Pride - the urge to prove myself!

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

October 24, 2025: Romans 7: 18-25; Luke 12: 54-59

Many a trouble today brews in the waters of wanting to prove oneself at all cost. The world, the society, teaches us from our earliest days in life, that one should prove oneself... how many wars have been fought in history due to this tendency! How many injustices and exploitations have been justified because of this urge, in individuals and collective mindsets... why, how many follies are being committed even today, in these days, as people and systems try to prove themselves right at any cost!

But this urge to prove oneself... does it not sound very similar to, or same as, living one's life to the full? While proving oneself is always a phenomenon in comparison with the other where the other becomes a threat or a competition or an element to be eliminated, living my life to the full is a serene acceptance of who I am, what my capacity is and living it to the most. Here the others are my companions, my co-passengers and my colleagues! There isn't much need for proving myself, infact proving myself would turn detrimental within this mode of living.

The Word instructs us on this attitude today, inviting us through St. Paul to understand the call to grow in humility - humility understood as knowing the reality of our own selves. There is no need to justify oneself before people, for God knows who we are: that is faith. However weak and wrong we could be, God accepts us as we are and walks us to salvation through Jesus Christ if only we are ready to surrender: that is hope. This is the crucial lesson that the world needs today, to look at truth, accept truth and walk in truth, admitting when one fails and deciding to move on ahead in righteousness. Pride would never allow that... with pride I would be worried only about proving myself! It would do good to no one, neither to me nor to the other!

At whose service?

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

October 23, 2025: Romans 6: 19-23; Luke 12: 49-53

Jesus speaks of a fire that he wanted to set ablaze - the fire of righteousness, the fire of integrity, the fire of sanctification! It is simply the capacity to burn for a cause, but the question is for what cause? Paul rephrases that question in his parlance - at whose service? At whose service am I?

We find in the society today, people who claim to be at the service of the Divine - so they claim; but whether they really are, is a question to be answered only by themselves and by the Divine. But there can be indications that either prove or disprove their claim: sincerity, integrity, sensitivity to the other, love and true care of the common home - these are the indications that can sustain the claim of anyone who claims that he or she is at the service of the Divine.

There are those in the so-called opposing camp - who say, they are definitely not at the service of the Divine. They declare themselves to be atheists and agnostics, rationalists and humanists! But sometimes, the experiences they are involved in, such as humanitarian concern, ecological consciousness, raising their voice for the voiceless and oppressed, going out of their way to stand for the truth and fight for justice, even where they have nothing to gain - these actions and dispositions prove, even against their will, that they are in fact at the service of the One, true Divine, the author of life and the source of fullness of life.

Now the question is those who are called to be at the service of the Divine - not the ones who claim to be nor the ones who profess not to be - but the ones who are specifically called to be, by baptism, by ongoing choices, numerous sacraments and occasions of grace! Yes... you and me... we are to ask that question to ourselves today: at whose service am I?

Fighting on the side of God

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 22, 2025: Remembering Pope St. John Paul II

Romans 6: 12-18; Luke 12: 39-48

Make every part of your body into a weapon fighting on the side of God - what a powerful spirituality that St. Paul proposes! Remembering Pope St. John Paul II, augurs well with this message, as he was someone who developed so beautifully the theology of the body! 

Returning to the Word today, fighting for God is a spirituality, a way of life, a mode of living our Christian call. How can I make that spirituality mine? There are three ways of life, or modes of operation, that would indicate that we are fighting on the side of God.

Firstly, that I am fighting on the side opposed to sin! My choices have to be absolute, deliberate and specific. There can be no compromises... I cannot take a neutral stand when it comes to choosing between sin and virtue, choosing between good and evil, choosing between truth and untruth, choosing between life and death! If I am for God, I have to be against sin, evil, untruth and the culture of death.

Secondly, that I am fighting! I need to fight, I cannot give up, nor lower my guard! I need to keep fighting, come what may. In my day to day life, I am a soldier of God. I need to fight ceaselessly. Even a moment of distraction or disengagement, can lead me to falter. Moments of temptation, moments of confusion, moments of delusion are bound to be there, but a soldier of God would never cease fighting.

