SALVATION BY DEFAULT?

Autosave and Autorecovery, yes... but Salvation not automatic!

October 8, 2023: 27th Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 5: 1-7; Philippians 4: 6-9; Matthew 21:33-43

'Are you saved?' - this is one disturbing question that has to be removed from the non-catholic, pentecostal lexicon! We often see this phrase on the lips of the non-catholic, specially those who belong to the pentecostal sects and varied denominations other than the mainline churches. That question, should kind of intrigue us, and at the same time challenge us! Let us understand this first. 

Salvation: as sons and daughters of Christ, we should be confident of it, because the Lord has saved us by his blood. That is why that question should intrigue us! But can we take 'being saved' for granted, that whatever I may do or not do, I will be saved? That is a true challenge that this question inspires, but answers have to be sincere and genuine; and such sincere and genuine answers will of course lead to transformation, both personal and universal! Though it lacks wholeness and truth in its entirety, the point that these denominational brethren try to make is the second understanding we just referred to. How challenged do we feel about receiving the salvation from the Lord? Are we eager to be SAVED? 

Look at that question once again - to be saved! In today's computerised digital language we can imagine an explanation in these lines: do you want to be saved - don't expect that to happen by default! Every time the computer asks you, do you want to save? And you need to say, yes! Allegorically, even in our spiritual parlance, there is no Salvation by default! 

It is true that there is an Auto-save Option at work - Yes, the very fact that we are the chosen children of God we are automatically saved! God has chosen us and named us after Godself, and made us God's own people. As Peter would say "once you were not a people; but now you are God's people" (1 Pet 2:10); we are made "children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17)! This is what is theologically known as 'Objective Salvation'...the possibility of salvation that is open to ALL people! God wishes EVERYONE to be saved, says the Word of God (1 Tim 2:4), yes by the very fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God, we are eligible for that salvation. 

In our computer lingo, this is what we refer to as Auto-save option, but for auto-saving, something should have been done which could be saved. The Lord had made us the Lord's vineyard, but have we proved to be vineyards or are we merely a plot of useless thistles? What we sow, that we reap; the Lord has sown and looks forward to see vines; is it not justified and mandatory that we put forth our fruits? What is there will be saved...that is the auto-save option! Our efforts to live-up to our calling and our identity as children of God - that is what will define us. 

It is also true that there is an Auto-Recovery Option at work - just as it happens when we work at a computer, at times we fail, we hang, we crash, we shut down without warning and alas, lose data! But we need not totally panic. There is an auto-recovery option that is on, isn't it? "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fallback into fear" (Rom 8:15), and that is why St. Paul advises us, "do not worry about anything" (Phil 4:6), but to cast behind us what has been and strain forward (Phil 3:13) towards that crown of salvation prepared for us! Everything will be recovered, everything will be brought back, reconciled in Christ our salvation; he is the auto-recovery option that is on (cf. Col 1:20). 

But, be attentive... if something has to be recovered, it should have been there! Again our efforts to belong to Christ (cf. Col 2:20), our efforts to bear fruit, to make most of the short time we have (cf. Eph 5:15,16)... all these count. Auto-recovery option is fine, but it is when there has been some solid work that has been done. We can cast behind our back our limitations and shortcomings, but only if there is within us an abundance of good will to belong to God and a unquenchable thirst to unite with the Lord. The Lord is always there beside us to recover us from whatever we lose ourselves into, but on our part we are expected to have built already a relationship with the Lord, a loving relationship, a childlike relationship, so that we could keep the channel open for the love of God to act in, through and on our behalf. 

The crucial point, therefore, that we have to keep in mind is, though auto-save and auto-recovery are options, salvation is never by default! We have to work it out, on a daily basis! "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", says St. Paul (Phil 2:24). We are called to live in a situation that is surrounded by all sorts of choices; what choices do we make? A tree will be known by its fruits, it is said; what fruits do we put out? 

We are weak, we are limited and we have our shortcomings - no one can deny that. But in spite of these, are we prepared to "overcome evil with good" without being "overcome by evil" that is around? (cf. Rom 12:21). We need to show it by our efforts and by the fruits, however small, that these efforts produce. We have to be transformed into the image of the One after whom we are fashioned. Salvation is never by defalut; it is by our choices (choice of what is true, what is honourable, what is just, what is pure and so on), and by our faithfulness to the call that we have received. 

Let us take stock of our daily living and be transformed into true and fruitful vineyards of the Lord.

To return... but how?

