Expecting the Reign - Be Hopeful

THE WORD IN ADVENT - First week Tuesday

December 5, 2023: Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 10: 21-24 

Expectation is all about hope! Expecting the Reign consists of hoping, not just hoping, but hoping against hope. St. Paul uses this phrase in relation to Abraham, as someone who hoped against hope (Romans 4:18). Expecting without hope is such a disappointing and schizofrenic act, don't you think? 

Today the Word gives a subtle imagery of this type of hope, hope in the face of possible hopelessness. Is it not needed today when we see so much violence around, so much disrespect for human persons and communities, so much hatred in the air, and so much of sectarianism spread with hidden agenda? The imagery is in the very first line of the first reading: the shoot from the stock of Jesse, the scion from the roots! The stock of Jesse... imagine a shoot: where do we find them? In the newest of branches in a tree, or in the roots? Here we see the scion from the roots. Which means it is a tree that is cut to its stock, to its roots... a case of having given up on it. But there thrusts a scion from the roots! That is hope against hope!

Jesus in the Gospel, who is already tired of his failure to make the great learned ones and those in authority understand his message - in a state when he has to lose hope, rejoices! "I bless you Father," he gladly exclaims, that the Lord has made the children, the little ones understand the truth. Expecting the unexpected is the hope of Advent. Look at all the imageries given by Isaiah in the first reading, for the Reign of God. 

The first week of advent is dedicated to the theme of hope and today we have that message strong: to hope! To be hopeful is a necessary trait of those who truly expect the Reign!

Expecting the Reign - Be Prepared

THE WORD AND THE FEAST - First Monday of Advent 

December 4, 2023 - Celebrating the Feast of St. Francis Xavier

Ezekiel 3: 17-25; 1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23; Mark 16: 15-20

These are not the readings of the Advent week day, because in India we commemorate today the feast of St. Francis Xavier, a great missionary, apostle and prophet who spearheaded the new phase of evangelisation of India in the 16th century. However, we need not deviate much from the advent perspective, as the ardent evangeliser too has a great advent message to offer us. 

We started the first week of Advent with a project yesterday - expecting the Reign! Expecting the Reign primarily is being prepared for the Reign and all its exigencies. We have a great example in Francis Xavier who was prepared, prepared for everything and more than prepared for even laying down his life for the announcement of the Goodnews.

Ezekiel today insists on how proclaiming God's word and "warning" the wicked generation is a demand placed on an apostle of the Word. Reiterates that St. Paul in his letter, underlining that it would be a reason of woe not to proclaim the Word. The Gospel reminds us of this command coming directly from the Lord and Master himself. 

Especially in the second reading from St. Paul we find a incredible description of the traits of a true apostle or evangeliser - "to be all things to all people". That is being prepared, being ready for any challenge or any demand - and for what? For my own good, for my appreciation, for a recognition of myself? No, for the sake of the call that I have received. 

One mindset that we need to cultivate during this advent is - to be prepared, to grow in our preparedness, our readiness for anything, for the sake of the "Message" entrusted to us - the Good News to all creation!

ADVENT - EXPECTING THE REIGN

The Return, Restlessness and Reckoning

First Sunday of Advent - December 3, 2023

Isaiah 63:16-17,64:1,3-8; 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13: 33-37

A new year - a new beginning and a new spirit - that is what this day offers us. It is undoubtedly resonant with the new heavens and the new earth - the Reign that is promised by the Lord, not just promised but already inaugurated. We may say that there are no signs of it whatsoever - with the conflicts of war and violence, with the conglomerations of evil and unjust structures and corporates which are draining the world of its humanness, with the confusions that exist in the moral behaviour of individuals and groups, where can we find the Reign? That is indeed a pertinent question and let us reflect on what it means to Expect the Reign, if that is the journey we are setting out on, this day. 

