Be Merciful; Be Godly

WORD 2day: Friday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 05, 2024 - Amos 8:4-6, 9-12; Matthew 9: 9-13

I desire mercy not sacrifice. There is a particular perspective that a Godly person alone can have: the perspective of God. 

For God, every one is same; every one is a child to be loved. Why doesn't God punish? Why are evil one's not destroyed yet? These are some questions that some always pose! At times we like to see the untoward things that happen as punishments from God... though infact it is we who cause ourselves hurts and injuries. Our God is a God who loves mercy. 

When we make choices that are inhuman, when we fix priorities that are ungodly, when we act on criteria that are unjust, we drain ourselves of the divine presence that is within us and that surrounds us, because we withdraw from God, hide from our maker as Adam and Eve did in the garden of eden. And the result: famine, famine of the divine presence, famine of the Word, famine of the light of God. 

The Lord calls us as he calls Matthew, to leave the table and follow Him; to leave our ungodly priorities, unjust criteria and inhuman choices and follow the Lord. When we follow the Lord, what would matter to us will be mercy, and mercy alone. Being Godly is being merciful. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy; in God's own mercy, the Lord will deliver God's word to us. There will be no famine of the Word of God; we will be in perfect communion with the Lord! 

Let us be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful. Being merciful is being Godly!

St. Thomas the Apsotle to India

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

July 3, 2024: Lessons from St. Thomas
Ephesians 2: 19-22; John 20: 24-29

Feast of St. Thomas leaves us with three lessons...

1. We are One Church built on the Apostles.

The feasts of every apostle is a reminder of the essential unity that has to exist within the Church. As Paul so vehemently opposes (cf. I Cor 1:10-13), right from the earliest times division has always been a dreaded scandal within the Church. This reality notwithstanding, the divided body of Christ today drains the Church of its witnessing power and evangelical authority.

2. The Church in India has a special responsibility.

The Church in India, boasting a direct handing over of faith by an apostle, has a special responsibility towards establishing the Reign of God on earth. It is unfair to claim privileges but refrain from the duties that come with it. Every person who has received the gift of faith in this country of ancient heritage and culture, has to stand firm in witness to the Gospel thus received challenging the society towards a holistic transformation, ushering in the Reign of God here and now.

3. Doubts don't matter as l ong as the Lord remains close to us.

Thomas was not only the one who wanted to touch the wounds that nails made and put his hand into the hole on Jesus' side, but he was also the one who said, "let us also go, that we may die with him" (Jn 11:16). His personal attachment to Jesus covered up for his obstinacy not to believe when the rest of the apostles reported Jesus' resurrection. In our lives too, when doubts assail, when clouds gather over our heads and we tend to be overwhelmed by them, the only thing that can sustain us is our personal relationship with Jesus!

May St. Thomas show us Christians in India, the most fitting way of living out the Gospel in our context, so that we may be ambassadors of the Reign of God, here and now.

To live by faith is to live just!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 02, 2024 - Amos 3: 1-8, 4: 11-12; Matthew 8: 23-27

There is an intimate connection between justice and faith. 

Amos points out to the people that they were living an unjust life because they do not really behold the presence of the Lord, who had done so many wonders on their behalf. Persons become evil, unjust, selfish, blood thirsty and inhuman when they do not realise who they are, from whom they come, what their roots are, where their real treasures lie and who is that who sustains them! Realising these, in short, is faith.

Beholding the presence of the Lord is the first sign of faith. At times of trials when there is a suffering because of our just way of life, and at times of temptations when our mind looks for short cuts and the world suggests that as the way of the smart, we need to behold the presence of the Lord beside us and stay calm! Not being perturbed is a solid sign of faith, we know.

The wind and the storm, the demons and the diseases, they recognised the Lord and bowed down at the sight. The human will and freedom refused to do it and it still continues to happen, when we do not behold the mighty presence of the Lord from the depth of our hearts. This presence unravels itself in such a simple manner around us and when we truly recognise it, our life changes, our perspectives widen and we grow ever more holy and just. Infact, to live by faith is really, to live just!

A Tough Call

WORD 2day: Monday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 01, 2024 - Amos 2: 6-10, 13-16; Matthew 8: 18-22

Following the Lord is not an easy task, it is indeed a tough call. Amos explains today how an unjust life and a godly life cannot go together, how a maltreatment of a brother or a sister and the worship of the Lord cannot be reconciled with each other, how selfishness and true spirituality are opposed to each other.

Amos will continue to challenge us this whole week. Amos, as we know, is called the roaring lion, the Lord's voice that convicts us, the goodness of God that challenges us to be just, good and truly holy. Jesus, in the Gospel, takes the words of Amos ahead and points to how difficult it is to be true disciples to a demanding master like the Lord himself! Yes, that is the fact! 

The Lord demands nothing less than an absolute commitment or surrender to the Lord. It is all about Integrity, a state where what I think and what I express are one and the same, what I preach and what I struggle to practice are not opposed to each other; what I do and what I am, flow from the fact that I belong to God always and everywhere! 

Being with God, belonging to God, and taking God forward to every corner of the earth, is indeed a tough call... but there is no other way to prove myself worthy of the One who has called me! And it begins from my daily thoughts and daily choices, let us take our daily life to heart.

