always beheld that promise?

The Lord renews that promise once again as we read in the first reading today, the propehcy of Isaiah: the Lord himself will give you a sign; the maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son, whom she will call Immanuel, a name which means 'God-is-with-us'. The woman, the maiden, the girl of Nazareth - is with child and in two days we shall celebrate the event when she gave birth to that child. And then there were so many prodigies, did they really behold it? The promises were given, they were prophesied about, and prodigies brought those promises to life - but they ignored it, they rejected it... let us say, we rejected it, we ignored it, we failed to behold it.

Today the promises are being fulfilled, revealed with prodigies all around, are we ready to behold it? The capacity to behold the promises of the Lord - that is what Christmas is all about. We are about enter into the festivities, but hold on, let us have a look at ourselves, our dispositions: are we ready to behold the Lord? Have we developed the capacity to behold the promises of the Lord. That capacity consists of three levels and this is what the Word instructs today about.

The first level is the level of knowing! To know first of all that we have great promises from the Lord and secondly to know what they are! One of the promises that God has never ceased to give is that of God's never failing presence! I am with you until the end of times - this was Jesus the Christ. But that is only a reflection of what God the Father had promised the people of Israel - through Abraham, through Moses, through Joshua, through Jeremiah... and finally through God's own Son who would be coming soon among us, as God made human, Word made flesh! The promise - if only we truly know them and understand them! This is what St. Paul reminds us, writing to the Romans today - to know and to understand the promises of the Lord and those of Christ.

The second level is the level of believing! To know the promises is one thing, to believe in them is another. At times we know God has promised to be with us, but whether we believe in it all the time, is a serious question. We think God is up there and distant from us at times, when we go through things in our life with our own calculations and hidden agenda, with external justifications and completely different internal motivations, with appearances that totally deceive others from what truly goes on in the depths of our hearts - does not God know it? Whose patience are we trying to put to test, asks Isaiah in the first reading. God knows the innermost thoughts of our minds - do we really believe in the promises of the Lord? Do we believe that God is faithful and God will never fail in keeping up to God's promises? If not, how will we behold them at all?

The third level is the level of experiencing! To know the promises and to believe in them actually means, experiencing them in our daily life, in every day chores, in every person we meet, in events that happen around us, in miracles that surround us, in wonders that keep happening and in the signs and splendours that mark the history that we are living and creating everyday. At times we are lost in seeing what the powerful decide that we see, we are too occupied in sensing what those who manipulate us want us to sense, we are too busy perceiving things from the perspective of those who want to lead us astray or at least to their own perspective. We consider some strangers, because we are taught to consider that way. We consider some as low, because we are conditioned to think we are higher. We consider some as superior because we are brought up to look down on ourselves... we fail to truly experience the reality, the real beauty in God's creation - with all its diversities, with all its varieties, and with all its peculiarities. How can we them see the richness of the revelation of God? God reveals Godself on a daily basis, how can we really see it if we are not disposed to behold it? Look at Joseph in the Gospel today: he was able to look at Mary with compassion and accept her. Look at Mary: she was able to accept that strange call, trusting in the presence of God with her. Look at the saintly couple, Mary and Joseph: they were able to carry on with every thing that was happening between them, because they trusted in the promises of the Lord. They lived it!

Today, let us take it upon ourselves to get to know the promises that God wishes to give each of us. Let us believe that God would always be faithful to God's promises. Let us prepare ourselves to experience those promised in our daily life, because let us remember, Miracles abound for those who are prepared to see them around!