Thirdly, I am fighting with God! When am I going to grow up? Yes, our help is in the name of the Lord, but can we go on all our life asking God to fight on our side, help us, strengthen us and so on? Is it not important that I grow in my faith, that is, grow in my relationship with the Lord to the extent that I am able to tell that Lord - Lord, I offer myself totally to you, you have given me life and you have given meaning in this life and I shall fight on your side! Your Kingdom come!

Pope John Paul II, in his long papacy of 26 years stood firmly on the side of God and God's people... fighting with God, for the Reign of God to be beheld here and now. He has been a great advocate for the fact that from those to whom God has given more, more will be expected... God has invested so much in us, should we not find ourselves, wherever we are, fighting on the side of God?

Forever ready and prepared!

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

October 21, 2025: Romans 5: 12,15,17-21; Luke 12: 35-38

Death entered through sin; everyone in the human race has been subject to death because everyone has sinned - these words of the first reading set us thinking. It further excites our minds when it says, through one man's obedience and sacrifice we have been liberated from the reins of sin! There are three facts that we are called to reflect on and pay attention to:

Firstly, that there is a very strong connection between sin and death. Sin is death. Sin is choosing evil over God; it is rejecting God the source of life - hence sin is death. When we choose sin, we choose death. That is one of the prime reasons why Pope Emeritus warned us of the culture of death that is prevalent in today's world - people are fond of choosing sin, knowing well all its ill effects!

Secondly, the death that St. Paul refers to here is not the chronological expiry of life that every being on earth is subject to. He is refering to a death that is eternal damnation, an eternal loss of life. Therefore, what Jesus offers us, that is eternal life, can be offered only by him and by the One who sent him. Jesus in his life, death and resurrection, has made this eternal life possible for us: the choice is ours now!

Thirdly, the choices is an everyday experience. It is not some kind of licence that we can get at the end of our life, or at a point when we think it is convenient. It is a matter of daily life, in every thing that we are involved in, in our priorities and in our day to day decisions, we have to make a choice, an absolute choice for righteousness and truth, for justice and love - then we shall inherit the Reign of God.

When we are clear about our choices every moment of our life, we need not worry when the world will end or when my end would come - I am forever ready and prepared!

Rich in God's sight

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

October 20, 2025: Romans 4:20-25; Luke 12:13-21

Storing up treasures for oneself versus being rich in God's sight - is the contrast that the Gospel presents us today! Being rich by the standards of the world, or at least having more than just enough, seems to be the driving force for a big majority in the present day context. At times one is dumbstruck looking at how one has wealth as much much as a whole village and another at the very same time, has not enough to be assured of the next meal. This is no strange fact today's world - that is how is the world is, they say without shame or shock!

Storing up wealth, however, is not easy - work, fatigue, stress, competition, strain, pain, sacrifice, fight, strife... it involves all these and more. Being rich in God's sight - consists of just one thing, one single thing - to remain still in God's presence! Through darkness and cloud, through storm and turbulence, 'be still and know that I am God' (Ps 46:10). 

Abraham, through all moments of probable doubt and hopelessness, "grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God" says the letter to the Romans. That was reckoned to him as righteousness! Through our daily work and responsibilities, concerns and discouragements, struggles and temptations, let us learn to 'be still' and 'grow strong in faith'! 

As we go about out daily duties and demanding responsibilities, let us remember that we are upto these tasks because God has willed it so. If that is truly the case, God shall give us the grace to see ourselves through them too. Let us be ever convinced that God is capable of doing what God has promised - that will make us rich and blessed in the sight of God. 

WITH HANDS RAISED UNTO THE LORD

Missionaries of Hope among all peoples!

Mission Sunday: 29th Sunday in Ordinary time - October 19, 2025

Exodus 17:8-13; 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:2; Luke 18:1-8

Work as if everything depended on you; Pray as if nothing depended on you, goes the popular saying. Today we have a wonderful image to place before us, as we go about our daily life. Moses on the hill overlooking the battle, with hands raised unto the Lord! The battle belongs to the Lord... all that we need to do is keep still, the Lord will fight for us says the book of Exodus (14:14).

We are called to live our life with our hands raised unto the Lord!

Living with hands raised unto the Lord is a gesture that means to abandon everything into the hands of God. It is a total personal abandonment to the Lord, that the Lord may guide us and that the Lord may fight the battle for us! Many grow weary of struggles and temptations in life... when Moses' hands were raised, Israel won!

