One body and the gift of Life

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 17, 2024 -  1 Corinthians 12: 12-14, 27-31a; Luke 7: 7-11

The first reading speaks to us of One body that we need to make up, one body with many parts, each part bringing its significance to the whole. The Gospel speaks to us of the life giving Lord, who is ready to give life to the one body, if only we live up to our call of building up that one body! The Lord has the ultimate power, the only One who can give life! If only we live together in union of heart and mind, as one body of Christ, the Lord will give us life and we shall spread life allover the world. That is an inspiration from the Word today.

Each of us is given special gifts from the Holy Spirit, special gifts according to the specific calling that we have received. If we become aware of the call that we have received, we would also become aware of the gift that is given to us, to live up to that calling. To be prophets, or to be apostles, or to be teachers, or to be leaders, or to be interpreters... these are all different calls which are lived out by means of various tasks that we are called to carry out. But the fundamental purpose of all these, the call underlying all these calls is just one: to be holy and blameless, before God in love (Eph 1:4).

As St. Paul instructs us elsewhere, to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15), is the way we can realise, that we are One People and grow to be One body of Christ! And that body will be enlivened, filled with the Spirit and made a vibrant message to the people of the world - that the Lord is the God of life; and every being shall come to the Lord to be enlivened, to be awakened in the Spirit. 

The Eucharistic Dimensions: Encounter and Communion

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

September 16, 2024 - Remembering Sts. Cornellius and Cyprian
1 Corinthians 11: 17-26,33; Luke 7: 1-10

The Word presents to us today, two inseparable and consequential dimensions of the Eucharistic celebration: Encounter and Communion. These two dimensions are inseparable, complementary, consequential and dependent on one another; and that, at two levels! One at the immediate level, and the other at transcendental level! 

The Body of Christ is the key to understand these levels and and these dimensions. Christ comes alive and encounters us at the immediate level during the celebration and we are called to grow in that communion at the tranformational or transcendental level, that is in continuity of our daily life. The second is the Body of Christ which is he people of God - who encounter each other at the immediate level within the eucharistic celebration and are challenged to grow and transform themselves into that communion at the transcendental, or transformational level of their faith life. 

When these two dimensions are not experienced in and through a Eucharist, that celebration remains merely a ritual and the Lord shall certainly not approve of it. We do ourselves more harm through it, warns St. Paul. While these two dimensions blend in and bear fruit at the immediate and the transcendental levels, creating a community of love and peace, the Lord shall expressedly congratulate us, as he does to the centurion!

The saintly martyrs we celebrate today, one a Pope and the other a Bishop, were great models in this teaching and practice. They recognised the real challenge of making the Eucharistic gathering truly a moment of communion of hearts rather than merely a ritual of ceremonies. For us today, that needs a bit of homework prior to the celebration itself: communion has to be built on a daily basis and celebrated at the Eucharist. If it has not been built already, what do we celebrate at all?

Good Teachings and Right Teachings

WORD 2day: Monday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

Septermber 2, 2024: 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5; Luke 4: 16-30

The world today runs after so many preachers, sages, gurus, leaders, speakers, trainers, etc. There are many who practice it as a trade! Some have fans and followers across the globe. They are all good... talented... interesting... exciting... thought provoking. But the question is, how right are the teachings? It is important to differentiate good teachings from right teachings.

Teachings that are worded beautifully, formulated creatively and expressed attractively but do not lead to true harmony, self transcendence, compassionate love and mutual concern based on the fact that there is Some One who unites us all, invites all to form one beautiful community of brothers and sisters... how "right"are they?

The readings today give us a clarity: good teachings are based on human wisdom while the right teachings are founded on the power of God. The Gospel presents the sad fact that the world prefers the former to the latter.

St. Monica and the Grace of Tears

August 27, 2024: 
Remembering St Monica, the Saintly Mother

Monica, this saintly Mother has always been a point of great admiration in Christian hagiography. What a great example we have in her, as a mother and as a child of God!

There are three lessons that this saintly mother can teach us:

1. The grace of tears:

Pope Francis encourages people to pray for the 'grace of tears' when pleading to God to help others, when recognising their own sinfulness, when contemplating the greatness of Christ's love and when experiencing God's mercy. Monica had the grace of tears and she prayed with tears every time she prayed for her husband and her son.

2. The power of tears:

When the widow of Nain cried, the Lord could not resist his compassion for her. He was moved to the point of a miracle. Just so, Monica saved her son, by the sheer power of her tears. What if we realise, that our tears can save, atleast ourselves!

3. The witness of tears:

Tears become a witness, witness to the love of God. The genuine tears of a loved one speaks volumes about the immeasurable love that God has for a person. Tears are not signs of weakness, they are signs of inner strength to remain with a person who is suffering or struggling!

Let us pray for the gift of tears, as Pope Francis recommends!

As people incapable of deceit

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Celebrating St. Bartholomew, the man incapable of deceit
August 24, 2024 - Revelations 21: 9-14; John 1: 45-51

The twelve - Jesus' choice of the twelve was very conscious and reasonable. Be it any of the twelve, even regarding Judas Iscariot, Jesus had a special reason for their choice. He gives the reason for the choice of Bartholomew (said to be Nathaniel whom Philip introduced to Jesus): a man without guile or a man incapable of deceit. That is one splendid attribute of a disciple.

We are called to be disciples of Christ too... can we merit such an appreciation from Jesus as he had for his apostles? 

