The Maiden and the Salvation Plan

Instrument, Ideal and Icon!

March 25, 2026: Solemnity of Annunciation of the Lord
Isaiah 7: 10-14, 8:10; Hebrews 10: 4-10; Luke 1: 26-36 

Annunciation is the second exception given us in this lenten journey to celebrate, because this is a key commemoration in relation to the eternal plan of Salvation. To the question whether this is a Solemnity of the Lord or of Mary - we should say "both"! Though it is in fact a solemnity of the Lord (the annunciation of the birth of the Lord), it can well be an invitation to look at our Blessed Mother in the light of the Salvation Plan that the Lord had made for us from all eternity.

Mary as an Instrument of Salvation - In her wholehearted and trusting 'yes', Mary entered into the special category of collaborators with the Lord in the plan of salvation for the entire humanity. To the extent that some theologians for ages have been claiming the title 'co-mediatrix', the role of Mary in the climax of the Salvific Plan of God, is unforgetable. She is chosen by the Father, as the Mother of God, a singular privilege that none can deny or negate! The invitation is that we give her the due recognition and love her with an immense gratitude for her obedient surrender to the Salvific plan of God.

Mary as the Ideal of Salvation - In her distinctive and characteristic relationship with her Son, Mary has become a model, an ideal of those who are saved by the Son of God. Mary is certainly the first fruit of the Salvation that Jesus the Christ brought to us human beings. In her assumption we see a great model that she sets, the ideal that she presents, as to what salvation does to us - the rising to incorruptibility! She has been our forerunner in obtaining the fruits of the salvation, in and through Jesus Christ, and passing it on to us, his brothers and sisters. The invitation therefore is to imitate her, in following her Son, as she herself became the most ardent disciple and apostle of her Son.

Mary as the Icon of the Saved humankind - In her total submission to the Holy Spirit, our Blessed Mother has played to precision her role, not only as the biological mother of the Saviour, but also as someone who heard the Word, beheld the Word within her and lived the Word in her daily life. She not only brought forth the Word into the world, but also lived by the Word all the time that she was in the world. She is given to us in the Holy Spirit, as our intercessor, who can teach us to pray and take our prayers to the presence of the Lord! She is the handmaiden of the Spirit and remains an icon for the entire humankind, assuring every one the salvation that was brought to the world by her Son.

Let our prayer today be: Mary our Mother, in your humble submission to the Will of God, you brought us Salvation; grant that we may dare to submit to God's will that we be enjoy our salvation, and be instruments of that salvation to all those around us, and to the entire world. Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Look up and live!

Conversion – from death to life

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – TUESDAY FIFTH WEEK

March 24 – Number 21:4-9; John 8: 21-30

Our journey from death to life is possible only with the One who gives us life… we are surrounded by the experiences of death, the culture of death. Just as the people of Israel for whom God did so much, but still forgot readily all the good and gave into lamentations and murmur, so do we tend to choose what is death-inducing instead of life-giving – as we reflected yesterday.

If we wish to ensure that we live, and live to the full, we need to concretely make a choice for the One who fills us with life – the Word says today: look up to Him and live. We need to look up to the Lord if we wish to really live.

Jesus describes and interprets in the Gospel of today, the experience we read about in the first reading, where the people are asked to look up at the bronze serpent and receive life. It is a symbolic prefiguring of the Saviour who would be raised too on the salvific wood, as the bronze serpent was raised on a staff.

Looking up… is the reference here that weaves the Word into one theme today, and this looking up can gives us at least three messages to reflect on:

Firstly, looking up is to surrender to the Lord above, knowing well that God alone is in control of everything. When the people were dying of the brunt of the serpents and they did not know what to day, the only recourse that could redefine their experiences was the Lord above…looking up was giving themselves into the hands of God and living our lives in mercy and grace.

A second significance of that looking up is to receive the light that can offer sense to our lives. Looking so much at our treacherous circumstances, the wars and violence, the arrogance and animosity, the avarice and egocentric tendencies, the unforgiveness and inhumanity around, we could be lost in a sense of meaninglessness in life. It is the Cross that can give us the true sense, giving us the message, that God’s love and mercies never cease. We have a reminder of that love, of that forgiveness, of that never-failing mercy in the Cross.

The third is a reminder that when we look up, we not only surrender and ask for the light of the Lord, but we behold a lesson – the only way to live, is to empty oneself. Jesus on the Cross, every time we look up, gives us a powerful message – the message of self-emptying: he emptied himself, becoming a slave and accepting death on the cross, the greatest of all life-giving acts. In a world which teaches us to seek our own well being and survival, the Lord from the Cross teaches us to empty ourselves and find life, life that is whole, life that is eternal. The Word invites us to look up and live, live to the full

Our choices: death-inducing? or life-giving?

