The Easter Community - centred on the Word

WORD 2day: Saturday, Second week in the Eastertide

April 13, 2024 - Acts 6: 1-7; John 6: 16-21

The Easter community was born of the Word made flesh, who died and  rose again, bringing the new community into existence. In this new birth of the community there were new meanings, new significations, new implications and new world view initiated. There was no dearth of crises, but the new born community had a new vision, that empowered them to approach the crises with calmness. It was the Risen Lord who taught them that. 

The event narrated in the Gospel is one instance where the Lord had taught them these precious lessons: there is nothing to fear about the crises that come your way, they can become means to recognise the Lord; as long as we remain with the Lord, we could be battered by the winds of time, but we will never be blown away; if we remain with the Lord we will hear the Word right amidst the confusion - Do not be afraid, it's I! 

Having learnt these from the Lord, the Easter community puts it into practice, when they are faced with one of the earliest problems that arise in the community. The lament of neglect and deprivation from one section of the community, in comparison to another section... how much such laments exist even today. What matters is, that the community responds immediately, adding to its ministries. But what is more important is the fact that they were particular not to lose there foundation...the ministry of the Word.

The centre of the Easter community was the Word, made flesh, who died and rose...they refused to lose sight of it, at any moment of their life and experience. The challenge to today's community is exactly this - how many things, how many interests, how many priorities, how many principles take us to a point where we begin unfortunately to compromise the centre of our faith and identity, the centrality of the Word! 

The Easter Community - Ready to Give

WORD 2day - Friday, Second week in Eastertide

April 12, 2024 - Acts 5: 34-42; John 6: 1-15

One of the characteristic marks of the Easter community highlighted by the Word today, is their capacity and their insistence on giving - giving not just to others and giving not just what they have, but giving to the Lord and giving themselves totally. Nothing did they want to keep to themselves - they sold everything and gave, we heard these days in the Word; but more than that, they did not keep even themselves to themselves! They were ready even to give their lives to the Lord, that is why they were glad and grateful when they could suffer bodily for Christ's sake. 

The Word begins with highlighting the 5 loaves that the boy was ready to give, out of which came an abundance of Grace - giving what one has. It continues with presenting Jesus as the model who was ready to give himself - he is infact setting up the prelude to a long, profound and crucial discourse on the bread that comes down from heaven! The allusion then is to the apostles who were ready to give of themselves totally to the project of their Master and Guide, Jesus the Lord. And finally, becoming the Easter Community, they realise this call, in their readiness to suffer for Christ's name and even give praise to the Lord for the sufferings they endure. A Giving that begins with giving from what one has and grows into giving of oneself to the Lord!

Today, we all over the world, have received the Christian faith and live and express it, thanks to this Easter Community which was ready to give, not just the news that they had received from the Son of God, but their very selves, their lives and all that they were, for the sake of the Reign that was announced by their beloved Rabbuni. Giving - giving to God all that we are, and anything that is expected of us, for the sake of the project that God has - the Reign of God, the fullness of life for all - that is the sign that we are growing into true Easter communities. 

The Easter Community - Filled with the Spirit

WORD 2day - Thursday, Second week in Easter

April 11, 2024 - Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36

We and the Holy Spirit - this phrase that we hear from the apostles today is as intriguing as the fact that these apostles were unstoppable in their proclamation of the Risen Lord. They were no more the ignorant and afraid lot that they were - what made the difference? The Spirit. They were broken in their heart, but God filled them with the Spirit! To those who earnestly ask, "God gives the Spirit without reserve"! That was what had happened with the new community, beginning with the apostles; God had filled them with the Spirit and all that they did, they chose in the Spirit. 

In the Gospel, we see Jesus differentiating between those who are born of the earth and those who are born of the Spirit. The difference lies here: that when we become persons born of the Spirit, we become persons who can challenge anything, persons who can face any crises, persons who would be frightened by nothing or no one! The Sanhedrin had a tough time with the apostles and the new community that was born - because they were not acting alone. They were acting: they and the Holy Spirit. 

