One Lord; One Faith!

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

May 3, 2025: Celebrating Apostles Philip and James

1 Corinthians 15:1-8; John 14:6-14

The Word calls our attention to the mention of the names of the Apostles whom we celebrate today: James and Philip.

The James we speak of here is not James the son of Zebedee, the one who was among the closest three namely - Peter, James and John, and later became the Bishop of Jerusalem. But the James referred to here is the son of Alphaeus, who is for the sake of differentiating, known as James the lesser! Though that term is odd, it brings out the fact that he was among the 'less prominent bunch' of the Apostles but however he was one of the 12 pillars and Jesus appeared to him!

Philip is seen in the Gospel today inducing Jesus to make some intense pronouncements about himself and the Father! Though Jesus seems to be getting upset with Philip, it was necessary for the rest of the apostles too, to get clarified about things Jesus wanted them to. Philip is also seen in two other places - at the scene of multiplication of the bread (bringing the boy with five loaves and two fishes to Jesus) and later when some Greeks wish to see Jesus, bringing them along. Earlier he had brought Nathaniel too; in short, he was fond of bringing people to Jesus!

The Feast can communicate three realities that can help our faith communities today.

1: That differences are natural when a group of persons are involved. The differences are not only inevitable but they are beautiful to paint a holistic picture.

2: That differences do not mean division, or comparison or envy. That Philip and James and some others were not so prominent, never caused a rift among the apostles. They were able to live united in the Lord.

3. Each one has a specific call within the entire design of God and when one fails to play his role, however little and insignificant it could be, there is a lack in the whole!

The message is clear: avoid comparisons; avoid envy; realise the one call and remain united in the Lord! One Lord, one faith is our identity in the Risen Christ. 

Listening to grow - openness and Godliness

WORD 2day: Friday, 2nd week in Easter time

May 2, 2025 -  Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36

pc: Cecilia Paredes

We are reflecting on the charachteristic traits of the first Christian community that grew directly out of the Resurrection experience, offering itself to us as an example and challenge for us to realise our call to be Easter people, or the People of the Ressurection. 

The message that we have today comes from an indirect source, from a Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel, a learned man and seemingly an authentic person of God. Although he does not speak directly about the people but about Jesus, he presents to us a very pertinent reflection to understand a crucial trait of the people, of the first Christians. He instructs his own Jewish colleagues not to worry too much about destroying the movement initiated by Christ, saying it would die by itself if it were not founded on truth. The corollary is what matters to us - if the movement has not died, it is clear that our faith is founded on the truth of Resurrection. 

The lesson not to close their minds to the possibility of truth in the faith of the new grouped people, is a lesson to us too: not to close our minds to anyone around us who wishes in all his or her sincerity to share one's own experience and conviction. The Lord may speak to us through the person. When we are open and listening, we shall see a God-given scope to grow... just as the few loaves of bread multiplied themselves into a great feast for a great number, just as a handful who believed in Christ multiplied into a vast community of faith that would change the face of the earth very soon!

Listening to the Lord from any corner of our times, is an important trait of the people of God... that openness amounts to Godliness and a real experience of growth and fullness!

To Work our way to heaven

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May 1, 2025: Celebrating St. Joseph the Worker
Genesis 1:26-2:3; Matthew 13:54-58

We are disciples of the Carpenter's Son; that is how the people to refer to Jesus today. We celebrate not just the dignity but the divinity of work today. Karl Marx insisted that Work should be the extension of one's being, not a commodity to be sold or paid for. That is what the Christian perspective holds on too. The first reading from Genesis today presents to us work as participation in the creative power of God. We become co-creators with God when we make our work the expression and extension of our being. It is the way we fulfill the purpose for which we have been created. Infact, that is the way for us to trace the path that God has designed for each of us to reach heaven.

Three tendencies that are directly against it are:

1. Laziness and inactivity: deliberately choosing not to do anything and scheming to be parasitic on the labour of others;

2. Compulsion and burden: looking at work as a compulsion and carrying it out grudgingly, blaming everyone and the situation for the lack of inner joy;

3. Commodification and exploitation: looking at a person as a means through whom things can be produced and sold and commodified and stripping the true dignity of labour from the person.

These are totally anti-Christian attitudes to work. Work shoud become a joyful, conscious and deliberate choice to give of one's best towards building a better place for the entire humanity. In the highly commercialised, globalised, world today, may St. Joseph, the Worker inspire us to work our way to heaven.

