18 - 23 JULY 2022, HOLY MASS REFLECTIONS
18 JULY 2022: MICAH 6. 1-4, 6-8; MATTHEW 12. 38-42
Thrust: Incredulity is infidelity!
Indicative: Lack of openness and docility leads to a lack of faith and refusal of God’s grace. This leads to the loss of grace and the eventual judgment of God
1. “Judgment and indictment” of God is one common underlying theme in both the readings of the day. In the first reading from Micah, God openly declares that the “Lord has an indictment against His people. And in the gospel, Jesus is stern in his accusation against the people of his time, calling them, “An evil and adulterous generation”. Idolatry is (spiritual) adultery and thus every act of infidelity is adultery. Therefore, they are truly evil and adulterous.
2. The reasons for God’s indictment and judgment are clear. They were steeply unmindful and ungrateful toward God’s mighty deliverance and redemption from slavery, toward His wise guidance through great leaders and prophets. They were least bothered to try to remain loyal to God.
3. Time and again they abandoned their true God and went after false gods. They did not pay attention to God’s numberless admonitions and warnings. They were not open to God’s grace. They were not spiritually sensitive to seeing God’s hand or experiencing God’s love. They were never satisfied with numberless acts of God’s immense mercy.
4. Instead, they always pressured and annoyed God. They demanded, again and again, proofs and wonders from God. They did not learn and grow from God’s teachings and signs of His care and guidance. They continued to demand signs and signs.
5. This is how the Pharisees acted toward Jesus. They had already seen God’s abundant wisdom and mercy in and through Jesus. Still, they demand signs from Jesus. What more signs do they still need? Their history of God’s recurrent saving interventions – is it not an adequate sign?
6. Prophet Jonah whose preaching converted the sinful Ninevites – is he not a sufficient sign? The wise king Solomon whose wisdom crossed the boundaries too to attract to him the visit of the queen of the south – is he not an adequate sign?
7. Jesus himself with all his mission of preaching, teaching, and healing is the greatest sign of God. How could they miss these signs that are powerful and available and still demand for more? Do they not realize that all that the Lord requires of us is to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God?
Imperative: The problem with many is not the lack of signs. There are enough and more signs that signify God’s presence, guidance, and power. All that is needed is to sense them and give response to them in a life of true faith
(REFLECTION 2 FROM 2020, JULY 20)
Focus: True love for God should in the first place realize the incurable anguish of God due to our sinfulness and infidelity and turn back to Him in deep repentance
Perhaps one great problem of our times is the dissociation between love and anguish. There is losing sight of the pain and anguish that love involves. Every true love certainly includes a lot of passion for the good of the loved one, a lot of sacrifice in pursuing that good, and also a lot of pain and anguish when such true love is not recognized, accepted, appreciated, and responded to. This is the pain of many a parent, many a partner, many a lover, and many a friend.
This is the same anguish that envelops the loving heart of God in the OT and the heart of Jesus in the gospel. God passionately loves His people, and does everything for them, liberating them, dignifying them, and prospering them. But the Israelites, His chosen people keep on going away from Him, rejecting His love and His ways. They keep on agonising His love-flowing heart. That is why, God asks them with an anguished tone, “O my people, what have I done to you, how have I wearied you?
In the gospel, Jesus too experiences the same anguish in the hard heart of the people. In spite of all the signs and miracles, all the teaching and preaching, still, the people ask for some more signs to see God’s hand. In fact, is Jesus not the highest and the greatest sign of God’s love and power? Therefore, what is needed is not merely a dry religion or ritual devotion, limited to some offerings and spiritual practices. But God wants a heart that readily sees God’s grace at work in our lives, “to love goodness, to do the right and to walk humbly with God”.
Direction: It will be really foolish if we think that we can please God just with our external religious observances or spiritual activities. A changed heart and a renewed life are the need of the day!
(REFLECTION 3 FROM 2021, JULY 19)
Focus: Signs are not tests or proofs for the power of God or the efficacy of faith. They are reminders and reassurances of God’s unfailing intervention and the reward for one’s trust
In the gospel Matthew 12. 38-42, some Pharisees and scribes demand a sign from Jesus to convince them and make them believe him. Actually, signs are meant to deepen and strengthen the faith. But their intention is the opposite. They want to validate their unfaith, and not consolidate their faith. They seek excuses for not believing, rather than confirmations for believing. True faith generates from a humble openness to God’s grace, a profound experience of God, and a strong conviction. In this way, no one can generate or create faith. A faith that is based on mere favours and signs, a faith that builds itself on proofs and evidences will be shallow and unsteady. Signs must help us to deepen the faith because they are manifestations of God’s powerful and merciful intervention.