Conversion – from death to life

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – MONDAY FIFTH WEEK

March 23 – Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62; John 8: 1-11

Conversion, as the journey from death to life – that is the last phase of our Lenten journey that we have begun from yesterday, before we enter into the Holy week very soon! Death and life are not merely two states of the body…it is actually, spiritually speaking, state of our being or our spirits. Said in simple words, they are two ways of life.

How can death be a way of life? We are very often reminded these days of our late Pope Benedict XVI, who spoken often about the “culture of death” that is trying to prevail these days. This is where death becomes a way of life… that is, a choice in life. When I choose to wish the ruin of the other, when I choose to avenge the other, when I choose not to forgive, when I choose to judge, when I choose to condemn the other, when I choose not to give the other a possibility… I choose death.

We have two persons or two cases presented to us – and a third one that is symbolically referred to – in the Word today. The cases of Susanna condemned by the sinful elders and the so-called sinful woman brought to be condemned by the elders… the Word taken together seems to suggest, it is not whether someone is innocent or someone is a sinner that matters to God: what matters to God is that persons live, they find the right meaning of their life and live, live on through the mercy of God!

We said a third one symbolically referred to: Jesus who was condemned by the elders and chief priests, to death! It is this symbolic reference that raises the real question from the Word today: what do I choose? A style of life that is death-inducing? or that which is life-giving?

A life-giving mode of living is first and foremost, choosing life – there can be no neutrality in life; either I am with life or I am against! Those who are not with me are against me; those who do not gather, they scatter! Secondly that mode ensures that I promote life in all sense – that I give myself, and the other, the possibility of new life, renewed life, a life of fullness.

The Lord we believe in is the Lord of life, not an inducer of death. That is why he said, the one who believes in me, even those he or she dies, shall live

CONVERSION... FROM DEATH TO LIFE

Revisiting the Past; Refilling of the Spirit; Rediscovering Compassion!

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

March 22 -  Ezekiel 37: 12-14; Romans 8: 8-11; John 11: 1-45

Listening and Fasting - Lent as a time for conversion... we have reached the closing phase of this project, we began four weeks ago…today the invitation is to behold our call to journey from death to life, as a concrete form of conversion.

We are given with a powerful imagery today, the event of the raising of Lazarus to life, after three days in the tomb – firstly, it is an obvious prefigurement of the resurrection of Christ, just as that of Jonah; secondly, it is a promise to humanity that death is not the final victor in our existence; and thirdly, it is a spiritual call to journey from situations of death in our daily life, to where the Lord tells us to “come out” – to come out to life! This journey consists of three phases, indicated through some prominent phrases in the Word today.

Opening the graves – the first phase is revisiting our past. The first reading and the Gospel speak of opening the graves… the graves symbolise something that is over with, but still resting there as a reminder of what has been. If there has been anything in the past that has not been resolved, we cannot pass by. The Lord says, open the graves! Revisit your past and heal it; revisit the past and resolve the knots that exist still. The Lord is ready to be there, as we decide to revisit and the Lord understands us well, because the Lord was there even when it happened then, in the past.  

We may not be comfortable with it – saying it may smell, it may be unbearable, it may be painful or it may be festering! But the Lord does not mind, He insists. The Lord wants us to revisit our past with a lot of courage, self-respect and sense of hope. Come closer to the end of this wonderful season of conversion, we are reminded of the need to revisit our past and behold the Lord in the sacrament of Reconciliation…that Lord calls us: open the graves!

Pouring the Spirit – The second phase is the refilling of the Spirit. The revisiting of the past is not merely a psychological step, which it is of course. With the Lord beside us, it is deeply spiritual. The Spirit of the Lord has made his home in you, says St. Paul, reminding us that when we need a renewal it is not some fresh encounter with the Spirit as if we have not known the Spirit of the Lord. It is a refilling, probably because we have run out of the Spirit… the Lord pours once again the Spirit into us – a refilling that renews us.

Spirit is life, and when we are refilled with the Spirit we are refilled with life – a new life, a fullness of life, the foretaste of the eternal life that we have been promised. As Jesus said when he raised the daughter of Jairus, that she was just asleep; here too he says – our friend Lazarus is resting. So does the Lord tell our spirits - that they are just asleep and they need to be woken up with the refilling of the Spirit. It is a reawakening… the resurrection that we long for.

Mercy and fullness of Redemption – When Jesus raises Lazarus and says, unbind him and let him go…he is telling each of us how the love and mercy of God wants to unbind us and set us free, how the compassion of the Lord wants to liberate us to eternal life. The responsibility however, is on our part, to rediscover that compassion, which is always there, ever-present for our taking. We may have ifs and buts – if you were here, if the Lord were aware, if the Lord hears, if the Lord sees and so on, but the fact is the Lord is; the Lord knows; and the Lord is Compassion. There can be no change in that.

It takes our sincere effort to recognise, receive and rediscover that compassion. Just as so many around that tomb with such diverse mentalities looked on until the glory of the Lord was revealed, so shall the world and humanity stand around and look… but are we going to be in that crowd? Or are we going to confess and profess as Martha… Yes Lord, I believe, and see the glory shine in front of our eyes?

This week the Word will accompany us to rediscover what it means to journey from death to life, in the compassion of the Lord. Let us open our hearts, allow the Lord to enter and manifest his glory – that is the conversion asked of us every single day of our life.

Judgement: the darkness suppressing the light!

Conversion – from darkness to light

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – SATURDAY FOURTH WEEK

March 21 – Jeremiah 11: 18-20; John 7: 40-52

Conversion, as the journey from darkness to light, requires that we choose light, and not the prevalent tendency of judgementalism. Yesterday, the Word warned us on judging, judging wrongly and judging maliciously. Today it goes further to talk to us about judging unjustly and a worser attitude.

Judging unjustly is not just a wrong judgement, it is a malicious judgement, and done with a specific agenda. It is not just a mistake or a circumstantial happening. It is a strategized, well planned and executed. This happens today at many levels – socio political, economic, national, international and global.

Jeremiah, in the first reading today, is treated like a national enemy…and they judge him unworthy of living and they decide to eliminate him. The reason being, he spoke things that they did not want to hear. He criticised them for the growing callousness towards good and virtue.

Jesus is rejected, in the Gospel today, just because he does not come from where they want, rather he comes from where they did not expect him to come from. How many injustices are carried out today because of where one comes from, from his origin and his native particulars… race, region, colour, caste and what not…

The question today is: are these judgements merely wrong or malicious? Aren’t they unjust, strategic and well-orchestrated? Are we not plotting against God, pitching against the humanity that God wanted? At this level, is not this judgement, apart from missing the truth, trying to suffocate it, suppress it?

There is a worser attitude to these unjust judgements – it is justifying these unjust judgements. We find reasons and logic to all kinds of injustice that we promote or sustain… this is indeed a suppression of light. Light comes through any darkness to make things seen… bringing to the fore our mistakes and our lacks. If we are humble and sincere, we will immediately see it and admit that light to take us towards conversion.

However, when darkness takes the upper hand, there is no possibility for conversion, because darkness suppresses the light that struggles to come through. Judgement of the other is one such darkness to beware.

Judging the other: direct expression of Godlessness!

Conversion – from darkness to light

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – FRIDAY FOURTH WEEK

March 20 – Wisdom 2: 1,12-22; John 7: 1-2,10,25-30

Conversion as the journey from darkness to light, is a definitive choice for God, but today the world seems to be tending much towards Godlessness, in every way: personal lives and morals, societal values and norms, cultural priorities and choices… in everything there seems to be a tendency towards Godlessness. However, we need not be surprised because right the from the beginning this has been a scourge of humanity.

In fact, the ancient enemy the tempter, has always found all possible means to unleash this sensation on the human race – to render it as Godless as possible. One efficient means, of the many that the Evil one has in stock, is the proneness to judge! Jesus knew this easy bait and has warned us time and again – judge not and you will not be judged. But it takes a great effort to listen to that admonition really.

We are prone to judge and that is an expression of godlessness, because in judging we are tending to play God. Our pride and self-centredness occupy such a large space that there is no much place for the other, and indeed note for God!

As if judging were not enough, as a natural and consequential deterioration of this habit or attitude we soon begin to judge people wrongly! This is the further step of godlessness, because we begin assassinating people in varied forms. We cease to see them as they are and force them into the straightjackets that we have prepared.

Worse it is to go still further and judge, not only wrongly, but maliciously – wantonly making wrong judgements and maliciously spreading them to achieve the hidden ends that we have devised for ourselves. This is an acute expression of godlessness…and we see that decried in the first reading and the Gospel today – the killing of the innocents. Does it not continue even today?

Let us not immediately point to socio-political and economic forces that are flagrantly carrying this out in our times at all levels, be it global or local; because we need to be mindful also in our own interpersonal level – at the micro contexts of our own communities and families. How many persons we judge, we judge wrongly and at time we judge even maliciously?

Can we leave that darkness and journey towards the light of innocence?

St. Joseph - as the Word projects him

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Solemnity of St. Joseph 2026: Silent, Simple and Sleeping!

2 Samuel 7: 4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22; Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a.

St. Joseph occupies a huge space in the climax of God's salvific plan which was accomplished in Jesus - still he remains a quiet, noiseless and unassuming person! In a noisy world of today, which claims recognition for every little thing and clamours for attention, St. Joseph's mode of living his life, carrying out his mission and responding to his call is a lovely lesson. Apart from this, there are three dimensions of this saint that we can notice emerging from the Word today.

Silent Protagonist: He had a very important role to play within the historical events that were unfolding in time, and he played it to perfection. The extraordinary quality that we see in this personality is his silence - how he remained recollected in his depths, to receive the directions from the Lord and execute them to the letter. The prefigurement of this image is seen in Abraham, presented to us in the second reading - how he spoke very little too; refrained from asking questions and dared to even give up his only son! Above all, he listened and obeyed! St. Joseph too listened and for that he chose to remain silent!

Simple Person: He was simple as a person... this does not mean he had just an old fashioned dress and no sandals on feet - that is how 'being simple' is understood these days! Simple is opposed to complicated! He was not complicated in anyway - an yes meant yes and a no meant no. He thought of rejecting Mary, he was told to accept and he accepted. He thought of returning to Judea, but was told not to and he went to the district of Galilee. He was a simple man who had no air of ego around him nor any self-interests to hang on! The figure of David is presented to us in the first reading drawing our attention to a way of life that was simple. He was fooled for the exaggerated enthusiasm he had for the Lord (when he danced before the ark) but he never even bothered about it. Though the man had limitations and weaknesses within him, he had no ego absolutely. When he was pointed out, he immediately repented. He was called to be a servant of the Lord and even as a King he remained so! St. Joseph never complicated his role or his person, he remained as simple as he was called.

Sleeping Prophet: Sleeping St. Joseph is a popular devotion by now... a renewed perspective reminded by our late Holy Father Pope Francis! May God grant this wonderful servant of God, who reminded us so plainly what it means to live as a Christian today - amidst all confusions and controversies - ever faithful to the call to be yeast, salt and light. Now let us focus on our Sleeping Joseph - it is not a mere novelty of thinking but an intense perspective of faith: the Lord provided for God's beloved even as they sleep (Ps 127:2). It is one lifestyle to spend sleepless nights thinking about something. It is completely a different life style to leave it to the Lord and sleep over it, for the Lord takes care of me even if I am asleep! It is a choice. It is a prophetic sleep when it is out of total surrender to the Lord - Joseph of the Old Testament, the namesake of the saint we celebrate, is a beautiful example of this lifestyle. He surrendered himself totally to the Lord and lived his life like a dream. St. Joseph too was so surrendered to the Lord that even as he slept, he felt protected and directed.

Today, let us thank God for the great gift and example of St. Joseph. Let us not only seek his intercession, but learn from his life that teaches us how to live our Christian call. May St. Joseph protect and direct us always

Made children of light and of life in the Son!

Conversion – from darkness to light

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – WEDNESDAY FOURTH WEEK

March 18 – Isaiah 49: 8-15; John 5: 17-30

Conversion as the journey from darkness to light, cannot be taken up as a task all by ourselves, and we know that well. We are made capable of this journey by God, by God’s promises, by God’s faithfulness. We are formed by the Lord, we are made into God’s people, we are made the covenant of God – that is, we are made children of light by the Lord, says Isaiah in the first reading.

Jesus reiterates that in the Gospel, reminding us that we are made children, in the Son - in the Son who has been sent to us, sent for us, as the fulfilment of the covenant of love that God has made with us. Jesus makes us understand that we are made children of life, of eternal life by the faith we profess in Christ, the One who has been sent for our salvation.

The Word today explains to us what it means to have been made children of light and of life… it means the certainty of love, guarantee of life and fearlessness of light.

Isaiah outlines the glory of the day of salvation – when the Lord will restore the land, liberate the prisoners and do away with the darkness. He presents it in terms of the certainty of God’s love, the covenant of love that has no end. “I will never forget you” – those are truly strong words indeed, from the Lord. God remains faithful to that promise of love, by sending God’s own Son to be our salvation.

Jesus, the fulfilment of the covenant, offers us the guarantee of eternal life, provided we unite ourselves with him and in him. This is essentially the choice to make that journey from darkness to light… the choice cannot but be ours, although it is the Lord who enables us in this task. Jesus manifests his Sonship, the Sonship in which we are made children of God. This he does fearlessly, because he has the light of the will of God, and he is the light that leads us to eternal life. The light makes us fearless, fearless of anything in the world that can threaten us, fearless of anything around us that can lead us astray, fearless of anything that vies to destroy us! As long as we are determined to do the will of the One who calls us and sends us, we shall be in the light, and we shall be fearless… because we are made children in the Son.

To be enlivened by the life-giving Water!

Conversion – from darkness to light

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – TUESDAY FOURTH WEEK

March 17 – Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12; John 5: 1-3, 5-16

Conversion, is the internal journey from darkness to light – that is the theme the Word continues to reiterate this week! We know what it takes to undertake this journey from the obscurities of our daily life towards the light that leads us to eternity. Although we know what it takes, we are not always in a position to undertake that journey. Our fears, failures, discouragements, temptations, doubts and compromises, prevent us from pulling ourselves up and moving towards that light that beckons us.

We have a very powerful example of this in the man whom we encounter in the Gospel passage today – ill for 38 years, the cleansing water right in front of his eyes, along with his inability to get to it… we are presented with an existential problem of knowing and choosing! 

However, the Lord deconstructs that vision… the incredible and unlimited mercy of God says – what is there if you are unable to reach the healing waters, the life-giving Water is right there reaching out to you! That is the Gospel event today – Jesus, the life-giving water stands right in front of him asking, do you want to be well again? What an opportunity! All that the man manages to do is only lament that he is not able to go the waters, so unaware of who it is that stands looking over him! How many times this happens to us – when the Life-giving springs offer to renew us totally and give us a new and transformed life, we are out there asking for something so insignificant vis-à-vis the eternity.

The first reading pictures to us this in a more picturesque manner… the life-giving waters that flow from the sanctuary generating life wherever it flows, symbolising Christ who comes forth from the Father creating a new earth and new heavens as we reflected yesterday. Jesus reaches out to us and wants to enliven us in every way possible. All that we need to do is recognise that presence, allow the waters to flood into our lives and make us whole again.

The question is – are we ready to say, “Yes Lord, I wish to come alive again; wash me clean and enliven my entire self!” If we say so, we are choosing the light and leaving the darkness; we are encountering the life-giving water and being born anew! That is true conversion.

To behold the new heavens and a new earth!

Conversion – from darkness to light

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – MONDAY FOURTH WEEK

March 16 – Isaiah 65: 17–21; John 4: 43-54

Lent as a time of Conversion, is the underlying theme during this week which invites us to rejoice. Isaiah gives us a reason to rejoice in the first reading today: because the Lord rejoices in us and the Lord wants us to rejoice in what God is creating for us – the new heavens and a new earth! That is the promise of the Lord. But every time we hear such a promise, we begin to suspect it. That is because, we do not believe.

The Word raises a very pertinent question today – do we believe when we see miracles? or we begin to see miracles when we believe? The new heavens and the new earth – the Lord deigns to create, but it remains on our part to behold it. And it happens on a daily basis… the Lord keeps offering us moments, experiences and circumstances to behold the new heavens and the new earth.

The experience of conversion is beholding this gift that God offers. To look at what God has willed into existence for us, including us. It takes to look at what God continues to offer us in God’s holy will. All these can happen only if we have enough light to behold! I am the light – Jesus declared in the Gospel we reflected upon yesterday! The question remains – Yes, Jesus has declared, but how ready am I to receive that light, to behold that light?

Jesus in the Gospel points to us how unprepared we are and how obstinate we are in refusing to see, in refusing to behold what the Lord is doing for us. There could be two major reasons for it, or three.

Firstly, our obstinacy not to see… because we want every thing the way we want, anything different we are not ready to see. That is the merit of that official who approaches Jesus – he wanted Jesus to come to his house, but Jesus told him to go and he will see the miracle… he did not insist, he turned and went, went towards the miracle and he beheld it!

The second reason is our impatience… we want things when we want it, we cannot wait for God’s own time! We want it then and there, and when it does not happen we start looking for other channels…as we surf on a TV or by now on our mobiles…and we miss the real miracles prepared for us… we are not there to behold them.

And a third reason, is the most disturbing and we need to avoid: that we are already blind, blind because we are overpowered by evil and negativity. God forbid! May this not be so in our case! Let us take to heart our call to conversion: the call from darkness to light, to behold the new heavens and a new earth.