The Relationship: the promise of the New Covenant

WORD 2day: Monday, 3rd week in Ordinary Time

January 27, 2025 - Hebrews 9:15, 24-28; Mark 3: 22-30

We are continuing our reflection with the letter to the hebrews, and after the series on the journey of our faith in the first week, the reflection on 'the way' in the second week, we begin a reflection on the reason behind and the foundation of this journey and the way... the relationship - which is the crux of the promise that Jesus gave us! 

Jesus' promise of the New Covenant is a promise of eternal salvation. The Word affirms that this salvation is given to all, by that sacrifice once and for all, on Calvary. Every one is promised forgiveness and salvation, but every person has to claim that salvation for oneself. There can be three blocks that can prevent a person from claiming this salvation for onself. 

The first is the social block - that the background and experience handed down does not allow one to experience this salvation. This can be overcome by a new experience that can change the entire life of a person. The second is the personal block - that the weaknesses within us, the limitations that we personally experience keeps us away from God. But this block, can be worked out of, with the grace of God. 

The third, and most dangerous of all, is a psuedo block because of which I deliberately keep myself away from God. It is my lack of openness and anti-spiritual bias that takes me far from the promise of the New Covenant. It could be due to any selfish or egoistic reason, which most of the time is psuedo block... from which not even God can save us! 

BEING GOD'S PEOPLE

Identity, Call and Mission

3rd Sunday in Ordinary time: January 26, 2025

Nehemiah 8:2-6,8-10; 1 Corinthians 12: 12-30; Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21

Jesus came and lived here on earth amidst us to remind us about our call to be God's people and to show us how to do it! People of God - that is our identity, that is our call and that is our mission. 

But looking at history - sometimes, it has been a dangerous proposition too! We see that the people of Israel, calling themselves the chosen people of God, killed and butchered clans and clans of the so-called 'others' and justified it too; Jesus himself was killed because they thought it is better that one dies instead of the entire lot of the 'chosen people' being put to risk; think of those times when we called ourselves the 'people of God' and went with flags marked with crosses menacing nations and even killing thousands; what about those who in the name of 'superior race' or the 'chosen race' wished to blot out the rest of the world; after all these have we anything to say when a group calls the rest as 'infidels' and threatens to eliminate people, if they don't become one of them? All these have unmistakably and gravely gone wrong somewhere, somewhere right at the foundations! 

When the Word tells us today we are called to be God's People, it is not a statement of pride or superiority or elitism or some kind of messianism claiming that the entire world is at our mercies! Absolutely no. Certainly, it is a statement of an identity that God wishes to give us, but along with it comes a call and a mission that defines it all. Yes, there are three tasks outlined for us by the Word this Sunday:

 

The first: Beginning with the Word - Our Identity

Being God's people means beginning with the Word: our identity lies there, not in the structures we have and the statistics we boast about (that we are the greatest in number and that we have survived for 2000 years and so on!) Our identity is based on the Word, the Word which has always guided humanity, the Word which had become human and the Word which calls us every day without ceasing to a life of love and compassion. Our identity has to be created on the foundation of the Word of God. 

When Nehemiah the King and Ezra the priest wanted to give an identity to the heart broken people, they did it with the Word, reading it aloud to them and getting them to hear it and be strengthened by it. When Jesus wanted to establish his identity among his own people, he did it with the Word, teaching in the synagogue for the first time. As individuals, as families or as communities, if we wish to identify ourselves to others, we need to found ourselves on the Word. 

 

The second: Building up the Word - Our Call

 

The Word was made flesh, the flesh was given to us and we were made One Body in Christ. The Word invites us to build up our communities of faith, in communion and sharing, thus building up the Word into a formidable challenge to the ways of the world. This task is to build up our believing community, the Body of Christ, the Body of the Word. 