There is nothing wrong with expecting signs. But the problem is to expect them as proof for God’s power. Signs are not the measuring rods for the power of God or the power of faith. They are not the primary things. Unfailing trust in God and a loyal relationship with Him are the real matters. Signs can make sense only in such an atmosphere of trust and loyalty. Jesus accuses those people as “An evil and adulterous generation” because they were evil-intentioned and unfaithful as marital infidelity. Had they not seen the mighty works of God in their history? Do they easily forget how God worked wonders to liberate them from slavery in Egypt? Do they forget the sign of God’s sparing the Ninevites at the preaching of Jonah and their consequent repentance? Do they easily lose sight of the wisdom of Solomon? Are these and numberless acts of God’s intervention not enough signs to stabilize their faith?
Direction: Jesus himself is the greatest sign of God’s love, wisdom, and mercy. The authenticity of his life, and the effectiveness of his ministry are the most compelling signs.
19 JULY 2022: MICAH 7. 14-15, 18-20; MATTHEW 12. 46-50
Thrust: A family bond beyond bounds!
Thrust: When higher things come, lower things must concede to take a secondary place. When a new family ushers in, the natural family boundaries must be submerged
1. “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother”. Here is a clear call for a “new family”, a new way of belonging to God and to one another. Our allegiance to God is not on the basis of our religious allegiances or titles or positions or traditions.
2. The only criterion for belonging to God and for being His family is “doing God’s will”. What does this imply? Some implications are given in the first reading from Micah. These notes are not direct but are implicit in the description of God’s nature and acting.
3. He is a God who shepherds His people. He shows them marvelous things. He is a matchless God who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression and treads them underfoot. He does not retain His anger but shows compassion. He delights in steadfast love.
4. Therefore doing God’s will signifies in the first place to understand and experience God in this benevolent way. This leads to deep humility and repentance. This will make us closely related to Him. This shall make us delight in doing His will. Finally, it will also make us resemble Him.
5. Therefore, to do God’s will essentially implies experiencing Him, relating with Him, becoming like Him, and seeking to do what pleases Him. I cannot claim to belong to Him and do His will without humble repentance, a personal experience, an intimate relationship, a resemblance to Him, and a commitment to do His will.
6. This is the only ground and the only means that makes us one spiritual and fraternal family. This means that we can become this new family of God only when we do His will. Conversely, this means that whenever we fail in doing God’s will, we fail in being His family. This also means that whenever we fail in being a family of God, we are failing in doing His will.
7. This is also the test that testifies to our belonging to God and love for Him. All our divisions and discriminations in the name of different affinities like caste, creed, region, language, culture, rite, et cetera are counter-witnessing and counter-productive.
Imperative: Fostering a profound sense of one Family of God’s children and brothers and sisters to one another is the best antidote to our divided and divisive culture to regain our lost spirituality and fraternity
(REFLECTION 2 FROM 2020, 21 JULY)
Focus: Our greatest strength and source of assurance is not so much our goodness or merits, but God’s immeasurable clemency despite our recurrent infidelities
A repentant heart and a transformed life are solid foundations of a worthwhile life. These manifest themselves in a concrete adherence to God and benevolence to others. Whether one agrees or not, these alone are the abiding and lasting norms and principles for a healthy and happy life. In other words, in the words of Jesus in the gospel, this is the call to live the spirit of a family, a “new family of God” as children to Him and as brothers and sisters to one another.
But sadly, we live in a world that gets more and more narrowed, by factors like caste, country, race, region, religion, culture, status, power, money, etc. The irony is: that distances are shortened by advanced means of transportation but hearts are getting distanced; means of communication have increased but the quality of relations has decreased. So much fragmentation, division, discrimination, favouritism, and nepotism mark human interactions and pursuits. Church and faith communities are also no exception.
In such a context, the Lord’s assertion that it is only “doing God’s will make us his people, his family”, is a reminder and challenge. It is not the physical or material factors that matter the most but the spiritual affinity to God and others. As long as we do not rise above our physical and material attachments, we cannot belong to God’s family.
Direction: Division and discrimination will always lead to destruction and deterioration. Let us then be united in doing God’s will and not divided in guarding our own interests!
(REFLECTION 3 FROM 2021, JULY 20)
Awareness of our unique call, our new dignity, our sacred duty, and our relationship with God and others is crucial in living out our faith-life. In the words of Jesus in the gospel, this is belonging to a new family of God. This new family has no boundaries and it is not bound by any such boundary marks as caste, colour, region, language, race, culture, rite, status, power, etc. These are not the criteria that determine the extent of belongingness and affinity. They do not and should not count at all.