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

October 7, 2023: Baruch 4: 5-12,27-29; Luke 10: 17-24

'For just as you by your will strayed away from God, return with tenfold zeal to seek him' (Bar 4:28), instructs the first reading today. The key to understand the so-called discrepancy between the Old Testament thinking and the New Testament theology lies here. While we can be surprised at a 'punishing' and a 'revengeful' God that the people of the Old Testament thought of, we understand from the verses like the above that we are responsible for all the calamities that we bring on ourselves, by our priorities and choices, not only individually but also collectively - it is unfortunate that some who are innocent too face the brunt due to the rest! 

It is high time that we realise that 'blessed are those eyes that see what we see, and the ears that hear what we hear'... if only we can take the cue from things that happen around us, we will readily return to the Lord, with tenfold zeal! 

Returning is another theme that repeats itself in the Word today - first returning from places far from God and the second returning from the mission given by God: to which return are we referring to with regard to ourselves - are we far from God to decide to return to the Lord? Or are we on a mission, bearing the name of God and spreading God's mercy and love to return to the Lord for a justful recompense? 

The requirement that is crucial here - is that we see, and that we hear, and that returning to the Lord is possible only in true faith!

Integrity or Shame?

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

October 6, 2023: Baruch 1:15-22; Luke 10:13-16

Everyone has always, the choice to make between Integrity and Shame. There is a tendency among people to believe that is more important to be careful, than to be right. That is a dangerous tendency.

People choose to be right not because they are convinced of being right but because they do not want to get into trouble. Be it obeying traffic rules, or paying tax returns, or keeping to the social agreements or carrying out one's assigned duties - in everything of this sort, people choose to do things in order to avoid consequences than to be true to their selves and to their calling. 

Can we follow the same logic with the Lord who knows even our innermost thoughts, our unsaid words and our hidden motives? Here arises the whole concept of integrity: being right for the sake of being right, doing something because it is right than because it is acceptable, living out of conviction than in view of convenience. 

Obeying God has to come out of conviction, that is integrity. If I make use of the name of God and the practices pertaining to God for social acceptability or for my hidden agenda, I am far from integrity and the ultimate consequence will be shame. I live either in constant pressure of pleasing others or in constant fear of shame. 

The Word counsels us today: Integrity frees me of this because truth will set you free! Look up to the Lord and you will never be put to shame!

The Word Gladdens

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 5, 2023: Celebrating St.Faustina Kowalska 

Nehemiah 8: 1-12; Luke 10: 1-12

The Word gladdens the heart because the Word is the Mercy of God, the Word is the Divine Mercy that revealed itself to St. Faustina Kowalska! When Ezra proclaimed the Word, along with the other levites and the priests, the people cried, not because they were sad but because they were gladdened by the Word. When Jesus sent his disciples to carry the good news to the villages two by two, he commissioned them to cure, heal and exorcise because taking the Word meant taking gladness to the people.

The Word gladdens one's heart so much that it changes the lives of the one's who hear and understand it. The people heard it and when they understood it they wept, out of joy and gladness for the goodness that the Lord had shown them. The same happened to Sr. Faustina... she was so gladdened by the Word that she left everything and followed the Word.

Helena Kowalska, who lived in Krakow, was 19 when she had the vision of the Crucified Lord and that was during a dance with her friends! She was transformed and that very night she left everything, her old life, her firends, her family, her place and moved to Warsaw, 85 kms away, because the Word told her. New place, strange circumstances but her heart was full of the vision and finally she landed up with the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. The reason for the choice: she knew only that she was being led there. Soon the reason was clear too. By 22 she professed in the congregation as Sr. Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament (Faustina meant 'the fortunate one') and in 1931 her visions of Jesus as the King of Mercy began. The devotion to Divine Mercy began with these visions and today we know how profound this devotion has become. 

The Word, listened to and understood, gladdens our heart and changes our lives. How attentive is our listening, how humble is our understanding and how committed is our love for the Word?

The Marks of Christ: gentleness and humility

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 4, 2023: Celebrating St. Francis of Assisi
Galatians 6: 14-18; Matthew 11: 28-30

Francis of Assisi is considered a man who managed the maximum resemblance to Christ in his life, not so much due to the marks of the stigmata that he received from the Lord, but more due to the marks of Christ that he lived all his life - that is Gentleness and Humility. Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart, invites Jesus in the Gospel today.

Specially today, with the rising fanaticism around the world, we are called to imitate that gentleness and humility of the self emptying Lord. We are not here referring only to the fanatic terrorists who are threatening the peace of the world, but even to the fanatics in the garb of Christians, people who are insisting on rules and rubrics, legalities and orthodoxy, the ego and hierarchy, to such an extent that mercy and understanding, dialogue and compassion find no place within the practice of faith and religion. People refuse to see the truth that dialogue is not diluting, compassion is not compromise, instead dialogue and compassion are the ways to bear Christ to the world today, a world that is so torn by fundamentalism and inhumanity.