The Word was made flesh, in order that God's salvation plan could be brought to its culmination in Jesus Christ the Son of God. Today the same Word has to be made flesh... the Word has to become a Body, the Body of Christ, the Body of the Word... that is our Community of faith - united as one body with the head that is Christ, the Word who lives amidst us. When we build up the community, we build up the Body of the Word, we build up the Word. When we break, divide, shatter, weaken, dismember this Body, we are killing the Word! We have just finished celebrating the Unity Octave (18 to 25 January), praying for the unity of all Christians, are we really ready to forget our differences, leave aside our past and unite in the name of the Word? 

The third: Becoming the Word - Our Mission 

The Word you have heard is fulfilled today in your hearing, declared Jesus. He was the Word personified... and we are today called to model our lives after him, to become the Word, to grow into the Word, into the living Word, into living images of Christ for the world today, offering sight to the blind, liberty to captives and freedom to the oppressed.

Unfortunately, some of our brethren tend to think that our mission is to memorize a few verses from the Bible and go shout it in the face of people and get them somehow by hook or by crook, by fears or by tears into our fold and say, "we have saved them". What a sham! We are not sent merely to throw the Word at others; we are sent to live It amidst others! We are not expected to swallow the Word only to spit It elsewhere, but to retain It, digest It and become It. Our mission is to be nourished by the Word and Become the Word! Looking at us, people should be able to say: 'what we heard is being fulfilled in you!' 

Becoming God's People is an identity we need to found on the Word, a call to build our families and communities on the Word, and a mission to transform ourselves after the Word. Can our daily lives be truly fulfilments of the Word, here and now?

The Way: the journey of Conversion

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

January 25, 2025: The Conversion of St. Paul

Acts 22: 3-16; Mark 16: 15-18

The conversion of St. Paul marks a the very first twist in the tale after the Risen Lord began to make a difference in history! Hidden life, persecution and private practice of Christ-inspired faith life was suddenly taken to the public domain with St. Paul getting into the bandwagon. A passionate attachment to Christ was growing into a Charismatic challenge! We celebrate this feast today and it fills us with great joy!

Some thoughts from the Word on this feast:

1. Conversion is a life Journey: We need this grace of conversion, which the Lord inspires within us. Yes, conversion comes from within - though we see the dramatic events that accompany the conversion of Paul, they are only external signs of something that was happening within him, at the core of his being.

2. Conversion begins with a Bolt: We seem to be going in great pace with our life, when suddenly strikes a bolt. We call that a misfortune, a shock or a setback. But we need to be conscious of the fact that these experiences are messages, invitations for a transformation we need to effect within us.

3. Conversion definitely involves falling to the ground: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground, it will not bear fruit. When Saul fell from his horse to the ground, he rose as Paul, enquiring 'who are you Lord'! And from then his life changed...for no longer did he live, Christ lived in him.

4. Conversion is fundamentally a new vision: Nothing of Saul changed...he was the same determined, stubborn, hardliner. But his vision had changed. And that changed everything else. When he got back his sight, he did not only see again, but his vision was totally new! He now saw everything from the point of view of Christ. That is the conversion expected of us: to see everything as Christ does - that is the journey you and I are called to make, a journey of conversion.

The Way: it's all about relationships!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

January 24, 2025 - Celebrating St. Francis de Sales

Hebrew 8: 6-13; Mark 3: 13-19

The first reading raises an important question: what has changed with the coming of Jesus, in the self-revelation of God? God has always revealed Godself as related to the people - you shall be "my" people and I shall be "your" God. The covenant that God made with the people, was the central and definitive feature of God's self revelation and God's nature.It was fundamentally, the way that God wanted to be related to the people and the way God wanted people to be related to God. 

When Jesus comes around, it continues to be about the covenant, but this time it is about a "New" covenant. As we see in the letter to the Hebrews, the old covenant that had existed from time immemorial, needed a revamp...because people had lost real touch with it, they had forgotten the crux of it: that therein, mercy and faithfulness encounters each other. And Jesus comes as the realisation of that encounter and reminds us of what a covenant truly is: relationship, and what God's natures is: relationship.

Yes, it is all about relationship. That is the reason Jesus began his ministry by gathering a community around him... the apostles. Even when Jesus ascended to his Father, what he was leaving behind to ensure the establishment of the Reign was, the community of apostles, persons related to each other in mercy and love because of their relatedness to Christ, that revelation of God.  

