Reasons to be Good

WORD 2day: Thursday, 29th week in Ordinary time 

October 24, 2024 - Ephesians 3: 14-21; Luke 12: 49-53

It is a notable fact that people are afraid, or atleast suspicious, about being good these days! Fear of manipulation, exploitation and being taken for granted are so live and real that we hesitate to be good and hold on to what is good. The Word today gives us three reasons why we cannot afford to be afraid of being good:

1. Because we take on our heredity from none less than the Almighty Lord: The Lord is our banner; the Lord is our identity, it is from the Lord we take our name, as a family of God. How can we be other than good?

2. Because the Love of God is poured into our hearts: A love whose measure, we can never comprehend to the full - the length and breadth and depth and height of it so immense that we cannot but be concerned about being worthy of that love; which entails that we are good in our very being!

3. Because we have a Vocation to be a Community of Counter Culture: Jesus commissions us to be the People of the Reign, which is to be a people of counter culture, proposing a culture that is opposed to the culture of social sin, the culture of injustice and exploitation, the culture of imbalanced growth and inhuman development, a culture of total human insensitivity. When we intend to be such a community of counter culture, the rest of the world may turn against us. Jesus makes it clear today: if you choose me, choose be absolutely!

Recognising the wells of Salvation

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 29th Week in Ordinary time

October 23, 2024: Ephesians 3: 2-12; Luke 12: 39-48

Jesus continues his instruction as to how we need to be prepared for that hour of reckoning at any point of time in our life. In fact Jesus is ridiculing all the funny discussions and calculations about when that hour will come - some self proclaimed eschatological quacks make much ado of the end and its timings and miss the entire point that Jesus is driving home here. Picking the cue from them, there are those who speak as if they know everything under the sun, or even above it!

Let us not miss the central point, that Christ is here, right here amidst us and he does not need to come from elsewhere! Christ is a mystery and no one can understand it; one can only experience or live that mystery! So, let us not look at the Second Coming as a day or as a moment when everything will come to a stand still and there will be an UFO coming down from the sky... just give up on that crap! And all the exercise of calculating the time and the hour and predicting it with such precisions... let us grow up, please!

No matter when and where, we have been instructed what to do and why to do it. Let us take care how we do it - not seeking human attention but going by merely God's approval. The wells of Salvation are within each of us! The Lord has placed God's Word and God's law within each of us. We know it well, when something is right and we see it when it is wrong. There is no need for an external apparatus for this recognition. 

The internal system of convictions and criteria that makes me draw inspiration and direction from within me... doing nothing but good, speaking nothing but good, thinking nothing but good, no matter how unlikely the returns are, or what the consequences would be. These are the wells of salvation - we better begin to recognise them within us and live our life in grace!

The Exam Fear?!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 29th week in Ordinary time 

October 22, 2024 - Ephesians 2:12-22; Luke 12: 35-38

Fear of examinations, is an inescapable human experience for most! Interestingly, the usual remedy proposed by teachers and other trainers is, learn your subjects on a daily basis, revise your classes everyday and when the exams come you will be better prepared. The point is, examinations are not something for which we need to prepare, they are just an end of a process of learning. At times when we do not have the right study attitudes, the examinations become an entity per se and worthy to be considered great hurdles to be crossed and not merely a formality to be undergone. Now, that was certainly not a session on study-skills... but therein we could find the crux of the Word today.

The Word reminds us how the Lord has chosen us and given us an identity that is entirely a grace: the identity of being the people of God, of being the offsprings of God, of being God's beloved children. When we are conscious of that identity, on a daily basis and conduct our affairs accordingly, we would not need to prepare, or be afraid of, or fret about what is called the moment of truth - the last judgment! Every choice that we make is a judgement we bring on ourselves... whether it is monitored or not; when I know that I am a child of God, that I am a son or a daughter of God and I live, believe and behave worthy of that identity, why should I fear? It is like the Master who was asked as he was having his cup of tea, 'what would you do, if the world ends this moment?' The Master said: "I would continue having my tea."

Living the tomorrows at the cost of todays

WORD 2day: Monday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 21, 2024 - Ephesians 2:1-10; Luke 12: 13-21

The message from the Word today follows from that of yesterday. We belong to God, who has made us God's people in spite of our human tendencies and wordly inclinations. We are raised up to the status of sharing the new life that the Risen Lord offers, sheerly because of the boundless mercy of God. The life that we have is a gift, a gratuitous gift that the Lord gives us to cherish! Yes, life is to be lived, to be lived to the full knowing well that it has been given free, absolutely free.

