Daring to die: absolute commitment to righteousness

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Fifth week

March 18, 2024 -  Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62; John 8: 1-11

Through the desert God leads us to freedom, and we are in the last lap of this journey as we begin the last week before the Holy Week. This week the Word shall lead us through a reflection on what it means to dare to die! And today we have a radical signification: it is an absolute commitment to righteousness.

Let us begin with the first reading - the famous story of Susanna. She had made an absolute choice for righteousness. Come what may, she did not give up her choice for righteousness, she detested any compromise. The result: she was plotted against, cornered, accused falsely and judged to deserve death. What did she do? Looked for ways to redeem herself by hook or by crook? No, she dared to die, for the sake of her commitment to righteousness. She stands an iconic precedence of Jesus Christ, who had done the same - chose to remain righteous and dared to die for it.

Turning our focus to the Gospel - we have another woman here, who had not chosen initially righteousness as her way of life! She was not accused falsely, although there was nothing that warranted the righteousness of those who accused her. What did she do? She had resigned herself to death. She knew she would not live any more, but to her surprise, life was given back to her, with a challenge: go and sin no more! Now what did she do? She chose righteousness, we guess and remained a disciple of Christ! 

The message is clear: our call to righteousness comes from our very identity as children of God. If we made an absolute commitment to righteousness right from the beginning, blessed be the Lord, we shall stand testimonies to the presence of God. But if we had failed or even if we fail repeatedly, there is the call to recommit to righteousness, how ready are we to commit ourselves? That is the question. 

Now the added challenge is: when we commit to righteousness, which in itself is a difficult task, there will be more challenges and crises to face. What would we do? Dare to die? Then we shall rise with the one who is the Eternal Righteousness. We shall rise to glory, but we need to dare to die, in our absolute commitment to righteousness. 

DARING TO DIE, RISING TO GLORY

Law in the hearts, tears in the eyes, resolve in the spirit!

THE WORD IN LENT - FIFTH SUNDAY

March 17, 2024 - Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Hebrews 5: 7-9; John 12: 20-33

Through the desert God leads us to freedom, and the journey is nearing its end. Jesus has started speaking intensely about his death, the imminent suffering and the desperate things that have to happen, in order that the glory of God may be revealed: "Father, glorify your name!" he prays today! It takes great courage to make that prayer, for he knew very well what it amounted to. 

The Word today apparently can seem to say too many things, it may look like dissipated in focus, but that is not true. Everything converges in one line - the need to die in order to rise! It is a constant movement that is expected of us - something has to die within us, in order that something new arises; in the final analysis, we need to die, to rise anew! Dying is as much spiritual as the longing to rise; that is why rising to glory requires daring to die. Daring to die and rising to glory, belong to the same continuum, there is no rupture in between. It is not a movement from bad to good, or evil to holy, but a choice to be made on a daily basis, to ground ourselves, get rooted and thus grow to be what we are, in the deepest of our beings.

In this the first consideration could be that of grace, that in God's mercy God has placed the law in our hearts. We know the Lord. Knowing the Lord is a grace; it is God who enables us to know. Knowing the law of the Lord, hearing the Word every day, listening to the Lord speak to us and becoming aware of that voice resounding all around us, is a profound gift to us. The Lord speaks to us through  Jeremiah telling us once again how God has made a covenant with us and how at no point of time God will turn unfaithful to that covenant; that is a reminder of the numerous times that we have retracted on the baptismal promises that we have made. It does not matter the Lord says: I forgive your iniquity and never call your sin to mind. The marvellous gift of the sacrament of reconciliation invites us in this season to experience this profound grace. 

