Divine Design and Doing God's Will

WORD 2day: Thursday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 27, 2024 - 2 Kings 24: 8-17; Matthew 7: 21-29

Prophecies, prodigies, spectacles or splendid preaching... nothing can replace doing what God really wants of me. The fundamental attitude required of me any time, is the clarity that it is not my enterprise, but God's Will that will finally work and that it alone will give me a sense of true meaning and satisfaction.

The first reading presents to us an experience that is called the Watershed of the History of Israel... the Babylonian Exile! The people went through a tough period in their life... out of their homeland and others separated from their dear ones, the artisans and all other capable in a strange land while the rest languished in slavery in their own land with a king appointed by a foreigner. The people go back in time, analyse what had gone by and find their own reasoning and in that reasoning they have a lesson to give us: when we do not regard the will of God, when we are so occupied with our plans and projects that we forget the One who is the greatest of all Master Craftsmen, when we do not really pay attention to discerning the signs of the times that manifest God's will to us at an appointed time, we are planning our own ruin. 

We have no dearth of examples for that today: the unbalanced scientific advancements, the ecological crises, the insensitive economic growth, the rising political and social unrest... all these are candid instances of disregard of the Divine design. Accepting the primacy of God within the universe, submitting to the mystery that forms part of the Divine Design, a respectful approach to advancement with a mind of discernment and a holistic spirituality... these are the needs of the hour in today's world. 

Personally, it requires that each of us develops a personal rapport with the Lord who is the author of the Divine Design, that we may live our life listening to the Lord's Word and carryout to the details the holy and eternal will of God for each of us and for the entire humanity!

Living at the core of our beings

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 12th week in Ordinary Time

June 26, 2024: 2 Kings 22: 8-13, 23: 1-3; Matthew 7: 15-20

By the fruits will the trees be known; by our actions will we be known! 

Let your actions speak for what you believe and stand witness for what you say! That was not merely the way that Jesus taught, but it was the way Jesus lived. He had no dichotomy of words and deeds, of beliefs and expressions, or of principles and priorities. He himself was able to say, even if you dont believe in me, believe in my works (cf. Jn 10:38). This was possible because Jesus lived his life from the core of his being. In the core of his being he knew how he and the Father were united in their vision and their mission. Hence, living from that core of his being he was able to live a life that was absolutely divine amidst all challenges. 

The first reading has a wonderful symbolism to offer us, in this regard: we too possess what it takes to live such a life as that of Jesus! We have to go to the core of our being, unearth the image and likeness of God that we possess at the core, and bring it to the fore, proclaiming it to the world and installing it on a pedestal from where it rules our life and shines and glows for the others! 

Living our lives from the core of our being: that is the key! As St. Augustine would often say, 'an unreflected life is a wasted life'. Let us accept today the invitation to journey to the core of our being, and begin to live our life from there, bearing fruits worthy of the One who has created, called and commissioned us!

The Narrow Gate Spirituality

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 25, 2024 - 2 Kings 19: 9-11,14-21,31-36; Matthew 7: 6,2-11

At times when we have problems that overwhelm us, in front of which we have nothing that we can actually do, we are constricted to a choice which is not actually a choice at that point, but a point of no choice! This is what we see in the first reading today. Hezekiah appeals to God and surrenders himself in the Temple when he has absolutely nothing else he can do, faced with a situation so grave.

The Lord asks us, why do you wait till that crucial moment when there is no other go, when you are constricted to absolute straits, when you find yourself at a moment of no choice? Right from the beginning why don't you make the absolute choices, choices that are fundamental, choices that involve absolutely no compromise, choices that take you nowhere else but towards that point that is right! In short, why don't you choose, right from the beginning, all your life, even at the most casual moments and not merely at crucial moments, just God and God alone!

The world would say, a bit of compromise is no issue! And that 'bit' is what will determine everything finally. Giving in that 'bit' will enlarge the room gradually until the space makes our life so comfortable and cozy, enjoyable and easy! But it will also let so many other things right into our lives, making it vulnerable and weak, even without our notice! When crisis arises as a result of it, we might be caught unaware and cry inconsolably, finding fault with God and every thing that is godly in our life.