The tendency prevalent today is to fend so much for the tomorrow, that the today is totally sacrificed. For instance, when we see persons who are mad after clicking snaps on their cellphones, and worse still, selfies, we know that they are busy photographing the present moment for their memory. They are so worried about having a memory stored, that they fail to live the present in its entirety. The subtle beauties of the present and the finest details of its essence are so easily lost. 

In general, in the human life situation, there is so much of worry about the future that we infact are all the time living our tomorrows at the cost of today. Life is given to us to live, and not to worry. If only we are convinced that we belong to God, our worries about tomorrow will be mellowed down, permitting us to live our present to the full. 

If today we are called to render an account of our life, would we be able to say, yes I have lived it to the full?

LIVING THE MISSION OF HOPE

Mission Sunday 2024 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

October 20: Isaiah 53: 10-11; Hebrews 4: 14-16; Mark 10: 35-45

May your love be upon us O Lord, as we place all our hope on you, we say in response to the Word this Sunday. Hope is a typically Christian value that we are filled in abundance with, when we develop a true relationship with Christ the Risen Lord. The Jubilee year that we are preparing ourselves towards, is going to remind us with insistence that we are "Pilgrims of Hope" in this world which is threatened by the darkness of despair. Spreading Hope is our primary mission!

The basis of hope is faith, faith is nothing but this relationship we just referred to - a relationship that is born in recognising the Lord who communicates and responding in the way that the Lord wants me to. When this relationship goes strong, whatever comes my way, I shall not be moved or shaken or disturbed or distressed! Nothing will ever perturb me! Because, hope assures us that things may go wrong for a while, struggles, temptations, troubles and difficulties might come your way, but do not lose heart - for God alone is everlasting! The final word belongs always to God, to no one or nothing else! At times this becomes too difficult to understand or practice, because the world teaches us things that are diametrically opposed to these values. In fact the call to be pilgrims of hope is actually a call to unlearn these fallacies of the world today.

Celebrating the Mission Sunday today, we are called to take to heart that we are missionary pilgrims sent into this world to hold out hope to every person on earth. Holding out hope is not an easy task... it needs a tough unlearning of certain fallacies that the world teaches its beings ceaselessly! Unlearning these, first of all within oneself and then witnessing before the others, is the mission that we are called to live today. Let us not reduce the Mission Sunday to some monetary contribution we make, or things we collect or some help rendered somewhere! It is our life. We are called to live our mission of hope, the mission of unlearning and helping others to unlearn the following fallacies so widespread in the world of today.

Fallacy 1: Life is all about happiness and pleasure

Fun, thrill, chill, freaking out, just do it... these are considered watchwords for today's generation. At times we justify everything with a statement, 'is it not to be happy after all that we do all that we do here on earth?' No! Isaiah explains today how salvific suffering is, in connection to the suffering servant of God - that, however difficult it may be, is a deeply Christ-ian message!

Life is not merely about happiness and pleasure. There are difficulties, there are struggles, there are sufferings that come our way and they are not just part of our life, but crucial parts of learning in life. Hence hope-filled persons are those who are able to see beyond, without getting obsessed with happiness and pleasure, that there are various other values in life that we need to acknowledge and embrace, with the perspective of our model, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Fallacy 2: I should be totally in control of my life

Planning ahead, programming things, forecasts and foretelling techniques: what are these but signs of the desire to be in control of things, of life and of everything that happens there in. But in spite of all these, there are times when we are caught so unaware and unprepared. But it does not matter, our weaknesses are known to God and our failures mean nothing to God. After all, we have a loving Lord, who has undergone all that we undergo and perceives  us with perfect compassion. 

Yes, life is not totally under our control but that does not mean we are at the mercy of chance! God is in control and the more we realise this, the more wise and mature we become. A hope filled person will never lose his or her cool before unexpected turns of life, because he or she knows for certain wherever life takes us, God is there with us and nothing happens without God's knowledge!

Fallacy 3: Progress is striving to dominate everyone around

In the name of success, development and progress, what the world today teaches us is that we have to look at everyone around as a competition, a threat, someone whom we have to trample upon in order to make our way! We cannot but look with pity on the apostles who were so close to Jesus, but found it so hard to understand his reasoning. They were so keen on ensuring their personal career, looking at the other as a competition and threat. However, we are today living in a world that is filled with more and more insensitivity, cruelty and inhumanity; are we certain we are not adding to those in our own way? 