Francis came at a time when the Church was wounded due to various spiritual calamities within the Church in the 10th and the 11th century and he treated those wounds with the compassion of the Lord, the humility of the Son of God and the peace of the Prince of Peace. He showed us that the marks of Christ that all of us can bear in our life, are exactly these: to be instruments of peace, through love, pardon, faith, hope, light, joy, consolation and new life.

May St. Francis assist us to understand the difference between true holiness and self righteousness, the distance between love and legalism and the need to grow towards becoming Christ ourselves!

Knowing God is from within!

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

October 3, 2023: Zechariah 8: 20-23; Luke 9: 51-56

Though Evangelisation is one great mission that is entrusted to every person who knows God, it is not a means to force anyone to get to know God. One cannot know God by force. In fact, attempting to make people know God by force only works against the very objective. Knowing God has to happen! It should come from within. 

The concerned person needs to feel the presence of God in and through the persons around, the situation around and the experiences that happen. Hence, evangelisation essentially is not making people know God but making people see what I have known about God, how I know God, and as what I know God to be!

Once I really experience God, know God and fall in love with God, people around me see the experience that makes such a difference for me, they wish to get to know God from me and begin to love the One whom I love, on their own. This is true evangelisation, and that comes from within because, without any doubt, knowing God is from within. 

Knowing God is not an easy task, nor is it a pleasant one at that because just as Jesus fixing his gaze towards Jerusalem, it takes us through challenges and struggles! It is a mission in itself and we are indeed created for it - to know God, to love God and to experience God from within, in the core of our beings.

God's ever present guidance

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

October 2, 2023: Celebrating the Guardian Angel
Zechariah 8: 1-8; Matthew 18: 1-5,10

The readings today speak to us of God walking with the people, being with the people, walking the people to the new land... these are experiences of God that people have had in history that is enshrined in terms of the Guardian Angels. 

In celebrating the guardian angels to whose care each of us is entrusted, we recognise and wonder at God's incessant presence and unfailing guidance! In the Gospel today, Jesus refers to that phenomenon and invites us to believe, accept and respect the presence of God through the Angels with us in our daily life. 

When we stand by the little ones, guide the confused, redirect the faltering, strengthen the tired, hold firm the drooping, uplift the downtrodden, encourage the heart broken, we would be playing Angels to these because we would be doing exactly what the Lord wants to do to them, we would be representing God's presence to them. 

This is what the Lord wants us to do: to feel the presence of the Lord when we are on a down trip, and to be the presence of the Lord when we notice someone on a losing ground. Let us believe in the Guardian Angels, experience the guardian angels and play the guardian angels!

THE CONTRAST COMMUNITY

True People of the Reign

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 1, 2023
Ezekiel 18:25-28; Philippians 2: 1-11; Matthew 21: 28-32

The whole of last week, the Word has been challenging us towards rebulding the ruins, in terms of establishing the Reign of God, calling our attention to the fact of being deserving or not, towards being people of the Reign. Today we have another teaching, the need to choose between the constrasts, present in our day to day expereience that we ccould be true people of the Reign. 

Of what use is it to have been righteous, if we fall from that status in the walk of life. We are painfully reminded of persons in today's scenario who were once upon a time recognised by the whole world as persons of peace and persons dedicated to justice and truth... but the very same persons when they join hands with the evil, either actively supporting it or by remaining mysteriously mute, thus passively allowing it. Is it not much better to have been been sinners, who repent from their prior experiences and reorganise their lives in sincerity and grow more and more acceptable in the eyes of God? This is what Ezekiel presents to us today: it is better to be penitent sinners than to be fallen righteous.

Being leaders does not make us by default important people. Once again, the leaders we witness in today's scenario prove to be sheer counter witnesses of the values that they claim to uphold. Threatening the whole world with military powers, creating cross border tensions with non-stop insinuations causing indignance and misunderstanding, joining hands with the affluent and being part of an agenda that serves the powerful few instead of the entire humanity - these have become our daily experiences these days. What are these but self conceited treacherous elements, who care nothing about the common good and world peace? 

There is another group we can see in the society, those around us, who get down to the streets and protest this madness; they put their own life at stake for the good of the common persons;  they don't mind losing time, energy, livelihood, comfort and consolation, provided they can make their choice for good, clear, strong and uncompromised. They are like Christ who was ready to empty himself of everything for the sake of God's will. 

