Sufferings and Sisyphus...

WORD 2day: Monday, 23rd week in Ordinary time

September 11, 2023: Colossians 1:24 - 2:3; Luke 6: 6-11

Have you heard of the Greek Mythology of Sisyphus - that is what we can be easily reminded of when we read the passage from St. Paul in the first reading today. The Greek mythology is about the character called Sisyphus who receives a curse to push a boulder up the hill, only for the boulder to roll back to the foot of the hills. And he would begin it all over again. He would carryout that meaningless and endless routine all his existence! The existentialist, Albert Camus (in 1945) would compare that to human suffering and write an entire work. 

St. Paul's words in today's reading, to the Colossians sounds much like it, when he says, I have to suffer for you and for the Laodiceans without having even seen your faces. But Paul never ever felt it was meaningless or endless. He had a definitive purpose and he was so fulfilled about all the suffering that he underwent.

What does give meaning to our sufferings? All our laws and regulations, discipline and rules, what really makes them all purposeful? Let us clarify that question to ourselves... it is not what, but who! Yes, it is God who renders them all meaningful and purposeful. 

Without God and God's call and design, suffering is meaningless, pointless and a sheer misery. With God suffering becomes salvific, purposeful and destined towards an ultimate good. It is God who renders our sufferings, our mortifications, our rules, our legalities meaningful. None of these would mean anything, even if we kept them with utmost diligence, if we do not feel close to God. With God suffering is salvific! Without God, like for Sisyphus, our sufferings are mere miseries.

TRUE LOVE...

Connects, Corrects & Conducts

23rd Sunday in Ordinary time - September 10, 2023

Ezekiel 33: 7-9; Romans 13: 8-10; Matthew 18: 15-20

Am I my brother's keeper... is one of the earliest rebellions against God that is recoreded in the Bible. We are placed as sentries over our brothers and sisters, reminds prophet Ezekiel. Each of us is responsible for everyone who struggles or suffers. Every one who suffers, suffers because of someone else! And we are responsible for the one who causes the suffering too! In short... we are responsible for every "other", every situation and every thing that happens around us. We cannot feign ignorance, nor can we justify it. We cannot claim innocence, nor can we really explain it. This is in all Christian sense - TRUE LOVE. 

True Love, or Christ-ian sense of Love, is reciprocal responsibility - responsibility for the well being of each other! We are not saved alone - saints like Don Bosco would teach: we do not go to heaven alone! We are called to live in a community not merely here, even after here! We are created by Love, in love, for love. And this love is not merely a sentimental attachment to each other, but a genuine wishing the good of the other. That is why this True Love has some specific characteristics.

Love Connects beyond differences: Love connects, unites, binds, gathers, creates communion. Anything that does not sincerely promote union of persons and communities, is not love in anyway. Today we have forces in the society, in the world, even within the Church which spread hatred, division, calumny and power plays. They come nowhere close to what Christ taught his own - where two or three are gathered in my name... not divided in my name or fighting in my name or destroying each other in my name! Finally, it is love that constructs the community, builds the people of God and gives rise to the people of the Reign.

Love Corrects without hesitations: Love gathers, yes! But that does not mean it compromises! Love is justice, love is righteousness, love is Godliness -  hence love corrects. When my brother or my sister goes wrong, love reaches out, points out and corrects! Let us take the corollary seriously too: when I do a mistake, my brothers and sisters are obliged to point it out to me. Love requires on my part to accept that correction and set my life right. Love is merciful, forgiving and compassionate - but at the same time, it never compromises, nor rejoices in evil; it is patient and enduring, until everything falls in place. Love makes all efforts to correct the other, however with respect, regard and responsibility.

Love Conducts towards paradise: Love takes us towards the destiny that we are promised - eternal life, the paradise. And the stark fact is: love alone can take us there! That is why St. Paul reminds us today in the second reading, all the commandments are summarised and crystallised in one call that we have received: the call to love our brothers and sisters. Love alone can make me a Christian. Neither my great achievements nor my tremendous sacrifices, neither my competences nor my influential contacts, can really conduct me towards the promised paradise. It is love and love alone, it is true love that conducts me to the eternal reward. 