Hope filled persons shall be counter witnesses to this situation, placing persons before things, relationships before comfort, love before success and peace before progress. These persons are around not to be served, but to serve; not to succeed but to live meaningfully; not to climb high but to live deep.

These reminders might seem difficult, at times even absurd! But this is what Christ lived. He has been in every situation that we find ourselves in and he has lived a life as a perfect example of how we should. Let us look up to Christ our Hope, and stand firm in the way of life that he has taught us! Let us be hope filled persons, conscious of our mission to fill the world with hope today, here and now!

Communion and Commitment: Father, Son and Spirit

WORD 2day: Saturday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 19, 2024: Ephesians 1: 15-23; Luke 12: 8-12

The Word today presents to us the three dimensions of our faith: the three Persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. What they together stand for, is a wonderful lesson for the situation today: loving communion and mutual commitment.

Looking at the Church, the people of God world over today, there is so much discord! Why? Is it purely the Reign of God that we are concerned with? This is where the Word invites us to communion - not a sticking together for survival nor a compromise for the sake of pseudo peace! Communion is the oneness of heart and mind, singleness of vision and unity of purpose. In a world so varied and statuses so diverse, only thing that can give us such a communion is the Reign-vision. A vision that goes beyond any claims of authority, power, domination or pride, towards establishing the wellness of all, the entire humanity and the whole universe. This is communion and when it is achieved, the Reign is here.

At times we feel there is so much of talk but they remain merely talks - there is no concrete commitment that is expressed. The Reign of God cannot be built by big talks! It has to be translated into concrete and mutual commitment of all those who are united in the one Lord. Owning up the call from God and standing up for the Reign is something that can never be replaced by the best of speeches or homilies, or grandest of celebrations and festivals, or greatest of structures put up! It comes from the change of heart, the change from where comes a 'Yes' that pertains to all that God wants from me. It is not merely criticism that changes a situation but a sacrificing commitment towards the others and towards the overall well-being of brothers and sisters.

The task from the Word today is that we  grow in our communion with each other and our commitment to God's Reign on earth.

But for St. Luke...

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 18, 2024 - Remembering St. Luke, the Evangelist
2 Timothy 4: 10-17b; Luke 10: 1-9

Today we celebrate St. Luke, the evangelist who has made an irreplaceable contribution made to the Canon of the Bible, that we have as our Scripture. 

If it were not for Luke, we would have no Magnificat -the song of praise sung by our Blessed Mother, no Benedictus -the song of praise by Zecharaiah, no song of Anna! Luke makes it an important point to narrate the stories of persons who sang praises of the Lord - in fact those type of narrations continue in the Acts too! The message he gives us is clear: learn and get into the habit of singing the praises of the Lord, every time you realise the goodness of the Lord. 

But for St. Luke, we would not read the account of John's birth or the narrative on the Ascension of our Lord! He was keen on capturing the supernatural, amidst the run of our daily drill. His invitation is so pertinent: grow ever more conscious of God and the Godly elements in your daily life, because God is with us, all the time. 

But for St. Luke we would not have met Zachaeus in Jericho, the ten leprosy patients on the road, the Women disciples who followed Jesus, the "good thief" on the Cross, or the discouraged disciples on the way to Emmaus. There is a powerful element that Luke wants us to notice - that there is so much darkness and dullness around us that could easily overshadow our capacity to see the goodness of the Lord extending a saving hand to us... it takes a special grace to see the light and turn to the way of the Light. 

But for St. Luke we would have missed the greatest of stories ever told -the Prodigal Son and other inspiring stories of the Good Samaritan, the Rich man and Lazarus and Jesus' walk to Emmaus after resurrection. Luke is very particular about the choices that we have to make at the right moments of our life. If we miss them, we miss the sense of our life and our vocation. The question to us is: are we aware of the ever present light of the Lord and how ready are we to choose its radiance?

