July 02, Tuesday; When Jesus sleeps, the storm roars up - Wilson SVD

 July – 02 – Tuesday

Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Amos 3: 1-8, 4: 11-12; Matthew 8: 23-27

Historical Context: The evangelist Matthew wrote his gospel for the newly converted Jews. The newly converted Jews faced many storms in their faith journey. In the face of such a desperate and anguished situation, Matthew, through today’s gospel, communicates hope to the communities and admonishes them not to be afraid. 

Sea of Galilee: The event happens in the Sea of Galilee, in fact, in the Lake of Galilee. It is a lake 13 miles long and about 8 miles wide. The Sea of Galilee is unique because of its 150-foot depth and about 680-foot below the sea level. It is surrounded by mountains. Because of its circumference, turbulent storms take place during the daytime. 

People in the boat: Jesus and his disciples travelled by boat. It might have been a fishing boat. Many of Jesus's disciples were fishermen, and they grew up around this Sea of Galilee. Hence, it is a known place, known waters, and might have had similar experiences before; it is familiar ground. Yet, the disciples are shattered, but Jesus is undisturbed. 

Sleep signifies absence: Jesus was sleeping on the boat. He is sleeping in the midst of a storm. The Greek word καθεύδω – katheudo means not just sleeping, but it signifies death and the absence of life. Biblically, sleeping points to death and the absence of life. The Lord was absent in the boat. There is nothing to fear when Jesus is in the boat with us. We can sail through any kind of storm if Jesus is in the boat. The presence of God is a sign of success. 

Storm Strikes: The disciples must have been halfway through their journey when the storm struck. These were experienced fishermen, and they were terrified. They could not handle the situation. In a state of panic, they cried to Jesus, ‘Save us, we are going down.’ This was a cry of fear and desperation. They might have been angry as they were drowning, and their master was sleeping. 

Jesus stands with us in storms: Jesus got up and rebuked the storm. The Greek word used is ἐγείρω - egeiro. This word means to raise up, to stand up. So, Jesus stood up with the disciples in the boat and calmed the storm. In storms, Jesus stands with us even before calming the storm. Jesus calms the storms in our hearts prior to calming the external storms.

Crisis of faith: The storm strikes. I sense that these experienced fishermen relied on their knowledge of the sea and battled for a while. They could not handle the situation. My talents and knowledge are like an umbrella that provides 100% protection from the rain when it is not raining. My abilities, talents, knowledge, power, and money are sources of internal storms. 

Who is this man? He is the one who is calm amidst the storms. The disciples have not understood the person of Jesus. If he is with us, we can remain calm in the storm. 

Our Take Away

1. When the Lord is asleep in my life, the storm roars up. The absence of God ensures storms.

2. Jesus stands with us even before calming the storms. No reason to be afraid.

3. Where is my faith? In God or in myself?

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary 

July 01 – Monday, - Discipleship has no time-out - Wilson SVD

July 01 – Monday

Thirteenth Week in Ordinary time

Amos 2: 6-10, 13-16, Matthew 8: 18-22

In the first reading, Prophet Amos declares that the Lord is going punish the people on account of the following sins:

Lack of Morality

Lack of love for the poor

Lack of gratitude

Lack of respect for the house of God

In the gospel, Matthew records Jesus teaching on a familiar subject: Discipleship. Discipleship has been a challenging concept both in academics and in practice. Nevertheless, following Jesus is an important and blessed endeavour. The gospel passage today is comprised of three lessons on discipleship; expectations and hesitations, no time-out immediate and continuous obedience and call to persevere. 

One of the scribes boldly offers to follow Jesus wherever he goes. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is addressed as ‘Lord’ (κύριε). Whereas the scribe addresses Jesus as ‘teacher’ (διδάσκαλε).  Possibly, he seeks a tutor in Jesus, the one who can train him to be prosperous. Jesus addresses the scribe’s superficial enthusiasm and corrects his miscalculation of Jesus’ identity. Jesus says, ‘ I have no place to lay my head.’ This does not mean that Jesus is homeless or destitute, but the mission he is engaged in is long, tiring, non-profitable and has less possibilities for respite. Jesus is more than a teacher or preacher who can be learned from. Jesus is a social and religious reformer and saviour. Hence, following Jesus would mean having no time-out and no personal holiday but sharing in suffering, continuous sacrifice, constant mission, daily isolation and everyday loneliness. 