The second consideration needs to be our will, our readiness to respond to the grace of God. The sign of that is the tears in our eyes. We obey the Lord. Obeying the Lord is at times dying to our ego, dying to our selfishness, dying to our self-seeking, dying to our tendencies to please ourselves. This is a matter of tears, that is a matter of humility and sincere effort. The silent tears of Jesus that the letter to the Hebrews refers to, enunciates the heart writhing efforts to remain faithful to the Lord - that is obedience; it is not just doing what is convenient to us and what is pleasing to us. Neither is it asking the Lord to do things that will make us feel good! There are so much tears involved in every journey that leads us back to the Lord - the challenge is how ready are we to undertake these journeys and in what frequency. 

A third consideration is about perseverance, our determination to remain when everything seems to be dead, our resolve in the spirit. We see the glory of the Lord, even at the darkest moment of our lives. When those Greeks, arriving at Jerusalem for worship, heard about Jesus they wished to see him - just as so many others wished to see Jesus; think of Herod who wanted to see him, think of the leaders and elders who constantly demanded for signs and the masses who were frenetically looking for some wonders. But with a difference, the Greeks did not get lost in their curiosity, they sought to see Jesus, and they found ways - they approach Philip and moved him to speak to Andrew and probably the disciples led them to Jesus! The resolve to see, to see the real glory of Jesus, can take us to arduous circumstances - that is why we need to dare!

To dare to die is to recognise this grace from the Lord to know the Lord, allow the grace to move us to a willingness and readiness to obey the Lord, and endure till we see the real glory of the Lord. As the grain that dies, remains in obscurity, but endures that time to break the ground towards seeing the light of day, so does our spirit need to remain, persevere and actualise the choice to obey the Lord, remain faithful to the Lord and rise to manifest the glory of the Lord. 

When Jesus says those words: Father glorify your name, he submits himself to the One who was animating him and that is the daring choice, daring to die! When Jesus promises to draw all children of God to himself, he speaks of his rising to glory in the Lord - because of his submission, his obedience, his self-emptying, his dying. The Word this week invites us to reflect on this dying - and that reflection will bring us closer to rising in glory. Let us pray that during this last week before we begin the Holy week, we would be led to that courage and grace of daring to die, that we may see the glory and rise to glory! 

Be Glad... in the Lord, the shield and refuge!

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Fourth week

March 16, 2024 - Jeremiah 11:18-20; John 7: 40-52

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. The freedom or the state of salvation that the Lord leads us to, does not come from nowhere or we do not reach it without passing through the desert. But that does not warrant our being sad or gloomy, or grieving all our life. A sad Christian is a sorry Christian - that is the message we had yesterday. The Word has been insisting with us through out this week the need for us to rejoice, and especially yesterday, we reflected on how important it is to rejoice even in the face of trials. 

The Word today gives us the secret of those who succeed in rejoicing even when they are through trials and torments... they have taken refuge in the Lord. We are called to be glad, not just in our experiences and accomplishments, not even in our troubles overcome or temptations won over, but in a reason much more fundamental: in the Lord, in the very presence of the Lord. For the Lord is our shield and our strength, our protection and our refuge.

Jeremiah in the first reading tells us how without knowing the treachery around, a person who believes in the Lord, could suffer torments. But the person knows he or she need not lose heart, for the Lord is there with him or her. The person knows readily to take refuge in the Lord and that is a typical trait of a child of God. 

Jesus in the Gospel, is a level ahead - it is not that a person does not know what treachery is going around, but even knowing it very well, he or she is able to go ahead with serenity and calm. John very specially, in his Gospel, often emphasizes the fact that Jesus knew who would betray him, Jesus knew the heart of the people to whom he was speaking, he knew that they cannot be trusted and so on. Jesus knew the manoeuvrings arond him, but nothing disturbed him. He went about secure of his steps, because he had taken refuge in his Father.

At times, when difficulties and troubles, conniving persons and conspiracies around, destabilise us, apart from appealing to the Lord, we need to think why they are perturbing us so much. Have we truly surrendered to the Lord? Even in these circumstances, if we have taken the Lord as our shield and our refuge, we shall not fail to rejoice!

