True Self

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B (30 September 2018)

Numbers 11:25-29

James 5:1-6

Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

"If you hand (or foot) should cause you to sin, cut it off; if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out."

The disciples were anything but pleased when they witnessed an outsider casting out demons in the name of Jesus. They resented his intrusion, were jealous and felt threatened, because he was doing their work and yet was not part of their group. He had no right to be using the name of the Saviour, so John made a complaint in the hope of having this unlicensed preacher silenced. John must have been surprised or even scandalised that Jesus refused to stop the man from doing good work in his name. Jesus made it clear that all good comes from God the Father and that doing charitable work was not the exclusive right of his followers. God moves where he wills and chooses whom he wills. His spirit is at work beyond the confines of established religion.

With the best will in the world, we can all fall prey to the type of thinking and misguided notion that only the church can contain truth and only its members can perform spiritual works. It is a temptation we all have. When we think along these lines we are inclined to turn the church in on herself and deny that great works can be achieved outside her influence. We forget that an action can be good and Godly without being performed by a Christian. Goodness in the world comes from God and not from humans. God’s action is not limited to any class of people. Goodness is where we find it.

But there is another statement from Jesus from today's gospel that may shock us or scandalise us more. He says, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out."

What does Jesus mean by these words? Surely, these words are metaphors, and they are not to be taken literally. Let's be clear of this. Jesus is speaking metaphorically when he tells us to gouge out our eyes and chop off our hands. He is using strong words to convey something about the seriousness of sin. He’s not preaching about self-mutilation but self-denial. He wants us die to our pride and ego and jealousy. He wants us to die to our selfishness and greed. He wants us to die to our false self, and be risen here and now with our true self. He wants us to discover the immortal diamond that we are within. What Jesus means to say is we must be sensitive to sin and renounce it and run from it and do whatever it takes to avoid it. He is asking us to cut off the occasions of sin. He also means that we should be prepared to make exceptional sacrifices if we want to follow Him.

Heaven Laid Open

Feast of Archangels Sts Michael, Gabriel and Raphael - (Saturday, 29 September 2018)

Daniel 7:9-10,13-14 or Revelation 12:7-12

John 1:47-51

“You will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.”

"You should be aware," St Gregory the Great writes, "that the word 'angel' denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message." Sorry to say that angels have no wings, no body, no whitish brilliance, and no material body. An angel is an office, a function which refers to a message of God, and above all, the presence of God. Moreover, heaven is not a place, it is a state of life. Therefore, angels are not those species filling up the "place of heaven." They both are related to our world, to our living here and now. Otherwise what's the use of a heaven and its angels only in the next world? They are for our use, for our better living of our lives now. See what Jesus tells Nathanael in today's gospel, "You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that. I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending."

The finite manifests the infinite, and the physical is the doorway to the the spiritual. In other words, all you need is right here and right now—in this world. This is the way to that! Heaven includes earth. This is an invitation to see everything as connected to God's plan. This is an invitation to see everything fully, respectfully. There is nothing that is not holy or beautiful or valuable. Everything has its place. Everything belongs.

For those who have learned how to see fully, everything—absolutely everything—is “spiritual,” everything is an experience of God. Once we can accept that God is in all situations, and that God can and will use even bad situations for good, then everything and everywhere becomes an occasion for good and an occasion for God (an encounter with God). God’s plan is so perfect that even sin, tragedy, and painful deaths are used to bring us to divine union (=heaven), just as the cross was meant to reveal. And God wisely makes the problem itself part of the solution. Therefore, it is all a matter of learning how to see rightly, fully, and therefore truthfully.

True God and True Man

25th Week in Ordinary Time - Friday (28 September 2018)

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

Luke 9:18-22

“You are the Christ of God and the Son of Man.”

Jesus is a person who touches everyone, someone who causes a strong reaction, either favourable or unfavourable. You can't be indifferent to him for a long time. You may have to react or respond to him, sooner or later. Who is Jesus for you? Even if you don't give an answer, you may have to live it.

Yes, we formally believe that Jesus is both human and divine at the same time. But practically we don't seem to apply it in our lives. Jesus for all practical purposes ended up being only divine. And we ended up being only human. Please do not conclude I'm heretic, but it is formally incorrect to say "Jesus is God," as most Christians without thinking do. Jesus is the perfect union of "very God" with "very man." For Christians, the Trinity is God, and Jesus came forth to take us back with him into this eternal embrace of the Triune God, which is where we first came from (John 14:3), and this is what it means to have an eternal soul. In fact it would be a heresy to say that Jesus is only God, or he is only man. Mind you, Christ is not the last name or surname of Jesus. We use (unite) the two names almost always, but practically do we realise the meaning of them? Jesus is the union of human and divine in space and time, and the Christ is the eternal union of matter and Spirit from the beginning of time.

Unfortunately, we do often miss the major point—which was to put the two together in him—and then dare to discover the same in ourselves! We are God's image and likeness, in flesh and blood. Christian revelation was precisely that you are already spiritual ("in God"), and your difficult but necessary task is to learn how to become human. Jesus came to model the full integration for us (see 1 Corinthians 15:47-49) and, in effect, told us that Divinity looked just like him—while he looked ordinarily human to everybody. It is in our humanity that we are still so wounded, so needy, so unloving, so self-hating, and so in need of enlightenment. Down the centuries, we have only insisted from people to be spiritual and religious, whereas our record on basic humanness is rather pitiful. We have even killed in God's name! Have we forgotten to be human, humane, kind and compassionate?

We are already the children of God. But how do we live it in this world? How human, how humane are we?

Bad Conscience

25th Week in Ordinary Time - Thursday; Memorial of St Vincent de Paul (27 September 2018)

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

Luke 9:7-9

“And Herod was anxious to see Jesus.”

Herod had a bad conscience. He decapitated John the Baptizer. It made him anxious to see Jesus. “Who was he? What did he know? How did he react? Was he a prophet? Was he Elijah? Or, God forbid, was he maybe John the Baptizer, whose murder still haunted him?” Thinking about that last possibility, “Herod said, ‘John? I beheaded him. So who is this I hear such reports about?’”

We don’t know whether Herod ever got an answer to his question about who Jesus was. We do know that when later informers come to tell Jesus that Herod wants to kill him, Jesus calls Herod a fox (Luke 13:31). In the end the two met when Pilate sent Jesus over at his trial. Herod didn’t get any reply to his questions from Jesus. He didn’t take any responsibility for Jesus’ fate, either. He had been anxious to see him, now he was anxious to get him out of his sight.

There is an old saying: “Conscience does make cowards of us all.” A bad conscience certainly does. We are hiding things not only from the others, but even from ourselves. We live in constant denial and at the same time in fear of being found out. Some psychologists even suggest that this is what makes us so interested in court cases. Will the defense be able to outdo the prosecution, so that the accused will be able to keep his crime hidden, sometimes against all evidence? Let us be aware that being true to our true selves is being true to God. Our true selves posses within themselves the God-consciousness and conscience, the voice of God.

Herod can be our example in one way: his bad conscience makes him want to see Jesus. When we are in bad conscience it would be a good thing for us to have the same desire—not for the reason Herod had, but in view of an admission of sin, forgiveness, conversion, and also to get rid of the constant anxiety of that bad conscience.

What is this conscience in us? It is the innate drive to value that rewards success in self-transcendence with a happy conscience and saddens failures with an unhappy conscience. We certainly need the peace of a good conscience and also the disquiet of wrong words and wrong deeds, so that we grow day by day. Because the human capacity to deny the reality of sin is shocking, and we can see how we have built a culture of death, even be proud of our progress that comes from ill-gotten profits, brutal wars and bloodshed.

