The Name of God

WORD 2day: Thursday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 17, 2025: Exodus 3: 13-20; Matthew 11: 28-30

The Word presents the name of God to us today. Reflecting on the name of God, every time I narrate this curious experience of mine a few years ago when I was doing my licentiate studies in Rome. In a parish in the north of Italy, where I was substituting a parish priest during his days of Spiritual Retreat, there were a few elderly ladies who were regular for the daily Eucharist. And after the celebration every day, they would spend some time, speaking with me. They loved to hear things about the Bible and one day the most vociferous of the lot, asked me - "Is there a name for our God!" Before I could say, "Yes, it is Jesus!", she intervened and said, "I mean, God the Father! Does God have a name?" And I quoted to her today's reading and said, "Yes, our God is I AM. Or when we say it...Our God is WHO IS". She was thrilled to know the name of God, and was going around telling everyone the discovery that she has made. When the Parish priest returned a week later, one of the first things she told him was, "Fr. you know, I know the name of our God. Our God is, WHO IS, or I AM, or YAHWEH"...And the Parish Priest was a bit upset; he turned to me and said - "No Father... That is the God of the Hebrews!"

I did not want to pick a theological argument with the Parish priest...but thought to myself - "Yes...that is the God of the Hebrews, and therefore the God of Jesus too...the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as St. Paul would say (2 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3; Col 1:3)."

YAHWEH, One who IS… It is not just a name - it was an experience. It has to be our experience today: the God who IS, who is with us, now, always, all the time. Especially in tough times as we are living today, we need to yearn for and draw strength from this experience of God with us, the God who IS with us. Yahweh, O God who IS with us, help us feel your presence and share the same with those who are in need of it.

Where do I belong?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 15, 2025: Exodus 2: 1-15a; Matthew 11:20-24

Yesterday we reflected on the situations of injustice in the world and the readings drove us to a reflection on it. Today, the readings issue a warning to us! The Lord is patient and merciful, but at the same time just and righteous. The Lord has a predilection for the poor, the oppressed, those who are sinned against, those who are denied of their rights, those who are constrained to live in conditions that they actually do not deserve to suffer. The warning is this: that we take care to see where we actually belong!

One cannot forget the dark day of the last century: July 16, 1945 – we shall be commemorating it tomorrow… it was the day that the atomic bomb was dropped, bringing the World War II to an end. We are not called merely to judge who is right and who is wrong and give a verdict on persons. We are called to remain on the side of the right, the truth and justice. It is not that we may be oppressors, but even if indirectly by our inaction and silence we allow the oppression of a person or a people go scot-free, we are on the wrong side, on the side of injustice! As the famous holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said, "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

Our help is in the name of the Lord, affirms the Responsorial Psalm today. When we are a help to the oppressed, we are acting in the name of the Lord. The Lord raises Lord's judgement, Lord's Hero from where and when, we know not. But surely our help is in the name of the Lord, and let us strive to be always on the side of the Lord. If we fail, the Lord warns us today, "I tell you that it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgement for the land of Sodom than for you." When we are on the side of the poor, the oppressed, the little ones of the Lord, we are on the side of the Lord. 

It is important to ask myself constantly, where do I belong?

People who forget their stories

WORD 2day: Monday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 14, 2025: Exodus 1:8-14, 22; Matthew 10:34 - 11:1

One cannot but think of the prevailing situations of inhumanity, cruel hegemony, political manipulation, socio-economic oppression and human right violations all over the world, when we read the first reading today! When we find ourselves in front of these suffering brothers and sisters, we cannot close our eyes or switch off our minds. No one can be neutral, in our own way we have to take our stand - if we try staying neutral, so many memories will come crowding into our minds: the world wars, the holocaust, the hiroshima-nagasaki, the Srilankan tamil carnage, the ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis, the Israel-Iran tussle, the so-called super powers who are tyring to draw their mileage ... how many of these can we ward off from our minds?

Not only did the Pharaoh not know the history of Joseph and things that happened in his predecessors' times, even the people seemed to have forgotten their origins - of how they reached Egypt and why they reached there and that they were there only for a while, that the Lord had said they will move to "their" land later! They began to think Egypt was their land and they would be there for eternity. They forgot their story. The Lord had to remind them. The world today too has this spiritual amnesia!