Expecting the Reign: The key to the season of Advent is Waiting! Waiting, though it is not part of its inherent meaning, may sound a bit passive. That is why there is a more invovled, gripping, active and indulgent sense offered through the term, Expecting. Expecting the Reign therefore wishes to add an element more, to waiting that is so characteristic of this season of Advent. And the added element can be seen presented in vividly in the readings today, in terms of a return, a restlessness and a reckoning!

Return: We see this term used in the first reading. Isaiah echoes the longing of the people praying God to return! "Return Lord, for the sake of your servants," he says, "Oh that you would tear the heavens open and come down!" That is a yearning cry to the Lord to Return. This cry has to be taken with an added consideration: does the Lord ever leave us? Never. The Lord has promised us so, there is no gainsaying it. But the feeling of the distance from the Lord, as the prophet presents, is true indeed! Hence the return is not so much the return of the Lord, as much as our return to the Lord. It is our return that we are called the project and programme this season... our return to the Lord, that makes us feel the closeness to God yet again in our day to day experiences. A return to integrity - that is the call that is placed before us as a project for this season, if we wish to see and experience the return of the Lord, the coming of the Reign!

Restlessness: Waiting for the Reign is not a lethargic slumber awaiting the first rays of the dawn. Expecting the Reign, is doing my part that the Reign may be experienced here and now. Doing my part with the same restlessness with which the prophet cries out and wishes a tearing open of the heavens. St. Paul, through his words to the Corinthians, reminds us that we have been given with all that is needed, to wait actively, to expect the Reigh proactively! We have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we have teachers and preachers to instruct us, we have all the ways in which the Lord continuosly speaks to us, convicts us and challenges us to embark upon that journey towards integrity. We need to feel that restlessness within us, to work our way to this integrity, because that is the only way that the Reign can be made present here in this world. The Lord has repeatedly taught us, the Reign is not an otherworldly reality that will descend upon this earth. It is amidst us, it is within us, it is us, growing in our integrity. 

Reckoning: Let us not be complacent and callous about this call to integrity! Expecting the Reign involves a sense of urgency. Let us not think that there is an entire eternity to work on this call - to make the Reign present here and now! We have limited time and that is why the Lord warns us: stay awake! For you know not the time when "the master will return". You pray for the Return of the Lord, and Return the Lord shall! For certain the Lord shall come - but when that happens it will not only be a time of rejoicing, but also a time of reckoning! Each of us have to render an account about the call we have received and response we have managed. It is not merely how much I have accomplished, but how willing and awake I have been all the while that counts. This is integrity, and known only to myself and my Lord - that is the reckoning! The season of advent is a reminder of this challenge - wake up, shake up... buckle up and keep up! Keep the journey going... yes, it is a life journey. 

Advent is not an event; it is not a festival. Advent is a journey, a journey towards the Reign. Te Reign is amidst us! Expecting its revelation, is a journey of return, with a sense of restlessness and an urgency of the reckoning that awaits us. Let us begins this journey well and make it to that beautiful moment of receiving the Lord amidst us, the moment of rediscovering the Reign.  

Stay awake; Stay strong; Stay calm!

WORD 2day: Saturday, Last day of the Ordinary time

December 2, 2023 - Daniel 7: 5-27; Luke 21: 34-36

The talks of the end of the world,  while every other day there is an earthquake happening in some part, sporadic apprehensions about dreadful ones, or threats of Tsunami or other natural disasters causing the end of the world, or the claims of an ever present fear of a nuclear threat... these are no unfamiliar discussions. There is crisis everywhere with thousands rendered refugees on a daily basis in more than a few zones of the world... 

Let us say, there is so much signalling the end... but the message of the Lord is totally something else. Look at everything that is going on and you have something to take home as your lesson - the Word says. If I do not stay awake, I will not gather the fruits of what is going by. Staying awake is crucial. 

Yes, the last day is here...the last day of the Ordinary time... it gives the feeling of an end of a journey, but ofcourse it is not just the end! It is a new beginning too, with tomorrow. The beginning came and the end has come... and there will be a beginning tomorrow.