People of Relationships - the Other and the others

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

April 30, 2025 - Acts: 17-26; John 3: 16-21

The call to get going, from the part of the Risen Lord, is to become people of the Spirit; the people of the Spirit are those who are characterised by humility, by courage and relationships that determine their identity. The Word today elaborates the last element of the affirmation... that is, the relationships that determine our identity. 

The apostles in prison, never felt isolated... they were accompanied by the Lord and not just that, they were accopmanied by the faithful who were constantly praying for them and sending them the spiritual sustenance. This is one of the characteristic traits of the people of the Spirit, who are people of relationships.

The relationship begins with the Other - faith, which is essentially a relationship with the Father who has created, saved and continues to love the children. The Other becomes the foundation of the life, of spiritual meaning, and of the sense of life. A faithful can never feel alone, can never feel abandoned, because the Father has not spared anything, not even the only Son, that we may have life, life to the full. 

The relationship gets its completeness, in the other! The brothers and sisters in faith, give the completeness of life and vocation that we have as faithful, the life as children of God and the vocation as disciples of the Risen Lord. In joys and in sufferings, in trials and in triumphs, we remain united in the other, inspired by the assurance of the Other. 

We are people of relationships, let us never feel isolated, always in communion of love, with the Loving Other and the beloved others. 

To be people of the Spirit - humility, courage and relationship

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

April 29, 2025 - Acts 4: 32-37; John 3: 7-15

The call to get going, as we reflected yesterday, consists in becoming the people of the Spirit. Today the Word instructs us on what it means to become the people of the Spirit: it means becoming persons of humility, of courage and of relationships!

The Gospel presents to us the humble person of Nicodemus, who even though being a teacher himself, humbly dedicates himself to learning from Jesus, as Jesus reveals to him what it means to be born of the Spirit. Nicodemus proves to be a man of the Spirit, as he opens his heart to the revelation of God through Jesus, about the Spirit. 

The first reading presents to us the courage of the people of God in proclaiming their identity as belonging to the Risen Lord. When those who were released by the Sanhedrin come to the community and recount the threats and the ultimatum given by the chief priests and pharisees, the people, instead of being bogged down by the threat and the punishment, praise God and rededicate themselves to a more convinced proclamation: the courage that they received from the Spirit. 

The first reading continues to point to us another essential point about being people of the Spirit - the importance and centrality of relationships in Christian way of life. The Word will deepen the reflection on this tomorrow... but here we are already introduced into that theme, a central theme for our calling!

Being people of the Spirit requires that we are persons of humility ready to learn from the Spirit, persons of courage ready to risk anything to belong to the Lord and persons of relationship who are moved by nothing but the value of love - love of God and love of one's neighbours. 

The Call to Get Going - People of the Spirit

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

April 28, 2025 - Acts 4: 23-31; John 3: 1-8

We have just concluded the Easter Octave and are entering into a new week. The Word this week is going to point us towards one overarching message: Get Going! The apostles and the disciples were so stuck with the disappointments from the past or the surprise of the present, that they could not concentrate on, "what next". Jesus had to call them to get going, and to be born again, to resume in the Spirit, to start anew in the Lord. 

What did Jesus mean by his call to the apostles and disciples to get going... it is to receive the Holy Spirit, to be renewed in the Spirit, to be created anew in the Paraclete, that they may take the message of Christ, the message that Christ was, to the entire world. That is what happens there. 

To be filled with Holy Spirit and to proclaim the Word with courage and prophecy, is the next step to which the Lord bid the apostles to get going, and the Word of God leaves us with the same challenge to - to be renewed in the Spirit, to take what the Spirit inspires with seriousness, and take the message of Christ, and the message that Christ is, to the world around us. 

The next phase of the Eastertide shall tend to prepare us towards becoming people who get going towards an ongoing maturity in our call of faith. Let us keep our hearts and minds open these days to the Word which shall urge us towards this next phase of our Christian call, to get going towards our personal and collective maturity in faith. 

HOLY WEEK & EASTER

Wishing you a Wonderful Holy Week and a Hope filled Easter

Will be taking a break for two weeks with the reflections

catch up after the 2 weeks...

let us remain united in prayers!