The book of Proverbs tells us, 'the horse is made ready for the battle; but the victory belongs to the Lord!'(Prov. 21:31). When we learn to abandon ourselves in the hands of God, we will see the wonders that can happen. The more we stick on to ourselves as the source of energy and victory, the more we could get stressed, depressed and discouraged. These instances are today, becoming more and more as human mind in its pride thinks of any dependence as below dignity, even the dependence on God! Is not interdependence among fellow beings and total dependence on God, that would make us truly human!

Living with hands raised unto the Lord is to reach out to the Lord with all our heart. It is like the antenna that stretches to connect, to receive and to communicate. That is in short, 'prayer' - to connect, to receive and to communicate. How many times we rattle off prayers, with the formula we have memorised from time immemorial! Even the so-called spontaneous prayers, how many times it is like the warning from the Lord: heaping up empty words and phrases! Do we really pray, or say prayers?

Let us pay attention to the term that seems common in today's readings: pray without ceasing tells Jesus presenting to us the image of the widow; proclaim in season and out of season instructs St. Paul; and the first reading presents to us Moses unwilling to grow weary of having his hands raised unto to the Lord. A two fold call here: first, not to grow weary... like the widow to go on in trust, with our hands raised unto the Lord; second, when a brother or sister seems to grow weary, to rush to their side like Aaron and Hur and to be with them and to raise our hands in unison unto the Lord. A praying person builds a praying community of brothers and sisters, genuinely concerned about each other!

Living with the hands raised unto the Lord is to be filled with hope in the Lord; to live as Missionaries of hope among all peoples - as the message of the Holy Father for this Mission Sunday invites us. Like it happened to the widow, it may look like you might never get justice. Like it happened to the Israelites, it might look like you are losing the battle. Things may continuously go wrong, people might endlessly misunderstand you, nothing might seem to be going the way you wished it would..."But as for you, continue, in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it"...from Jesus himself who hoped in the One who sent him, from our Blessed mother who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord! 

In the battle of our daily living, every day of our life, every moment of our day, let us resolve to live with our hands raised unto to the Lord in a holy abandonment, in a loving union and in an unfailing hope... so that when Our Lord and Saviour comes he will still find faith here amidst us!

Faith and what follows...

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

October 17, 2025: Romans 4: 1-8; Luke 12: 1-7

Faith is a gift, a gratuitous gift from God! My part is to grow in it. The more I grow in it, the more I realise how undeserving I am of it. Abraham was granted this gift and he grew tremendously worthy of it. Paul was granted this gift and he fought a brave fight to become worthy of it. 

Jesus accuses those who throw those pearls of faith to the swines of their ego and self centered thinking. If I have received this gift of faith, should I not be grateful for it and mindful enough to keep growing in it. Can I be boasting about it and mindlessly acting contrary to it? Jesus is warning us about something that would not look apparently like an aberration of faith, but in fact leads us gradually away from what true faith is all about - 'the yeast' of the Pharisees, that Jesus mentions in the Gospel today.

Taking my faith to be a reason for my pride, judging everyone else who does not partake of it; calling names at people who have a faith different from mine merely because of the difference and treating them with despite; making faith a means to make my living instead of making it my life and journeying genuinely towards my eternal life...these are somethings that I need to be on the guard about! 

Let us remind ourselves every day: faith is the greatest of gifts given to me, and I need to grow in it every day, every moment.

One God and the Bloodshed!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 28th week in Ordinary time
October 16, 2025: Romans 3: 21-30; Luke 11: 47-54

There is only one God... so finishes the first reading of today! We beleive in One God! Belief in one God seems to be a disturbing fact for many who think it is a point of contention - that those who believe in One God, have a point to prove against those who believe in a God different from theirs. But is this so? The Word today gives us a totally different perspective of belief in One God.

First of all, this perspective is more catholic than divisive! Believing in One God is a catholic perspective... not the technical term refering to the Catholic Church - but the literal meaning of the term 'catholic' which means 'all-embracing'. Believing in one God, challenges me to embrace everyone who is around me, because I firmly believe my God invites me to love all, because every one is created by the only God that I beleive in. I cannot look at a person as divided from me, however different his or her faith could be.

Secondly, this perspective makes me believe in universal brotherhood and sisterhood... as every one is my brother or sister, given to me by my God to love and share my life with. I cannot find in the other a rival or an alien or a stranger, much less an enemy!

Thirdly, laws and regulations, legalities and formalities, red tapism and border controversies, cannot stop me from being merciful and loving to the other. Believing in one God means I believe in the same God who is sovereign over all, the same God who loves all, the same God who cares for all.

And therefore, due to any reason, worst of it being the reason of faith or religion, if I cause or condone the bloodshed of a brother or sister of mine, I shall be the worst of hypocrites here on earth and the least in the Reign of that One, Supreme, loving God whom I believe in.

Righteousness, Self-righteousness and Judgements

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 15, 2025: Remember St. Teresa of Avila

Romans 2: 1-11, Luke 11: 42-46

Let us begins with an interesting episode narrated about the saint of the day - St. Teresa of Avila, who was fond of identifying herself as Sr. Teresa of Jesus. One day when she was about to climb the stairs within her convent, she found a small little boy playing on the steps. The boy asked her: "who are you?" She answered, "I am Sr. Teresa of Jesus. And who are you?" The boy retorted, "I am Jesus of Sr. Teresa" and disappeared! Yes, the Lord loves each of us in a unique and specific manner. But the Word today, has a different message to give: 

God has no favourites, says the first reading and Jesus demonstrates that in the Gospel. Neither in being close and accompanying, nor in providing a sense of righteousness (corrections and directions), does God differentiate between persons. The differences arise only in the way we receive or not, what the Lord wishes to communicate to us. In none of these are we judged by God - we are judged by our own judgements! Judge not and you shall not be judged said Jesus. And we hear today, Paul saying its corollary: judge and you shall be judged too, with the same measure and rigour!

Jesus spared no one - whether it was the pharisees or the lawyers or the chief priests or Herod or Pilate - everyone got their share! As much as Jesus was compassionate with the sinners, the publicans and the samaritans, he was stern with the Pharisees and the Saducees - was it a bias? Certainly no! They were in no way judgements passed on those people, but they were an appeal to their conscience to change their ways towards righteousness. It was done with concern for their salvation.

Understanding the discourse between the religious bigwigs of his time and Jesus, we see there were two things involved: Righteousness that Jesus insisted so much upon; and the Self-righteousness that Jesus detested in them! The thin line between Righteousness and Self righteousness has to be trodden with diligent care.

Judgements arise from self righteousness, where I consider myself one-up and sit on the tribunal looking down on others. While righteousness makes one just and loving, non-judgemental and compassionate, humble and impartial, and above all, lovable! It is God's righteousness that makes God the most lovable of all persons we can think of. And the love that we have for God, challenges us to grow towards that same Righteousness, from our tendency to self-righteousness.

The Light of Integrity

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 28th Week in Ordinary time

October 14, 2025: Romans 1: 16-25; Luke 11: 37-41

The terminology used by Paul today sounds very practical, warning us that there are no excuses one can give for not recognising the hand of God in and through the immensity of the reality around. And added to that, when it comes to me and God, I don't need to have proofs and justifications and evidences that I believe in God or not. Because God knows the innermost thoughts of mine and I need not be bothered about my presentations and formulations. This is the fundamental element of what we call 'integrity'... Having the least discrepancy between my inner self and my external behaviour, between my convictions and what I engage myself in on a daily basis, between what really matters for me and what I present myself as to others!

Jesus uses simple terms for that in the Gospel - inside and outside! Let both be clean he says... I can have no excuses when it comes to my inner self, for I stand convicted before God who knows the innermost thoughts. The question which is more important - inside or outside, is a psuedo question! Jesus says when your inside is pure and holy, automatically your outisde begins to glow, like a light lit on the hilltop.

The many saints that we celebrate as our examples and intercessors, were people like us, but they were incomparable in their integrity. They were ready to give of their whole self to God - not just part time and not just a stage show or a dramatic performance. When I do all that I do, with true consciousness and sincere acceptance of why I do it, I am on the first step towards integrity. I need to constantly purify myself towards that integrity that will reveal God's image within me.

In spite of the beasts of this world, the attractions and the pressures that surround me, help me Lord to grow in my personal integrity!