The Saint whom we celebrate today, Francis de Sales, is known as the Doctor of Divine Love, because he reminded us untiringly of the need to practice and strengthen the charism of love - love for god and in turn, a love for one's fellow beings simply and reverently. That is the centrality of relationships in the faith that Jesus has initiated us into. 

The Way: withdrawing to the Tent

WORD 2day: Thursday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 23, 2025 - Hebrews 7:25 - 8:6; Mark 3: 7-12

Jesus very often withdrew by himself, or with his discples or with some select apostles - this was his customary routine. There was a reason he prefered this retreat very often and the Word today explains that to us, not just for our edification but also as an example to follow, the way to orient our lives. 

First of all, it refers to the all-encompassing mission that Jesus had. He had it from his Father who sent him. As he himself often clarified, he did nothing or said nothing that the Father had not told him to! Hence his entire mission was according to the Father - it was like, he was constructing a Tent, just as Moses was instructed to construct, the Tent of Meeting or the Tent of the Covenant that Moses had to construct, in exact terms as God instructed him. 

Jesus was doing exactly the same - was constructing a Tent of Covenant, only that, this time the Tent of the Covenant was to remain forever, and it was his own Self. Jesus himself was the Tent, the Space of encounter, the possibility of getting in touch with the Father and the Eternal Will. This he was doing, by doing exactly what the Lord was instructing him to do... here I am, Lord, I come to do your will. In doing that Jesus was showing us the way how we can approach the tent of the Covenant. 

Jesus was withdrawing not only to the Tent, but as the Tent, in which we can encounter the Lord, and the Lord's will. Today, this is the message given to us - amidst all that we do and all that we wish to do in good will, let us never forget to withdraw to the Tent, encounter the Lord and the Lord's will, that we may always live in the guarantee that we are in that Presence, that Presence that makes us cry out: You are the Son of God!

The Way: life-oriented not death-bound

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 22, 2025 - Hebrews 7: 1-3, 15-17; Mark 3:1-6

The Way that Jesus showed us was definitively life-oriented! Today we see the contrasts in the mindset of Jesus and the Pharisees who opposed him - while Jesus was asking them if it were lawful on a sabbath to give life, they were intent on gathering together to plot his death. The Jesus difference that we can make in this world is this: being life oriented persons, giving life to all. 

Melchizedek, is presented to us by the letter to the Hebrews as a prefigurement of Christ from the Old Testament, one whose origins and whereabouts were known to none. Just as Jesus said, you think you know from where I come, in fact you do not; the One who sent me alone knows that! Melchizedek is presented as the one with fullness of life, who blessed Abraham in the Old Testament (Gen 14:18) and who is presented as the priest of God who offered himself to God for eternity. 

The fullness of life that Jesus was able to offer to us as saving grace, is this sense of offering oneself to God and to God's will for eternity. It is in living for God and belonging to God forever in everything that we become people of God, people of life.  And naturally anything Christ-ian has to be life-oriented, not death-bound; life giving and not death wishing. 

The Way: relationship, not rules!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 21, 2025 - Hebrews 6: 10-20; Mark 2: 23-28

The letter to the Hebrews explains at length today about the speciality of the alliance or the covenant that God has made with us - the letter says three important facets of that covenant. 

Firstly, it is dependent on God's relationship with us - not anyone else, not even on us, because no one is as dependable as God and depending on us would make it so weak. Secondly, the covenant is unalterable, as God is unchanging. This is the anchor of hope that we have, that at any time we have God who is faithful. 

Thirdly and most importantly, it is all about relationship. It is not difficult to observe that the key terms that dominate the explanation there are, descendants, heirs, inheriting the promises... all these refer to a relationship with God, as children, as sons and daughters, in that One Son who entered the Holy of Holies, for our sakes. 