Love builds a community and the community thus built, is sustained by that same love. True love, connects. corrects and conducts the believers... towards the abode of love, the eternal life promised us, our blessed paradise. 

Allowing God to Work

WORD 2day: Saturday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

September 9, 2023: Colossians 1: 21-23; Luke 6: 1-5

Transforming a person is not difficult for God - Paul today reminds the Colossians how they have been transformed by God, from foreigners and enemies to pure, holy and blameless people of God. Yes, transforming a person is not difficult at all for God, provided there is a will on the part of the person to be transformed. The flesh could be weak, but what is needed is the spirit that is willing as Jesus would instruct his disciples.

Jesus found it so hard to make the pharisees and the scribes understand the Good News that he had brought. Hard, not because they were unintelligent nor because they were not able to see what Jesus was trying to tell them, but because they were unwilling to see, they were refusing to change, they had decided not to transform themselves. They did not allow him to make sense to them; they did not allow the truths that Jesus was expounding ever touch them.

We have today the sacraments and various other helps to pull ourselves up, make ourselves over and transform ourselves constantly in spite of our weaknesses, but we fail. Not because we cannot, but only because we do not want to, we do not will to. When we allow God to work in our lives, continuously pulling ourselves up and resuming our journey with the Lord, the Lord will surely transform us. That is the beautiful word we have in the responsorial, let us say it with faith: I have God for my help, but let us say with a readiness in our hearts and our minds to allow God to work on us!

Called according to God's Purpose

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 8, 2023: Nativity of our Blessed Mother
Micah 5: 1-4a (or) Romans 8: 28-30; Matthew 1: 18-23

The readings prescribed for the feast do not speak to us directly of Mary... but they have a truth which our Blessed Mother teaches us very strongly. The truth is: the choice that God has made for us! As St.Paul would say writing to the Ephesians, God chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world! The Birth of Mary signals in utter silence the beginning of the climax of God's plan of salvation. 

Here we have the mystery involved in this feast. We enshrine within ourselves a marvellous design which we ourselves are not aware of. Mother Mary is a splendid example for us to learn from. From eternity God has chosen us for a particular purpose and each of us has to discern that purpose.

Birthday of our Blessed Mother is a beautiful occasion to reflect on our state of being called - each of us is called, called according to God's purposes. God has a purpose for which he has put me into this world at this time and at this place, in a context so specific with a purpose so specific. There can be problems, discouragements, disturbances and even disasters, but I would have fulfilled my purpose if I learn to, and manage to, live my life to the full, refusing to be curtailed by the negativities around me, finding always the best way of responding to the situation that I am faced with.

When will I be able to do that? Only when I am convinced that there is a purpose to my life, when I believe that I have been created with a purpose, that I have been loved into existence with a magnificent plan which I may now know at present, but will slowly get to understand. Mary is a standing example for this and that is what we celebrate today - that moment when the world beheld her, her who was called into existence with a great purpose, the salvation of the universe!

Light, Freedom and the Reign

WORD 2day - Thursday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

September 7, 2023: Colossians 1: 9-14; Luke 5: 1-11

The Lord has taken us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the Reign of the Son that God loves, in him we gain our freedom! Beautiful words that St. Paul shares with us today. He underlines the process in which we grow in our life of faith.

Growth begins with the Light of God shed on the events of life, things we do not understand, circumstances that confuse us, failures that confound us and experiences that go beyond our control. The people who were in search and in expectation and the boatmen who failed to net any fish all night see the light in the Words of Christ.

The light thus shed leads us to a holistic comprehension of life where we grow to make choices that are Godly, choices that are acceptable to God, choices that pertain to the Reign of God. The people find solace in the words and boatmen choose to do what Jesus said in spite of their experience. The choice leads them to become what they were called to be.