Jesus says to another disciple, ‘follow me’ (ἀκολούθει). Jesus denies the disciples' request to bury his father. Jesus is not against family responsibilities but is against the attitude of hesitation and postponement.  The Greek word is used in imperative form. It means not just following temporarily but demanding immediate and continued obedience. Keep following me. Jesus admonishes that once you have decided to follow, do not reverse course. This is a call to persevere. There is no such thing as ‘time out’ for disciples. Either one is following Jesus or not. This is not a part-time job or offer. Prophet Amos announced punishment for the Israelites because they treated covenantal faithfulness as a part-time endeavour. 

Our Take Away

1. Discipleship has no time-out.

2. Discipleship is immediate and continous obedience.

3. Discipleship does not reverse the course

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary

Faith waits, waiting is believing, believing is blessing - 13th Sunday - Wilson SVD

 June 30 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wisdom 1: 13-15; 2: 23-24, 2 Corinthians 8: 7,9,13-15, Mark 5: 21-43

Story 1: The rains failed again that year. It was third year in succession. No rain, no cultivation. Draught and feminine all over. Desperate for help, the villagers gathered for a meeting and decide to have a special prayer for rain. Now, there lived people of many faiths in the village; there was a temple, mosque and a church. Each of them wanted to have the prayer in their own place. Finally, they decided to have the prayer under the open sky in the common ground. As all people gathered for prayer, a small girl came running, holding high an open umbrella. Everyone wondered at her. The leader of the village asked, ‘why did you bring the umbrella, don’t you see there is no sign of rain and we are here to pray for rain. Yes, said the child, I too came to pray for rain and its going to rain as we pray, I will go home without getting wet.

Story 2: A dad was asked, ‘how do you divide your love among your children. He answered, ‘I do not divide, I multiply it.’

Today, we read in the gospel, Jesus restoring two persons to life: one from social death and another physical death. Faith waits, waiting is believing and believing is blessing.

A story within a Story:

The transformative act of the woman suffering from flow of blood is sandwiched between the beginning and the end of the healing of Jarious’ daughter. This is a story within a story – the story of the woman with the hemorrhage set within the story of Jairus and his daughter. The two stories compliment each other. The evangelist mark creates a dramatic narrative tension by narrating the two stories together. Each enhance the other.

Juxtaposition between the two women

Jairus’ Daughter                                         Woman suffering Hemorrhage

Unnamed                                                                   Unnamed

Twelve years old                                                       suffers for twelve years

Young                                                                        Adult

Rich Family                                                               Poor family

Father intercedes actively                                         Passive touch

Saw Jesus                                                                  Heard about Jesus

Unclean as she is dead                                              Unclean because of Hemorrhage

Jesus touches her                                                      She touches Jesus

Jesus calls her daughter                                            Jesu calls her daughter

 

Jesus is Christ for all: Jesus does not divide his graces instead he multiplies it. The stories tell us that Jesus is for all people, people of different standing and background. Jairus is well to do and influential, while the woman is financially impoverished and socially outcast. Jesus does not favour one over the other. He neither rebukes Jairus for his social status nor ignores the woman because she is poor and marginalised. Jesus does not divide what he has but multiples and shares equally according to each one’s need.

Faith waits, waiting is believing, believing is blessing: Jesus is travelling to Jairus’ house and the journey is interrupted by the woman with blood flow. Jairus is worried what will happen to the little girl while they delay. Jairus had to wait. The servants bring the news that the child is dead and do not bother the teacher anymore. The crowd weeps, laughs and ridicules. Faith meets with battles. Jairus held on to his trust.  Faith waits patiently. Waiting is a sign of believing. Believing is blessing. Jairus daughter was blessed with second life. The woman with blood flow suffered for twelve long years, twelve years of social stigma, frustration and desperation. She waited and believed and the Jesus restored her. Both Jairus and the woman demonstrate deep faith in Jesus. Jairus is convinced that Jesus’ touch will make his daughter well. The woman was convinced that just touching Jesus’s garment will heal her.

Our Take Away

1.Faith meets battles. Faith needs patient waiting. Waiting is believing and believing is a sign of blessing in anticipation. Waiting is not delaying; it is a time of preparation.