That is why the Lord comes with the sword, with fire... that we may wake up and wake up the world, and bring ourselves back as people who are mindful of our stories, our experiences, all that we have enjoyed from the Lord and all that we have promised the Lord and all that we have neglected so far. At times when we face turmoils, we need to turn back to our stories thus far and draw consolation and inspiration from there. In those moments of struggle, as people of God we need to realise that we are afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken (cf. 2 Cor 4:8)... let us pay heed that we do not become people who forget their stories.

BE LOVE! BE COMPASSION!

Being Christian: the Image, the model and the challenge!

15th Sunday in Ordinary time - July 13, 2025
Deuteronomy 30: 10-14; Colossians 1: 15-20; Luke 10: 25-37

Religion has been traditionally considered a search for God, some of those are long-winded and some others super-human. The Liturgy today differs from this point of view and indicates to a Christian, that living as a Christian is neither too hard nor too far off. Jesus Christ the Son of God has brought it so close to us, by becoming one of us and having lived out for us in his own life a model to be emulated, an example to be followed and a path to be retraced. Those who wish to take the unbeaten path need not worry, for this path traced by Jesus will forever remain unbeaten for not as many as enough dare take that path. The Challenge thus is alive for you and me today!

The Word of God is in my heart! What God wants of me, what really matters to lead a life worthy of the One who created me, is right within me! It is in the core of my being, because I am created in the image and the likeness of God (Gen 1:27) and having been created in God's own image, I have within me all that is Godly...all that is characteristic of God, I have it embedded in the core of my being! If nothing hinders or distorts it, this is what I will manifest too in my daily life! This is what the book of Deuteronomy teaches us today in the first reading! In the exegesis by St. Paul on this passage from Deuteronomy - in Romans 10:6-7 - we hear the Apostle telling us, that we need not wonder how will we come to understand this inherent nature of ours - because we have Jesus Christ who has revealed it to us!

Christ came to reveal to us not merely who God was, but who we were; that we are the image and likenesses of God, that we are sons and daughters of a God who is love and compassion. A literal translation of the Hebrew version of Psalm 103, would read, "The Lord is compassion and love" (Ps 102(103):8) - not merely that God is compassionate and loving, but God is compassion and love! Christ was the visible image of this invisible God - Christ was the love of God personified, Christ was the living image of Compassion. He came to reveal to us, how much God loved us and how filled with compassion God is. Our call to be Christians is not a call to believe in some truths and adhere to some moral virtues, it is to live as Christ lived, to think as Christ thought, to feel as Christ felt, to love as Christ loved!

That is why Jesus did not stop with the two great commandments, he made them just one and said - "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (Jn 13:34). According to Christ it is not enough to love the other as I love myself... but I am called to love the other as God loves me, as Christ loved me - that is, to love unconditionally, to love without counting the cost, to love even upto the death on the Cross!

That is a challenge! That is why when they asked Jesus who is my neighbour, Jesus did not answer them directly. He gave them a parable and made them reflect, to whom they have to be a neighbours! Yes, the Lord invites me today to be a neighbour to every person who is in need, every person who is suffering alone, everyone who is left to bleed on the pavements of the present world of insensitive globalisation, inhuman consumerism and heartless technological domination. I am asked to be a neighbour to everyone who is tired and heavy laden, everyone who is lonely and sick, sick in body, mind, heart and soul. Let me not ask anymore the stale question, who is my neighbour! If I am truly a Christian, I would ask a question more pertinent - TO WHOM SHOULD I BE A NEIGHBOUR...and the answer will be right before our eyes.

And the way to be a neighbour is what Jesus explains today! To be like himself, to feel for the other like Jesus, to live like Jesus, to love like Jesus: to BE LOVE, to BE COMPASSION - that is the most fitting way to be a Christian today.