What follows is, again, not all that flowery. It is a waiting, a waiting that is tedious, a waiting that can be trying, a waiting that is a bit painful. St Paul compared it to the pangs of child birth. Yes, only those who stay strong will endure till the end. Staying strong is crucial too.

The liturgical year ends today with an all new phase of challenge to begin: stay awake; stay strong above all that, stay calm! Mary did. She was calm as she waited and today we are called to wait like her!

Stay Awake, Stay Strong, Stay Calm. The end may be around. But the Lord is here!

That which shall never pass!

WORD 2day: Friday, last week in Ordinary time

December 1, 2023 - Daniel 7: 2-14; Luke 21: 29-33

Where is your hope, your strength, your assurance? On Money, it shall liquidify. Power, it shall drift away. Things, they shall pass away. Persons, they shall abandon you someday. Today, it is used as a pain reliever statement: 'this too will pass'. But beware! That shall be your sad predicament too - everything shall pass away! 

That is why, the need for something, something that will never pass away. The recurring theme of today is a reference to something that is here to stay, never to pass away... the Lord's Word, the Lord's Reign, the Lord's sovereignty.

The final word will always be the Lord's! Calamities, Persecutions, Demoralisations these are what we see in the case of all those who had to pay with their blood, the price for their faith in Christ. The first reading foretells the same, finishing however with a note of hope on the eternal dominion of the Son of Man. 

The Gospel reaffirms the hope, from the mouth of the very object of that hope: the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Perseverance is a virtue in imitation of the faithfulness of God. 'Let us never grow tired of doing what is right' (2 Thes 3:13), as the Lord himself who never gets tired of loving us! 

Things may appear to be going totally out of sway, or nothing may seem to be under the control of anything spiritual... but never lose heart, God is in charge; God is in control. However bad the signs of the times are, your saviour knows you and to his Reign there is no end. 

Be firm in faith...and cast your hope on that which shall never pass away: the Holy Will of God!

Proclaim Good News from housetops and laptops!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 30, 2023: Remembering St. Andrew the Apostle

Romans 10: 9-18; Matthew 4: 18-22

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" St.Paul quotes this word from the scripture (from Is 52:7), to insist upon the blessedness of being an apostle of the Lord, being sent to bear forth the Word to others.

St. Andrew, the apostle whom we celebrate today, has played a special role during the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It is interesting to note in the Gospels, that Andrew as a disciple of Christ always had the role of bringing good news to persons... he brought the good news of having found Christ to Peter (Jn 1:41); along with Philip, he brought the Greeks to meet Jesus (Jn 12:22); and he brought that boy who gave the five loaves to feed the five thousand (Jn 6:9). Bringing people to Christ; and today bringing people to the Lord, is a special task of an apostle.

The corollary of the task is bringing the Lord to the people, bringing the goodnews to the people, bringing the Word to the people. And every apostle did that without any reserve. They, amidst all the opposition and threat, bore witness to their Master: they were the beautiful feet which brought the good news to the world, to the people, to persons and communities of persons. 

Be it bringing the people to the Lord or bringing the Word to the people, the aim is enabling an encounter! Today the possibilities are plentiful and voluminous - enough just to imagine all the possibilities the social network offers us! In fact, Andrew is proposed as the patron of social network... because he used every opportunity to make Christ known to people and to bring people to Christ. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had described social network as the modern day pulpit and invited us to proclaim Christ not merely from the housetops but also from the laptops... and in Andrew, we have a great role model for it.

May we dedicate today every effort of ours to proclaim the Reign of God, through the social network, a great gift of our times. May we dedicate the social network which offers us such a great promise, that it may forever be an instrument in the hands of God, to bring God's will to fulfillment - to spread good news, to spread happiness, beauty and truth.  

