REIGN - DO IT YOURSELF!

The Problem, the Cause and the Challenge

January 22, 2023: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 8:23 - 9:3; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23

Christians divided among themselves is a terrible scandal to the rest of the world. We are in the midst of the Unity Octave or the Prayer week for Unity among Christians,. These days the Word has been offering us ways in which our daily life and Christian creed come together in making us a new people. It is easier to brush aside the message saying it is impractical, than to take it seriously and examine our situation - personally, and in our immediate context.

The Readings this Sunday has a practical logic that they follow: they present a problem, they indicate the cause and then propose the challenge! The Problem: Darkness, gloom and hatred in the world. Cause: Divisions among persons, for whatever reason it be! Challenge: Repent and Accept the Reign of God. The readings taken together seem to present to us a "do-it-yourself " guidebook towards making the Reign of God present amidst us.

Step 1: Perceive the Problem: the darkness, the gloom and the hatred that surrounds today. Killings, wars, provocative political policies, inhuman oppressive practices, social unrest, economic exploitations, manipulation of the powerless and the suppression of the voiceless - today it looks like the world is a dangerous place to live in and it seems to get worse by the day! Isaiah speaks from such a context in the first reading, as explains Matthew in the Gospel: people who sit in darkness and land overshadowed by death! The world is such, yes; but how is it around you and me! The first step the readings suggest today is to take note of our situation: look around...it could be your family, or your parish, or your locality - identify the darkness, the shadow of death that hovers, anything that does not allow you and those around you to live your life to the full.

Step 2: Identify the Cause: self-centered vision and egocentric outlook on life. Divisions on the basis of various categories - be it economic, social, religious, traditional or whatever - are opposed to the Gospel message. How sad it is to see a Christian community divided on the basis of caste! How painful it is to see a Christian community where there are still people who have absolutely nothing to live on, while there are others who can spend lavishly on unreasonable luxuries! How scandalous to see a Christian community that comes together on the Sunday, celebrates together the sacraments and goes back unaffected by each other! How contradicting to see a Christian family divided within - for the sake of property or money, due to ego clashes or owing to years of hatred! The second reading pleads that we identify the cause of those situations that does not allow us to live our Christian life fully!

Step 3: Accept the Challenge of the Reign: to repent and be the change! We want the world to change, but we are not ready to be the change. We are scared to be taken advantage of, we do not want to take any risks. We preach peace and pray for prosperity in the world, but what do we do for it in practice? Are we ready to forgive without hesitation, love without calculation, help without expectation, contribute without remuneration? Are we ready to just leave everything and follow Christ as the disciples did? Follow Christ, to preach the Reign, by first of all living ourselves as the people of the Reign! If we are ready...then, the people who sit in darkness will see a light; those dwelling in the land overshadowed by death will see a light. Let us repent, be the change, and spread peace, love and life!

The Holy of Holies

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 21, 2023: Celebrating Agnes - a the Spouse of the Lord

Hebrews 9: 2-3,11-14; Mark 3: 20-21

Jesus is compared to the Jewish high priests who are the only ones allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, and that too, only once a year. Jesus has entered and has come from a place holier than the Holy of holies, infact he is the Sanctuary, the Altar, the Sacrifice and the High Priest. There is none who can be paralleled to him.

However, even Jesus himself could not reveal this without struggles - he was mocked at, he was criticised, he was called even a lunatic by his own people. Nothing stopped him, absolutely nothing hinder him in carrying out the mission given to him: to reveal the holiness and love of God. His dedication and consecration to the mission entrusted to him, stands out in every way and all the time.

The same dedication and consecration we see in the young girl whom we celebrate today. St. Agnes, lived not more than 13 years, but she consecrated herself to the Lord and considered her life, her entire self, as totally belonging to the Lord. She stood against anything that could deviate her from the Lord and gave up even her life for the simple but strong belief that "the Lord is my Spouse." An extraordinary faithfulness and consecration to the Lord. 