The best solution: switch to the Narrow Gate Spirituality - don't ask yourself at any moment of choice which is easier, which is more convenient, which is more common, which is the way the whole world goes about. Ask just one question: what is that one thing that God wants of me, just one thing, just one choice, just that narrow gate that exists, through which you would have to squeeze yourself... only a few will find it and fewer will choose it.

We are not here by chance!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

June 24, 2024: Birthday of St. John the Baptist

The Gospels narrate a long list of similarities between the stories of John and Jesus... 

    the apparently 'impossible' conditions in which the mothers conceived, 

    the direct intervention of God in the conception, 

    the apparitions of the angels to the fathers, 

    the prior choice of the name of the child to be born 

    - one simple message is the image of John the Baptist as the precursor of Jesus. But the birth narratives of John and Jesus, together have another important message to reveal to us and that is, we are not here by chance! 

We are part of a complex plan, an eternal design of God. We are willed into existence by God; we are loved into existence, by the Creator! We have a purpose, because God knew us right when we were being formed in the womb of our mothers! We have a special mission because, it is the Lord who has called us by name, even before we were born! We are chosen in the eyes of God, because as St. Paul says, God has chosen us before the foundations of the world in Christ Jesus, to be holy and blameless! 

We are created, called, commissioned and destined to usher in the Reign of God, as John announced the coming of Christ. Let us become aware of our call, our purpose and our destiny, which is much larger than the petty preoccupations of our daily worries!

MISSING GOD

WHO IS RIGHT BESIDE

Pride, Pretence and Preoccupation

June 23, 2024: 12th Sunday in Ordinary time

June 23, 2024: Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17; Mark 4: 35-41

 

 

In this world, which likes to call itself the Postmodern world, by now it is out of fashion to speak about God. It is either considered an outdated or a conservative practice to refer to God or regarded as a disrespect to humanity to refer to God on any ongoing humanistic issues. To deny God has become an elite and an intellectual habit that a person or a society can grow into. People have no problem in denying the presence of God, or to say the least, they take pride, a philosophical feeling of ascendency, in expressing an agnostic indifference towards God. And some go to the extent of vehemently getting rid of any sign or symbol to do with God from the public sphere! Some make it a fad to speak of “the Universe being so good to them” and “the cosmos coming to their aid” not wishing to name the real source: God, because they wish to be decent and “cultured”! They want a world where God has no place! It could be dissatisfaction or misunderstanding or a circumstantial resentment that has led them to this point of view – but the question that stands out is: is it so difficult to find God? What is that which makes persons not see God who in fact is present right beside us?

First of the reasons could be Pride; a pride which amounts to a conviction that I know everything, that I am capable of anything, that I am the most the important of all who exist in a particular situation, that I am the centre of the entire universe. It is indeed a foolishness that constructs for itself a universe that is so small, that has such a limited understanding of what it means, “everything”! Certainly, there is no denying about the heights that human mind has scaled in these centuries… the scientific and technical advancements that we have accomplished is too tremendous not to wonder at. But the truth is, it is not all, it is not everything, it is not the “universe” that God has caused. Let us just imagine we have only discovered a fraction of the entire reality that exists, if that is the case, should not true knowledge make us more humble, instead of proud?

We heard in the first reading, that part from the book of Job, where the Lord questions the haughtiness of Job, through him, the pride of humanity! How dare we to question the wisdom of the Lord, while we have done all our best to destabilise the harmony in there and create all the chaos within the creation, leading to effects so horrifying and we continue to go ahead in our ways of distortion and destruction! This is the pride of humanity that has ruined every bit of tranquility and serenity possible on earth and wishes to blame it all on what it calls the “dominant arrogance of God”. Whatever goes wrong they wish to attribute to god whom they don’t wish to even name otherwise, and whatever success they wish to claim it for themselves! What a folly we live in.