This is what they had learnt from their Master and Lord, the Risen Christ. Christ when he lived among this community yet in formation, insisted perennially that all that he did, he did not by himself but in the One who sent  him, through the finger of God, the Spirit who enables everything to be done according to the will of God. It was this teaching and example that the new formed community realised in their own experience: they were doing everything in the Spirit. They were being told what to do, what to say, where to go and where to remain - they did everything; they and the Spirit. 

Today, at times, we have ideas and interests and we go ahead with enthusiasm,  only to soon face with a block and remain stuck. But when we go by what the Spirit wants of us, come what may, we would see the way ahead. Let us therefore resolve to say or to do, everything, we and the Holy Spirit. 

The Easter Community: United to the Lord

WORD 2day: Wednesday, Second week in Eastertide

April 10, 2024 - Acts 5: 17-26; John 3: 16-21

Presenting to us the characteristic marks of the community born out of the Resurrection experience, the Word spoke to us of a community that is united in love. It is not because they are better persons than those that do not form part of this community, but because they have found their new identity in a very special focal point - the Risen Lord. Today the Word insists on this mark, defining the Easter community as that which is united to the Lord and thus in union with each other. 

The apostles are arrested for teaching and preaching about Christ. They are miraculously liberated, only to go back to the people and announce the Risen Lord, once again. They would have been certain that they will be arrested again, but that does not impede them from carrying out the task entrusted to them - to announce and testify to the Risen Lord. They were so united to the Lord that nothing mattered to them more than what the Lord wanted of them. 

No amount of threats and punishments, no measure of harships and persecutions, no extremes of oppression or abandonment, could stop them from speaking out and proclaiming the Risen Lord, because they were a community who "looked towards him and were radiant!" The Angel of the Lord was encamped around them; they had tasted the Lord and nothing could separate them from the Lord. They had to proclaim and bear witness to the Lord!

An easter community is that which is united to the Lord in its core, that nothing else matters other than proclaiming the Lord in word and deed, in life and death, in joy or in pain. The light has come into the world - the sentence is already pronounced: we stay with the Light or not, we choose the Light or not, we are united with the Light or not - it is our choice to decide to be united to the Lord. 

The Easter Community: United in love

WORD 2day: Tuesday, Second week in Eastertide

April 9, 2024 - Acts 4: 32-37; John 3: 7-15

Entire last week, the Word spoke to us about the aftereffects of the Resurrection of Christ - defining to us the people of Resurrection. That aftereffect has to last, and it leads to the formation of a Community. This Community was the Easter Community - this week the Word invites us to reflect on this Community that is born. 

First of all Jesus defines this quality of being born, in fact, being born again. At times there are those non catholic bretheren of our's who speak of this being "born again" as one even or one ritual after which one is born again. It is actually a life style, a new life, being born in the Spirit - explains Jesus through his conversation with Nicodemus. We are called to be born anew, made new persons, formed into a new community, into the Easter Community! What would characterise this community?

The first reading answers that question: what characterises this community is "love", which unites them into one heart and one soul. What was the sign of this: "there was no one among them who was ever in want!" This is one heart and soul; not just words and slogans and utopian jargon! It meant a concrete life style which was built on sensitivity, generosity, reaching out, selflessness, in short, on love, a love that unites. 

A love that is concrete - selling what one has and placing it in common - a love which acts, which changes lives, which means a concrete set of priorities, which places the other before oneself, because all that matters is the call that one has received from the Lord, from the Spirit. The Easter community is marked by their being united in one heart and one soul, in the Spirit. 

THE WILL, THE YES & THE SON

The Solemnity of  Annunciation of the Lord

April 8, 2024 - Isaiah 7: 10-14, 8:10; Hebrews 10: 4-10; Luke 1: 26-38

The Solemnity of Annunciation mostly falls within the season of Lent and the liturgy would invite us to break the lenten journey and celebrate the feast, recognising its importance and significance. This time around, it was Holy Week and owing to the surpassing importance and specificity of the week, we could not celebrate the feast. However, the irreplaceable importance of the feast is brought to our attention, as the Church postpones it to the nearest of the dates available, that is today. 

The feast takes a very special meaning being observed in the Easter Season, as it is the definitive beginning of a series of events which reaches it climax with the Easter... the Christ-event which is the ultimate salvific act of the Creator, reclaiming the entire creation in Christ, the Supreme and the only mediator. We could rest on three key elements that are highlighted in the celebration today: the Will, the Yes and the Son.

