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Most of us like to pose for photos and today selfie has become very
common. Many of us upload photos in Facebook, Twitter and other
social networking sites for others to see and appreciate what we are
doing. When we go for an outreach program or any kind of social work
we pose for photos. We will be the first ones to upload our photos with
the members and the institute name.
Today is the time to think and reflect on the actions we do in our every
day of life. Prophet Joel calls each one of us to change our hearts and
repent for the things we have done without our knowledge. So today
let our song be:
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2017 March 2
Readings: Deut 30: 15-20; Lk 9: 22- 25
Life or death: the choice is ours but the price is very demanding. A seed
without losing its seed-ness cant become a plant. Likewise if we dont
lose our petty likes we cant reach the highest goal of our life. In both
the readings Jesus asks his people to lose their self-interest to be with
him. The Lord is not forcing anyone; he just gives an invitation to all his
beloved ones. Eventually the Lord waits for our answers. Through
Moses the Lord gives commandments to his people not to prevent them
from doing what they were doing but to make them to do things with
full trust, reverence and responsibility towards His unconditional love.
In order to conquer his love we have to be the people who carry his or
her own cross with a smiling face. The readings give us the
characteristics for true discipleship. Losing life to save life, and carrying
cross to be free may be contrast statements but this gives us invitation
towards dependency on God. The same Lord who said come to me all
those who are carrying heavy burden tells us to carry our own crosses.
But nothing is forced upon anyone. Our freewill is the cost to keep the
commandment by loving him. We may think that we are taking an
effort to reach the Lord but it is the Lord who comes down to us. After
all what are we going to lose by directing our love towards him?
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2017 March 3
Readings: Is 58:1-9a Mt 9:14-15
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2017 March 4
Readings: Is 58: 9-14; Lk 5:27-32
The readings of today invite us to mark this season of Lent with the true
repentance and law of love towards God and to our fellow beings in an
exceptional way. Through the first reading, Yahweh instructs us to be
with him by keeping away all our sinful activities and asking us to love
our neighbors (especially those who are afflicted) and to satisfy their
needs in doing so. He promises us that he will give us eternal happiness.
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2017 March 5
Readings: Gen 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4: 1-11
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2017 March 6
Readings: Lev 19:1-2, 11-18; Mt 25:31-46
Jesus parable about the sheep and the goats is quite interesting.
The sheep and the goats graze together during the day but have
to be separated during the night because goats are quite restless.
Moreover, the expression of scapegoat is quite common and is
associated with sin and evil (Leviticus 26:20-22). Separation is an
inevitable consequence of sin and judgment.
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2017 March 7
Readings: Is 55: 10-11; Mt 6: 7-15
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2017 March 8
Readings: Jon 3:1-10, Lk 11:29-32
God is in the hearts of all and those who seek Him shall find Him when
they need Him. The liturgy of the word presents the theme: Turning
towards God. To turn towards God denotes the acceptance of His
outpouring of love and grace.
Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets produced signs, and the
surest sign that they came from God was that their prophecies came
true. The sign of a false prophet was that his sayings were false. In the
first reading, we hear how Jonah was an icon and agent of conversion
for the people of Nineveh. The Ninevites recognized Gods warning
when Jonah preached to them and they repented. Thus, Jonah became
Gods true sign and his message was the message of a merciful and
compassionate God.
The gospel is Lukes version of the sign of Jonah. Pharisees at the time
of Jesus had a catalogue of signs which they expected to be fulfilled
when the Messiah came. Even though Jesus performed many miracles,
the Pharisees still wanted him to fulfil their signs. They rejected the
message of Jesus and failed to heed his message. Drawn by the
temptations and attractions of the world, we too fail to recognize Jesus
as the redeemer of our lives. We tend to seek material benefits contrary
to spiritual benefits. Joel 2:13 reads Rend your hearts and not your
clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relents from
punishing. God seeks our hearts, not to condemn us, but to show us
where we need His saving grace and help. He calls us to seek Him with
true repentance and humility. The question for us is: Can we repent and
return to the Lord?
Prayer is central to the Christian life. When Jesus taught us the Lords
Prayer, he told us that the Father knows what we need before we ask.
