Returning to the Lord

7th Week in Ordinary Time - Year 1 (Thursday)

Sir 5:1-8. Ps 1:1-4, 6. Mk 9:41-50.

Do not delay your return to the Lord, and do not postpone it from day to day.

The first reading is very clear in its instructions on the vanity and futility of riches, as well as the disaster of spiritual negligence: Don't rely on wealth; don't rely on yourself; don't postpone your conversion. All things come from God, He is the author of everything that is happening in our lives. He is the source of salvation too. We can't save ourselves by our own strength. But our "yes" to God matters. He waits for our yes. And that is what our first reading today insists upon.

It goes to the extent of saying that the Lord will punish you if you don't return to godly ways, and that His wrath will suddenly come upon you. We surely know that God never punishes, by definition God is goodness itself, God is love itself. In fact, God doesn't have to punish. Our sin itself is a punishment. Sin is self-punishment and self-destruction. This is the wrath of God. He doesn't have the need to punish us, because we could punish ourselves by using our freedom. That's why the author in today's first reading exhorts us not to add sin to sin, evil to evil. There is nothing nice about sin or evil. Evil is evil because it hurts us, and eventually destroys us. Therefore, the reading recommends us not to put off our conversion and change.

We need to change again and again. We need to be converted again and again and again. We have to start again and again. The gospel reading of today helps us in this regard. Jesus tells us to remove even the occasions of sin and evil. He uses very strong words, and they are not to be taken literally of course: If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.

If we want to take care of our spiritual life, then we need to remove all obstacles of sin, selfishness, and sinfulness from our lives. Not just that. As Jesus commands we have to go to the root of sin itself. We need to remove and root out the occasions and causes of our sin: persons, things, events, etc.

In this project God helps us, inspires us, guides us and leads us. We need only to trust in Him and His help. Today's psalm sings thus, "Happy the persons who have placed their trust in the Lord." If we entrust ourselves to God, then we are like a tree planted beside flowing waters, and that yields its fruit in due season. This is true prosperity and wealth that we need to gain in our lives.

Blessing

The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.

The above blessing found in Num 6:24-26 is a very powerful blessing, because it has been given by Yahweh Himself to Moses, and to Aaron and his sons. Any negative thinking is itself a curse.

Therefore, we can say that there are at least five different types of curses:

1. Self-cursing: Whenever I say I am not pretty, I am not capable, I am not lucky, etc., we are cursing ourselves.

2. Cursing God: I can even curse God when I say God did not bless me, or God did not give me enough money, or God did not give me good parents/children, or any other similar similar statement.

3. Cursing nature, weather, animals, birds: Oh what kind of rain or what kind of weather is this! This cockroach is disturbing me, it is a nuisance! These are examples of curses over nature.

4. Cursing situations: Examples - What kind of traffic! So much crowd, so much mess in this world. Nothing is alright with this world. Etc. God does not make mistakes.

5. Cursing other people: And the major thing is cursing other people, or not blessing other people. Either we bless people, or we curse them. There is nothing inbetween these two. Even indifference is a curse on others. Every negative thought, grudge, unhappiness about others is a curse by itself. And when we curse others, we curse ourselves. Every curse and ill wish recoils on ourselves.

Not only are we asked to bless others always, but also we are called to be a blessing like Abraham, our father in faith. The Lord says thus to Abram in Gen 12:2, "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing." Have we been a blessing to others or have we cursed them? Let us bless this universe, and all that lives within it.

If only we dare to be humble, and even humiliate ourselves, to forgive others and to ask for forgiveness from others, we will realise that God has always been blessing us. Perhaps we were resisting His blessings, and we didn't want His blessings consciously or unconsciously. Like Mary we can become humble, and receive God's mighty blessings. Then we can heartily sing along with Mary, "He has looked upon his servant, in her lowliness, and from now on people will call me blessed" (Lk 1:48).

So, by blessing others we can remove curses. Even when others are negative towards us we need to bless them. As St Peter says, "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing" (1 Pet 3:9). The lot of those who think negatively is given in Psalm 109:17-19, "He loved to curse—may it come back on him. He found no pleasure in blessing—may it be far from him. He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him."