Let us remember that conversion or transformation is the work of a good conscience. Let us today enhance the God-consciousness that is within us, and thus develop a good conscience, which is nothing but the voice of God.

Good News

25th Week in Ordinary Time - Wednesday (26 September 2018)

Proverbs 30:5-9

Luke 9:1-6

"The disciples set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere."

We think that forgiveness and restoration are the last stroke; that somehow people must get their lives in order so that they can be saved. No. That's not true. God's forgiveness, love, salvation is first. God doesn't wait for us to ask forgiveness, but He readily forgives and loves us endlessly. While it is true that a drowning person needs to learn how to swim, she first needs to be pulled from the water. While it is true that a hungry person needs to learn how to fish, she first needs to be given a fish for satisfying her hunger.

God loved us first. This is good news. He loves us without conditions. This is good news. He saves us; He includes us in His salvation plan even before we feel the need. This is good news. He forgives us promptly, even before we ask for pardon. This is good news.

God doesn't look at our faults, but at the places in us that are trying to say "yes." You do the same with your children. You see beyond the "no" to the abiding "yes." God sees the divine image in you as you see your image in your children. He is concerned about us more that we are concerned about ourselves. This is God. This is good news.

It is put best in 1 John 4:10, which can be paraphrased thus (otherwise it could be misunderstood): Love consists in this—not limiting God by our human equations of love, but allowing God's infinite love to utterly redefine our own.

You cannot earn something you already have. You cannot achieve something that is already freely and totally given to you. The good news is that you have be already included in God's saving plan, and you don't have to earn it by your good deeds. As God's children, we are asked merely to experience and enjoy the life given to us.

God (and His love) is not only stranger than we think, but stranger than our mind is capable of thinking.

Practice

25th Week in Ordinary Time - Tuesday (25 September 2018)

Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13

Luke 8:19-21

“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

Mere words without actions, and prayer as mere words and not as concrete life involvement have no say in Christianity. Our religion is not about words, statements and doctrines; it is about a joyful living of God's word. Words and images need to become flesh and blood in this world. Otherwise what's the use of a religion without good actions, and relevant social interventions?

Very often we wonder what good we could do for others. In stead of planning great things, we could start doing our ordinary and small things with love. Very many times we want to do great things for the sake of fame and popularity, to enhance one's own ego and self-image. This is not true altruism. But if we set our minds on the micro and nano attitudes that we exhibit while doing our daily duties, then we have a lot of things to work on. Whenever an occasion arises for anger or irritation, can we show kindness to others? Whenever we want to hit others with our uncharitable words or actions, can we show true compassion towards others? There may many times when people around us do commit mistakes; can we show patience towards them? In short, can we use our negative emotions as raw material for our compassion and goodness? That is our challenge of putting the gospel into practice. This is more difficult than trying to do great things, because most often many of the bigger things that we do have the agenda of "self-promotion." Either deliberate or hidden.

Such a focus is a very good beginning. But not only that. It is more than a beginning, perhaps that is only thing asked of us: to be kind, to be kind and to be kind. Always. In other words, our task is to be present here and now in a most complete manner; to put our heart and soul in whatever we are doing right now right here. The smallest of events can teach us everything, if we learn "Who" is doing them with us, through us and for us. Have no doubt: That is the total goal. God reveals himself fully here and now.

Once we learn that then there is nothing that is not beautiful, there's nothing that's not useful, there's no event that's not holy. Everything becomes holy if we learn to see through God's eyes. Only that we need the broadmindedness, the time and energy to look at and respect (re + spect = again + look = "to look again") all people and all things.

Today let us try to perceive God in whatever is happening to us, and thus put into practice the goodness of God and His Word. For God is. Always and everywhere.

Let It Shine

25th Week in Ordinary Time - Monday (24 September 2018)

Proverbs 3:27-34

Luke 8:16-18

“No one lights a lamp to cover it with a bowl or to put it under a bed. No s/he puts it on a lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.”

Some animals started a school. The school had classes in things animals do, swimming, flying, and running. The duck, a good swimmer, was asked to run, and soon became an average swimmer. The rabbit, good at running, broke his leg while trying to fly. The eagle, the top one in the flying class, was disabled for life when she tried to swim. By the end of the school term none of the animals were very good at anything.

God gave every one of us a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. The gospel often calls them talents. Those talents are not God’s gifts to us merely, they are God’s gifts to the world. Not all of us are equally gifted, but we all have the capability to shine the light God’s love entrusted to us. We might be limited in our talents and in our sphere of influence. But if we are faithful to them, our words and deeds may be exactly what others need in order to find their talents and gifts in their own hearts. It is the way friends and lovers, artists and cooks, academicians and surgeons, preachers and authors—the list of our talents is almost endless—enlighten and help one another in this world of ours.

As schooling is not (should not be!) an exercise of making all our children do the same things but developing their uniqueness, let our religious traditions help develop the uniqueness of each and every human soul. Let our faith help us grow in our uniqueness. Don't let schooling interfere with your education. Don't let your religion interfere with your spiritual growth and transformation. Know your strengths, recognize your talents, engage your abilities, develop your capacity to love, to console, and to support. As the first reading of today says, "Do not refuse a kindness to anyone who begs it, if it is in your power to perform it." Don’t put your light under a bowl or a basket. Let your light shine, please, let it shine!

Good Power and Bad Power

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B (23 September 2018)

Wisdom 2:12, 17-20

James 3:16—4:3

Mark 9:30-37

"Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

Don Bosco, a priest in Turin in the 19th century, took his inspiration for life from today's gospel picture of how Jesus welcomed and caressed the little child. He took to himself the waifs of the street who had no homes, the children of the night already caught up in the cycle of crime, and the uneducated boys who had no prospects. On one occasion, when his work took him to Paris, he sought a night’s lodging of a local priest. His boots were dirty and his cassock travel-dusty so all he was given was a mattress on the floor in the garret between the accumulated boxes, cobwebs and dusty cases. His host of the night lived to see the day when Don Bosco was canonized. "If I had known that I had a saint in my house for a night," he admitted, "I would not have given him such a poor welcome." But, even then, he was still missing the point of the gospel. The way of the world is to honour a VIP. But the way of the gospel is to welcome a Very Unimportant Person.

According to Jesus, the child is the model of greatness. If one wants to be truly great, then s/he has to be like a child. In other words, a person is powerful only inasmuch as s/he is able to be powerless. True greatness, Jesus says, does not come from having power and influence over people but consists in humble service.

The disciples never cease to amaze us. In today's gospel, at the very moment when Jesus is telling them about his coming passion and death, they are not even listening. They are so immersed in a quarrel, squabbling over who is the greatest among them, that what he says does not even register with them.

Jesus uses this occasion to put them right and to point out to them what constitutes true greatness in God’s eyes. He tells his ambitious disciples that everyone is important and that greatness comes from being available to all people even down to little children. Children wear no masks and are uncontaminated by the selfish ways of the world, where we can concretely see the use and abuse of power.

Power is one topic that we dread to talk about. Watch the news any day, work on a committee, observe a marriage, and you will see that this issue of power has not been well-addressed for most people. The abuse of power is more rampant that we may even imagine. Perhaps it starts with you. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

However, we need to distinguish between good power and bad power. Good power or growth hierarchies are needed to protect children, the poor, the entire animal world and all those without power. Domination hierarchies or bad power is used merely to protect, maintain and promote oneself. Hierarchy is not inherently bad, nor is power. It is just very dangerous for yourself and others, if you have not done your interior work.

There are many who reject all hierarchies, and there are some others who presume all hierarchies to be the very voice of God. Avoid extremes. We need good power, we need healthy hierarchies to run this world.