But today he teaches us that he wants us to ask and it shall be given
unto us, to search and we shall find, to knock and the door shall be
opened unto us. The assurance Jesus gives is that the prayers of the
faithful are always answered. Esthers prayer on behalf of her people is
a model for us. She prayed for help according to Gods promise to be
faithful to this people. Jesus wants us to remember his promises and to
count on his help when we pray. There are times that we say our
prayers are not heard nor answered. Perhaps it is we who need to re-
examine our dispositions and our expectations because Gods answers
are not limited to our questions or Gods responses to our prayers are
not limited to our short sighted concepts. For Isaiah reminded us Gods
ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts (Is
55:8-9) we need to check our own weakness when we pray, like Esther.
She acknowledges her own weakness before God and her prayer is
pure. She did not threaten or try to manipulate God or bargain with God
but her dependence on God makes her to leave the outcome entirely
to Him. Therefore, whenever we ask in prayer we need to leave the
outcome totally in Gods hands. As Jesus prayed in the garden Father,
not my will but yours be done Our Christian faith also can be seen in
our prayer in humble acceptance.
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2017 March 10
Readings: Ez 18:21-28; Mt 5:20-26
We human beings live our life according to our own free choice.
But at the same time we are bound to embrace only one choice
either good or bad. We are fully aware that in what stage we live
our life, yet the scripture reading reminds us that if we embrace
integrity and avoid sin we will not die and if we renounce integrity
and commit sin we shall die. The second part of the scripture
reading invites us to see how much we can deepen our
relationship with our own brothers and sisters. This is a personal
question how much do I value my relationship with others?
What God wants from me is a just life and true relationship with
others. My deeper relationship with my brothers and sisters is
when I am able to feel their needs and show my little acts of
kindness in their need. Respect the persons, be with them in
times of sorrows and difficulties and reconcile when we are in
conflicts. If I am able to integrate myself in this way of life
definitely I will be acceptable when I offer a sacrifice before the
Lord. What God wants from all of us is an integrated person and
a desire to make a good choice - a choice from death to eternal
life. We are invited to deepen our relationship with one another
and embrace Gods will in our life.
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2017 March 11
Readings: Deut 26: 16 19; Mt 5: 4 48
Through the gospel passage of todays liturgy, Christ calls his followers
to have a change in understanding Love. Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you. Act of love was not a new thing for Jesus,
because Jewish law teaches them to love their neighbor, who is another
Israelite. In reality Jesus was teaching them who their real neighbor is.
Jesus extended their neighborhood even up to their enemies. Jesus
demanded a perfect or different Love because He lived it in His daily
life.
Jesus says love your enemies. Jesus reminds us that we do not have
any choice of retaliating against anyone, nor we do not have any choice
to exclude a single person from our circle of love, no matter who they
are or what they may have done. Jesus remains a real hero even in
todays scenario, where nations rise against nation, states against
states, caste against caste, religions against religions, because, Jesus
lived what he preached unlike many false teachers of today.
Even when Jesus had a public execution on the cross he prayed, Father
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. The very first
step to love our enemy is to forgive them. Then love comes
automatically. Forgiveness brings real healing to our heart and soul. And
forgiveness is possible only if we remain always under the cross of Jesus.
May this season of lent help us to spend more time under the cross with
the Lord, and thus receive the grace to forgive and love everyone.
Siju Pappachan csc
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2017 March 12
Readings: Gen 12:1-4a; 2 Tim 1:8b-10; Mt 17:1-9
In the first reading, we see that God calls Abraham to the land of Canaan
and he accepts the call in complete trust and obedience. God chose
Abraham and his family not to isolate other people and the nations
rather to become a blessing to all the nations. Gods election of
Abraham is a new strategy to address the evil and violence of all
humanity. Gods chosen people have a special responsibility of drawing
people closer to God. God remains faithful to all creation and all
humanity. Thus, as chosen people we need to respond to Gods call and
become instruments of Gods grace to all.
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2017 March 13
Readings: Dan 9: 4-10; Lk 6: 36 38
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2017 March 14
Readings: Is 1: 10, 16-20; Mt 23:1-12
Todays two readings invite each Christian to walk the talk or practice
what we preach by giving a good example in our day-to-day life. Walk
the talk is a language of the secular world. It simply means: do what you
say and lead by the example of one own life.
St. Francis of Assisi reminds us, Preach the Gospel at all times. If
necessary, use words. This is a challenge for us in todays world where
we look for power, position, and status, which today are considered as
the hallmark of our life in the society. If we cannot love others, or live
the truth, we better not preach by mere words, which demonstrates
our hypocrisy. Not practicing what we preach is unfair.
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2017 March 15
Readings: Jer 18:18-20; Mt 20:17-28
Todays gospel reading proclaims: we all are called to serve but not to
be served. When we look at todays context most often we see serving
as business, because most of us do service for money. Look at our
political system or religious life. We all have different talents and gifts
which God has provided freely to each one of us. But do we use our
talents for the betterment of our society or community?
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2017 March 16
Readings: Jer 17:5-10; Lk 16:19-31
We are in the season of lent. Lent is the season of renewing our
encounter with God, and with our neighbours. The gospel
reading of the day speaks about this relationship. Whatever we
do on earth has its fruits in heaven. If we help the other, we will
be helped, if we serve the other we will be served in heaven, but
if we neglect to do these, we will also be neglected by God in
heaven. This very fact is expressed in the gospel in the story of
rich man and the Lazarus. The name Lazarus means Gods gift
and mentioning of name shows the importance of the person
that God loves, whereas the rich mans name is not mentioned.
We must realize that we cant serve both God and wealth at the
same time. After the death of both, we see Lazarus enjoying in
heaven but the rich man suffers in hell. He failed to listen to the
Gods word in the poor man Lazarus.
The root of all evil is the failure to heed Gods word. As a result,
the rich man no longer loved God and grew to despise his
neighbor. The word of God is alive and powerful, capable of
converting hearts and leading them back to God. When we close
our heart to the gift of Gods word, we end up closing our heart
to our brothers and sisters. So let us pray that our hearts be open
to the needy and poor and thus we may also enjoy the eternal
life in the Easter.
S. Lawrence csc
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2017 March 17
Readings: Gen 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-18; Mt 21:33-43, 45-46
One of the questions that haunts the entire humanity is who are we?
But often we Christians are not haunted by this age-old question. It is
because we all have a spontaneous and readymade answer we are
the Disciples of Christ. However, are we who we claim to be? Through
todays Gospel, Jesus reminds us of one of our ethical duties of being
His disciple. That is to take care of the Vineyard.
The entire earth is Gods vineyard. Thus, we are not masters but merely
the care takers of this vineyard which is also called as our common
home - Earth. So, we have a moral responsibility to take care of the
earth in every little way possible until the Master of the cosmos comes.
Therefore, not just the one who dumps enormous e-waste but
everyone who litters a plastic too is answerable to God. Yes, not just
industrialists who never think about sustainable development but every
individual who is responsible for emission of unnecessary greenhouse
gases too is an abuser of the earth and thus answerable to God. So, we
who claim to be His disciples should take care of the vineyard and honor
God. We also need to joyfully share the fruits of the vineyard with
everyone than to be self-proclaimed masters who crush, kill and abuse
others and vineyard. If we continue to abuse the earth Gods vineyard
and everyone around us, it is only plausible that we all should perish
and earth be offered to another responsible species by God, the Master
of cosmos.
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2017 March 18
Readings: Mic 7:14-15, 18-20; Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
Love of God is manifested in the love our parents. Whole world might
hate us but our parents would never leave us no matter how bad is our
behaviour. I personally have experienced this love and forgiveness of
God through my father. At times my behaviour did not please him but
in spite of all that he loved me more and this helped me to grow as
matured person. We can see in gospel passage that even though
prodigal son went away taking his entire share, his father never left him
and he waited for his return. That was why he could rejoice with
everyone in the family at his son returning home. Seeking pleasure in
the earthly things was the main reason why the prodigal son had gone
astray from his home but this pleasure did not last for long. When he
was in pain and suffering he realised the love of his father whom he had
betrayed and returned to him in faith that he would accept him at least
as his paid servant.
In this modern world we can see children demanding many things from
their parents and if the parents are unable to give them the things they
wanted, children react in an unhealthy way. It brings brokenness within
the family. Love and forgiveness disappear from the family. We can see
many prodigal sons and daughters in and around our society today. We
could just imagine the pain of their parents. Therefore, today the
reading is inviting us to help those who have gone astray from the love
of God and the love of parents like the prodigal son, so that we may
create a better world today.
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2017 March 19
Readings: Ex 17:3-; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42
The liturgy of the day invites us to live righteously. What does it mean
to be righteous? We read in Rom 1: 17b: The one who is righteous will
live by faith. In the first reading, we hear the people of Israel
complaining to Moses not because of the lack of water in the desert but
because they doubted the presence of God amidst that difficult
situation. It just explains the unfaithful nature of the people of Israel. In
the second reading St. Paul talks about the presence of God in our lives
in the form of Holy Spirit and it was manifested by the love of Jesus who
died for us when we were still sinners and helpless. St. Paul reassures
that faithful living or righteous living is possible when we begin to put
trust in the Lord.
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2017 March 20
Readings: Rom 4: 13-22; Mt 1: 16-21
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2017 March 21
Readings: Dan 3: 25, 34-43; Mt 18: 21-35
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2017 March 22
Readings: - Deut 4:1-9; Mt 5:17-19
We always welcome the new and forget the old. We always think when
something new appears old has to go away or disappear. But it is not
so, this is clearly seen in the teachings of Jesus. Even though Jesus
teaching is new, he assures the fulfillment of the law and prophets. He
says, I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Jesus new
teaching is to strengthen the old teachings of the law and the prophets.
Jesus renewal in teaching is a movement from the importance of law
to the importance of love. Jesus wants us to follow the
commandments of God. It is not enough that we keep the
commandments of God alone, or teach them, but both teaching and
keeping them is what leads us to eternal life. Jesus goes to the peak
point of solemn declaration, For truly I tell you, even heaven and earth
pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the
law until all is accomplished.
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2017 March 23
Readings: Jer 7:23-28; Lk 11: 14-23
Today, in the proclamation of the Word of God, the figure of the devil appears
once more. Jesus drives out a dumb demon (Lk 11:14). When we read the text
which speaks of the devil, we may feel slightly uncomfortable. However, it is
true that evil exists. It is so deeply rooted which we cannot fully remove. It is
also true that evil has a very broad scope: it keeps on digging and we simply
cannot stop it. Yet, Jesus has come to fight these evil forces. He is the only one
who can drive them out.
Jesus has been slandered and accused, the devil is able to achieve everything.
While the people were amazed at what Jesus Christ had done yet, some of them
said, He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the chief of the
demons (Lk 11:15). Jesus response shows the absurdity of the argument of
those who contradicted him. It is for us a call to unity which is our strength.
Disunity, instead, is an evil and destructive ferment. One of the evil signs is,
precisely, division and makes us unable to understand each other.
Lets ask ourselves, do I contribute with what is needed so that our Lord expels
evil from me? For out of the heart comes evil thoughts (Mt 15:19). It is very
important that the response we can all give is our necessary cooperation at a
personal level. Lets hope that the Virgin Mary intercedes before Jesus, her
beloved Son, so that He expels every type of evil from the world (wars,
terrorism, mistreatment, violence) and from our heart, too. Virgin Mary,
Mother of the Church and Queen of Peace, pray for us!
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2017 March 24
Readings: Hos 14: 2-10; Mk 12: 28-34
The days readings tell of the new covenant with God who has
mercy and compassion on His people and who is constant in
renewing the relationship. In the first reading, prophet Hosea
calls the people of Israel to turn away from their sin and wrong
doings to taste the mercy and forgiveness of Yahweh in order to
be reunited with Him. God the Father was compassionate
towards the Israel from the beginning. Though they went astray,
He never abandoned them, rather was constant in reuniting the
covenant that once He made with them and brings them to His
loving protection (14:7). In the gospel passage, Jesus rewords the
same union as prophesied by the Prophet Hosea; when the scribe
asks for a greatest commandment. Jesus calls us to love God with
whole self above everything. And, He asks to love the neighbor
as ourselves. Its to realize the presence of God in each one and
share the love as we do with God.
We are called to direct our whole lives to God; its only possible
when we love God and share the same with our neighbors. As we
are in the Lenten season, let us look back at the occasions where
we failed to follow these teachings of Jesus. Amidst the three
pillars of the Lent (prayer, fasting & almsgiving) let us also try to
follow these teachings to prepare worthily to reserve a berth in
the Kingdom of God.
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2017 March 25
Readings: Is 7:10-14; 8:10; Heb 10:4-10; Lk 1:26-38
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2017 March 26
Readings: 1Saml 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41
Whether he is a sinner I dont know; all I know is that I was blind
and now I can see, words used by the differently abled person in
the gospel to tell the Pharisees that Jesus healed him. The worse
thing in our life could be moral or spiritual blindness compared
to the physical blindness. Sin clouds the mind in darkness and
closes the heart to Gods love and truth. Jesus deconstructed the
world views of the Pharisees regarding sin and their
understanding of human person. Pharisees saw anybody born
differently abled from the perspective of sin which blinded them
more than the actual differently abled person. Jesus paved the
way for this deconstruction of the worldviews of all of us by
healing the blind, lame, sitting with the tax collectors for a meal,
understanding the circumstances of a woman caught up in
adultery that no one is inferior or superior. The whole Bible
speaks about Jesuss life style from different perspective as a man
for all ages. Its up to us to break our personal worldviews and
enter into the worldview of Jesus; it will help us to give better
perspective of life to the people whom we meet with all kinds of
problems and bring meaning to our life with a sense of love in our
heart for the other.
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2017 March 27
Readings: Is 65:17-21; Jn 4:43-54
In the first reading we see Isaiah speaks about new heaven where there
is no weeping. In order to have new heavens we need to change
ourselves because this world is the best place to live in. So once we
change and things will fall in place where everybody gets their rights
equally and there would not be any suffering. In the gospel reading we
see the miracle of Jesus and the faith of the official. Most often miracles
take place because of faith. As human beings we have two kinds of eyes,
eye of faith and eye of reason. When we go through eye of reason we
cannot experience the miracles because reason tries to find out how it
happened but eye of faith just believes and it happens. We can see the
life of St. Andre that he was a successful Brother because of the faith he
had. The official gets the good news about his daughters good health
because of faith.
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2017 March 28
Readings: Ezek 47: 1-9, 12; Jn 5:1-3, 5-16
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2017 March 29
Readings: Is 49: 8-15; Jn 5:17-30
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2017 March 30
Readings: Exodus 32: 7-14, John: 31-47
I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts (Jn 5: 42).
This word of God struck me when I read this gospel passage, so I
base my reflection on this. We are living in the era of peak
evangelization by various religions around us. The Christians set the
foundation and pattern for evangelization, now the pattern is
followed by the Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists. Buddhism and Islam
are growing in Europe and Hinduism spreading its roots in the USA.
Every religion and its staunch followers evangelize for their love for
God. However the initial love and enthusiasm fade away very soon
in order to keep their religion in competition with the other. The
order and structure of the religions mix with power and politics. New
formulation of theories, dogmas and semi-god worships are
formulated to keep the devotees in the hunt. The love for god
vanishes away from their devotion. The religion begins to exist
without god. In the first reading, when Moses left the Israelites to
be with God, their hearts and mind went astray. They forgot all that
Yahweh had done to them and demanded Aaron to make a God for
them. The love for Yahweh vanished from their hearts and their
attitude pained Yahweh so he called them stiff-necked people. In
the gospel, Jesus invites the people to bear witness to him. People
give more importance to Sabbath than the son of God. Once again
the love of God is diluted with the structure or norms of the religion.
So today Jesus invites us to love him more than anything else and
bear witness to him through our simple faith.
Robinson csc
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2017 March 31
Readings: Wis 2:1a, 12-22; Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
The greatest mystery in relationship is that it has got the power to lift
ones life higher and higher, if it is handled with analysis and proper
understanding. Once I read a book namely The Mystery of Human
Relationship by Nathan Schwartz-Salant. I learned from this book that
transformation or success within a relationship can only begin with an
acknowledgment that we are unconsciously projecting on to the other
person, thereby distorting the other's reality and our own. In other
words, through projections, we know only fragments of truth about the
other and consequently deny the essence of the other as a spiritual
being. Human relationship requires genuine understanding of person
and its success relies purely upon it. No relationship begins with the act
of love rather begins with the act of understanding. No proper
understanding leads a person for projection, as a result sinks in the
ocean of failure. In todays Gospel Jesus the good Shepherd feels the
burden and pain of not being understood by His sheep. Pope Francis
says The Shepherd should know the smell of the sheep. However, we
must understand that even the sheep should know the smell of the
Shepherd too. The success of Jesus mission is the strong outcome of
his relationship with his Father which the theologians call The Abba
Consciousness. He knew very well who his Father was. (Just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father- John 10-15.) As followers of
Christ we need to ask far how have we achieved in knowing and
understanding Jesus as savior and redeemer. We never grow a close
relationship with Jesus by just fulfilling the liturgical services. May the
genuine search for greater understanding of Christ lead us to have
greater love for Him and to give our life for Him.
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