The choice for the Reign is expressed in the inner freedom that persons experience once they belong to the Reign... the freedom with which the disciples left everything and followed Christ, the freedom with which Paul became a slave to Christ, the freedom with which I am called to stand for Christ and speak up for the Reign today.

Let us pray today that we receive the light of Christ to experience the inner freedom to belong to the Reign, in our daily life.

Spreading Good News is Spreading Love

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

September 6, 2023: Colossians 1: 1-8; Luke 4: 38-44

Today's first reading sounds more like a loving letter of a member of a family to the family than a formal sharing of the Word of God. In the mind of Christ, this is true proclamation - he goes to Peter's family, shares his care and love there, cures Peter's mother in law, the rest of the sick in the neighbourhood and spreads love and joy! This is what true proclamation means, unlike what some accuse the Christians of, specially in countries like India - a stealthy way of increasing numbers, or what even some Christian groups themselves feel - an itching aggression to add to their number and increase the membership of their so called church.

Speaking to the people of Mongolia a couple of days ago, the Holy Father said, "the Church is not bent on conversion!" It does not mean that the Church does not care about proclamation or announcing the Good news but it means that the Church is not worried about winning people over to itself or increasing its numbers, instead seeks to share the experience of the goodness, the love and the care of God. 

Spread love, you spread the Word automatically and powerfully. You strive to force the Word on people, but fail to truly love, you block the Word from really spreading. When you spread love, and spread the word about love, you spread the Word, your spread the Good News. Because, Good News is Christ and Christ is love!

The Spirituality of Keeping Awake!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 5, 2023 - Celebrating Mother Teresa of Kolkata

1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6, 9-11; Luke 4: 31-37

It is an interesting anecdote to recall - the story said about a man who asked a Zen master, 'what would you do if the world begins to end right now?' The Master who was just drinking a cup of tea, looked up at him and said without panic, 'I would continue to taste this tea.' That is the spirituality that Paul and Jesus speak of today. To remain awake, alert, active always is the key to face the worst of events in life.

Mother Teresa of Kolkata was a living example of it. The enormous work that she had accomplished in her lifetime, and against all the odds that she faced, is an everlasting testament of how alert and awake she was to do good to others. She was never taken up with the fact that she was doing a great job... she always felt she was doing what she could. But the Lord was using her mightily. Her part lay in the way she cooperated with God's will to bring about the best in any situation. The secret that helped her was, not waiting for the ideal situation to do good, but to do it in whatever way you can, whenever you can. That is why she said, 'you need not do great things for God; but do the ordinary things with great love!'

The Spirituality of keeping awake is nothing but being alert to any situation that presents itself to do good. Whether we think it is small or judge it big, we are called to do whatever is within our capacity to make a difference in the lives of the needy and the suffering. Mother Teresa shines as a brilliant icon of God's compassion. Let us develop within us a heart for the needy, the suffering, the lonely and the oppressed -'those in the periphery' as Pope Francis would remind us.

You get only what you decide

WORD 2day: Monday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

September 4, 2023: 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Luke 4: 16-30

Pscychology speaks so much about positive thinking and about the power of thoughts. You get what you have always wished for! At times by our negative wishing we lose the good that can happen to us and by positive wishing we experience things that can seem almost miracles. Is it merely will power and coincidence? Not at all, establishes the Word today.

We are immortal, in as much as we are in Christ. This is Christian belief, but at times we do not behold or perceive ourselves to be eternal beings... we commit sins and await punishment; we give into the worldly living and await our end, a definitive end...but we can never leave. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ - tribulations, distress, persecutions, hunger, nakedness, death - nothing, absolutely nothing. But when one repeatedly laments for things that have happened in life, it is likely that similar experiences repeat themselves too.

The simple fact that we are reminded of is, that the Lord has great things in store for us, from ordinary blessings to eternal life - what we need to do is remain firm in faith, that is, decide to magnify the Lord for all the good that you receive, because you get only what you decide.

THE MEANING OF CHRISTIAN SUFFERING

What justifies our sufferings?