LIFE, ME & GOD

June 30, 2024 - 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24; 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15; Mark 5: 21-43

Life is a precious Gift from God. The first link that we have with God as someone outside of us,is the the link that we have from the fact that it is God who has given us life. Can we think of what is life? What constitutes life? Can we create life... yes, we can multiply, clone or enhance life, but creating it from nowhere, from nothing... Can we?

GOD OF LIFE

God is the author of life and the God we have is God of life, not God of death, says the book of Wisdom as we read today. Anything that enhances life and promotes it, comes from God. Anything that militates against life, in whatever way, it is contrary to God. The World today is being filled with forces that threaten life: unbalanced development, inhuman godliness, inauthentic means to living, unfettered exploitation of the other, disoriented conception of oneself... these are all principles in today's world that go against life. Abortions, Suicides and Genocides are dubbed as assertion of rights!

LIFE OF GOD

The life that we have is the life of God, reminds us St. Paul in the readings today. God has given us life, not only that, God has given his own life that we may live! It is like that twin child who as told by the parents, your brother is dying and we need that you give him blood that he may live on! And the child after much frightful moments, said 'yes'. And once that blood was given to the ailing brother, the twin turned to the parents and asked: 'okay, now that I have given it, when will I die?' Giving blood that child thought, was to die and give life to the sick brother! God did exactly the same. The Son of God gave us his life to redeem us. The life we have is the life of God. We are living a life that is lent to us. We have brought in death into the world and into our own lives, by our faulty choices and warped priorities; but God has given us life so that we may live on in spite of our iniquities. Our life has been leased to us!

LIFE IN GOD

Whether we touch God or God touches us, God gives us life, a renewed life, a holistic life, a life that is abundant. I have come that you may have life, life in all its fullness - declared Our Blessed Lord. Reaching out to the Lord, or the Lord reaching out to us, we receive a new lease of life! All our brokenness, our sinfulness, our sicknesses, our infirmities, our inner conflicts... everything will be whisked away with that one glimpse from the eyes of the Lord. All that we need to do, is surrender into the hands of God and receive life from God's hands. At times we think or act as if 'my life belongs to me'! And in that vision of life, I will have added nothing but pain and meaninglessness to my life, which will show up at a moment when it would seem a point of no return. And then would follow depression, desperation and desolation. But if from the very moment that I realise, if I would begin to live my life, as a life lived in God, I would save myself a life that is so meaningful and wholesome.

The God of life has given me the very life of God, and all I need to do is resolve to live my life IN GOD.

FEAST OF STS. PETER AND PAUL

June 29, 2024: Some Traditional Trivia... interesting to know

#1. Originally this feast was called the Martyrdom of Apostles Peter and Paul - the date corresponding to either the date of one of the apostles or to the date when the relics of the apostles where translocated to the place where they are at present.

#2. Peter was crucified, crucified upside down on his request, because he thought he was not worthy enough to die in the same way as his Master and Lord Jesus did. 

#3. Paul was beheaded. There is a Church that stands today built on the spot where Paul was believed to have been beheaded, in the immediate outskirts of Rome, traditionally known as "outside the walls of ancient Rome". 

#4. There are just three Basilicas in the world, built on the tomb of the Apostles...

       i. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican
       ii. St. James's Basilica, Campostella, Spain
       iii. St. Thomas' Basilica, Mylapore, Chennai, India

#5. Peter's Square at the Vatican, leading to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, has the statues of Peter and Paul adorning the square, one at the right and one at the left, as we overlook the Basilica... as traditionally, Peter holds the keys, and Paul holds a sword!

#6. This day, celebrated as Pope's day, is a day to commemorate the governing role that Peter passes on to the Holy Father, and the teaching role that Paul brings to the Holy See, as an apostolic tradition!

LET US THANK GOD FOR, ADMIRE AND IMITATE...
ST. PETER, IN HIS INTUITIVE FAITH AND INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP WITH CHRIST;
ST. PAUL, IN HIS TOTAL DEDICATION TO THE GOSPEL AND SELF-CONSUMING LOVE FOR CHRIST!

Peter to the right of the Square

Paul on the left corner of the square

The Lord wishes to make us whole!

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

June 28, 2024 - 2 Kings 25: 1-12; Matthew 8: 1-4

The first reading today is an anticlimax... everything seems finished, everything seems done and dusted, all that has been seems useless at a point in life. This is what we call the breaking point. Each one reaches that in life, at some moment or the other. How one deals with it, depends much on what one has done the rest of the time in life - that is, how one has prepared onself for varied experiences of this kind, in life.

Talk of depression, stress and anxiety disorders are more these days - not because the situation all around has gotten worse than what it has always been. It is because we have become less prepared for all that life can offer us in time. We are prepared for good times and for jubilations, but for trying moments and tribulations? Are we not seeing that from the way people panic when crises of the sort we are facing today world over, comes our way?

When the man asks Jesus to cure him, if he wishes to, Jesus says, "of course, I wish to!" That is what the Lord tells us today: of course, I wish to be with you, strengthen you and help you out at times of trials and difficulties - but what can I do, you have accustomed yourself to doing things by yourself, to taking things under your own control, deciding things on your own and working on things on merely your own terms! I don't seem to have a place in your life!

Of course, the Lord wants to, but are we willing to go into the presence of the Lord and surrender ourselves, and say, "if you wish to...do what you wish with me!"

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.