The Will that is represented by the Angel Gabriel - the initiation of the Christ-event which happens by the Will of God. It was God's will that the entire universe has to be saved, has to be reconciled to God the Creator, and has to be brought to its fullness. There are so many things that we experience that block and obstruct the fullness of our life, and wholeness of our existence. But there is always hope and the hope rests in the Will of God - that all should arrive at their fullness. God's Will is that we arrive at that wholeness, that fullness, that sanctity, that holiness.

The Yes that is represented by Mary the handmaid - the cooperation of Mary with God's initiative can never be overlooked, it is a pitiful ignorance, if not arrogance, to deny the importance of the "yes" that Mary gave to the Lord. In fact, that yes - brought us peace, brought us salvation and brought  us the wholeness that came with Christ. Mary however, identifies herself as a handmaid, and that is what she remained all her life and that is what she wishes to remain even now! Never did she, nor does she, take the focus away from God and God's Son! The challenge to us is to say that "yes" in our lives too becoming in our own way instuments of God's will here and now. There is a greater challenge that Mary poses - to say that yes in humility and to remain forever servants of the Lord, not seeking the limelight. 

The Son who is represented in the moment of encounter of the Will and the Yes. This is the most powerful message that this feast gives us: the Son becomes alive where the Will of the Father and a yes to that Will meet each other. When God proposes and we dispose ourselves to that initiative, the Son comes alive, the Christ-event come alive, the Reign gets established. Is that not the splendid call that we are reminded of in this Solemnity?

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - LISTENERS OF THE VOICE

Saturday of the Easter week

April 6, 2024 - Acts 4: 13-21; Mark 16: 9-15

We are almost ending this Easter week which continues to give the characteristics of the Easter People - today we have a typical trait: people who listen and obey the voice of God. My own know my voice and they listen to me; those who listen to my father and do what he wants are my mother, my brothers and my sisters - these were clear teachings of Christ. Understanding well what Jesus meant by these words, St. James in simple terms put it: we shall be deceiving ourselves if we only listen to the Word and do not live by it. 

There is a symbiotic relation between the people of Resurrection and the listening to the voice of the Lord. The Apostles realised that only after the Resurrection experience - they would not have said what we hear them say in the first reading today, before the event of Christ's resurrection. We cannot ignore what God tells us for the sake of what you tell us, they declare with courage that they cannot just stop speaking of what they have seen about the Lord and heard from the Lord.  

Here we see three levels of listening to the Voice of the Lord - first is the level of hearing: to read the Scriptures, to listen to teachings and preachings etc.; second is the level of understanding: to not stop with reading and listening but to meditate and reflect and to contemplate the Word through various means; third is the level of living: to put into practice what one has heard, listened to and meditated upon, creating a change from within and in the context around. This is evangelisation in its essence. Go out to the whold world and proclaim the good news says the Lord - if that is what the Lord has told us, can we remain without doing it?

What is important is to discern how we shall do it, how we shall become true listeners of the Voice, how we can become people who listen, understand and live the Word, spreading it thus wherever we are and where we are sent to be people of Resurrection.  

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - SPIRITUAL COURAGE

Friday of the Easter week

April 5, 2024 - Acts 4: 1-12; John 21: 1-14

The Word these days is continuously speaking to us about the characteristics of the people of Resurrection - today we have an undeniable trait to reflect on: Courage. It should not be understood merely as a human valour or a daring spirit. This has to be concevied a bit more profoundly than that - as Spiritual Courage, that we see evidenced in the readings today. 

We come across the disciples, who stand up and speak up, for their mission as announcers, proclaimers of the message left behind by their master and only Saviour, Jesus Christ. They were not always so, we know that very well. They were transformed after the Resurrection and specially after the coming of the Holy Spirit. That is why we can call this Spiritual Courage, not in the sense of contrasting it with a material courage, but to indicate the origin, that this courage came from the Spirit. 

Symbolically, we could find a representaton of the levels of this courage in the Gospel: the first level which can be seen in the act of throwing the net out to starboard even though they did not know who it was that was directing them to do it; the second level is knowing who it is, the fact of knowing the Lord - "it is the Lord" said the beloved disciple; the third level is that which establishes that it is not enough to know, one has to throw oneself into faith, in total enchantment for the Lord, as Peter did - throwing himself and going towards the Lord. 