Struggles, criticism, insults, misunderstandings, persecution, desertion, nothing should move us from belonging to the Lord. If they do, we would lose not merely our opportunity to enter the holy of holies, but the grace of living there forever!

People of the New Covenant

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

January 20, 2023: Hebrews 8:6-13; Mark 3: 13-19

New covenant, new people, new faith, new community, new life: for behold I make all things new - this theme dominated the life of the early Christians. And that was what made them so attractive. They were new, fresh and promising for the onlookers. That is why in the Acts we see, that constantòy people were added to their numbers. 

Where did all those newness come from? From that one fundamental experience: their new found relationship with Christ, and their relationship with each other in Christ. They were people of the covenant... the people of the Old Testament. And in Jesus they were transformed into people of the New Covenant... new people of the new covenant. 

The challenge was, how do they express this newness in their day to day life? The disciples and the apostles felt this call - an encouraging call and at the same time a demanding call. It remains so even with us. If a relationship with someone is taken to some newer joyful levels, that joy manifests itself not only in jubilant moments, but all the more in the test of one's life's conditions. If a relationship that is on, finds a rough patch sometime, it is bound to affect a person's entire life - thinking, speaking, acting and every aspect of it.

The question that matters here is: how much do I value that relationship with the Lord who calls me? How do I sense myself as part of new people of the new covenant!

Obedience and Power from above

WORD 2day: Thursday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 19, 2023: Hebrews 7: 25 - 8: 6; Mark 3: 7-12

The letter to the Hebrews gives a distinguished importance to the quality of obedience of Jesus! In fact it speaks of obedience as special ministry of the Son of God. St. Paul's letters too have the same dimension (eg: Phil 2). At times holiness does not consist in doing great things to a great effect, but in simple and humble submission to the Lord.

Hence, Christian obedience is not merely doing something that is commanded, but being conscious of the overwhelming Grace that surrounds us all the time and leads us by hand every moment of our lives. 

It is humble acknowledgement and submission to the Power from above! When we submit ourselves in our entirety, we begin to possess not only the consciousness of this power of God but the very power itself, as true and trusted children of God. Jesus possessed this consciousness of the proximate presence of the power from above and that was sensed by all, specially the evil spirits that he often encountered. It is by this power from above that he became the high priest who can save all of us - the power invested in him by the Father.

Each of us has received our share of this power to grow and nurture ourselves into true people of God. What if we are mindful of this power and start using this power - of course the opposition from the enemy camp will be more, but will we not set up ourselves as great signs of God's presence to this world that needs it so badly? 

Another question that is more crucially relevant is: to what end am I willing to use this power - our own selfish ends or the greater glory of God?

How ready are we to give?

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

January 18, 2023: Hebrews 7: 1-3,15-17; Mark 3: 1-6

The readings today speak of two religious disciplines that mattered much to the Old Testament people of God: the practice of tithing and the observance of the Sabbath. Both of them taken in their legalistic sense, would be practices very simple but of less significance. A tenth of your possession given grudgingly, or as in the example of Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5) trying to make it as affecting as possible, will bear no spiritual fruit. 

Keeping Sabbath as a day of dead and insensitive inactivity instead of holy and active worship to God, will be of no spiritual value. The key to right understanding here is, not giving of what we have, but giving of what we are: a true self giving. Making everything - things, time, oneself - a giving; a giving from the core of our beings. In a world that is torn between compromises and mixed allegiances, the call today shines forth as a splendid beacon, beckoning us towards concrete and daily sanctity.

We are created children of God; we are chosen as people of God; we are sent in the name of the Lord; how ready are we to give of ourselves, fully and whole heartedly? Will our giving anyday equal the boundless love that God has given us, and continues to give us?

Faithfulness versus faithfulness

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

January 17, 2023: Hebrews 6: 10-20; Mark 2: 23-28

The crux of the the first reading today, or for that matter even of the whole Gospels, is the fact that 'God is faithful forever.' God's faithfulness never ceases and the question is, how and where do we find our faithfulness vis-a-vis the Faithfulness of God!