Jesus declares the same - that relationships matter the most, more than any rule or regulation, when it comes to the promises of the Lord. The Lord goes by persons, not by precepts. When it comes to persons and their well being, the Lord has no other priorities - this is what the covenant is all about, and the Lord keeps the covenant ever in mind. When we hold on to a rule, just for the sake of the rule and have no consideration at all for the persons whose lives, whose freedom, whose wellbeing and dignity are at stake, we are far from the Reign of God. 

The Way: obedience of faith

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

January 20, 2025 - Hebrews 5: 1-10; Mark 2: 18-22

We are going to continue for a second week, reading from the letter to the Hebrews, and the beginnings of the Gospel of Mark to corroborate the teaching! While entire last week, the Word spoke to us about the Journey we are called to undertake with Christ, the journey of our faith, this week would speak to us about the Way that is set out for us, to make this journey. Jesus who declared, I am the Way, explained that in his way of living and in the choices he made, much more than the words he spoke. This week the Word, wishes to draw our attention to that way, set out for us. 

First and foremost, according to Jesus' mind and his life testimony, the way to our total realisation is obedience of faith. The letter to the hebrews will emphasise this in more than a few places and in many ways. It was the obedience of Jesus that makes his the True Son of God, the Begotten One who saves us, the perfect obedient Priest-Sacrifice who not only offered that sacrifice but became the sacrifice of salvation for all. 

This obedience is seen all over the Old Testament - in fact, this obedience was praised as the best of religion and the say to salvation. The interpretation of this obedience was concrete too - obey the law given by the Lord, and you shall be saved. The Law was the absolute revelation of what one needs to pledge one's allegiance to. At a moment, the absoluteness of the law, was so exaggerated that the law-giver was placed out of focus. This is what Jesus explains in the Gospel. 

The Gospel, which seems to be a continuation from the discourse of wine in yesterday's gospel, invites us to reinterpret law, to revisit the purpose of the laws that we have, and to reinvent our way to God our loving father and mother. Obedience, yes, without any doubt... but interpreted not as a blind following of a set of lifeless rules, but as a living relationship with someOne who has always loved us, who has always been with us and wants to be with us always. Obedience of faith, therefore is not a religion, it is a relationship. 

WHEN YOUR LIFE RUNS DRY...

Jars, filled and transformed!

January 19, 2025: 2nd Sunday in Ordinary time

Isaiah 62:1-5;1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-11

The Word today, establishes the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. After the Baptism where Jesus is seen in public this is the incident that can be interpreted as the beginning of his life and work among people, according to John's Gospel. The Word also defines what the purpose of the ministry is: to replenish the rapport between God and God's people.

The imagery that holds the common thread between the first and the Gospel reading today is that of marriage. Often the relationship between God and God's people is spoken of in terms of the faithfulness between the bride and the groom, as in the first reading from Isaiah. God wishes an intimate relationship with God's children but at times our lives run dry. It's also a pastoral concern that after all the weeks of Advent and Christmastide the ordinary season might seem too ordinary and eventless - that is the ordinariness of life. As the wine ran short, our lives too will run dry at moments.

We hear often people saying: 'that's it, that's the end of my patience', 'I cannot stand it anymore', 'why should I put up with it anymore?', 'I have reached the brink of my tolerance', 'I cannot go on further', or 'I give up'...and so on! These are the moments we are referring to when we say - when our life runs dry! What can we do? Nothing! Nothing can be done at that time and that is why the Lord invites us right at the beginning of this liturgical year, when our spirits are still fresh and alive - prepare for a dry moment, anyway the Lord shall be with you there too!

When it is so probable that the dry moment would show up, but we can do nothing then because we are dry, it only goes to say that we should do something already now. Permit me to make an allegorical interpretation of the Word today: it seems good reflection to make on our lives. There are three things beautiful that could happen when our life runs dry...

1. Have your jars ready: 

When the wine ran short and Jesus looked around, there were six stone jars according to the custom of the Jews. When our life runs dry and the Lord wants to intervene we should have something ready for the Lord to use from our lives. Like the loaves the Lord used, like the mud that the Lord used, we see the Lord using these jars today to make the Lord's presence felt. When our life runs dry too, we need to have at least empty jars ready... that is the basic disposition to the Lord, our ordinary and regular habits of prayer, our basic ongoing relationship with the Lord and not some occasional business based interactions, our hope that the Lord is with us constantly, our trust in the goodness that belongs to God... these are the basic dispositions that the Lord can work on. 