The second reason that we miss acknowledging the presence of God could be our Pretence. If pride is a foolishness that says, ‘I know everything’, pretence is that foolishness that says, ‘everything is what I know’! It assumes that what I do not know, does not exist! I cannot explain this, I cannot prove this, I cannot quantify this, therefore it does not exist. This is the preposterous pretentiousness with which the world today negates the obvious. There can be no space for mystery, for the spiritual, for the awe that leads to the recognition of the Ultimate Being who is the cause of every other being and never caused or created.

The passage from the letter to the Corinthians we hear today, tells us how we need to realise that we are a new creation, that we need to overgrow the material and carnal standards that we have, and tend towards the standards that Christ has taught us, transforming us into reflections and participations in that Divine being, in whose image we have been created, the image that we carry and that we need to share with the rest of the world. Realising our real image we will find God so close to us, so intimate within us, and so part of us, that we cannot just speak of God, but we would begin to make God present wherever we are, even without being too conscious of it.

The third reason that could impede us from recognizing the Divine presence could be our Preoccupations, justly named so, they pre – occupy our minds not leaving really the space to occupy with the right things and the pertinent things of the moment. There are troubles and problems in our lives, every one of us has his or her share of them. But how is that some are able to handle them will calm, the others not? Or even better, how is that we are able to handle them better some moments, and some other moments no? If we pay keep attention we would realise, the presence of the right perspective is that which makes the difference. From which perspective we approach our challenges, would determine the way we would do it and the manner in which we would live those moments. Perspectives of proving ourselves, winning competitions, overtaking the other and dominating the situation… these would add fuel to the fire of anxiety and panic. While the divine perspectives of love, meaning, brotherhood and sisterhood, living together, making this world a better place… these would make us calm down, and be quiet, because the Lord is there around! Be still, and know that I am, the Lord assures us.

Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith? … these are the questions that the Lord would like to pose to you and me, and to the world of today! Why are we so anxious, so sad, so derelict and so desolate? Why is so much of hopelessness spread around the globe today? Are we missing something very important? Aren’t we missing the Lord, the God who is so close to us, just beside us?  

My Allegiance - to whom?

WORD 2day: Saturday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 22, 2024 - 2 Chronicles 24: 17-25; Matthew 6: 24-34

Infidelity, compromises, transgressions, forsaking and tryst with the unholy... these were characteristic traits of the so-called 'chosen people', the people with whom the Lord made the covenant: I will be your God and you shall be my people. However unfaithful and treacherous they got, the Lord ever remained faithful and true to the covenant that was made. 

Coming across passages such as we find in today's first reading, we are prone to judge the people of Israel, but let us wait! Let us take a moment to introspect before we point a finger.

Looking at our own life, the Lord has chosen us before the foundations of the world (Eph 1:4) and has made a covenant with us right at our baptism: you shall be my child and I shall be your God. And ever since, how many compromises and transgressions, how many moments of failures and negligences... the Lord however has always been faithful (cf.2 Tim 2:13). 

In the light of today's readings let us raise a fundamental question to ourselves: To whom is my allegiance in my daily concrete living? And how absolute is that allegiance? Integrity demands that only each of us can be our own judge. Analysing each and every little choice that we make and the priorities we act on, will give us a fair picture of our level of fidelity to the One who has called us... our allegiance, to whom is it? To our own egos or to the One who has called us?

The true treasure of God-perspective

WORD 2day: Friday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 21, 2024 - 2 Kings 11: 1-4,9-18,20; Matthew 6: 19-23

Today there is a prevalent talk about persons all stressed and pressurised, about job situation, about family issues, about relationships, about choices and social expectations, and what not? Persons and societies are highly preoccupied about their wealth and properties, earning and spending, adding to their comforts and fulfilling their dreams, having all the things that they wish to have, hoarding bank balances and shares... afer all the efforts for these, we hear very often today, more often than anytime in history, people who die early and leave behind everything!