2. Good things happen when God says it is time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

3. God’s healing touch knows no gender, caste, colour, culture, rich or poor. 

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary

Peter and Paul Unlikely Heroes – Wilson SVD

 Peter and Paul Unlikely Heroes – Wilson SVD

 The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

June 29 – Acts 12: 1-11; 2 Tim 4:6-8,17-18 and Matthew 16: 13-19

As a church we are celebrating the feast of two of most unlikely heroes: Peter and Paul. I have often wondered why these two saints, called the pillars of the Church are celebrated together? Don’t they each deserve a special day of celebration? It is very significant that the two pillars are celebrated together; the twin apostles represent the beginning and the continuity of the church/movement founded by Jesus Christ.

These two saints were very different from each other. Both had their strengths and flaws. Each of them had different mission but together they built the church. Paul, the zealous persecutor of the church became a zealous missionary. Peter, the impulsive and unstable, becomes the strong leader of the Church.  Each in their own way carried out the mission and ministry of Jesus through their words and deeds.

Peter, the fisherman from Galilee, was not very poor (recent archaeological findings say he owned a wooden boat - very expensive those days). Peter possibly had very minimum schooling.  Peter knew Jeus for nearly three years. He heard Jesus speak and teach. He saw Jesus relating with people and responding to their life situations. Peter was not only a direct witness to all that Jesus said and did but was part of his messianic activities. Yet Peter denied and disowned Jesus.

Paul, - Saul from Tarsus, a fiercely observant pharisee, a learned man. Paul never met Jesus. He was entrusted with the responsibility of persecuting and if needed killing the followers of Jesus. He watched Stephen being stoned to death. The followers of Jesus were a threat to what Saul held dearly: his Jewish customs and laws. Nevertheless, he encounters Jesus in a most profound way and transforms to be a zealous missionary for Jesus. The persecutor becomes the proclaimer.

Our Take Away

1. Given the nature of Peter and the character of Saul, who will pick them to lead the new church? By human standards, they lack credentials, and they are not trustworthy. But God’s ways are not our ways.

2. God does not choose the powerful,  the wealthy, or the clever but the least unexpected.

3. God does not look at what one is now but what one can become for Him.

4. God does not call the qualified but qualifies the called.

5. God calls us in the present to the future.

A few Lessons

1. Peter and Paul represent the inclusive nature of the Church. The church consists of people from all walks of life. Any division is unwarranted.

2. Jesus called Peter, who denied him, and Paul, who persecuted him, to be his missionary unto death. Some of the qualities of Peter and Paul oftentimes resonate in us. We are imperfect – why wouldn’t the same Jesus call you and me?

3. Peter and Paul accepted their past and changed their paths. With Jesus's touch, Peter and Paul, the flitting feathers, became unshakable pillars. In the same way, we may allow God to work in and through us.

 

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary

 The Leper shatters the boundaries - Wilson SVD

Friday, June  28-Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time 

2 Kings 25:1-12; Matthew 8: 1-4 

The Living Dead: We see Jesus touching the untouchable in today’s gospel. In the ancient world, leprosy was a terrible and destructive disease. According to Jewish laws and customs, one had to keep 6 feet away from a leper, and if the wind was blowing towards a person from the leper, they had to keep 150 feet away. The leper was banished from human society; to touch the leper, and even to approach was to break the law. Josephus writes that lepers were treated, “as if they were, in effect, dead men.”  He shall remain unclean as long as he had the disease; he is unclean, he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp (Leviticus 13:36). 

In the Middle Ages, if a person was diagnosed with leprosy, the priest brought the person to the church and read the burial service over him – For all practical purposes, the leper was dead.

During Jesus’ time in Palestine, the lepers were barred from entering Jerusalem. The synagogues had isolated chamber for the lepers. The Jewish law enumerated sixty-one different contacts with lepers, which could bring defilement. If the leper attempts to enter the house, the house, including the roof beams, is considered unclean. It is illegal to greet a leper in public places. A leper was cut off from one’s family, society and religion. There was no other disease as leprosy, which so deeply separated a human being from fellow human persons. And this was the man whom Jesus touched.

The leper shatters the boundaries: What sort of man is this leper? The leper inspires me. He suffered social and religious ostracization. All these could not stop him. He shattered the social, religious, psychological and spiritual stigma. He breaks the boundaries and makes a new path for the fellow lepers to follow. The action and the statement of the leper amazing. The outcaste and unclean leper comes forward in the presence of everyone, comes close to Jesus, kneels down and asks Jesus to do with what he wills.