It is important that we work on these and keep these ready in our ordinariness of life, for a dry patch. The culture today seems to switch from celebration to drudgery... one moment you are happy and effervescent and once it is gone you are down in the dredges. There is no midway about it. We are called to be sober, conscious and aware of what we are going through and build attitudes, habits and support systems that would serve us at times of dryness. 

2. Get your jars filled: 

Use all the gifts that you have, to stand strong, endure the moment. It is important that we endure them, when we reach moments of trials and dryness. One who endures shall receive the crown, instructs James (1:12), isn't it? You have splendid gifts given you, by the Spirit of the Lord. Gifts that can sustain you, strengthen you and take you across a weak patch... if only you are aware of them and know how to use them. 

These are your weapons in moments of dryness, provided you know you possess them. In your youth get to know your Lord, says Ecclesiastes, to mean that when we are in good spirits to ascertain the foundations of our life that we shall be supported when times come that may assail us. Take up the arrows in your quiver, which until then were preserved for this moment. Do no be unaware of the extraordinary gifts of prudence, will and endurance that the Spirit fills you with - they are great means to sustain yourself at passing moments of darkness. Remain firm with the Lord, become aware of the presence of the Lord and call upon the Lord, waiting on the Lord! 

3. Taste the transformed wine: 

We may have the jar and we may have them filled but it is Jesus who makes it wine! We may have all it takes to make this life meaningful and fruitful but be wondering why it isn't really working out... Jesus renders it fruitful; the Spirit makes our abilities true gifts. Wait, wait with patience and trust and the Lord will transform - your tears into joy (Jn 16:20), your shame into radiance (Ps 34:5), your weariness shall be replenished (Jer 31:25)... all this when you are able to endure with the Lord, wait on the Lord and allow the Lord to work on you! 

We see a tendency today, as soon as a little problem arises, we are out running from pillar to post seeking and begging someone or something to solve the problem. We have lost the courage to sit at the feet of the Lord and seek the light. We have lost the trust that everything that happens in our lives has something important to communicate to us. We have lost the faith that the Lord is there beside us even while we shall walk in the darkest of valleys and the Lord's crook and staff shall be there to guide me to light, to fullness, to sweetness of the new wine! 

When our lives run dry... let's take our jars filled to Jesus and he will transform them into wine; let's surrender to the Spirit and the Spirit will make us capable of always growing more and more  into God's children. 

The Journey: with grace and confidence!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 18, 2025 - Hebrews 4: 12-16; Mark 2: 13-17

The Word today is about the Word! A familiar passage that reminds us of the living Word, the dynamic and and powerful Word, which knows our innermost thoughts. This part from the letter to the Hebrews is not certainly one of its kind. Because we have a equally profound precedent in Psal 139, which tells us that the Lord knows us through and through; even before a word is on our lips, a thought is on our mind, the Lord knows them all...at times this can be frightening, isnt it?

Knowing how weak we are and how vulnerable and faint hearted we could be, naturally a proposition of this sort can be bewildering. How disastrous it could be that someone knows my thoughts, while I hide and harbour there quite some things that I cover up with my uncanny smiles and sugar coated words! For I alone know who I really am and what my interior is all about... these are obviously truthful fears. But the Word says, these do not matter, and that we could approach the mercy throne of the Lord with confidence. But how - that's would be an instant question in our mind!

Jesus answers that in the Gospel: yes, I know you are weak, your are tempted, you fall, you fail, you give in, you compromise, you lie, you have your private life... but these are no reasons for me to reject you. In fact, these are reasons, I have come in search of you! I am here for you; I am here with you and I am here to stand by you to transform you! God chooses the weak, the vulnerable, the sinners. And hence, we can approach the mercy seat, with that childlike trust in the Lord. 

On our journey of faith therefore, we are invited to keep marching, with grace and confidence!