The choice is ours today: to be on the way of the self conceited leaders or to be self emptying servants - we know well, which of these choices takes us closer to the Reign, according to the mind of Christ.  

At times we run the risk of speaking too much, promising too much, propagating ourselves too much and justifying ourselves too much by our words and arguments. It would not be long before we realise how hypocritical we can get. 

Just because we are outspoken, we need not be right. At times in the name of being straight forward, we end up being rude - it is a choice, a choice between truth and self righteousness. One is saying the truth in such a way that it can be taken, while the other is saying the truth in such a way that I wish to establish it that only I know it. 

Preaching, judging, "filial correcting", all these are fine... but to what end? They are like the first son in the parable who shows off that he is so obedient and trustworthy by his empty words! Empty words and arguments won't take us far. What is important is to convert, to repent, to rethink our lives, look from Jesus' eyes, put on the mind of Christ, think as He would, act as He would, decide as He would and choose as He would... it is to be silent and to go on doing the will of the Father - a silent servant rather than an outspoken hypocrite!

We are caught between contrasts today. We need to make up our minds, each of us, to which community we would like to belong - to those persons who are on the side of power and domination or to the community of persons who are struggling to make themselves heard, who are suffocated due to their hunger and thirst for true justice, who are trying to voice their feeble cry towards true peace and well being of all. 

If I have to be truly close to the Reign I need to choose between these contrasts: to be a penitent sinner than to be a fallen self-righteous bigwig, to be a self emptying servant than to be a self conceited leader, and to be a silent convert than to be an outspoken hypocrite! 

The Glory and the Cross

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 30, 2023: Celebrating St. Jerome 

Zechariah 2: 5-9,14-15; Luke 9: 43-45

For a true Christian, glory and the cross have to coexist constantly. One cannot lose himself or herself in the glory of a moment, being misled into orientations that do not help his or her ultimate salvation. At times this is seen very much in people who are in a position to claim glory from things that happen around them. Think of the leaders, or even our own parish priests and other pastors who are so keen on putting up buildings and structures that would speak of their glory for generations... to a detrimental effect on their pastoral care of the people entrusted to them! 

Don't be carried away, Jesus warns the disciples. He says, beyond this glory and praise, there is suffering which is the only way to salvation. Striving for it, taking control of our passions and inclinations, making choices that are difficult and never losing sight of the ultimate goal towards which we are all traversing, are the essential marks of a true Christian. Even amidst the glories that come along, these orientations should never be lost. 

Looking at the Saint we celebrate today, St. Jerome, who was a contemporary of St. Augustine and had written as much as Augustine himself. The first translation of the entire Bible into Latin was by Jerome. A queer fact we could well be fascinated is, looking at some of the paintings of Jerome, where we see a skull all the time around him, either on his bed or on his working table. And what was the reason - that is what we are reflecting on, from the Word today: to never lose sight of the ultimate goal we are moving towards. As a hermit, Jerome often reminded himself of death and that is the symbolism of the skull. He would remind himself that death is always around and he cannot lose his orientation in life. He fixed his eyes on the will of God and fulfilled it to perfection, putting up with numerous difficulties for the sake of the Word and the Will of God. The reminder is clear: glory and the cross are two sides of the same coin of salvation!

Angels - Manifestations of God

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 29, 2023: Celebrating the Archangels - Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

Daniel 12:7-12; John 1: 47-51

Angels are extensions of God; they are concrete manifestations of the presence and interventions of God. This is what the Word tells us. If we really understand them so, let us look at the kind of manifestation that the Lord gives us.

Michael is the Strength of God, the power and the sovereignty that God has. Who looks upto power and strength? Those who are weak, those who are downtrodden. God manifests, through Angel Michael, that God stands by those who are weak and exploited.

Gabriel is the Good News of God, the message of joy and salvation. Who is in need of a good news? Those who find themselves in need, enslaved and suffering, heavy laden and hopeless, who look up to the Lord for a ray of Hope. Angel Gabriel is the assurance of God, the good news that the heavy laden need to hear. 

Raphael is the Healing of God, the compassionate touch of God. Obviously, those who need a healing are those who are sick, those who find it hard to live their life to the full. God chooses to reach out to the sick, the sinners, those who are struggling to remain true to their calling - Raphael is the concrete sign of this presence.

God reveals to the world, and today's world should take it seriously, that God stands by, stands for, stands with the downtrodden, with those who are in darkness and those who are spiritually and physically sick. 

We are called today, not only to see and to celebrate the Angels climbing up and down the ladder of God's mediation, but to be Angels ourselves... that is, to stand by the downtrodden, the desperate and the diseased. They need the Lord and we need be the Lord's manifestation. Are we convinced of it?