Lord, if you will, you can cure me: The leper does not doubt the ability of Jesus to cure him but the leper submits himself to the plan of God.  The request for healing is certainly implied in the statement; however, it means that he is primarily willing to remain a leper if Jesus so wills. The leper puts the will of Jesus ahead of his will. Even in extreme pain and social stigma, God’s will is the priority for the leper.

Jesus Touches the Leper: The touch of Jesus cleanses (καθαρίζω – Kathriso) the leper and not heal  (θεραπεύω – Therapeuo) him. The evangelist uses the word cleanse and not heal. Jesus touches him, makes him clean and restores him. The touch of Jesus restores him – he is no longer living dead. The touch affirms his presence in the society – he no longer needs to live away from others. The touch accepts him into his family- he can relate with everyone.  The touch confirms his identity as a child of God – he can enter the synagogue now.

Take away for us

1. Shatter the boundaries even if everyone and everything crushes you.

2. May the spirit of the leper inspire us to be pathmakers.

3. Whether pain or joy, God’s will be our priority.

 

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary

 Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time – Wilson SVD

Listen and Act and Transform

Thursday, June  27-  Kings 24:8-17; Matthew 7:21-29

The sermon on the mount comes to a conclusion with today’s Gospel reading. Jesu concludes the sermon on the mount with the parable of two builders building their houses upon rock and sand.

Jesu was an expert, not only in the scriptures and preaching but also in practical matters of life. Jesus speaks of the foundations of a house in today’s gospel. I am sure, he knew well what he was talking about. His explanation is of a practical man. Building a house requires proper planning, resources and hard work. House is built for many generations. No one builds a house intending to be destroyed soon. Building a house is an expert activity and similarly building life is also a skilful activity. Planning, resources and hard work are required for a successful living. No one lives wishing to die. It is easy to build a house on the sandy ground, less of digging down but disaster lay ahead inevitably.

Jesus dismisses the people after a long sermon admonishing them to be ‘doers’ and not mere ‘hearers’ of Word of God. The Greek word ἀκούω – akuo points to not just peripheral hearing but active listening to something, paying undivided attention to, listening to comprehend and understand. It is not casual hearing.

We hear but we do not listen: one of the difficulties that we face in the modern world is that we hear and we do not listen. Listening leads to understanding and understanding produces knowledge. We hear many things/sounds, but we fail to listen to. Jesus demands that we should listen. Word of God is the source of life, listening to Word of God is a requisite for a successful living.

Translate into action: Knowledge becomes relevant and meaningful when it is translated into action. Jesus demands that we do not stop at listening but move to action. Knowledge gives us awareness, and awareness leads to action. Action transforms life and people. Knowledge must become action, theory must become practice, and the world of God must become life. There is no usefulness in going to a doctor and not doing what he asks you to do.

The wise builder knows well where and how to build a house. A follower of Jesus is wise because, he/she knows well that the Word of God is to be translated into action, produce manifold fruits staying through storms and summers.

Take Away for us:

        Listening leads to Understanding

        Understanding produces Knowledge

        Knowledge brings Awareness

        Awareness propels Action

        Action Transforms

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary

Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time – Wednesday

– June 26

2 Kings 22:8-13, 23:1-3. Matthew 7:15-20

Reality Vs Falsehood: Living Authentically without pretence

A prophet is a spokesperson of God, he/she communicates God’s message to people. A prophet is a forth-teller and not necessarily a foreteller. Hence, a prophet is a person of God, servant of God and bears witness to God. True prophets and false prophets have existed from the beginning, and they are known by their words and actions. The false prophets prophesy for money, fame and socio-political favor (Mic 3: 5, 11) whereas the true prophets speak for God, fight for social justice and are overwhelmed with zeal and fearlessness.

We are called to be true prophets of Jesus by the fact of our baptism. Every one of us is a prophet. Our fruits testify to our prophetic authenticity and integrity.

In the gospel Jesus cautions us to be aware of the false prophets and invites us to be true prophets.  We live in a world where fake news and fake people seem to dominate. Therefore, it is important to evaluate our fruits on a regular basis for authenticity and relevance.  In doing so, we remind ourselves about the call of our baptism and live authentically without any pretence. What kind of prophets am I tuning myself to? What sort of prophetic witness am I striving bear?

Our Take Away: Challenges to be a prophet of Jesus

1. Integrity between our words and actions.

2. Wilfully Choosing values over fame, money and favouritism.

3. Consciously promoting social justice

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary