26 – 31 JULY 2021, HOLY MASS REFLECTIONS
26 JULY 2021: ST ANNE & ST JOACHIM: EXODUS 32. 15-24, 30-34; MATTHEW 13. 31-35
Focus: Simplicity and fidelity to God are the secrets of sanctity. It is not the pomp or splendour that makes one great, but humility and responsibility
Today we venerate Sts Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. “Every tree is known by its fruits. A good tree produces good fruits and a bad tree produces bad fruits” (Mt 7. 16-20). This is very true in the case of St Ann. If you want to see, understand and appreciate the greatness of Ann, look at her daughter Mary and her spiritual daughters, sisters of St Ann. If Mary is so simple and humble, gentle and noble, docile and surrendered, magnanimous and generous, pure and immaculate, surely we can imagine how Ann nurtured these qualities in Mary and brought her up in the way of God. Mary mirrors the virtues of Ann.
In this context let us also recall the words of Jesus in Mt 12. 46-50: “Those who do my Father’s will are my mother, brothers, and sisters”. True to this teaching, Ann is great not so much by her physical lineage to Jesus as his grandmother but much more by living a humble life and by doing God’s will.
Further, in the light of the gospel of the day, Matthew 13. 31-35, Ann is truly like that mustard seed. It is very small and simple but it grows big to be a shelter. She is also like yeast. It is little in its portion, but when mixed with flour, it leavens the whole. In the sight and standards of the world that judges greatness in terms of position and possession, success and accomplishment, she may not be great. But in God’s sight, she is great by her virtue and spreading the kingdom through her daughter Mary.
The greatest tribute to St Ann is not simply singing her praises on this day but making our life, in imitation of her, a living song and praise in God’s glory. Let us not only venerate her but also imitate her virtues, especially her simplicity, fear of God, holiness and good example. It is not enough that we feel great that we belong to St Anne. But rather she should feel great that we are her children who live her spirit and do her great.
St Ann should be not only a model for admiration but a role model for emulation, especially for all the parents who should hold more responsibility for bringing up their children in faith and good values. She should be an inspiration for all those entrusted with the care of others in different roles to guide them in the right path with sound values.
Direction: One becomes great not in virtue of acquiring big money or power but in living little virtues. Let us seek greatness in small things, doing humbly and joyfully.
26 JULY 2021: (Reflection on the Readings proper, from 2020)
Focus: The greatness of something cannot be determined in reference to its origins or beginnings alone, but rather in reference to the potentialities and the prospects that are possible and the results it can produce
The perspective and the estimation of Jesus and his gospel are always in contrast to the perspective and the estimation of the world. The world looks down upon whatever is small and little and despises them as of no value. This is true whether it is with regard to things or persons.
It is in this context, Jesus presents before us a small seed like mustard and a small portion like yeast. Both are small and insignificant at their start, but they become big and great, by the measure of their action and function, their result and effect. The small mustard seed grows into a big tree and provides shelter to birds, while a little yeast leavens the whole flour and bakes the bread. The message of Jesus can have some significant implications: Never despise anything or anyone just because they are small, or just because they have humble beginnings or low origins. Let you not get stuck by what is immediately at hand but see farther to what they are capable of.
Approach and treat every person and everything in life with respect and trust. Open wide your eyes beyond the layers of prejudice and discrimination to discover the hidden good in others. Let us not lose heart or get upset looking at our smallness. Greatness depends on the goodness, on the good we can do and on the good effect we can bring forth. Let us not be upset when life lacks many big things which we see being or happening in some people’s life and so which we also wish.