There is yet another speciality of Luke, which is his way of making sense of the Reign of God. Though even the other Gospels, be it the synoptics or that of John, they do speak of the Reign of God, Luke in his turn speaks of the Reign of God being amidst us. "Reign of God is amidst you", says Lk 17:21. The same is recorded in Lk 10:9, which we hear today: "the Reign of God has come near to you". The prominent message of Luke here is a call to recognise in action our vocation to be the agents of the Reign of God. It is a call to live our life as the people of the Reign, thus ushering in the Reign of God here on earth and now in our own contexts. 

May St. Luke inspire us to get in touch with the Word of God evermore lovingly and enable us towards making the Reign of God felt, present and flourishing wherever we are and in whatever way we can.

Before God and God alone...

WORD 2day: Thursday, 28th week in Ordinary time 

October 17, 2024 - Ephesians 1:1-10; Luke 11:47-54

It is not an impossible task to make people think that I am good, virtuous and honourable. That actually is the predominant concern for many and that has proved the root cause for many wrong decisions made and later regretted. However, we would do good to realise that we are not called to create images around us and bask in the opinions we construct among others. 

The crux of the problem is that we have the responsibility to account for every special blessing that the Lord has showered on us. As St.Paul today points it out, it is between God and me, and public opinions and image creation will not suffice. "To be holy and blameless before God in love"... that is the task given to us and can there be make-believes when it comes to the fact that God Himself is the judge!

Apart from reminding us of our call to be holy and blameless, St. Paul clarifies that this call is to be lived before God, not paraded before people for appreciation or recognition. An equally compelling tendency that we need to fight against is, the craving, even if not for laurels, at the least to be considered acceptable and reasonable. But as much as recognitions do not matter, criticism should not matter too, provided we are convinced and relentless about being holy and blameless, before God, and God alone. 

Warning! No one shall be spared!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 16, 2024: Galatians 5: 18-25; Luke 11: 42-46

At times the Word sounds very strong and frightening and one such instance is today: be it in the first reading or in the Gospel, we have a warning clear and loud - no one shall be spared, when it comes to entering the Reign of God! If we are directed by the Spirit, we shall enter the Reign of God, and the signs of it shall already be seen here and now. If we are constantly directed by our self-indulgence and self-pride, we shall not inherit the Reign of God, because we never belonged to it in our daily life! That is the warning!

I cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless I crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires, teaches Paul today. He even lists those self-indulgent behaviours. They are contrary to the Jesus way of life, because of three reasons: (i) because, they objectify our own selves - making our bodies, our persons, a mere object of instant and passing pleasure; (ii) because they objectify the other - making the persons around me objects of my pleasure, or merely some 'things' that I can use for my good; and (iii) because they objectify God - making God an object to whom I give something, I do something, I say something, not realising that God is a person who is looking at everything that I am involved in, even those that I do not dare to manifest to anyone other than me! These self-indulgent tendencies have to be curbed if we have to let ourselves be directed by the Spirit.

The Gospel presents another set of disqualifiers - one cannot belong to Christ, or the Reign of God - if her or she is worried solely about some external acts and not interior dispositions. When Jesus speaks in these terms and strikes against the Pharisees, one of the lawyers speaks up in self-justification, and Jesus lashes out against him too - telling us in clear terms, no one shall be spared! There are no status or titles, roles or functions, achievements or establishments that can give us an entry into the Reign of God... except our daily life, day to day choices and integrity lived here and now - from this rule, no one will be spared!

It's Jesus of Teresa!

Feast of St. Teresa of Avila, one who loved Jesus inspite of her frailties

15th October, 2024

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Teresa of Avila. It is the 510th year after her birth.  

Teresa had a lot of struggles in her life earlier to love God or whatever pertained to God. But, eventually she grew in her relationship with the person of Christ so much that nothing else mattered to her. In fact that famous statement that is iconic of her: God alone is sufficient, is a candid picture of her soul. She loved Jesus as her own spouse; she referred to him as 'beloved' - so romantic a faith.

Just reminded of a wonderful episode from St. Teresa's life... We know, Teresa was fond of introducing herself to everyone as Teresa of Jesus. Infact, that is another name by which she is known, apart from Teresa of Avila.  It is said that in one of her visions when Jesus appeared she asked, as she was directed by her Spiritual Guide: "who are you?" And Jesus replied, "I am Jesus of Teresa". Nothing can replace a personal love that we ought to have for Jesus. 

St. Teresa of Jesus, inspires us to an ardent love for our Saviour. Needless to say, we would be repaid with a love several times deeper and in fact, we love because the Lord loved us first (1Jn 4:19).