A Challenge and an Assurance

WORD 2day: Saturday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 12, 2025: Genesis 44: 18-21, 23-29, 45: 1-5; Matthew 10: 7-15

By the grace of God, I have come across so many youngsters who are so inspiring by the absolute choice that they have made for God and the will of God. People who have had great ambitions and plans, but have just thrown them into the air for the sake of a vision that God inspired. Persons who have had prospects so promising, but have ignored those just because they felt they have been called for a specific mission, a mission in the footsteps of the Master-saviour. Daring individuals who have made choices for which they are being derided, called names and have suffered worst experiences of want and willful deprivation. A challenge!

When this challenge is taken up, one could find oneself on a tossing sea or a troubled sky, but nothing would disturb the person, for he or she has found a ground so firm, a base so strong, a root so deep - the Lord who calls, commissions and walks one through. At the end of all the tribulations, pervades a serenity, a sense of accomplishment, the same sense with which Jesus gasped on the cross, "It is accomplished." That is the tone in which Jacob (aka) Israel speaks today of his end and what should come after.

The Lord does not leave us merely with the challenge; the Lord attaches an assurance to every one of those situations: the assurance of God's caring presence with us! Pope Francis in his first encyclical Lumen Fidei had called this, 'the accompanying presence of God' (LF 57). It is an assurance that arises from the fact that God loves us, that God values us, that God cares for us, and above all, that God counts on us!

The challenge is to belong to God, come what may. It is not an easy task considering the prevailing atmosphere today... how prepared are we?

To stick till the end...

WORD 2day: Friday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 11, 2025: Genesis 46: 1-7, 28-30; Matthew 10: 16-23

Enduring till the end is the test of the strength of one's faith. Israel (Jacob) today expresses that great satisfaction in having endured till the end, on seeing Joseph alive..."Now let me die!" - a sense of fulfilment! As later we would hear Simeon exclaiming in the Temple of Jerusalem on seeing the child Jesus, "At last all-powerful Master, let your servant go in peace. For, my eyes have seen the salvation you have prepared for the nations!"

Jesus teaches the same to us his followers, "the one who endures till the end shall be saved" (Mt 10:22). Endurance that Jesus demands is for two reasons - first, because all the troubles that a follower of Christ faces is for such a noble purpose, a cause so great, that anything can be given up for its sake - the Reign of God on earth. Seek first the Reign of God... even if you have to give up your home, your dear ones, your belongings or even your life, for you will be rewarded hundred percent, says the Lord, here on earth and in the eternal life!

Secondly, because the mission entrusted to us is so vast and so immense that these troubles can measure nowhere in comparison to it. He says with a tinge of humour, even if you have to run from one town to the other due to persecutions, "you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel, before the Son of man comes." Such was the determination of the early Christians and the Apostles who led them from the fore - to stick till the end, the very end.

To proclaim through our daily lives the Reign of God and if we have to face hard consequences due to it, to be prepared to endure it all the way - that is the call for me today.

SHALOM - Carrying God's message...

WORD 2day: Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 10, 2025: Genesis 44:18-21, 23b-29, 45:1-5; Matthew 10: 7-15

The theme of yesterday continues still: Being sent, and being sent on a mission! The Lord sends the twelve to carry his message to all the people of Israel, a message of gladness, healing, restoration, peace and joy... in short Shalom!

As Joseph notes in the last verse of the first reading today, "it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you". It was with a mission that Jesus was sent to us and it is with a mission that Jesus sends us today - he says to each of us: "As the father sent me, so I send you"(Jn 20:21).

Each of us is sent! Sent with the promise of Shalom; Shalom which is fullness of blessings that we wish for every brother or sister in the Lord, or for that matter that is what we wish for the whole world as sons and daughters of the Good Lord. We may wonder, why the whole world... is it not only those who are good to me; those who are my well-wishers? But the Lord and the Word today have it otherwise.

We are presented with the example of Joseph who in spite of all that they did to him tells the rest of the sons of Jacob, “I am your brother"! Isn't that the true Christian attitude expected of us? This is possible only if we look at everything from the perspective of God as did Joseph, and of course Jesus! That is Shalom... not just being good to those who are good, but being good and... period! ...irrespective of what others are and what the world around me is.

Let this day be another opportunity for us to carry the Lord's message: Shalom to you!