The Writing on your Wall?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 29, 2023 - Daniel 5: 1-6,13-14,16-17,23-28; Luke 21: 5-11

"The writing on the wall" - the familiar phrase in English, has its origin in the first reading today. The meaning is very clear and that is precisely the message of the Word today. It is clear to all of us even as we choose things on a daily basis, to what consequences they will lead us. None of us can claim a total ignorance, while most of us do not want to really accept the fact that we do know the consequences of our choices; unfortunately we feign ignorance and desperately look for someone or something to blame it on. In all sincerity we know that, what we sow, we reap.

Our choices, unfortunately, are conditioned by events and experiences that are momentary - the instant, the immediate, the current, the here and the now! Those are obviously not enough. There are perspectives of life which we do not respect at all - the ultimate, the eternal, the essential - these are considered despicable. The result, our choices and their consequences become so sad and dangerous in the long run.

Our choices of negative tendencies like manipulation, disrespect, abuse, violence and exploitation cannot but lead to situations of hopelessness, darkness and death - King Belshazzar is sadly made aware of it today by Daniel. But there is yet another writing on the wall that is presented: Jesus says, if you choose to belong to me, if you choose to be called my disciples, if you choose to respond to my call, you will be derided, persecuted and even killed, but do not fear; in your endurance you would have won life, life in all its fullness, life from the very author of life, life everlasting!

The key is to become aware of the writing on my wall... even as we make choices that are regular and usual. Look at all the universal phenomena we talk of today: the global warming, the rising totalitarianism, the threatening fanaticism, the crazy arms proliferation... where did all these arise from, if not from our active or passive choices? Yes, let us grow more and more conscientious and aware of the writing on our walls!

To destroy and to build; to stop and to proceed!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 28, 2023 - Daniel 2: 31-45; Luke 21: 5-11

This week's readings have a bi-dimensional orientation - a preparation towards advent (a new beginning) and at the same time a reflection on the end times. This is the real Christian disposition: a bi-dimensional approach to life. 

A reflection on the end times has to be radically open to the new beginnings, lest it becomes a vain  curiosity or a damning fatalism. A focus on the new beginnings, the new earth and new heaven, on the definitive coming of the Reign should have a mature openness towards the end time perspective, lest it remains a simplistic dream of an all-bright future, without any personal commitment that amounts to it. 

There is no use raving about the last days, the end of the world, the Armageddon, the judgement and so on and so forth, as if talking about a football match or a cricket tournament. Dreams, visions and extra natural phenomenon have no value in themselves, unless they help a better living here and now, and a preparation for a more holistic future. 

The first reading and the Gospel today remind us of this need - the need to question ourselves on our life style, our criteria and choices in daily life - whether they are really worthy of the Reign, that which we are called to announce to the world as disciples of Christ! The call that today we are given is, to be daring enough to accept a break down in your life and an eventual restart; to effect a rupture from the old habits and to begin anew; to destroy the old and to build anew; to stop and to proceed. Are we ready?

Choosing God in little things

WORD 2day: Monday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 27, 2023 - Daniel 1: 1-6,8-20; Luke 21:1-4

The world has stereotypical criteria of what is good and what is better; social standards of what makes one good and what makes the other better! The temptation to conform to that social stereotypes is very high and dangerously subtle. Many a times we fall into the trap, though the Word very often warns us, "Do not be conformed to this world" (Rom 12:2), because, "the Lord does not see as the mortals see" (1 Sam 16:7).

That is why, the two tiny coins that the widow drops quietly into the treasury seems more valuable to Jesus than the bags and bags of wealth that the others dump there with such clatter. To be his disciples, "let the same mind be in you, as it was in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5) instructs St. Paul. 

We begin to read from today from the book of Daniel, every day increasingly reminding us of the imminent choice we have to make for the Lord and not for the convention of the world. Daniel was special because of the reason that God's mind was in him, the wisdom of the Lord was in him, that made him shine to the rest of the world. He knew what to choose and what to let go. He knew what really mattered and what did not. He knew what it meant to be faithful to his Master, the Lord, the Almighty.

Maybe, we need to ask the Lord today, to give us that wisdom to see things as the Lord does, with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus and choose the right things and let go of those that are immaterial. 

Choosing the little that truly matter, will win me all that I need - the all that is God!

THE KING - IN HIM WE HAVE THE VICTORY

Through him, with him and in him

November 26, 2023: Solemnity of Christ the King

Ezekiel 34:11-12,15-17; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26,28; Matthew 25: 31-46

To proclaim Christ as King today, is not an easy task - while nations wrestle with each other for supremacy and individuals do anything to keep the crown to themselves! It is a challenge to a true Christian flock today to identify its shepherd as the King, and not just that, King of all kings! The Solemnity of Christ the King reminds of the fact that it is in this King we have the victory.  

The King, in Him we have the victory! That is the song on our lips today, but can that be truly meant? This could very well be our reflection today: can we truly and fully mean it, when we say, In Him we have the Victory? If we truly have to, then we need to understand fully what we say by that proclamation.

The King = The Thorns + The Crown.

When we call him the King, we know that he is a king of a different kind; but are we conscious of it? Are we conscious of whom we are proclaiming as king and the consequences of it. He is not a merely a king with a crown and a throne, but a king with a crown of thorns! Yes, it is only through his thorns did he finally win over the kingdom. 

If we call him our king, we need to look at the priorities of our life - success, dominance, honour and power: can they be my priorities? They are,... for most of us. Shouldn't we become a little more conscious of it? Let us not think of some distant political leader or a disdained pastoral minister. Think of you and me - our little successes, our dominance in our own small relationships, our seeking of honour and recognition, our secret lust for power... these are all priorities against our type of the King! This king will ask us to look at not success but justice, not dominance but service, not honour but humility, not power but sacrifice as our priority! Can we? If we accept that we are of his flock, we have to! 

In Him = Through Him + With Him.

In Him we have the Victory, we say. But what does it mean - In Him. In Cristo, is a very specific term that we need to understand. We see its depth of meaning in the Paul's assertion: "There is no condemnation for those in Christ" (Rom 8:1). No condemnation is what we mean by victory! The term can be understood in the other two terms: through Him and with Him. 

First of all, we need to understand that we are, through Him. Everything is, through Him. When we declare Christ the King of the Universe, we are affirming the fact that Paul teaches: through him everything was created and for him they exist (see Col 1:15-17). When we feel we are doing everything by ourselves, when we begin to attribute all the good to ourselves and all the ills to God, we forget that fact that we are what we are, through Him. The world is full of that tendency today - anything they achieve they take the credit. A problem crops up, they start questioning God and everything that is related!

Secondly to say we are in Christ, we have to be basically with Him. With Christ, is to make the choices that Christ would make, to speak those words that Christ would speak, to do those actions that Christ would do, in short to have the mind of Christ in us. To be with Christ means to step into his shoes, to follow his footsteps, to step on to his feet and be carried in sync with it. 

When we are aware of the fact that we live through him and with that consciousness decide to be with him, we are in him and the victory is certainly ours!

Victory = Righteousness + Salvation

In Him we have the Victory, we say. But what is this Victory? Is it comfort and prosperity? Is it shining lives and glamorous future? Victory we speak of here is righteousness on our part and the gift of salvation that the Lord confers. Righteousness is our life of truth and love, without counting the cost. Yes, at times we think of being righteous as a means to winning something from the Lord - no, it is not! 

Being Righteous is our call and it is our very being, because we are created in the image and likeness of the Lord. Salvation comes as we get closer and closer to God and in that intimate oneness with the Lord, salvation happens. Salvation is not to be procured - as some keep asking that dumb question: 'are you saved'? Everybody is! But I need to make that salvation my lifestyle, my daily experience, my oneness with the Lord! That is the Victory that Christ makes so natural and easy for us, when we are IN HIM. 

Yes... we have a wonderful, majestic and compassionate King, in Him we have the Victory!