The colour red that we use to indicate the specific role the apostles play within our faith, is also a reminder to die with Christ so that we may rise with Him. This reminder of death, is in fact reminder of a life, a lifestyle that does not count anything - neither struggles and persecutions, neither death nor defeat - when it comes to our fidelity to God.

Fidelity to God is a matter of integrity and authenticity; it cannot be a mere appearance! That is precisely why "not being capable of deceit" is an essential trait of an authentic apostle. If we have to grow to be true apostles, we have to be incapable of deceit.  Let Bartholomew inspire us to live a life that makes us worthy be called persons without guile, people incapable of deceit

The Dry bone syndrome

WORD 2day: Friday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 23, 2024 - Ezekiel 37: 1-14; Matthew 22: 34-40

The world is experiencing a time that is strange in all its sense and meaningless in its totality. There is some invention or development every single day in the field of social networking, making it easier and easier to stay in touch and communicate to each other. But the paradox is that world is growing colder by the day towards those who are suffering, those who are struggling, those who are left without hope, those who are exploited and targetted, denied their rights, robbed of their dignity and incessantly dehumanised. This is an experience that we can call the dry bone syndŕome. 

Bones strewn all around but having nothing to do with each other. Bones so dry and lifeless that they lack any sign of hope. Persons everywhere bumping into each other and crisscrossing without limits, but no one wishing to enter meaningfully into the life of the other. Isn't it right to call this a dry bone syndrome?

The Spirit, the breath of the Lord that the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy about, is directly the Spirit of the Lord, the love for God and the love for one's neighbours. It is Love that can give life to this heap of dry bones. It is the love that God lavishes upon us and the realisation of it, that can urge us to love others (2 Cor 5:14).

From Good people to God's People

WORD 2day: Thursday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 22, 2024 - Ezekiel 36: 33-28; Matthew 26: 1-14

The Word today seems to underline the urgency of responding to God's invitation - the invitation to be God's people. The urgency in no way does away with the demands of the criteria. The demand is not just to be good people, but to be God's people. 

Being God's people would mean being reflections of God's own holiness from within us; God wishes to display God's holiness in us... what a realisation if only we understand what God wants to communicate by this.

At times we reduce our human nature to sinfulness and wickedness, jealousy and egocentrism, lawlessness and insensitivity. The truth is not that! The truth is that we possess within us the holiness of God, the splendour of God, the glorious and majestic image of God. If only we realise it! However we may try, that task seems to be practically impossible, with all the traps and trials around in our living conditions. 

The Lord òffers to fill us with Lord's own spirit. It is only through that, one can live according to the norms of the living Lord. Let us put on the Spirit of the Lord and enter the daily banquet of the Lord...well on our way to becoming God's people, and not just good people, and much less just any people!

Living the Word from within

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 13, 2024 - Ezekiel 2:8 - 3:4; Matthew 18: 1-5, 10-14

The first reading today has a beautiful symbolism... the Lord tells the prophet to eat the scroll and then to go and speak to the people the Word of God. The idea is clear - there is no use in knowing what the Lord says, or saying what the Lord says - what matters is living what the Lord says. 

Living the Word from within, will be possible only if the word resides within us. Hence, the call to EAT the scroll containing the Word - that is to assimilate what the Lord says and the become animated by the Word, from the core of our being.

The disciples, we see today in the Gospel, heard the word from Jesus, spoke about it, but they never personalised it. They were unaffected by the Word and that is why they were worried about who will be the greatest among them. The Lord challenges them to listen to the word, eat the word and live the word from within! Are we prepared, because the Lord calls us too!

The Right Spirituality

WORD 2day: Monday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 12, 2024 - Ezekiel 1: 2-5,24-28; Matthew 17: 22-27

Growing in Faith is not merely growing in knowledge of something - knowing more about scriptures, knowing more about religion, knowing more about values etc. It is much greater than that, but one of the most fundamental requirement is knowing: knowing who oneself is! 

That self knowledge and self definition determines much of one's choices! The Word today reminds us of the true nature and glory that is embedded into our beings, which we very often forget, neglect and reject. 

The way I understand myself affects the way I look at others. The way I look at others determines the way that I relate to them. The way I relate to the others is plainly expressive of the kind of concept I have of God. For instance, when we look at others as strangers and foreigners then we expect that they deserve every thing that we do for them. When we look at the other always in communion with ourselves, all that we do for them we actually do for ourselves. Looking at the other as unconnected from me puts my very belief in the One God to question. 

It is high time we look at everything being one whole, connected to each other - that is true Spirituality!

Sowing and Growing

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 10, 2024 - Celebrating Deacon St. Lawrence

2 Corinthians 9: 6-10; John 12: 24-26

The Deacon Martyr St. Lawrence gives us the occasion to hear yet another time this classical lesson that the Lord wishes to give us: what you sow you reap; what you are, you grow to be! It is important here to notice that the crucial element is not what we do or what we become, but what we are! This is what St. Paul calls, becoming a new person in Christ. To be so transformed in Christ and into Christ, that we would be seen as Christ, as another Christ, as alter christus! 

Every Martyr gives us this lesson: to die for Christ's sake. It does not mean only dying in the sense of losing one's life, but dying to oneself, dying to one's ego, dying to one's undue attachments, dying to one's fixed ideas, dying to one's weaknesses and fixations. That is martyrdom too... a martyrdom of a totally different nature, a martyrdom that is required of everyone. A martyrdom that has to be undertaken with a sense of gratitude and cheerfulness, inspite of the inconveniences it can cause. 

What have we sown around us? What are we growing into? Let us become aware of our sensibilities and check if we are cheerful givers, who are ready to give up, in order to grow up!