That  can happen only from the courage that the Spirit gives a spiritual, a Spiritual courage that consists of listening to the Lord even in the most diffilcult of times, of recognising the Lord close and standing in the midst of our lives, and of choosing to reach out and respond to the call of the Risen, thus becoming ourselves the most intimate proclamation of the Lord. 

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - PROCLAMATION

Thursday of the Easter week

April 4, 2024 : Acts 3: 11-26; Luke 24: 35-48

The Word today continues from where it left us yesterday: to think of our identity as people of Resurrection as people who give, who give above all the Lord to the world. This is the identity that is deepened today with the Word - to be the Proclamation. 

Proclamation can be announcing, sharing and becoming what we have to give to the other! It is announcing in as much as we let others know what we possess - the Lord. It becomes sharing when we get closer to persons and share our experience with the Lord that it becomes their experience too. At a deeper level, we become what we possess, that is we become more and more like the Lord whom we wish to proclaim, thus becoming a proclamation ourselves. This is the progressive identity of the People of Resurrection. However, there are some inevitable requirements, if these roles need to be fulfilled. 

First, we cannot announce if we do not know! To know the Lord, to recognise the Lord and to acknowledge the Lord in one's life is the primary requirement for an efficient proclamation of the Lord. The Emmaus disciples are equipped with that recognition to go back and announce!

Secondly, we cannot share, if we do not have! To share the experience of the Lord, one needs to have had that experience. One cannot fake that experience, it will be seen through and it would be a total farce. Real experiences are not described, they are shared. That is why, the experience with the Lord cannot be spoken about, but it has to be shared, that the other begins to as well feel the same experience. The disciples after the Resurrection, possessed the Lord that everytime they shared their experience, people were struck by it... they shared the experience that was being shared - that is true proclamation. 

Thirdly, the proclamation is not complete until we become what we proclaim. Jesus invites his disciples to that... to become his witnesses, not in words and not even in works, but in their lives. He wishes them to become witnesses of the Reign, that can spread the goodnews of God's salvation to the ends of the earth. 

PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION - GIVING

Wednesday of the Easter Week

April 3, 2024 - Acts 3: 1-10; Luke 24: 13-25

A sign of the people of Resurrection, pointed out by the Word today: Giving. They shall be "giving" people! They give because they have been given; they give because they believe in a God who gives, gives without measure or conditions. Giving is an essential quality of God. God, we know, has always been giving - the whole creation, the gift of our life and everything is a gift from God, right up the only Son of God given up for our salvation. That is why the people of God are identified by their capacity to give! Here we can reflect on this "giving" at three levels:

Firstly, the readiness to give. The act of giving has to be necessarily preceded by the readiness to give. If not, it is obviously a forced giving and it shall bear none of its merits. The people of God are distinguished more by their readiness to give, than by what they give. 

Secondly, the choice of what to give. One significant question that emerges when we think about the readiness to give is, whether the person who is ready to give would have anything to give. Not all who are ready to give, have something to give and on the contrary, not everyone who has something to give, has the readiness to give. Therefore the question is, if the people of the Resurrection are those who give, what do they give - not so much from what they have as from what they are. Self-giving is the characteristic giving of the people of Resurrection - if we have died with him, we shall rise with him too. They are people who are ready to give as the Lord gave, that is, of oneself. And that way, they rise, they are born to new life, in giving of oneself. They recognised the Lord, the Gospel says today, in the breaking of the bread, which was an essential symbol of Christ's self-giving. They immediately recognised it. 

Thirdly, the highest form of giving that the people of Resurrection can practice, is giving the Risen Lord to the other, to the others, to the world. Gold and silver, is not what they are actually called to give, but Christ and the power of Christ. What we have we give, said the apostles at the Beautiful Gate: this is a key to undersand. We can give only what we have - it is an obvious lesson. So, if we are called to give Christ, then we would require to possess Christ; that is, we need to be constantly in touch with the Risen Lord, in order to have the Lord within us and only if we have the Lord, we can give the Lord. People of Resurrection, give, they give of themselves, they give the Risen Lord to the world around.