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - September 3, 2023

Jeremiah 20: 7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16: 21-27

Time and again the young people get carried away with some trending challenges. A little more than a half decade, there was a craze of a challenge... it caused more than 140 deaths around the world, more than a hundred of them in parts of Russia and India. It was called the Blue Whale Challenge, a game app that involved a 50-day challenge, ranging from simple embarrassments and self-injuries to the final day challenge of committing suicide. And young teenagers were succumbing to it, without counting the cost. A game, an app could demand so much from them and get it done! Could it be after all a cause to die for? Why are the young ready to take such sufferings upon themselves? Some say they feel the thrill... isn’t that sadistic! Some say once they get in, they are not able to get out of it, they are threatened... doesn’t that sound slavish! Some say it gives them that shot of adrenaline making them feel high...a type of an addiction!

We have others too who suffer...we had Nelson Mandela who served a term of 27 years in prison...we have Bishop Oscar Romero who was killed while celebrating Mass...we have Maxmillian Kolbe who died for the sake of an unknown fellow prisoner...what did these people suffer for? Thrill? Excitement? Slavery? Addiction?

Today Jesus tells us, if anyone wants to follow me, let him pick up his daily cross and follow me... each one of us has his or her own daily crosses, crosses that we have been carrying for years now, crosses that are weighing on our shoulders...but why should we carry them? Why should we suffer? What is the meaning of this suffering? That is the question we will answer today: what is the significance, the meaning of Christian Suffering?

Christian Suffering should be out of Unquenchable Passion: As Jeremiah shares his plight today - he feels he is deceived by the Lord but still he is not able to leave the Lord because he has an unquenchable thirst for the Word, an unquenchable passion for the Will of God. That is worth any amount of suffering. He knows it well. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, to them belongs the Reign of God.

Christian Suffering is for the sake of the Ultimate Truth: The Ultimate Truth is God, God's will, the eternal design that God has in mind. Christian Suffering should be for the sake of discovering that ultimate truth, God's will - this is what Paul reminds us of in today's second reading. Even if the whole world stands against it, Truth will never cease to be. And when I decide to stand for the Truth, I belong to Christ. I have to suffer, but I stand for that Ultimate Truth.

Christian Suffering is towards Universal Good: At times people come to protest and complain only when they are affected and they have something to gain. That is a self centered suffering and falls short an important criterion to be called a Christian Suffering. To be Christian, the suffering should be towards an Universal Good. Jesus gave his body and blood, not because he had no other go, not because he felt a thrill out of it but because he fulfilled God's will for the salvation of the entire humanity, for the universal salvation of humankind. 

The sufferings we undergo in our daily life should not be merely for food and drink and for ease and comfort. It should be an expression of our unquenchable passion, for the sake of the ultimate truth that is God's will and towards universal good that every one may know God and be saved!

 

Know God that God may know you!

WORD 2day: Friday, 21st week in Ordinary time

September 1, 2023: 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-8; Matthew 25: 1-13

Pagans are those who do not know God, defines Paul and according to his definition when they do not know God, they do not know what God expects of them.When they do not know what God wants of them, they will be ill prepared in their life to meet God and respond to God's invitation. When they fall short of it and get left behind the closed doors, the Lord would declare that he knows them not too!

Struggling to measure up to the call that we have from the Lord, is perfectly human but making a farce of it by willful and unrepentant compromises is devilish. And the Lord will find himself so far away from these sort of people - that is the warning today. The Lord gives enough reminders and reprimands, that we may repent in time and turn to authentic response to God's call. 

If I say, I find it difficult to respond to the call the Lord has given me, I am being sincere! But if I say I do not know what God wants of me, I am being a liar. All of us know what the Lord wants of us at any point of time in our life - inspite of all the enormous challenges we may have. We may find it difficult to do what the Lord wants, or we may find ourselves in a pressure not to do what the Lord wants, but we know well what the Lord expects of us. It may be in details, but the ultimate call is to BE HOLY and I have no other option! We know that God wants! We know God! We need to admit that we know, that God may not say, "I do not know you!" Let us know God, that GOd may know us!