Be Glad... irrespective of the circumstances!

THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, Fourth week

March 15, 2024 - Wisdom 2: 1, 12-22; John 7: 1-2,10, 25-30

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. This week beginning with the laetare Sunday, we have been hearing the Word indicating to us various reasons to rejoice: the untiring mercy of God, the love of God that reaches out, the covenant that the Lord has made with us and so on. While we can thus list out many such reasons to rejoice in the Lord, the Word today presents to a much deeper truth: a true person of God does not look for reasons to rejoice; he or she rejoices in the Lord irrespective of any circumstances!

When St. Paul exhorts us to rejoice always, and emphasizes the capacity to be glad whether in plenty or in want, this is the quality he underlines. The fact that we are loved by God and we are surrounded by God's mercy, does not guarantee that we would have nothing to suffer. At times, even when we wish no harm for another, there will be those who might want to hurt us, or there might be circumstances that might put us on a rough patch in life. There are moments in life, when we are prone to observe what the lines from the book of Wisdom tells us today: our life is short and dreary, nor is there any relief when one's end comes. There could be some lurching in dark to see us fall. In all these circumstances, what we manifest as our mindset is what will define us - whether we are people of God or not, whether we really are persons rooted in the Lord or not. 

Jesus leads the way and shows us what it means to be convinced of being a son or a daughter of God. He never gave up his identity, or never compromised on it, neither threatened by those around nor seduced by the possibility of pleasing them in some way. He held on to his identity, and spoke and did what the Lord wanted him to. There was something about him, that made his strong, and stronger in the face of the evil that opposed him and wanted to see his end. That would be true of any son or daughter of God, and that would be characteristic of any people of God. 

The Church today, we the people of God today - we are challenged to be glad in our identity and vocation as people of God. There may be oppositions from within, from around and from out there! Nothing would disturb us if we rejoice in the fact that the Lord who gives us this identity is always with us. It does not matter if our hearts broke with these circumstances, the Lord remains close to those broken hearts. Irrespective of the circumstances that could assail us, let us be glad in the Lord, we know him and it is he who sends us!

Be Glad... but beware of obstinacy!

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Fourth week

March 14, 2024 - Exodus 32: 7-14; John 5: 31-47

Through the desert God guides us to freedom. Beginning the past Sunday, we have been seen reasons why we need to rejoice in the Lord, specially in the Cross of our Lord, for God so loved the world that God deigned to offer God's own Son for our eternal joy! The central theme of Word in the past two days, continues today - the discourse of the covenant. God made the covenant - but even as the covenant was being made, what did the so called people of God do? They went away from the Lord. This is so dramatically pictured in the first reading today. 

That scenario continues even today - as persons find the easiest excuse to fall away from the image that Lord has given us or decline to be what the Lord continues to make of us, through the covenantal relationship. It is true that God never gives up on us, but that is not enough for us to grow towards experiencing that greatest of all gifts from God - a sense of salvation. 

That the Lord has made a covenant with us, is a huge reason to be glad and to rejoice! But let us beware, the same can become the reason for our eternal tragedy, if we do not live up to it. This is what is brought forth to our understanding by the imagery of Moses! The very same Moses who is presented in the first reading as the intercessor, is named by Jesus as the probable judge who would condemn the very people - Moses who stands out as the symbol of God's old covenant. 

The new and the eternal covenant personified in Christ our Saviour, has the same overture! It is true that God's mercy is boundless and limitless! There is nothing that can come between us and God's mercy, Jesus has made it absolutely clear. Nothing can come in between, except our own obstinacy! Every day is an added opportunity to grow closer to realising this merciful covenant of the Lord. But let us beware, every missed opportunity, every delayed moment, every day wasted in our stubbornness of heart, we have to answer for! Today, for the mercy of the Lord which sustains us, let us be glad, even as we promise the Lord to become aware and work on every bit of our tendency to obstinacy. 

Be Glad - the Lord makes us a covenant people

THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, Fourth week

March 13, 2024 - Isaiah 49: 8-15; John 5: 17-30

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. Among the varied reasons pointed to us these days by the Word to rejoice, today we have the typical of all self identities promoted by the Word of God: being the covenant people.

First of all, this self understanding as we reflected on yesterday, is a gratuitous gift given to us by God who reaches out to us. It is God's initiative, undoubtedly, that we are people of God. As we get to understand in the first reading today, we have not merited this identity or status as people of God but we are given, we are gifted with it. This is the sense of giftedness that we need to celebrate and rejoice about.

Secondly, this giftedness entrusts us with a call - to be recognizant of this fact, of this state of our being. We are called to be, to consciously be, the covenant people. To remain faithful to this covenant, that is to remain true to our identity, means to live in perpetual consciousness that we are people of God everywhere and in all circumstances. It requires that our life manifests a clear difference for the world, the society, that we are covenant people, in faithful relationship with God. Jesus explains that from his own life and life style - I am because my Father is, he seems to say. That's being a covenant person.

Thirdly, there is a challenge that comes along with this gift and call - not just to be covenant people, but to be the covenant to the people. The Word tells us in the first reading today: I have formed you to be the covenant to the people, that is, reminders, signs and indicators of God's covenant with persons; a call to all, towards a conversion to God, an invitation to return to the Lord. This is a much deeper call, a vocation to be missionaries of the love of God, to be announcers of the real meaning of being God's people. This is in short the life that Christ lived, as the Son of God made man, showing us what it ultimately means to be a Christ-ian.

Be glad, the Word invites us today, because are chosen to be the people of the covenant, because we have a specific purpose in life - to live as people of the covenant, because we are formed to be covenant to the people. Let us rejoice, for the Lord is gracious and merciful, the Lord of eternal covenant.

Be Glad - the Lord comes to encounter us!

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, Fourth week

March 12, 2024 - Ezekiel 47: 1-9,12; John 5: 1-3,5-16

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. This freedom is, beyond the cross and through the cross that stands tall drawing our attention; it is through the desert which offers us some valuable learning experiences that we are led to freedom, to salvation, to new life. Just as these days of lent take us towards that experience of resurrection, so does out journey of lent take us towards new life, new life in the Risen Lord. 

One of the strong symbols of the Paschal feast is water - being the waters through which the pasch of the Israel brought them across the Red sea; the waters of Jordan that signified conversion to the people who lined up before John; the living waters Jesus said - let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink (Jn 7:37) - the water that is promised for those who need rejuvenation, renewal and new life. Here is where the Word gives us an reason to rejoice... while we are given this offer of the life giving water, in God's bountiful mercy, the water flows to us, instead of we going to the waters.

We see that in the Gospel today, so symbolically expressed. While the man was waiting to go to the waters to draw life from it, the water was coming to him, the life giving water, the life transforming water was reaching out to him - Jesus comes to encounter him, asking him, "do you wish to be well again?" The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. The Lord comes to encounter us, just as the waters flows from the presence of the Lord towards Ezekiel in the first reading. 

Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live, says the Word. When the Lord comes to encounter us, we shall live, we shall be born again, we shall be touched and transformed, we shall be asked to pick up our mats and walk - walk towards a new life, towards our eternal life. How glad we should be, that the Lord chooses to come to us. There are stagnant voices, festering waters, infested with negativity and prejudice, all around us. But we are called to focus on that flowing water from the eternal presence of the Lord... the Lord comes to encounter us, let us behold him and rejoice!

Be Glad - the Lord never grows tired of us!

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Fourth week

March 11, 2024 - Isaiah 65: 17-21; John 4: 43-54 

Through the desert God leads us to freedom, and on this journey we may at times grow tired, but God never grows tired of us! That is a solid reason to rejoice! The Laetare Sunday does not end with the Sunday, it follows through the week as the Word presents to us some remarkable reasons why we need to rejoice!