A Return to hope... to Universal Solidarity

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Fifth week in Lent

April 12, 2025 - Ezekiel 37: 21-28; John 11: 45-56

We have readched the end of the lenten journey. Today is the last day, as tomorrow we begin the Holy Week already. We have been on a journey, a journey of return to hope and today the Word summarises the entire journey in terms of its ultimate purpose - the same purpose as for which Jesus came among us, lived among us and gave his life for us! 

The entire purpose of this journey is - move towards the universal solidarity. The experience of salvation that Jesus brought us was this, at gradual levels we move towards this solidarity. At the personal level we move towards becoming children of the One Father, sheep of the one Shepherd. At interpersonal level, that we recognise each other as brothers and sisters who have the same, One Father, and belong to the same flock of that One Shepherd. As communities, that we begin to realise our unity as a flock, not to divide ourselves from the others, but to extend that sense of relatedness across differences, towards that universal solidarity. 

Today with all the situations of war and violence, threats and competitions, mutual demands of tariffs and attempts of exploitation, what can resolve tensions is the sense of solidarity. In Fratelly tutti, Pope Francis underlining the way to hope in today's context makes a simple but a challenging statement: "no one is saved alone" (n. 54), bringing out the intrinsic rapport between hope and solidarity. Jesus is presented as one who, with his death, once again brought to real the Oneness that God wishes from God's children - to gather us into one. 

If we really are convinced of being on our pilgrimage of hope, we shall become day after day, apostles of solidarity, bringing God's people more and more together - in mind, spirit and action. 

A Return to hope... Assuring Presence

THE WORD IN LENT - Fifth Friday in Lent

April 11, 2025 - Jeremiah 20: 10-13; John 10:31-42

Terror, revenge, vengeance, fear... these are the sentiments that dominate the Word today. With Jesus being taken to task, almost stoned. These types of negativities and fears are no strange experiences to us, may be at different levels. But each of  us go through these, and specially in the world scenario today, these abound. 

Negativities at the level of persons, at the level of families, in the societies, at the international level; Vengeance and enmities, threats and deceptions, they create an anguish in persons and in the collective consciousness of people. What is the way out of these experiences of anguish? We see that suggested in the Responsorial psalm - I call to the Lord and the Lord shall hear my voice!

Hence the message - to call, to cry out to God. But the question is: what will God do then? With he make all these experiences disappear? Will he just turn everything upside down in the snap of a finger? Will he do magic that makes everything totally different and happy? Jesus and his situation in the Gospel clarifies this to us - in our anguish we call out to the Lord and the Lord hears.., and does what? He comes to be with us, to be on our side, to walk through whatever we are walking through, to assure us of his presence, his assuring presence - that is the foundation of hope! 

A return to hope is receiving that assurance of God's presence. When things go wrong, when situations around me are terrorising and frightening, I call out to the Lord and I shall experience the assuring presence of the Lord, the source of hope that will help us just walk amidst the situations, towards that presence that is within me, that presence that calls me to blessed peace! 

A Return to hope... to a divine outlook!

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Fifth week in Lent 

April 10, 2025 - Genesis 17: 3-9; John 8: 51-59

Abraham was considered the father of the generations by the people of Israel and Judah! Even within our Catholic faith tradition, he does occupy a very important role, as a father of our faith. Naturally for the Jews, to hear Jesus speak of Abraham as one who wanted to see his days, it was a scandal, and they could not bear it. Would it not happen even with us, if we heard someone speak in a manner less respectful about one of our favourite saints?

But the real problem was  little deeper - they could not see eye to eye with Jesus, not just in this, but in anything, because they did not share the outlook of Christ. They and Christ, were in two different outlooks, two different minds! 

While they had a material outlook in everything, Jesus proposes a determinedly Spiritual outlook. They looked for miracles, the multiplied bread and the miraculous wine; while Jesus spoke to them about the Word on which they need to live and they could not understand that.

While they had a temporal outlook of the world, Jesus challenged them to an eternal outlook. Naturally they could not understand it when Jesus said he was, before Abraham was! It was blasphemous for them as they could not understand eternity, where there does not exist a past or future but just timelessness in the eyes of God. God knows what plans God has for us, because everything is before God's eyes.

While they had the outlook of singular events, Jesus had the vision of Salvation which the people could not understand. Finally the solution therefore is that we put on the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5). That alone can help us understand what the Lord really wants from us - that requires docility and humility, to listen to the Lord and learn from the Lord. The Lord alone can give us that divine outlook.