In demonstration of God's faithfulness, God gives! God gives without count, without any limit, without restraint, without conditions, without anything expected in return. Even in the goodness that God shows there are no conditions attached - as the Gospels say, God shines and showers graces on everyone regardless of whether they are good or bad. When God decided to send God's only Son, God did not adjudicate our worthiness! 

What do we do to demonstrate our faithfulness to God? A weekly appointment and a few fragmented moments every day and some special days' activities? All of them so legalistically followed sometimes with such insensitivity towards expressing our true love and gratitude; sometimes carried out with an external force, or an internal fear, all of these so undeserving and unworthy of the boundless love that God has towards us! 

Today, let's give this dimension a serious thought: God's Faithfulness versus our faithfulness - how much do we strive to measure up to God our loving father and mother. 

New people for new times

WORD 2day: Monday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 16, 2023: Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 2: 18-22

When the Lord announces in the book of revelation, 'Behold I make all things new'...its not merely about some things to be made again or be re-created; it's primarily about a new mentality, a new perspective that God wants to instill and inspire in us. The source and the spring of this new perspective is Christ himself. He is at the same time the high priest and the sacrifice; the prophet and the Lord of the prophets!

In fact with a new way of relating with us, with the unique way of sharing our very nature with us, Christ makes us a new people! And that is what the Lord wants to see in us: our new selves - free from the shackles of the past and the prejudices of the ages - to relate with each other anew and to live each other without any conditions or preconceived notions.

The times are new... everyday the world is changing. There are things good that come our way and there are things that get from good to bad and from bad to worse. There are newer experiences for ourselves and for others around us: are we sensitive to all these and open to the persons around, or are we lost in our own small little world? The homeless migrants, the innocent persecuted, the ordinary exploited, the voiceless tortured... the experience is so painful all around.

Jesus becomes one among us and one like us, ready to make of himself the very offering and the high priest to offer it: it is an invitation to remain sensitive to others, in spite of our own problems. To be compassionate with the suffering, our own troubles notwithstanding. This is what it means to be new people, for the new times! Let our Christian-ness be shown in our compassion and love, not in our pride and arrogance, or in our legalism and ritualism! Let us become new people for the new times!

GET YOUR BASICS RIGHT

Oh Christian!!!

2nd Sunday in Ordinary time - January 15, 2023

Isaiah 49:3,5-6; 1 Corinthians 1: 1-3; John 1: 29-34

We have been busy celebrating feasts one after the other! It's time to return to the Ordinary Sundays and probably, the right beginning is to get our basics right, as sons and daughters of God. Today the readings speak to us about living our Christian life on an everyday basis...in our ordinariness of life! Festive occasions make it easier to feel the joy of the moment; but the demanding call is to live our life on a daily basis, to live it fully, faithfully and meaningfully. 

Jesus is about to begin his public ministry, and like an MC in a performance, John the Baptist announces his entry into the scene! With Jesus' entry and his public life, our life as Christians, our call as sons and daughters of God and our identity as disciples of Christ are clearly defined. And that is what the liturgy today intends to do... to clarify the basics to us, so that we may live our Christian calling everyday of our life. The readings seem to answer the basic Question Words... 

WHO? WHAT? 

The first question is about who we are and what we are? Isaiah gives a direct response to it: We are the light of the nations! We are called, we know that. But, as what? To do the will of God, yes; to be ever at the disposal of the will of God and say, "Here am I Lord, I come to do your will" (Heb 10:7) But doing the Will not merely as sevants but as 'the light of the nations!' We are called not merely as workers but as witnesses. "Called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God" ...that is the answer to the Who and the What, of our Christian life. We are called to live our life as witnesses...witness is our first mode of proclaiming Christ and His gospel.

WHY? WHERE?