Jesus climaxes this discussion with his radical words. "Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you" (Lk 6:28). He asks us to even love our enemies: to bless and love those who hate and insult us, to bless and love those who curse us. (Mt 5:43-48; Lk 6:27).

Reference Point

4th Week in Ordinary Time - Friday (8 February 2019)

Hebrews 13:1-8. Psalm 27:1, 3, 5, 8-9. Mark 6:14-29.

Christ Jesus is the same today, as yesterday, and forever.

Today's first reading is a collection of the author's words of encouragement—not just applicable to his (or her) audience alone, but also to us here. The author exhorts the readers to continue in mutual love, to give importance to hospitality, to remember prisoners (and take care of them), to respect the marriage covenant, to be moral and faithful in marriage, not to depend on money, to be content with what we have at present, to rely only on God, and to imitate the good example of their leaders. The above string of exhortations end with an even more beautiful statement, with which we are very familiar: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

In our Eucharistic liturgy, we have been reading from the Letter to the Hebrews for the last few weeks, and we are nearing the end of the Letter. In fact, we are reading the last chapter of this New Testament Book. And we will conclude our reading from this Book on Saturday. Perhaps it would be to our benefit to pick up this Book in our free time, and go through it leisurely.

Our Lord is the same here in the present, as he was in the past, and so will he be in the future. We have no worries if God is our reference point. But if our reference points are the passing things of this world, we will be disappointed one day or another. The transitory nature of the material things will teach us wisdom, if only we allow them to disappoint us and make us lean on truth and goodness itself! But why to take the long route after all! Why to take a detour when our Lord Jesus is revealing himself to be the only certainty amidst the confusion and the mess of the world!

Let us pray for true wisdom today as the Psalmist in Psalm 27 beautifully formulates that the Lord is a sure help, the only refuge in fact. 

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom should I fear?

The Lord is my life's refuge;

of whom should I be afraid?

Though an army encamp against me,

my heart will not fear;

Though war be waged upon me,

even then will I trust.

May we discover this goodness in the world, and in the persons we meet today: to put all our trust in God who is our salvation and hope.

Faith

4th Week in Ordinary Time - Wednesday (6 February 2019)

Hebrews 12:4-7, 11-15. Psalm 103:1-2, 13-14, 17-18. Mark 6:1-6.

Jesus himself was astounded at their unbelief.

In the first reading we read that God treats us as His children. Therefore this treatment also includes corrections, even painful corrections, from God's part. God's love always challenges us, to bring out the best in us and to make us grow. All correction is painful, as the reading says clearly; corrections are never pleasant. But if we are able to accept correction, it produces peace and holiness in us. It produces true peace and true joy. The reading then towards the end adds as an exhortation: "Strive for peace with all, and strive to be holy, for without holiness, no one will see the Lord."

In the gospel reading we see how Jesus is welcomed (or rather "unwelcomed") in his own country on his home return. His wisdom and his power is summarily rejected by his own people (perhaps his own relatives too). They take offense at him. And Jesus is astounded at their lack of faith. A real irony, and tragedy. When we expect acceptance of Jesus from the part of the people, there comes rejection and criticism. Perhaps this is the lot of all who speak the truth and who stand for their convictions and principles. We should not be surprised. All prophets have the same fate. As Christians and believers we too have a prophetic role, and the job description of a prophet is rejection and misunderstanding.

In this context, we need to understand that there is a real danger that we could remain mere Christians, and not true believers. Christians, by definition, are those who believe in Christ and follow him. We all have been baptised as Christians. But the question is: Are we merely namesake Christians or true believers (meaning, true followers) of Jesus Christ? Will Jesus himself be astounded by our unbelief? Or have we made Christianity into a "convenience" religion? Christianity only for convenience?

So the call from Jesus to you and me is to believe in him deeply. To increase our faith today, and give up all those that militate against our belief. To accept corrections from the Lord, even when it is painful so that we may grow in our faith. And only God and His purifying love can give us true peace and true joy, and no one else, and nothing else.

Are we ready for God's challenging love?