The journey to freedom, passes through the desert, but it does not end there. Yesterday, the Word instructed us to look beyond and see the horizon and today the Word explains that this horizon is the new heaven and the new earth that the Lord promises to make for us! It signifies a renewal of the entire creation, to begin with, a renewal of our entire selves. The Lord promises to renew us from within, provided we allow the Lord to lead us. 

There are so many reasons for God to lose heart over us - the repeated failures on our part, the ever wanting fidelity to God and God's ways, the never satisfied minds that we manifest... these are easily reasons for God to be discouraged with us. Jesus states that candidly in the Gospel: no prophet is accepted in his hometown; you will never believe unless you see signs and portents! Although Jesus says that, he had not given up yet. He goes on to cure that boy: "your son wil live, Go home!" he says! 

That is God's mercy towards us. Yes, there are any number of reasons to be discouraged about us. But God never grows tired of us! God sent prophets, leaders, judges and finally God's own Son... but while "He came to that which was his own, his own received him not!" (cf. Jn 1:11). God however did not give up! Instead the Son of God gave himself up, totally, in order that we may be renewed, that we may be made new creation - as St. Paul states, we are new creations in Christ Jesus (cf. 2 Cor 5:17). Isn't that a reason to rejoice! 

That is why the responsorial psalm invites us to exclaim: I will praise you Lord, you have rescued me! O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever! Let us listen to the voice of the Lord telling us today, inspite of our weaknesses and our unworthiness - "your soul will live; your spirit will be renewed; you will be transformed!" Let us believe in it and be glad, for the Lord never grows tired of us.   

FROM THE CROSS TO THE SKY

Looking up to the Cross!

THE WORD IN LENT - FOURTH SUNDAY

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21

Through the desert God leads us to freedom! We have gone through a good part of our journey: from the desert to the waters, from the waters to the mountains, from the mountain to the cross, and today on the fourth Sunday of Lent, we are called to reflect on the journey from the cross to the sky! Although the cross has become an indispensable symbol of salvation that God has offered us in God's bountiful love for God's children, let's beware that we do not get stuck to the cross, as if it is the cross itself that saved us. We cannot forget that fact that it is the One who was crucified on it who saved us; many have been crucified, but it is the innocent lamb of God who offered Himself for us, as an eternal sacrifice on the cross, who has saved us. That is why the cross becomes a pointer, a pointer to the One crucified on it, a pointer to what He wanted us to experience and understand, a pointer to where He wanted to take us: to His Father, to the sky, to paradise!  

The Cross is a Reminder: The cross reminds us of the gratuitous gift we have received from the Lord. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, St Paul would explain in his letter to the Romans (5:8). Look at the reminder given by the first reading today - how the people repeatedly and regularly fell away from their state of being 'people of God'. It was God who drew them to Godself. Not just once or twice but repeatedly and unceasingly, even upto our days and our lives we see this phenomenon continue. We constantly go away from the Lord, but are reminded through varied means to come back to the Lord and sustained in many ways to remain always beloved people of God.

Every time we raise our heads and look up at the cross, it reminds us of the enormous love that has been lavished upon us at any point of time in our lives. It's a reminder of the fact that we needed someone to die for us, in order that we may be saved, although we deserved not. It is reminder for us to be grateful and mindful of the mercy granted us. It is a reminder that we are called constantly to get back to the way of righteousness, and that the moment we decide to do so, we have someone to look up to who points to the new heavens, and the new earth, the new Jerusalem to which we are called. It is not only a warning reminder, but also a happy reminded - that is why this Sunday is Laetare Sunday - we are called to rejoice in that reminder.