His band... of brothers and sisters

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 9, 2025: Genesis 41:55-57, 42:5-7a, 17-24a; Matthew 10: 1-7

The Twelve... that is the common element in the two readings today. The 12 tribes and the 12 apostles, was not a mere coincidence, it was more than that. It was a choice to resemble because the Lord was raising a new people of God, the New Israel, a new band of brothers and sisters.

Jesus had a big following, that is, his disciples and from them he sends these 'Apostles'; we are among his disciples already by our Baptism and he wants to send each of us with a specific mission. And each of us sent, exactly to where we are - to our homes, to our neighbourhoods, to our parishes, to our societies... to establish the Reign of God, that is, to assure the needs of all, to stand by the neglected and guarantee them their rights, to stand against the ungodly forces, the unjust systems, the corrupt and inhuman dominations, to empower the people towards a peaceful, serene and human existence.

The naming of the Apostles - with a function given to them: to chase the evil spirits and to heal the sick! Apostles are those who are 'sent' (literally too, 'apostolos' in Greek); sent in the name of God with a specific mission. Joseph of the Old Testament, was an apostle too - sent ahead by God to Egypt in order to provide for God's people at a later time! So, providing for God's people, liberating them from the ungodly forces and giving them a life in all its fullness - those are the duties of an apostle, on behalf of the Lord who sends him or her.

Have I made real efforts to understand my call and my mission as an apostle, the Lord's band of brothers and sisters?

The Struggle of life and death

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 08, 2025: Genesis 32:23-33; Matthew 9:32-38

It's puzzling! Among a few puzzling details of the Old Testament is the likes of today's account from Jacob's life. The Lord (!?!) wrestled with Jacob, says the reading today - and elsewhere we see a similar account of God trying to kill Moses (Ex 4:24). Whatever may be the exegesis, the first disclaimer here is not to take these lines literally. There is a symbolic or an interpretative meaning to these happenings!

One thing we can guess here is that these men had something really to struggle with, a struggle of life and death! But they stood firm on the side of the Lord who had called them and after that struggle of life and death, there is something remarkable, a change that is radical, a happening that defines history forever. For, Jacob after that struggle comes to be called Israel, a name that would define the People of God forever. Incidentally, Moses after that struggle comes to establish a new covenant with the Lord in the sign of circumcision - again something that would define the People of the Covenant, ever since.

Jesus had the same struggle, constantly there were people who followed him as there were the others who tried their best to demonise him (Mt 9:34). The struggle went on right till the cross - the struggle of life and death, but he stood by the Father who had sent him. And after that struggle, he was not anymore merely Jesus, but Jesus the Christ; there came the event that changed the World for ever, it changed the history not only of the world in general, but of you and me in specific! Today we are saved, in his struggle, in his death, in his wounds, in his blood and in his Resurrection!

Can we say from our hearts today that we are ready for struggles that come on our way because of our faith in the Lord?

Encounter that touches

WORD 2day: Monday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 7, 2025: Genesis 28:10-22; Matthew 9: 18-26

Encounter with God - the Word presents three of them today: Jacob's encounter with God, the ailing lady and the little child encountering Jesus. There are two messages that stand out in the entirety of today's events. 

Firstly, any encounter with God rejuvenates. Jacob was given a new vision of life; the lady with the haemorrhage was given a new life; and the little child was given back her life! One cannot remain the same after having encountered God. 

The second message, which is carried specially by the Gospel account, is about the special encounter through TOUCH - It is interesting to note the two accounts of Luke which seem to point to a fact: whether you touch God or God touches you, the fruits are the same! The lady, sad and suffering touched Jesus, and Jesus touched the little child dead and gone... the effect was the same - a new lease of life. 

Touching God or God touching us, they are the same - for they both are fundamentally an encounter and "Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love" (Lumen Fidei, 4).

May be another important feature can be underlined too - that God met Jacob on a ground and while he slept; Jesus encountered the diseased lady on a road and amidst a jostling crowd; Jesus touched the little girl in a room and while she lay dead! It does not matter where we are, or what we are up to, the living God can encounter us anywhere and anytime, provided we are ready and willing to accept and behold the encounter. 

Behold I stand knocking at the door, says the Lord! May Lord Jesus touch us so that we may be healed by that encounter that touches our entire being!