Just to look at it, from the first reading - Athalia worked her way up only to be put to the sword in an unceremonious manner! It is so sad to notice that the world today is so ready to offer our relationships, our simple joys and peaceful mind as a sacrifice at that the altar of wealth and position, only to realise that we have lost everything in the craze of hoarding things and power. By the time persons really take note of this, it is already too, too late!

It becomes so important today to mind about one's heart, not only healthwise, but also prudence wise. The more we begin to place our hearts at the right place and place within our hearts the right priorities, the more we shall become Godly. What would set us apart as true children of God is our sense of God, priority for God and never losing the treasure of God-perspective in life. 

In Spimplicty towards Greatness

WORD 2day: Thursday, 11th week in Ordinary Time

June 20, 2024 - Sirach 48: 1-14; Matthew 6: 7-15

Elijah is singled out in the book of Sirach, among the 27 great persons of God praised for their life and accomplishments. Elijah wins that place in his simplicity, in the simplicity with which he trusted in the Lord, the simplicity with which he carried out every single command or wish of the Lord, that simplicity with which he endured his hardships, knowing certainly that the Lord is in control of everything. That simplicity was his true greatness.

This is the very same simplicity that Jesus lived and taught us... the Our Father is an epitome of simplicity prescribed to us not only as a prayer, but as a way of life, as a Spirituality that comes very close to the mind of Christ. The simplicity that is referred to here, lies in the qualities of singlemindedness, absence of pretense and sincere surrender to absolute sovreignity of the Almighty. That is what the Lord's prayer teaches us: a whole philosophy or politics of life. Its greatness lies in its simplicity. 

How simple are our prayers? How simple is our faithful trust in the Lord? How simple is our relationship with God on a daily basis...that simplicty would be our guaranteed way to true greatness!

To stay clear of trivialities

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 19, 2024 - 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

The only condition placed before Elisha, that he may receive a double share of the Spirit possessed by Elijah, was that Elisha should see Elijah being taken away by God. The challenge here is not to miss what is central to whatever we are involved in, being distracted with the trivialities.

The Gospel places the same condition before us. The actions that we do will have their true value depending on the fact whether the centrality of the right element was ensured. Praying, fasting and almsgiving are the three actions mentioned in the Gospel today and they together epitomise the entire religious practice of a Jew, not to forget even for us as followers of Christ. Jesus was not belittling them in any way but was putting them in the right perspective. The point is: not to miss what is central to it, in getting distracted with the trivialities of human recognition and immediate rewards.

In our relationship with ourselves, with others and with God, we are invited to pay attention to the most central of all concerns: that is, to do what is most pleasing to God at any given instant. Any other concern is only a triviality, however good or practical it could be. The spiritual prudence that Jesus teaches us today is to stay clear of the trivialities and place God at the centre and at the core. Never to miss God on our daily journey would means that we ensure that we stay always clear of trivialities in life. 

Loving all... deserving? not deserving?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 18, 2024 - 1 Kings 21: 17-29; Matthew 5: 43-48

We normally have a list of people who are our favourites and another list of those who do not deserve our kindliness, our compassion, our understanding or our love. We come to that conclusion after a series of experiences with them and ordinarily speaking, that conclusion would seem to everyone as just and understandable. The Lord instructs us today, to convert that list into your priority list, and start loving those in that list; start loving those who allegedly do not deserve to be loved according to your judgment.

We may hear ourselve saying, or even crying out, "Oh that is not possible?" If we do so, the Lord would immediately retort: you are no different from those who are far away from me! If we are to be known as children of God, we better start loving those, so-called undeserving persons, with genuine love from our hearts!

We have examples: let us look at the first reading today. The Lord loves Ahab... however cruel and ruthless he had been... the Lord forgives and loves. He might have been undeserving but the Lord loves! But why go so far: each of us, let us consider our own life - are we really deserving to receive all the love that God showers on us? Can we still speak about these categories of who is deserving and who not! Can we really maintain that list of those who do not deserve my love? 

If I do, will I ever deserve the love that God has for me?