We need both power and love; that is good power. Power apart from love leads to brutality; but love that does not engage with power is mere sentimentality. A lot of Christians today are still trapped in one or the other. Now where are we? How do we exercise our power in our families and in our communities?

God Speaks

24th Week in Ordinary Time - Saturday (22 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49

Luke 8:4-15

"Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you."

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

God speaks to us continuously. He sows his word into our hearts all the time. As Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station, God plays His part incognito. Do we perceive beauty and goodness in this world? Do we stop to appreciate nature, the starry skies, the silence of the dawn? Do we recognize God's hand in an unexpected context? Do we stop and listen to people: our dear ones, our neighbours, the needy around us? What are our priorities? Do we give first place to God or to someone else or something else?

God is ever patient and never tired of speaking to us. God perfectly hides himself in the material world, but also perfectly reveals himself in this material world. This is incarnation. Our God is an Incarnate God, Emmanuel, God-with-us always. Our heaven begins right here on earth right now!

Do we have a moment to hit the pause button of our busy lives to listen to God?

Sinners

Feast of St Matthew (21 September 2018)

Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13

Matthew 9:9-13 (See also Mark 2:13-17)

"I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners."

As we celebrate the feast of St Matthew, tax collector turned apostle of Jesus, we could reflect on our Lord's attraction and attachment to sinners. In the Jewish religion at the time of Jesus, either one wasn't a sinner or was a sinner. It might have had a moral connotation, but it certainly signified a social category.

The majority of the people in Palestine of Jesus' time belonged to the lower class, who were poor. All sorts of people belonged to this class, such as orphans and widows, the blind, the crippled, and the mentally ill. Having no other means of livelihood, people with physical and mental handicaps became beggars. To this class also belonged outcasts. One can be an outcast without necessarily being poor economically. Such were tax collectors and sinners. The tax collectors were Jews who collected taxes from fellow Jews for the Roman Empire. They made their living by charging an extra amount. They were considered traitors who became wealthy by collaborating with Roman authorities at the expense of their own people. The sinners who are grouped with the tax collectors were not ordinary sinners. These were people who deliberately and persistently transgressed the requirements of the law. Included in this group would be money-lenders who charged interest on loans advanced to fellow Jews. Also in this group of sinners were prostitutes.

Yet, Jesus apparently associated with such people at dinner parties. The Pharisees charged that Jesus was "a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Luke 7:34). It's not hard to see why the Pharisees and others were upset that Jesus had table fellowship with people who were morally questionable. These individuals were profiting by disobeying the command of God and betraying their own people. They were what the Old Testament calls the wicked, unworthy to be part of the people of God.

What infuriated the Pharisees was that Jesus seems to have accepted this category of the wicked as they were and was freely having dinner with them without requiring that they first clean up their lives. Jesus' message was not, "Straighten up your life and keep the law." Rather, his message was, "The kingdom of God is yours; you are included." By eating with them, he was extending to them the kingdom of God.

When we read about the protest of the Pharisees, we are quick to condemn them and to side with Jesus. But if Jesus were physically present in our world today, would we as church people be comfortable if he spent his time with cheats and swindlers, thieves and 420-s, LGBTQIA+? Would we be okay if he rejoiced and danced at the Supreme Court's decriminalization of same-sex? Would we not be infuriated if he constantly went to their dinner parties and just occasionally turning up at ours? Jesus seems completely fit for an excommunication case! But that is whom we follow. A man who shattered all boundaries, who loved without boundaries, who broke all possible rules just to befriend a person, just to express God's boundless love and forgiveness!

When we pray the second part of the "Hail Mary": Pray for us "sinners," do we really mean it? Before participating in the Holy Communion we say "I am unworthy." Do we really mean this? Or do we add mental footnotes to our unworthiness: But I am not like that murderer, or that rapist, or that criminal. I am a sinner, but not like "that" sinner.

Pope Francis when asked in his first interview after being elected Pontiff, "Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?" he told us: “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech.” Before hearing confessions in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis kneels in confession himself—because one cannot accompany a suffering world without acknowledging one’s own faults.

We are part of the evil that we are fighting against. We are part of the sin that we condemn. There is a certain amount of projection on my part when I am able to see sin outside of me. If we don’t own our own evil, we will always project it elsewhere and attack it there. Our Lord by "eating with sinners" is inviting us to a greater integration and also integrity, which is often a willingness to hold the dark side of things instead of reacting against them, denying them, or anxiously projecting them elsewhere.

Welcome to the communion of sinners!

Forgiven and Accepted

24th Week in Ordinary Time - Thursday (20 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Luke 7:36-50

"Her many sins have been forgiven, or she would not have shown such great love."

During the party a rich Pharisee gave in honour of Jesus, a woman who had a bad name came in. She went to Jesus and waited on him; she wept, knelt at his feet and anointed them with oil.

Even before Simon, his host, could make any remark Jesus addressed him: “I tell you her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her.” It is strange that he tells this to Simon, even before he says anything to the woman anointing his feet. That woman already knew. She is not forgiven because she is anointing Jesus’ feet, showing her love. She anoints Jesus’ feet because she is forgiven! “It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.” One who is forgiven more, loves more. Jesus says a forgiven person will know how to love.

From our own human experience, it is not difficult to grasp what happened here. It is the case of someone who is despicable in her own eyes. Everyone despises her. She is a nobody to others. She is not anointing his feet to be forgiven. In that case forgiveness would have depended on her initiative. She understood and felt that Jesus forgave her, that Jesus—unlike all the others—accepted her.

She knew that he was willing to recognize her as a person, notwithstanding all that had happened to her. She remained valid in his eyes. That is why she came in with her perfumes and oils. She anointed him because she loved him, and she loved him because she knew that he loved her.

This beautiful gospel story is for all of us. Jesus reveals a God who always and only loves. His love is a forgiving love. He doesn't wait for you to ask pardon. He always and everywhere forgives. His forgiveness doesn't depend on your initiative. But how many times have we shown diffidence in approaching God's mercy? How many times have we approached the wrong people for acceptance, and didn't go to Jesus who's ready to accept us without conditions? How many times have we thought it all depended on our initiative for God to forgive us? Unfortunately, most of us were taught that God would love you if and when you change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change.

Let's get this straight: God doesn't love you because you are good; God loves you because God is good. God doesn't forgive you if and when you are good; God forgives you because God is good.

God always and everywhere forgives. Let us today hear the words of Jesus saying, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Divine Strangeness

24th Week in Ordinary Time - Wednesday (19 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 12:31—13:13

Luke 7:31-35 (Matthew 11:16-19)

"We played the pipes, and you wouldn't dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn't cry."

Some Pharisees and leaders at the time of Jesus were not able to understand or see God’s hand in the extremities of a John the Baptist or a Jesus of Nazareth. Our Lord compares them to children in a game: "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep."

Like those leaders, in matters spiritual, we blow hot and cold. We too seem to be unsure of God's ways. His ways certainly are unfathomable, beyond all human logic. He reveals himself to us and speaks to us in a thousand ways: strange, surprising and shocking ways. Are we able to read the signs of the times? Are we able to perceive God's hand in our life-events? Or do we want to fit God and His message in pre-customized mental settings?

Jesus today asks us to grow and mature in our faith, to be open to God's strangeness that breaks our boundaries very often. Instead of deciding God "should" act and reveal in such and such a way, can we accept God as He is? Can we accept reality as it is? Because it is in our confused, raw reality that God perfectly hides and there He perfectly reveals. Do we hear him speaking to us through a drunkard, a glutton, and a person out of his mind? Do we hear him speaking to us through our enemies? Perhaps those whom we value least have the most to teach. Often the very things that don’t appeal to us have the most to teach us spiritually.