Why should we be doing God's will and where are we bound to? In simple terms, what is our goal? What are we called for? The Word of God is vociferous on this point, be it in the Old Testament or in the New Testament: We are called to Holiness... We are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy - says the second reading today. Holiness consists of a clarity of one's own identity as Isaiah, Paul and John the Baptist demonstrate in the readings today: to know who we are and what we are, and thus realising why we are doing all that we do and where we are going towards! If all that we do in our daily life, does not ultimately lead us to sanctification and holiness, we are on a mistaken journey. It might seem colourful at the moment, but will soon end up gloomy and grey. A clairty on the why and the where, will determine our daily choices, will define every aspect of our Christian living - our family life, our career, our spiritual life, our personal life and so on.

WHICH? HOW?

The next question is, which way? and how do we reach that holiness? Christian life cannot be just a me-and-God type of a life. It has to be lived in a Community! From the very beginning, Christ-experience and the message of Christ has been lived and passed on by a community. The readings underline this community aspect with the terms like, light of the 'nations', 'to all those everywhere who call upon the name of the Lord', and 'Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'... We are in the Unity Octave and it reminds us of the fact that Christ cannot be Divided (1 Cor 1:13). Unity and peace that stems from a genuine love, which comes from God - that is the true sign of Christian life.

The only question that is left is, When? But that is established right in the beginning... Now, Today, Here, in the Ordinariness of our daily life... every day of our ordinary life... we are called to live mindful of our identity as children of God, called and sanctified by Christ towards holiness, living to spread God's love to the entire world... as light of the nations, in footsteps of the Lamb of God who calls us as a community of faith and love!

All-knowing and/but Loving Saviour!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 14, 2023: Hebrews 4: 12-16; Mark 2: 13-17 

God is all knowing and we all know it and we know all about it! In spite of knowing all about us, our weaknesses and our faults, our limitations and our failures, God loves us! That is something that we can never understand to the full... God's love is bountiful and God's mercies never cease!

God loves us not because we deserve that love but because we need that love. God's mercy is given us not because we are worthy of it but because it is God's nature to be merciful. The Word is the epitome of God's merciful love, a love without conditions, a love beyond criteria, a love that fills a person and challenges him or her to total conversion!

With absolutely no demands this love leads one to transformation. All that we need to do is dispose ourselves favorably towards this love and surrender ourselves to it. It is like the medical check up that we go to these days, called the Master check-up! You go, and you say nothing: they do the entire analysis, a comprehensive one and let you know, what is alright and what isn't. They give you the possibility of consulting a specialist and even a prescription of medicine - it all depends on you to take it or not!

That is what happens to our Spiritual self too when we dispose ourselves and surrender to the Word - the Word does a quick comprehensive analysis and reveals to us what is good and what is not, prescribing to us the changes we need to make. It is left to us to work on ourselves! The unbelievable fact that underlies all this is the Saviour, the Lord, the High priest whom we have: all knowing, but at the same time ever-loving Saviour

Doing all that we can!

WORD 2day: Friday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 13, 2023: Hebrews 4:1-5,11; Mark 2: 1-12

Doing all that one can is not a strange mindset or life style these days. There are people who do all that they can for a lot of things that they wish to achieve. And there are so many things today for which the people are ready to do all that they can. The Word today invites us too, to do all that we can - but for what and for whom?

Do all you can to reach that place of rest, invites the letter to the Hebrews. And the Gospel presents to us those persons who did all that they can to reach that paralytic man to Jesus, so that Jesus could heal him. Doing all you can... that is the call today! 

As we alrady said, people are ready today to do all that they can for themselves and for their own goals... they manipulate, they compromise, they adjust, they give up, they give in, they cheat, they plot, they even kill in order to achieve their ends - regardless of whether they are religious or irreligious, whether they are lay or consecrated, whether already living a comfortable life or not! This is the sense of 'do-all-you-can' that the world today upholds!

The Word gives us a different picture instead: do all you can to receive the rest that God has prepared for you - that alone is eternal, everything else is passing. The gospel challenges us: do all you can for others, for your neighbours, for those in need and those who are suffering, for those who are miserable and desperate to find the Lord - that is the unfailing way to the peace, that the Word of God indicates to us. Yes, for that eternal rest and for those who are in need around you, do all you can!