Direction: Many can be tensionfree and happy if only they learn to see and appreciate the “power of the little” and be satisfied. The quantity of happiness is not proportionate to the quantity of things but proportionate only to the quality of life
27 JULY 2021: EXODUS 33. 7-11, 34. 5-9, 28; MATTHEW 13. 36-43
Focus: Those who seek the Lord, and remain intimate and faithful to Him, are truly the sons of the kingdom and they make it grow and become fruitful
In the gospel of the day from Matthew 13. 36-43, Jesus explains the parable of the weeds and seeds, mentioned in Matthew 13. 24-30 on the previous Saturday. Jesus explains the parable at the request of his disciples. From this immediately we can pick up a simple cue for our life. This can indicate to us the depth and the vastness of the word of God. Mere human intelligence and capacity cannot grasp it fully. It always needs “explanation” by the Lord through his Spirit. Our attitude should always be that of the disciples: Lord, explain to us. Those who feel that they are masters over the word of God, that the bible verses are on their fingertips, that they are the expert interpreters need to halt a while. They must remember that ultimately it is God’s word and we must always seek explanation, inspiration from him.
The parable presents to us the actual reality of life. Jesus is very realistic. It is very true that there are weeds among the seeds. And their growth is very wild and widespread. There are certainly children of the kingdom and children of the evil. We must take note of this. Otherwise, it can make us idealists who live in a dreamland; or it can make us intolerant and annoyed toward anything negative. Both are wrong because both categories do not accept reality. Both are also useless because they do not contribute anything to better things.
Realistically speaking, it may not always be possible to uproot the weeds totally. Because, reality depends not exclusively on us alone but on various other factors. However, at least we are bound to restrain the spread of the weeds. For this, we need not always be on battle lines. It is much better and wiser to increase the growth and the strength of the seeds. It is enough that we nurture the good seeds and plants. The more the positive flourishes, the negative can diminish.
Moses in the first reading from Exodus was truly one such son of the kingdom. He was intimate and faithful to God. He also transmitted the same grace, radiance, and benevolence to others.
Direction: In a world that tries to tone down the dominance of evil and sin because it is disturbing and challenging, we need to be the voices and messages for virtue and value by word and life
27 JULY 2021 (REFLECTION FROM 2020)
Focus: Evil may be justified but does not make one just; evil may seem to reign high and gain more, but that is only shallow and short-lived; because it is only God and good that have the authentic victory and their fruits last long
The parable of weeds and good seeds very much symbolizes our own life situation. There is evil and it is obviously prevalent and dominant. Often evil is practically so profitable while the good proves to be disadvantageous and troublesome. In such a context, quite naturally one will be discouraged and tempted to give up the just path and follow the wrong. But the reign of evil is not ultimate. Temporary profits and worldly gains cannot decide the rightness of life and promote evil. God sees, probes, judges and gives each one what is due. Weeds will have wild growth but at the right time, will be destroyed. The growth and the prosperity of the evil is no sign that the evil is all-powerful and irresistible. It also means in no way that God is indifferent or powerless. He is not in a hurry or in a rush or over enthusiastic to immediately judge, condemn and terminate all the evil-doers at once with one blow. Therefore, the patience and the benevolent lenience of God is not a reason for the evil to feast or to have a sway over everything. Neither should it be a cause for the good to give up hope and duty. On one hand, for those who are on the evil side, it is a duration and occasion to repent and return to God. On the other hand, for those who are on God's good side, it is the opportune and testing time to persevere and prove their faith and good life.
Direction: The sun is under clouds for a while or not seen at night. But the Lord will make the just shine like the sun. Justice seems to be denied but it is only delayed; Evil seems to be unreined but it will certainly be accounted for.
28 JULY 2021: EXODUS 34. 29-35; MATTHEW 13. 44-46, ST ALPHONSA
Focus: What makes our life meaningful and joyful is not mere knowledge but the Wisdom to discern the priorities
We live in a world where there is a “knowledge boom”. This leads to a soaring of capacity and adds to life ease and comfort. But at the same time, the tragedy is the decline of wisdom which gives one clarity of priorities to pursue and attain. Many times people unwisely neglect the “treasure” and “pearl” in preference to less worthy things. The man and the merchant in the gospel in wisdom discover and obtain the treasure and pearl. It is because they discern their incomparable value in preference to all the rest. How many so foolishly stick to secondary and worthless things, and discard and lose the treasure and pearl of God’s love and His kingdom! St Alphonsa (1910–1946), the first woman saint of Indian origin was wise enough to discover this treasure and pearl and attain it.
But how to have such wisdom? First of all, wisdom is not something that one acquires by his sheer efforts. If so, many rich, intelligent and the influential would be rated wise. But often the case is opposite. Many of these fail to be wise because they do not follow the clear scale of priorities. Moses in the first reading from Exodus 34. 29-35 shows us the way to attain wisdom. It is through profound intimacy with God. We are told that he spoke face to face with God. He always listened to God’s voice and totally obeyed His word. The power of this intimacy with God showed itself in the shine of his face. This shine was such that the people could not see Moses directly. He had to put a veil on his face in order to conceal the irresistible glow on his face. But it is interesting to note that whenever he was before God, he removed the veil. This can indicate that there was no veil between God and himself. There was nothing blocking or hidden. Moses was fully open and honest before God. Those who are authentic before God will be without veils. They will shine with the glow of wisdom and holiness!
Direction: Lord, you are our priceless and incomparable treasure and your love and charity are the pearl. Help us to seek them always!
29 JULY 2021: 1 JOHN 4. 7-16; JOHN 11. 19-27, ST MARTHA
Focus: True faith is not so much a matter of mind that comprises knowing many things. But rather it is a matter of believing, loving and living few things that are essential
John in the first reading affirms, “God is love”. As a sign and testimony of this, He gave His own Son as expiation for our sins. So, he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him”. Therefore, it is only by love that we are born of God, belong to God, know God and abide in God. The two concrete fruits and results of this love and abiding in God are faith and charity. In other words, if we really love God and abide in Him, we will believe and live in love. This is the twin principle we see quite clearly in Martha whom we commemorate today. She believed in the Lord. She believed even when her brother Lazarus died. She believed in Jesus’ love and power even when he delayed visiting her dead brother. She believed in Jesus as the Messiah that would save the world. She believed in Jesus as the one that gives eternal life. She believed and she loved him ardently. One cannot deeply believe if one does not deeply love. This is indicated by a small insignificant detail: at the death of her brother, many were coming to Martha to console her. But, when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. If faith moves, love meets. In faith, Martha moves to meet Jesus. In love, she meets him for whom her heart moves her. In faith, she reaffirms her unshaken trust in Jesus and his mercy. In love, she remains intimate to him. Martha stands as a lovely harmony of loving and living. This is manifested in believing and serving. She is a woman of love and she lives it, in her faith and service.
Direction: Love and live, believe and serve. Loving cannot be separated from life in its concreteness. And believing cannot be dissociated from serving. One who professes to love but fails to live it in life, one who professes to believe but fails to serve, are dubious
29 JULY 2021 (Reflection from Year 2020)
Focus: True faith is seen not merely in great overflows of praise and worship or in impressive wonders, miracles or preaching, but much more in sincere tears and in an abandoning surrender to God
Often the mention of Martha immediately brings to one’s mind the reproach of Jesus for being frantic and anxious (cf. Lk 10. 38-42). So, lightly or seriously Martha is referred to as one excessively engrossed in many affairs, and negligent toward Jesus and complaining against her own sister. Some overenthusiastic preachers can also exhort their audience not to be like Martha. But this is being unfair to Martha, who is actually an emblem of faith. Just listen to the words of Martha at the death of her beloved brother Lazarus and at the delayed visit and condolences of Jesus, which is apparently an act of negligence and unconcern. But there are no complaints or blame. Instead, a confession of total surrender and trust: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask” (vv. 21-22). These are really words of tremendous and unshaken faith which attest a profound trust in God and in His presence and benevolence, “always and everywhere”. God’s care reaches beyond space and time. Therefore, Jesus’ rebuke is not to be taken as fault-finding or undermining her value.
Jesus points to a possible danger of losing sight of his presence and not giving priority to him amidst many activities. What makes a disciple is love for Jesus, priority to him and firm faith in him. Martha demonstrates this unswerving faith in Jesus, rooted in a personal intimacy, even in such a testing time as her brother’s death. Truly we can say that she believed in Jesus, and this is the true faith: to continue to cling to God even in knock-out moments. She is in fact a model for all to be committed to God in a deep loving faith and active service.
Direction: We are surmounted and tormented by many things to do. But help us Lord never to lose sight of you and not to mess with our priorities.
30 JULY 2021: LEV 23. 1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34-37; MATTHEW 13. 54-58
Focus: We are living in a “show world” where the quality of a person or thing is judged by what is shown, by what appears, and not by what that really is
Life of today has become like a public stage where everyone wants to play the key role and show that they are the best and the vital figures. It has become a display board where everyone wants to present a thing of his own, so that all are drawn to them and acclaim their greatness. Accordingly, in life often people look and judge, based on what is visible, perceptible and apparent. Consequently, perspectives, judgments, decisions, and actions are very superficial and biased. They are led by external factors like colour, caste, race, region, religion, language, culture, position, power, money, intelligence, relation, etc. Many do not have the heart nor the patience nor the goodness to go deeper and to discover and savour the goodness and worth of persons.
Jesus too was subjected to contempt because of his humble origins and familiar surroundings. His own people despise Jesus because they think that they know all about him. They know his family, his parents, his brothers and sisters. They know his father’s profession of carpentry. They know the status and the standard of his family. They know none of them were outstanding. Therefore, their whole problem was, how could he become so great, powerful and outstanding? How could he outsmart them? They thought they knew everything. But what they actually knew was the outer layers and covers and not the inner lining. They knew only his earthly human origins, but not his heavenly origin. They knew only his blood affinities but not the Spirit identity. They knew his earthly father Joseph but not the real heavenly Father. They knew his secular profession as carpentry but not his substantial mission of interior, spiritual carpentry of hearts and souls. They thought only about the academic education but lost sight of his eternal wisdom. Their realm and perspective were totally low and below.
The listing of various feasts of Israel in the first reading, Leviticus 23 such as the Passover, the feast of the Unleavened Bread, the feast of Booths, etc. also points to this getting stuck to the mere externals. All the traditions and laws were meant to make the people close to God and holy. But in course of time, the people simply fall to legalism, rigidity and collective biases.
How sad it is that the worth of a book is judged by its cover, which is often deceptive! Our relationships are often at the “rut level” (ruin), because our hearts are at the “nut level” (crank and foolish).
Direction: Let us become more receptive to God’s grace, so as not to be misled by what is merely perceptual or conceptual, because it makes us very fragmentary and defective
30 JULY 2021: (reflection from Year 2020)
Focus: Often familiarity and externality reduce life to shallowness and superficiality and consequently people fail to discover and appreciate the good in the other
Often, God and good meet with anti-climax. What does this mean? When God and good people do so much good with all concern and expect a positive response and a good effect in the life of others, exactly the opposite reaction and effect take place. For example, one gives sincere advice for the betterment of the other. But the other can easily misunderstand and misinterpret it as an act of jealousy or pessimism. This is what happens in the case of God in the OT and in the case of Jesus in the NT. God invites His straying and unfaithful people to repent and return to Him through his chosen prophets. But instead, people turn hostile to them. In the gospel, Jesus invites the people to understand and experience the love and mercy of God and return to him in faith in His Only Son. But the people despise him, contending that he is just one among them, and they know him thoroughly. This is because basically people are not ready to accept what is not convenient and not pleasing to their hearing and living. Especially when it is a demand for a review and renewal of life, when they are confronted with challenges, they resent and resist.
Direction: As long as one remains presumptuous and pretentious on the basis of intelligence and knowledge, on the basis of status and prestige, on the basis of talent and capacity, he cannot experience the grace for conversion and ennoblement of life.
31 JULY 2021: LEV 25. 1-17; MATTHEW 14. 1-12, ST IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
Focus: Courage and justice are oft- proclaimed slogans but least followed principles. We must guard against reducing them to the disguises for mere pursuit of self-interests
The theme of justice is very prominent in both the readings of the day. In the first reading from Leviticus 25. 1-17, obviously the central topic is the celebration of the (fiftieth) jubilee year. But, a closer look reveals to us that the jubilee theme pivots around the issue of justice. It is a celebration of holiness (“you shall hallow the fiftieth year”. “it shall be holy to you”, “you shall fear your God”). It is a celebration of liberty (“proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants”), a celebration of return to the family (“each of you shall return to his family”), a celebration of the regain of the property (“each of you shall return to his property”), and a celebration of just transactions (“you shall not wrong one another). In the gospel, Matthew 14. 1-12, the central figure is John the Baptist. He was beheaded by Herod the tetrarch because he was a man of justice. He condemned the adulterous act of Herod living with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. This infuriated Herodias and she plotted to kill him. On Herod’s birthday, she gets him beheaded, as per the promise of Herod to Herodias’ daughter as a reward for her appeasing dance.
Obviously, the direct and visible villain is Herodias, because she is the brain behind the whole murder. But this does not mitigate the fault of Herod or Herodias’ daughter or the other dignitaries present at the party. All are condemnable. It is not only those who commit a wrong, but all those who prompted to do it. All through the pages of human history, the just suffer at the hands of the unjust. The just always have to pay a heavy price for their convictions and fight for truth and justice. But that is not a waste battle or a lost one. God rewards them.
Direction: Many may feel happy and great to glorify and idolize the martyrs after their death. How ironic it is that people speak of “living saints” after their death! It would be better that people support and follow the example of these just men while alive rather than organizing a “cult” and cultic activities after their death.
31 JULY 2021: (Reflection from Year 2020)
Focus: The rightness and wrongness of a thing cannot be determined always by the pleasantness of its appeal or the profitable result it brings forth
Human society often has its own criteria to decide whether something is right or wrong. The immediate criterion is whether something sounds positive and promising. Who likes when suddenly someone raises their voice against dishonesty and corruption? Who appreciates when someone cries for repentance and renewal? Who will support when someone clearly pronounces judgment on a life that is unfaithful and disintegrated? It is in this vein of thought that the gospel episode focuses on the figure of John the Baptist. In the spirit of truth, he did not tolerate the wrong of Herod; in the spirit of justice, he denounced it; in the spirit of courage, he was prepared to be imprisoned; and in the spirit of loyalty, he embraced martyrdom.
Conviction, truth, justice, and courage are often wrongly understood, wrongly interpreted and wrongly followed in our times. Offensiveness and obstinacy are promoted in the name of conviction; criticism and slander, in the name of truth; self-interests, power-mongering, rebellion, and retaliation, in the name of justice and courage. But conviction is firmness of values; truth is truthfulness and faithfulness; justice is to be fair and charitable; courage is loyalty and perseverance for God and good.
In fact, a true commitment to truth and justice is this: a consistent journey of moving beyond: Unless one tries to traverse beyond what is merely easy and apparent, to what is difficult and deeper, to that which makes life transformed and qualitative, one can never experience change. Faith is this travel from the peripheral to the deeper, from the easy to the difficult, from the convenient to the commitment. Saint Ignatius of Loyola made this journey from the service to the world to the service of God, from allegiance to the nation as a soldier to loyalty to heaven our homeland, from the earthly gains to the eternal reward. He made a total about-turn of his life and turned the lives of numberless as well.
Direction: Let our simple prayer be: Lord, help us not to wrongly identify ourselves with John the Baptist for our every frustration and self-pursuit. Make us more faithful!