It is possible that sometimes we have not responded to God's word or not acted according to His will through fear, indecision, or cowardice. But today we are called, indeed obliged, to face the tremendous challenges and dangers that threaten everyone. God is actively involved in all our heart-aches and headaches. He is fully into our singing, dancing, and mourning. And He is not just a singer; He is the song itself. He is not just a dancer; He is the dance itself. He is not just the One who lives in us; He is Life itself.

Are we willing to be His hands and feet, and His peace and life in this world? Unless we are open to the divine strangeness around us, we may end up being arrogant or childishly ignorant, or just plainly immature.

Death and Hope

24th Week in Ordinary Time - Tuesday (18 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31

Luke 7:11-17

"Young man, I tell you to get up."

In today's gospel reading, we read the story of the widow at Nain who was burying her only son. In those days, her son was probably also her only hope and livelihood. Jesus was struck by her grief, stopped the funeral procession, and returned the dead son alive to his mother. At first hearing, the text seems an almost cruel choice for grieving parents. Parents should not be burying their children. When they do, it is because of something really tragic—cancer interrupting a young life, an accident tearing someone away from their loved ones, or an unforeseen and untimely death.

It is not about death but an untimely death. All of us are destined for death, but an early death can dash the hopes and dreams of so many, including their dear ones. We can’t do anything about death, but God can. As at Nain, God can break through the hopelessness of this world. He can even use a death to bring growth and maturity those around us. He can open new possibilities. He can open the road towards new life!

The story may be of a physical death of a youngster followed by his resuscitation, but the story is more about hope. The physical death is only one among the many. What about the death of a marriage, when a couple get divorced, the death of a job when it is lost, the sad death of your plans for life? Many deaths occur much earlier than the final, physical one: drug addiction, alcoholism, cyber addictions and crimes, and many more like careerism, love of money, separation from family and friends, etc. Today's youngster may be dead in one or more of the above ways. She (He) needs the words of Jesus today: "O youngster, I tell you to get up."

What is missing in many a youngster is the encounter with Christ. S/he is in search of so many things, including God-experience. They may not like the term "God" or "religion," but they are in search of a genuine communion with the divine. Many of us, parents and elders, are only bothered about giving a good and comfortable life to our children and youngsters: perhaps a good education followed by a good job, perhaps all the material things they need for living a luxurious life. But are we bothered about providing them challenges and genuine experiences in view of a God-experience? I think some of us try giving them a devotions and pieties, but very often they don't quench the deep thirst of the young ones. Ready-made answers and conclusions don't satisfy a young heart, they need to see meaning in what they do or practice. Who fill our otherwise empty churches and worship places? Perhaps mainly the old people. We, as elders, priests, religious, and parents, have failed in offering faith in a meaningful way to the youngsters. Many of them are dead in faith because of our lack of interest, or our own lack of God-experience. We can't give what we don't have. When we love them truly we shall find a meaningful way in giving them faith and hope, because love is ever creative.

The hope revealed in the story at Nain challenges us to participate in the life-giving ministry of Jesus. Let us truly love, and give hope to our young ones, especially through our own authenticity and religious experience.

Magic vs Mystery

24th Week in Ordinary Time - Monday (17 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 11:17-33

Luke 7:1-10

"I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

The gospels were primarily written that we may identify ourselves with Christ. We are already in union with God, as God is in everything, and everything is in God. But we as humans need some concrete ways of realising our union with God and others. Meditating on the attitudes, actions and words of Jesus is a beautiful way of realising our oneness with God and with all of His creation.

In today's gospel reading, Jesus works a miracle of healing the Centurion's servant. Any of Jesus' miracle is not about the medical cure, but about healing, about wholeness. Miracle is not a magic show, but an extraordinary sign of God's boundless mystery which is already active in this world. In fact, Jesus shows no interest in just being a miracle worker, which appeals to our ego needs. But he goes to the real thing, about the whole person, above giving life in its wholeness. And every time Jesus works a miracle, he doesn't want people or demons to talk about it. In other words, Jesus asks the people to cherish and relish and digest the mystery of that miracle, not go blah-blah at it. Silence seems to be the best response to mystery. Any deep experience of God has to be met not with words, but with our whole being, and in great respect and silence.

On our part, do we expect only magic from God? Or do we really deeply desire wholeness? Many of our prayers seem to suggest we want shortcut solutions, and they reveal our impatience—both with ourselves and with God. Do we value silence, and express respect to God's mystery with silence? Or are we too attached to words while dealing with God and his mysteries?

Furthermore, let us notice the humility of Jesus who is on the way to the Centurion's house; his great sensitivity and attention to those around him; and also his commitment to those beyond the boundaries of his own religion and nation. There is no hostility or hatred in him. He makes the occasion a great lesson for all the people: "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

It is beautiful that we have the words of a pagan in our Christian liturgy taken from this gospel passage, just before our participation in the communion service. "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed." Do we have the same attitude of the Centurion? How do we participate in the Eucharist? Or has it become a ritual? Do we accept the sacrament of communion in silence to participate in God's mystery of communion with us? Are we attentive and sensitive to people who show true faith beyond our boundaries? Like Jesus, are we able to think and feel beyond the confines of our religion?

Good Works

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B (16 September 2018)

Isaiah 50:4-9

James 2:14-18

Mark 8:27-35

"If good works do not go with faith, it is quite dead."

In today's gospel reading, Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do you say I am?" It is not about the answer we give, but the answer we live that is important to give meaning to our Christian lives. Deep within, we need to experience the love of Jesus Christ and make a decisive choice to allow our inner person to be molded by the life and goodness of Jesus of Nazareth. We would then desire our personal and public lives to reflect his options, which would affect our family and civic responsibilities, our professional and business life, and our political options. This leads to a choice in which the ethos of contemporary culture would be critiqued, and the values propagated by the media would be discerned carefully.

The fact is, no one with real faith would fail to live a life of good works. St James, in today's second reading, says, "If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, 'I wish you well; keep your self warm, and eat plenty,' without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead." The faith that does nothing in practice is thoroughly lifeless.

Religion is good only for good people. Too often in life, as in history, religion shows its heartlessness. It can breed a fanaticism whose cruelty has few equals, like the Spanish Inquisition or other excesses that we have seen in many great religions. Regrettably, we do know many people who are religious but are not good. We know so many people who are faithful to all the laws and externals of a religion, but are selfish, cruel, revengeful, proud, greedy, etc. We may even know so many people who are ready to do evil and even kill in the name of religion. Goodness can and does thrive outside religion. But religion can never thrive without it. Our faith should overflow in goodness and good works. Otherwise our faith is no good; it is of no use. True religion and true faith never exclude kindness, compassion, love, and forgiveness.

Sometimes, all too rarely, religion finds its match in goodness and the world momentarily rediscovers the grandeur of the gospel. Take, for instance, the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her faith and her social goodness were synonymous. We can say that these two dimensions went hand in hand. Love of God was fully expressed in love of others. No separations. There is only one movement of love, but two expressions of it. They are simultaneous like body and spirit. The body without a spirit is dead, and faith without good works is dead. If we believe truly in Christ Jesus as our Messiah and Saviour, then our faith will be expressed in relevant social action and practice. It is not possible to have only one of the two. Both or nothing!

Our Lady of Sorrows

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

John 19:25-27 or Luke 2:33-35

Human living demands that we undergo a whole lot of sufferings and sorrows; these may consist in living with contradictions in our hearts, befriending enemies, forgiving others, embracing disorder, and accepting reality as it is with all its inconsistencies. In other words, we as Christians are called to have an attitude of contemplation or pondering. Mother Mary is a beautiful example of such a contemplative practice. Even when she does not understand many things in her life (during the Birth of Jesus or when Jesus is lost and found), she holds (keeps) them in her heart and “ponders” over them. In fact, the Lucan gospel reports, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19) and once again, almost repeating the previous verse, the evangelist states, “she treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51).

Pondering is holding things in our hearts even when they seem to have no meaning; it is standing before life’s great mysteries the way Mary stood before the various events of Jesus’ life, including the way she stood under the cross. Mary stood at the foot of the cross, accepting the reality of her Son who had apparently become a “criminal,” a “sinner.” She did not abandon her criminal, divine son; she did not expect a premature solution to this contradiction that she held in her heart. Ronald Rolheiser writes, “When Mary stands under the cross of Jesus and watches him die—and there is absolutely nothing she can do to save him or even to protest his innocence and goodness—she is pondering in the biblical sense.” As at Nativity, also at the foot of the cross she stood wondering, pondering amidst heightened suffering. She did not curse God, she did not give up hope. The answer would come one day. She held the contradiction of her son in incredible tension. Her suffering heart, “pierced by the sword,” held the irreconciliable elements in creative tension, hoping that out of this tension would be born an answer that she herself could not author, a resolution that would be given from above.

This is the type of mysticism that we most need today to revitalize our faith. (Mysticism is not merely for great saints, but for busy people like us who find it hard to make time for prayer.) It is not about heroism, but simple acceptance of the cross in our daily lives. It is about standing at the foot of the cross, accepting Jesus as our Saviour even when we find meaninglessness in and around us. It is precisely this kind of pondering, a willingness to carry tension as Mary did, that we need today. It may call us to value silence when we want to speak out in anger or vengeance. It may call us to say a kind word from our heart, reserving our judgment till we get more information about the other person. It may call us to think from God's perspective, and not merely from a human or a narrow perspective.

God is good, and he will turn all things into good. And that's why we can say "all is well" in our world—because it is His world, He is in charge of everything.

Let us allow Mary to be our Mother and Teacher, especially when we encounter difficulties: so that we see God's hand in all our life-events.

Exaltation of the Cross

Numbers 21:4-9 or Philippians 2:6-11

John 3:13–17

In John's Gospel, Jesus seems to use the term "lifted up" (or "raised up") both in the sense of crucifixion and in the sense of resurrection. The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross that we celebrate today bears this splendid message: dying and rising are not separated far away from each other. Our sufferings have a purpose, they are salvific. This feast invites us to accepting the cross with joy. As Pope Francis says, either the cross is embraced or rejected. As Christians the cross is our hope and life. Our way to salvation is revealed only when we embrace our cross and sufferings. No pain, no gain. No cross, no crown. Unless the wheat dies, there is no fruitfulness. It is in carrying the cross that we find joy, it is in dying to oneself that we find life. Therefore, there is no radical distinction between joy and sorrow. As Jesus affirms, your sorrow itself will turn into joy. It is not the removal of sorrow, but accepting it gives us life and hope.

The cross is a collision of opposites, coming together of opposing energies. On the cross, Jesus countered our pride with humility; he countered our violence with gentleness; he countered our hatred with the Love that forgives. The cross is the event which enables God’s love to enter into our personal history, to draw close to each of us, to become a source of healing and salvation. On the cross we meet man but also God, we encounter death but also life in its fullness, desperation as well as hope, history as well as mystery, brokenness as well as wholeness, shame as well as glory, defeat as well as triumph, earth as well as heaven.

Jesus was killed on the collision of cross-purposes, conflicting interests, and half-truths. The cross was the price Jesus paid for living in a “mixed” world that was both human and divine, simultaneously broken and utterly whole. He hung between a good thief and a bad thief, between heaven and earth, inside of both humanity and divinity, a male body with a feminine soul, utterly whole and yet utterly disfigured—all the primary opposites. Jesus “recapitulated all things in himself, everything in heaven and everything on earth” (Ephesians 1:10).

The cross is the standing icon and image of God, showing us that God knows what it's like to be rejected; God is in solidarity with us in the experience of abandonment; God is not watching the suffering from a safe distance. Somehow, believe it or not, God is in the suffering with us. Jesus's solidarity with suffering on the cross is actually "an acceptance of a certain meaninglessness in the universe," it nonsensical tragic nature, a black hole that seems constantly to show itself to sensitive souls. To accept some degree of meaninglessness is our final and full act of faith that God is still good and still in control. This is the cross in our lives. That we need to accept some kind of meaninglessness, that there will be events that will not meet our understanding and comprehension, that there is pain in the world even when we think good, and do good.

The cross is not the price that Jesus had to pay in order to convince God into loving us. No. It is rather simply where love will lead us. If we love, if we give ourselves to feel the pain of the world, it will crucify us. But only in and through the cross that we shall see life and resurrection. The cross is that which gives ultimate meaning to us; it embraces all our meaninglessness to give us a Saviour, and through him our salvation.

O Jesus, we adore your Holy Cross; from it came life and salvation.

Love your enemies

23rd Week in Ordinary Time - Thursday (13 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Luke 6:27-38

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly.”

In the first reading, St Paul deals with the problem whether to eat the meat sacrificed to idols. Paul's solution is classic; wisdom at its best. He says that we know that there is no other god than the One God we worship. So any meat offered to idols has no consequence whatsoever. There will no problem in eating that meat. But if it scandalizes my fellow-believer, I choose not to eat the meat though I know very well that it will do no harm. In other words, we can say that there are two values (virtues) involved here: value of knowledge and value of love. When there is a choice between the value of knowledge and the value of love, discernment or wisdom in general tells us that we choose love over knowledge. St Paul asks us to think what is beneficial (greater good) for the other. This is all about choosing love over knowledge, for the sake of the other. Love is more important than knowledge. (“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 1 Corinthians 10:23; 6:12.)

For instance, the beef problem in India. The value of knowledge instructs us that it is nothing wrong with eating beef, as you would eat mutton, chicken, or any other meat. But the value of love instructs us to think of those people who don't eat beef as our brothers and sisters. For the sake of love (though I know it is no wrong in eating beef or asking others to do the same) I decide not to eat beef. I’m thus one with them as a brother or sister. Similarly, whenever there is a conflict between me and the other, I can choose the virtue of love/charity over the virtue of knowledge/truth itself. In fact, by insisting on my right I can sin. I can become a cause of sin itself. St Paul says, “By sinning in this way against your brothers and sisters, and injuring their weak consciences, it would be Christ against whom you sinned” (1 Corinthians 8:12).

In the gospel reading, our Lord goes a step further. “Love your enemies and do good, lend without any hope of return.” Our enemies are not far away, they are nearby. Those who love us hurt us the most. Am I able to love them, give my heart to them day after day? This is a great challenge. And to love all the wrong people who are near me: the people who hurt us, the people who betray us, those who don't understand us, those who spy on us, those who don't like us, those who shout at us, those who insult us, those who ignore us, those who even hate us. Am I able to love all these people? Am I able to love those who don't understand or accept my faith, those who oppose me, and even persecute me for believing in Christ Jesus?

Very often it is by forgiving others and their evil that we can fulfill and complete our otherwise subtle work on our own selves. Both these acts, therefore, take real and lasting courage. We must embrace our enemies just as much as we must welcome our own shadows (inner enemies of selfishness, greed, lust, anger, violence, etc.). Our maturity as Christians is seen only in our readiness to forgive and love ourselves and others, especially our enemies. This is the true touchstone of Christianity.

Beatitudes

23rd Week in Ordinary Time - Wednesday (12 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 

Luke 6:20-26

“How blessed are you who are poor, the reign of God is yours.”

Luke’s version of the beatitudes sounds like an echo of Mary’s Magnificat when she meets Elizabeth. They both express a hope to be realized in the future. But not everything in Jesus’ message about the coming reign of God can be explained simply in terms of the future. It is in the present time, in our “now,” in the present, that he asks us to address God as our Father, and to pray for the realization of God’s reign. It is in the “here and now” that we have to forgive those who sin against us. It is in the here and now that those we have sinned against should forgive us. It is in these, our days, that we sit with Jesus at the table, where he breaks his bread with us and shares his wine as a sign and pledge of sharing, with him and each other, the final banquet in heaven. It is here and now that the poor, the hungry, and those who weep are happy, not only because they have Jesus’ sure promise of the reversal of their lot in God’s reign, but because his disciples are reorganizing their own lives and the world in which they live to bring them into line with that reign to come.

The reign of God (kingdom of God) is in some sense already with us in word and deed, not only because of Jesus’ presence among us, but also because of the presence of those who follow in his footsteps.

“Blessed are the poor.” Jesus did not say, “Blessed are those who care for the poor.” Unless I become one among the poor, one among the marginalized, I don’t get my blessing. It is they who bless me. I may give Christ to them, but eventually it is they who will save me. I am asked to identify myself with the disadvantaged, those who weep, those who are persecuted, those who are hungry. My work is not so much doing great things for others, but about being one with those who need me. It is about sharing my kindness and my goodness with those around me. Am I attentive to the needs of those who are with me, those around me?

Praying

23rd Week in Ordinary Time - Tuesday (11 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Luke 6:12-19

“Jesus went onto the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.”

Three Russian monks lived on a faraway island. Nobody ever went there, but one day their bishop decided to make a pastoral visit. When he arrived he discovered that the monks didn’t even know the Lord’s Prayer. So he spent all his time and energy teaching them the ‘Our Father’ and then left, satisfied with his pastoral work. But when his ship had left the island and was back in the open sea, he suddenly noticed the three hermits walking on the water – in fact, they were running after the ship! When they reached it they cried, “Dear Father, we have forgotten the prayer you taught us.” The bishop, overwhelmed by what he was seeing and hearing, said, “But, dear brothers, how then do you pray?” They answered, “Well, we just say, ‘Dear God, there are three of us and there are three of you, have mercy on us!’” The bishop, awestruck by their sanctity and simplicity, said, “Go back to your island and be at peace.”

Prayer is not about choosing the best words to tell God; but about expressing our intimacy and love towards God. In today's gospel, Luke narrates a habit of Jesus: going into the hills, to a lonely place for praying. (Luke is interested in prayer; that's why his gospel is also termed the gospel of prayer.) We need to take time to pray; even create a habit to pray.

Prayer is a way of connecting with our source. It is about being centered, grounded, mindful of the holy, the presence of the sacred and the precious. Prayer can help us to connect with others as our own brothers and sisters. It can help us to connect with the poor and the needy; it helps us to open our eyes and hearts to the reality around us. It is prayer that can allow us to educate our children with patience, love and understanding. It is prayer that can enable us to move to a simpler lifestyle. And it is prayer that will give us deep conviction and joy, and a deeper meaning in our lives.

And whether or not we pray is as obvious as whether or not we have put our clothes on. For example, the restless movement from one job to another, the compulsive and frantic shifting from one event to another, or perhaps our angry, cynical and unintegrated rambling from one project to another—even from one good work to another—may speak of good intentions, but also of an uneasy and untended inner life. This might show our decentred (eccentric!) life, lack of prayerfulness. In short, it is possible to do much harm because we have not taken the time to pray.

As Etty Hillesum wrote, "Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, and to reflect it towards others." This can be done through prayerfulness, silence and communing with God regularly. Let us begin by being peace ourselves, by connecting with the source of peace within.

Law

23rd Week in Ordinary Time - Monday (10 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Luke 6:6-11

“Is it against the law on the sabbath to save life?” 

Isn’t it plain common sense to save life any day? Isn’t it plain common sense to do good any day (including the sabbath)? But we as humans could lose focus. When the very same rules and regulations which were meant for doing good, hinder us to do good, then they need to be broken. Our obedience and allegiance to God is first, and only then comes obedience to humans and to groups and institutions. When God’s plan is contrary to our own family’s or group’s interests, we have the duty to disobey humans, and accept God’s designs.

We belong to God, we are created in His image and likeness. We are God’s Beloved. This is primary. Therefore, our belonging to God is more important than belonging to a group. To know that we are His loved ones, that we belong to Him is primary. Only then we belong to a human organization or group: our own society, culture, tribe, church, association, club, etc. Boundaries, structures and human organizations are important, the identities born out of human oneness and communion are significant; but nothing is absolute except God. No structure is absolute, no group is absolute. Only God is absolute. Making anything else absolute besides God is called idolatry.

Following Jesus frees us from the complications of the law. It is really consoling to experience the freedom that we as Jesus’ followers will have in the face of such regulations, when there is the opportunity to do good for people or save a life.

St Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians are sophisticated studies of the meaning, purpose and limitations of the law. Laws can only give us information, and even helpful information, but they cannot give us transformation. Being good in the eyes of law is less important than being God’s instrument of goodness in this world. Is all our focus on being a good girl or a good boy in the eyes of human beings? Do we spend all our energies in pleasing humans than pleasing God? To stand for truth and principles might also mean standing against your own family or church or institution. To stand for God might also mean sometimes breaking the law of your own tradition or church or culture. Who is important to you: God or humans? God or human groups?

Laws and rules are not an end in themselves, they are merely means. If we want to enjoy the freedom that Christ gives, then our focus must be God: who guides us, leads us, transforms us, and who makes us love all: friends and foes alike. Henri Nouwen beautifully puts it, “You have to keep going back to the source: God’s love for you. Try to give your agenda to God. Give every part of your heart and your time to God and let God tell you what to do, where to go, when and how to respond.”

Ephphatha

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B (9 September 2018)

Isaiah 35:4-7 

James 2:1-5 

Mark 7:31-37 

In today’s second reading, St James affirms, “My brothers and sisters, do not try to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the making of distinctions between classes of people.” One of the biggest problems in the world today is the problem of discrimination. Even among the churches we could see the various problems of racism, casteism, tribalism, apartheid, male chauvinism, and other discriminations. Sadly, the Word of God has not penetrated deeply among Christians themselves. That is why, as someone said, it is easier to make a non-Christian Christian, than to make a Christian truly Christian. It is easy to be Christian in name, but to truly live the gospel values that is not an easy thing. 

If we examine our own lives, deep in our hearts there are various unwanted distinctions and discriminations that we perhaps make: “us” and “them”, “right people” and “wrong people.” And we invariably belong to the “right people” category. We may even realize that much harm emerges from our own divisive hearts and minds. This process is not about self-condemnation, but about allowing God and his goodness to fill us and the universe around us. We need to listen to our own experience, to our own failures, to our own sin, to our own salvation, and we need to recognize that we are part of history, a part of a culture or a religious group, for good and for bad. We cannot heal or look honestly at what we do not acknowledge. 

For this, we all need the healing words of Christ, “Ephphatha. Be opened.” We all need the healing hand of Christ to make us hear and speak the message of God properly. Jesus is the one who can remove deafness and dumbness from our being so that we can make full use of these faculties. Is it possible that we are like the man in today’s gospel because of our refusal to give a listening ear to the lonely, the troubled, and the worried? How many times have we failed to utter a word of encouragement, of hope and thanks, or have kept a discreet silence when we should have spoken the truth? Then there are the problems we have in speaking to our partner or neighbours, because of a long standing fight or simply out of jealousy, envy or pride. 

What Jesus is saying to us is that the greatest tragedy of all is not to be born deaf and dumb, but to have ears and fail to hear and to have tongues and fail to speak. We are the deaf and dumb who need to be brought to Jesus for his healing touch, which brings communication where there are silences, companionship where there is loneliness, and encouragement where there is despair. 

Only then can we see clearly that the goodness of God fills the universe, without discrimination or preference. Only He can achieve what we can’t possibly imagine or do. But He needs our instrumentality. The future can exist only when we understand the universe as composed of persons to be loved, subjects to be communed with, not as objects to be exploited or discriminated. 

Dorothy Day says, “I really love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” If this is true, then many of us don’t love God at all. There are so many people that we may hate, because they belong to the “wrong people” category. Let us stop all discriminations. By loving all the wrong people we love God. By loving all the difficult characters we love God. By loving all those who harm us we love God. Perhaps, to become aware of God’s presence in our lives, we have to often accept what is difficult, especially those difficulties that come from difficult people. Let us love people even in their sin, because love cannot exclude anything from its universe. Love is itself universal, all-embracing. We need to make sure that our unique and special relationship with God leads us to see that everyone is included, even our enemies!

Roots of our Saviour

Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary (8 September 2018)

“Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.”

As we celebrate the Birthday of Mother Mary today, the liturgy gives us a strange gospel passage: the genealogy of Jesus Christ. A boring list of names that we most of us gloss over. Or even if we read we do it so quickly that we don’t understand the meaning of it. The list, though monotonous, has some interesting things for our reflection. We must bear in mind it is not an exhaustive list of the family history of Jesus. But it certainly shows the “earthly” connection of our divine Saviour.

Jesus’ genealogy is an illustrious one, including Jacob, Judah, David, Solomon and Hezekiah. But there is another side to this family tree. For instance, most of the kings named in this list are sinners, murderers, unfaithful persons. And the evangelist is not embarrassed to admit that the Saviour is born from this line. The origin and roots of the Sinless One are not completely a matter of pride, but a dark truth. He comes from a line of both holiness and sin.

There are only five women named in this genealogy. We must understand that in Matthew’s Jewish world, genealogies typically mentioned only men. The inclusion of women in a list is itself something wonderful. But what is more suprising is that our Blessed Mother is named along with four other women who have somewhat spotty reputations: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and “the wife of Uriah” (that is, Bathsheba, whom the evangelist doesn’t even dare to name). What prompted Matthew to include a prostitute (Rahab), a woman who pretended to be a prostitute (Tamar), a sexually forward widow (Ruth), and a woman taken in adultery (Bathsheba) in his genealogy of Jesus the Messiah?

These women, mostly poor, mostly misfits, widows, unimportant, unknown, sinful women who changed the course of history by their simple, obedient lives. One might suppose that the women in Jesus the Messiah’s genealogy should have all been the finest Jewish women, but they weren’t. Most weren’t even Jewish at all. And except for Ruth and Mary, they had tarnished sexual histories. They were ordinary women, trying to get life right, but missing the goal. In other words, they were women just like us: ordinary, tarnished by sin, unlikely to shape the course of history. They are in the Saviour’s genealogy to give us hope, and to foreshadow the kind of people Jesus the Messiah came to save.

Jesus Christ came from a lineage of sinners to save sinners. God does not shy away from the disorder and mess of our human lives. He is born into a line of sinners and imperfect people, perhaps just to reiterate His Divine love. Nothing human can stop the flow of divine love; we cannot undo the eternal pattern of God’s love even by our worst sin.

Why should I judge myself?

22nd Week in Ordinary Time - Friday (7 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Luke 5:33-39

“I will not pass judgment on myself. The Lord alone is my judge. He will light up all that is hidden in the dark and reveal the secret intentions of our hearts.”

A brother was restless in the community and often moved to anger. So he said: “I will go, and live somewhere by myself. And since I shall be able to talk or listen to no one, I shall be tranquil, and my passionate anger will cease.” He went out and lived alone in a cave. But one day he filled his jug with water and put it on the ground. It happened suddenly to fall over. He filled it again, and again it fell. And this happened a third time. And in a rage he snatched up the jug and broke it. Returning to his right mind, he knew that the demon of anger had mocked him, and he said: “Here am I by myself, and he has beaten me. I will return to the community.” Wherever you live, you need effort and patience and above all God’s help. —Story of a desert father

Prayer is all about being with the Bridegroom, the Lord. It is about rejoicing in His presence in and through our lives here and now. Prayer is all about allowing God’s light into our hearts, into all of our lives, into all of our secrets. It is not a mental exercise of finding the right words in order to please God. It is not a pious exercise that is merely limited to the church or the temple or the mosque. Prayer is giving space to God 24x7. It is even allowing God to see the deepest secrets of our lives. It is also trying to see God even in the ugliest and darkest events of our lives. It is seeing God in the daily mess of our routine lives. In prayer, even our irritations and moments of anger are surrendered to Him, to transform ourselves.

Irritations can be a good raw material for growth, if you allow them to be so, if you embrace and integrate them into your daily life. Let us keep in mind that irritations in the oyster are those that transform into precious pearls. In order to protect itself from irritation, the oyster will quickly begin covering the uninvited visitor with layers of nacre—the mineral substance that fashions the mollusk’s shells. Layer upon layer of nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, coat the grain of sand until the dazzling gem is formed. Irritations are not those to be thrown away, but to be used for prayer, and for our eventual growth.

Therefore, distractions themselves could become a source of prayer. Irritations could become the key to our self-discovery. Fears, anxieties, worries are able to provide pathways to our salvation. With conviction we can say that our weaknesses become the source of compassion.

So, as St Paul in today’s first reading, says: Why should I judge myself? Why should I condemn myself? The Lord is our light, and our love, and our judge. He will take care of everything in and around me.

Embracing Negatives

22nd Week in Ordinary Time - Thursday (6 September 2018)

Luke 5:1-11

“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

For the world, death, illness, human brokenness, ugliness, failures, sinfulness, inner woundedness, all these have to be hidden from our sight because they keep us from the happiness for which we strive. They are obstructions on our way to the goal of life. So we always want to eliminate the negatives, throw away what is ugly, hide our incapacities and failures, repress our woundedness. We even want to deal with poverty and other problems by banishing the poor, the old, the beggars, those who are incapacitated. Somehow we are uncomfortable with suffering, with all that is negative. In this regard, there has been developed a separate field of study and research called "eugenics" (considered part of genetic engineering) in order to improve the genetic quality of the human population. Eugenics strives towards a better life, a better quality of life, but by eliminating undesirable traits in our genes. Disorders and disabilities, ugliness and aging are all seen as undesirable. Are we not pulling out the wheat together with the weeds? Simon Peter in today's gospel is trying to the do the same. He encounters Jesus, the Rabbi and miracleworker, but feels unworthy and sinful in Jesus' presence. He says, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

But Jesus makes Peter one of his disciples, Peter in fact becomes the head of the disciples. Jesus shows another way, an alternative way unlike the world. He dines and drinks with sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors. Jesus shows us the way. We need to embrace the cross, accept our brokenness and woundedness. We even learn from Jesus that through death we receive life.

In the divine economy of grace, sin and failure become the base metal and raw material for the redemption experience itself. Sin and gift are two sides of the same coin. Salvation is not sin perfectly avoided. Salvation is sin turned on its head and used in our favour. We will be able to discover that the same passion that leads us to sin, that leads us away from God can also be a gift, it can also lead us back to God and to our true selves. Richard Rohr dares to state: “I do not think you should get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you. Otherwise, it will only return in new forms, as Jesus says of the ‘unclean spirit’ that returns to the house all ‘swept and tidied’ (Luke 11:24-26); then he rightly and courageously says that ‘the last state of the house will be worse than the first.’” God hides, and is found, precisely in the depths of everything, even and maybe especially in the deep fathoming of our fallings and failures.

We need to keep in touch with our sinfulness, day after day. That is one way to feel with the people. That is compassion. Even our negatives can become a gift, if only we allow God and His light penetrate our lives. Are we willing?

Come Be My Light

Feast of Saint Teresa of Kolkata, 5 September 2018

“If I ever become a saint—I will surely be one of darkness. I will continually be absent from heaven—to light the light of those in darkness on earth.”

Today we celebrate the feast of Mother Teresa. (Still the title "Saint" seems very strange for me, and "Saint Teresa of Kolkata" even stranger. Mother Teresa is synonymous with sainthood even now as when she was living here on earth; and evokes more familiarity. Think of her original name: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. How difficult it would have to been to pronounce that!) She was just a holy person for me, or like any other holy person whom I admired from far away till I read the book Come Be My Light. If you haven't yet read this book, I think you should do it. After she was inspired to found the Missionaries of Charity, she went into a deep darkness with regard to prayer and interior life. The joy that she had experienced, and the visions that she had from Jesus, all these came to a halt. She found no joy, no satisfaction in her spiritual life. Her heroic spiritual struggle is shown precisely in the living out of her interior darkness for 50 years at a stretch, except for six months in between.

Hope this doesn't scandalize you. Mother Teresa never tried to convert a Muslim or a Hindu to Catholicism. She told the sisters that their job was not to talk about Jesus or even promote Jesus, but "to be Jesus"! Isn't this true evangelization? She saw Christ in the poorest of the poor. Her darkness did not allow her to meet God in the chapel or the convent, but pushed her to meet Him in the poor, beggars, leprosy patients, the dying. Don't mistake that Mother Teresa's was merely a social concern, but Christ was at the centre of her founding the Congregation, and of living out the charism. He led her to unusual places: slums, holes, a Hindu temple, market-places, drains, dumping grounds. Christ can be encountered in all the usual, and unusual places, and in the least expected places. He is found in the least expected persons. (Try for yourself.)

According to Mother Teresa, the biggest problem in India or in the world is not poverty or physical sicknesses or wars or violence or economic backwardness, but "being unwanted or unloved or uncared for." The greatest disease is not AIDS or cancer or leprosy but loneliness, despair, hopelessness. She further adds, “There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love.” In this regard we can all make a difference, at least a little difference. "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." Again these are Mother Teresa's words. I could just string along many quotable quotes from her (in a reflection like this), and that is the kind of person she was. She did was she could; but what strikes us is her littleness and her humility in the face of those gigantic ventures that she undertook. She didn't want publicity, she could face both praise and criticism with equanimity and magnanimity. Just one reason for all these: God alone. He called her to be light in this world. And even from heaven she seems to be continuing her mission of being light, and why not? “If I ever become a saint—I will surely be one of darkness. I will continually be absent from heaven—to light the light of those in darkness on earth.”

Mother Teresa teaches us that human planning is needed, but that is not all. If there is not inspiration from above, if there is no contact with the life-giving "vine," what is the use of all our planning? Let us be centred on Christ, and I believe, everything else will be taken care of. You don't have to be perfect to be good, just try to make a little difference wherever you are, here and now.

Evil

22nd Week in Ordinary Time - Tuesday (4 September 2018)

Luke 4:31-37

Jesus said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”

Once a fourteen-year-old disadvantaged boy, living on the streets in Kenya, had somehow obtained a bicycle. It was an old, rusty one, and both wheels needed some alignment. He aligned them himself, more or less. Then he decided that he was going to enhance his treasure--because that was what the cycle meant to him--with gears. The bicycle shop was willing to do the job supposing that a boy with a bicycle would be able to pay for the job. When he went to fetch his bicycle, the bill for the gears was so high that he couldn’t pay it. He was told that if he didn’t find the money within a fortnight his bicycle would be confiscated. That’s when he decided to steal a radio from the school office. He was found out. He hadn’t yet been able to sell the radio, and he produced it from its hiding place. When he handed it over to the priest, he told the priest: “Father, don’t think that I stole that radio!” The priest asked him, “If you didn’t, who did?” He answered, “The bicycle.” He was right. The bicycle had become an obsession, like an evil spirit mastering him.

An obsession, a compulsion, or an addiction can turn into evil in us, as we read in the incident. We can be driven into doing what is wrong if we put "wrong" things at the centre of our lives. All of us have within us some elements that militate against God and His values. The good news is that when we are able to accept the darkness within us, then we are already on the way to salvation. Facing our shadow self and our addictions is almost the heart of modern psychiatry and therapy. Denial is a bigger evil than having many "evils" within us.

And Jesus said to the man possessed by an evil spirit: “Be quiet,” and it went out without hurting him at all. How often we wish it were so simple to drive out those dark elements within us! It takes supernatural effort literally. It takes God to do it. Jesus Christ, the final and complete revelation of God, takes total authority over evil and commands it not to abuse humans. We need to allow him into our lives. Let him take charge of our lives.

Most of us fail to achieve a better and happier life for ourselves, not for lack of desire, but because we hang on to so much to that which is negative in us. There may be certain areas in our lives where we need to turn away from an old life-style with no compromises and no looking back. We may have certain habits that should no longer be accommodated in any way. There should be no accommodation whatever, for example, for self-destructive addictions, for attitudes and behaviours that hurt the people we love, or for a style of living that stifles our spiritual growth. But this can happen only if we are able to surrender our negativities and obsessions to God, the only Good One.

What is holding you back from living more effectively? What prevents you from attaining the happiness you so eagerly desire? Is it laziness, procrastination, addictions or obsesssions, or your tendency to lie to yourself or deny your talents, or your lack of stamina in keeping your resolutions? Are you in the habit of being harsh, demanding, critical, and one-sided in the way you handle other people, especially those you love?

We need divine help, don't we?

Word of God

22nd Week in Ordinary Time - Monday (3 September 2018)

Luke 4:16-30

“And he won the approval of all and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.”

As we read today's gospel passage, we can think of the scene at Nazareth when Jesus reads some verses from the prophet Isaiah and then applies them without further ado to himself and his own life: “This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.” Jesus shows how to read the Scriptures. He reads the Scriptures from his own viewpoint and that of his listeners. He applies it to himself and to his listeners from the moment he talks to them. When we read and try to understand the Bible, like Jesus we need to put our lives into it, we need to apply the words to us. (Though sometimes this may not be easy, we may need some help.)

Today we have started reading the gospel according to St Luke for our weekday masses, after having completed the gospels of St Mark and St Matthew. One way to listen to God is to follow the readings of everyday Mass (even if we haven't the time to attend it), and ask what this text might mean in our lives and in our struggles? God reveals to us continuously; He speaks to us in a special through the word of the Bible. Do we have the time and leisure for the Word of God in our lives? Perhaps many of our troubles and struggles will get a new meaning if only we spend enough time with the Word of God.

As these days I'm taking Bible classes in the Provincial House, I come to know how much of the Bible I don't know, and how much the meaning depends on God's inspiration, and not on my own efforts. When we are able to see God's work in our reading, then we might be able to see God's work in our trying to live out the Word of God. God is not far away from our daily struggles, He is found within them. He is more intimate to us, than we are intimate to ourselves. That is the truth we will learn as we read and reflect and live out the Word of God in our lives.

Eventually we shall know that Jesus alone is the living and dynamic Word, adjusting to the readiness capacity of every age. Written words of the Bible are forever and always metaphors. They need to be applied to our lives in order to understand the real meaning of those words. These words are only fingers pointing to the moon, they are not the moon itself. When we forget that distinction, we soon become idolatrous and eventually policemen, but seldom mystics.

Let us allow the Word of God to change our lives today. Or for what else should we read the Word?