The Cross is a Reaching Out: There is yet another message that we are given to reflect on, looking at the Son of God lifted up on the Cross - that God is lovingly reaching out to us. Just as the bronze serpent lifted in the desert was a sign of God wanting those people to live, so is the Son of God lifted on the Cross. It is obvious: God so loved the world that God gave God's only son, that we may have life. There is a sense of revelation here, the highest revelation of God and the nature of God, in the absolute love that was revealed in Christ, specially in the Christ crucified. That is why we needed to freeze that moment and keep it in our memories as the moment of ultimate revelation. Jesus who died on the Cross, already has risen and he shall never die again! That death on the Cross was once and for all - but we still have the crucifix everywhere... in every Church and in every place we gather. Today that is becoming an issue for many non Christians - certainly it will become an issue, because it is the highest form of revelation of God's love to human beings. 

God is reaching out, and drawing us to Godself... when I shall be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself (Jn 12:32), Jesus would say later in the same Gospel. While God is reaching out through Jesus, Jesus is drawing us to God in the name of God - that is why the Cross: between heaven and earth, between us humanity and God - that sole mediation of salvation. The Cross is a sign of that reaching out and the drawing up!

The Cross is a Reconciliation: The Cross was not Jesus' destination, certainly not. He declared it; those who prophesied his coming stated it; and those who proclaimed him later made it very clear - that the ultimate aim of Christ was reconciliation of everything, that every thing and every being on earth enters into that perfection communion with God, the source and summit of all. In Christ everything shall be reconciled to God - and the Cross is the rainbow of promise we are called to look up to, the sign of hope that this will ultimately happen. Our destination too, just as Christ's, is the Sky, the paradise, the eternal presence of God, the absolute communion, which is the experience of salvation. 

Looking up to the Cross, is not only to look at the cross, but to look beyond, at the promise that God has offered us! The Cross remains a reminder of that promise and our call to grow worthy of that promise. The Cross is a continuous recalling of the God who is reaching out to us that we may be reconciled in God and enjoy that eternal and inexplicable bliss, the joy of salvation! 

God leads... to Godself through the Other!

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Third week

March 09, 2024 - Hosea 5:15- 6:6; Luke 18: 9-14

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. Truly, that freedom is the absolute communion with God, the eternal freedom, the salvation or the eternal boundless life. In short, God leads us to Godself. These days we are reflecting on how the Lord leads us, and to what the Lord leads us. Yesterday we said, the Lord leads us to the decision of Returning to the Lord... this return, the Word says today, is through the Other. 

Not sacrifice, but love - instructs the Lord through Hosea. It is only love that can lead us to God. Sacrifices, offerings, worship and adoration that we offer to the Lord are made meaningful and fruitful, only in love. In love do we become acceptable to God. But what kind of a love? A love that says in empty words to the Lord - I love you Lord with all my heart, with all my spirit and with all my soul? It has to be a love that is expressed in concrete, in action, in life - in our rapport with the Other. 

This triangular dynamic is a typical Christ perspective: the dynamic that is between me and God, essentially through the other. It is in the way that I treat the other, in the way I relate to the other, in the way that I respect and welcome the other that I determine the way I will be treated and related to by God. If only we realise this, we would understand immediately what it means to have a contrite and humble heart. It is not a heart that is humble and lowly before God, but a heart that is humble and lowly in dealing with the other. 

When a heart is humble and mindful of the goodness of the Lord, the mercy that it has received from the Lord, it shall reflect the same mercy and love to the other. Where there is a judgement of the other, disrespect of the other, manipulation of the other, exploitation of the other, despise of the other, it is a clear sign that there is haughtiness! Though that is not expressed or made manifest in God's presence, God notices it, sees it and is aware of it. The result is, we deprive ourselves of the abundance and fullness of God's love!

Thus the Lenten journey, to be led to Godself, through the Other - in mercy not in sacrifice. To love the other, to be merciful to my brother and sister, to honour and respect every other who is beside me, in order that my love and my regard for God becomes authenticated. The Word invites us today to "Go and learn, what it means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice!"