The only criterion and norm for adherence to this new family is “doing the will of the Father”. That is why Jesus poses the straightest question and answers it, saying “Who is my mother, my brother, and my sister? Whoever does the will of my Father”. Therefore, doing God’s will is the sole unifying factor. It is the edifying and testifying factor as well. Claiming to belong to the one new family of God but behaving like members of the old family, fragmented, divided, and discriminated against one another, is nothing but a contradiction and a deception!
Direction: How unfortunate it is that people of a new spiritual family are driven by divisions and discrimination and yet acclaim to be mother, brother, and sister to Jesus! All those who do not do God’s will, are automatically disqualified from any affinity to him.
20 JULY 2022: JEREMIAH 1. 1, 4-10; MATTHEW 13. 1-9
Thrust: Receptivity is the seedbed of productivity!
Indicative: God provides us all that is needed for our growth and fruitfulness. But it depends on us how to respond to and cooperate with His grace and produce fruit abundantly
1. Very many times, it is sad to see that a good many waste their life without any sense of purpose and direction. They are just unproductive and unfruitful. They receive many opportunities to grow and prove themselves worthwhile and useful. But they are not responsive and responsible.
2. This is because they are not sensitive and susceptible to sense the offer of God’s grace. They are not receptive to it. They are not cooperative with it. Consequently, they fail to produce fruits that are abundant and lasting. This message is strongly conveyed by the parable of the sower in the gospel.
3. The four types of soil represent four kinds of response and cooperation. The first way-side soil indicates all those who are totally indifferent and unbothered about the seeds of God’s grace. God and God’s things for them do not matter at all. God has no entry into their lives.
4. The second rocky soil indicates all those who receive God’s grace willingly but are not deep-rooted. So easily their initial enthusiasm fades away. The third bushy and thorny soil denotes all those who are regarded as religious and devout people but are dominated by worldliness. The worldly interests and preoccupations distract, deviate, and distort them. Consequently, their life of faith is choked and restricted.
5. The fourth fertile soil receives the seeds, cultivates them diligently, and produces a rich harvest of abundant fruits. What is notable is that on God’s part, there is no lapse. There is no scarcity in the supply of seeds. He distributes His seeds without any discrimination.
6. This positive response and active production require a consistent awareness and living of our very vocation and mission like that of Jeremiah. Jeremiah receives God’s call in all humility. He is aware of his unworthiness, inexperience, and incompetence. But God assures him, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you to deliver you”. He equips him with His own power, by “putting His words in his mouth”.
Imperative: Our call is God’s own design and making. It is He who consecrated us and appointed us prophets. This requires that we are diligent and fruit-bearing and we also make others fruit-bearing
(REFLECTION 2 FROM 2021, JULY 21)
Ultimately what matters in our life is our receptivity and productivity. This is what Jesus teaches us through the parable of the sower. God always supplies to us and plants in us the seeds of His grace. There are four types of soil – wayside, rocky, thorny, and fertile. The question is not so much which category of soil we are in. In fact, we have all the foul kinds within us.
At times, we are like the roadside soil, so indifferent and completely closed to God’s grace. At times, we are like rocky soil, with no roots and depth and easily exposed to and scorched by the heat of difficulties. At times, we are the bushy and thorny soil, choked by many needless pressures and pleasures of the world. And at times, we are also like the fertile soil, producing a rich harvest.
Direction: The beauty of our Christian life is in constantly turning our roadside, rocky, and bushy soils into fertile soil. The more we succeed in making ourselves receptive and fertile, the more we will be productive and fruitful
(REFLECTION 3 FROM 2021, SEPTEMBER 18, LUKE 8. 4-15)
Focus: God’s grace is never lacking or scarce. It is abundant and constant. All that is needed is receptivity and cooperation to toil and bear fruit
1. The parable of the sower in the gospel is a very familiar one and already we had reflected on it a couple of times. However, we can always reiterate the core message, even if we may not offer a totally new message. The message that can be life-steering is: Life becomes fruitful in being receptive and productive.
2. Life is meaningful when it is truly fruitful. Many live meaninglessly because they fail to live that meaning and worth of life in bearing fruits. Unfortunately many seek the value and fulfillment of life in false and shallow things like sex, comfort, power, etc. Many mistake success for the fruitfulness of life. Some others consider pleasure and gratification as fruitfulness.
3. It is in this context Jesus proves this worldly thinking wrong. Fruitfulness has nothing to do with one’s possession or gratification. Real fruitfulness is a matter of spiritual fecundity. It is one’s total receptivity to the seed of God’s Word and abundant productivity in fruits of good character and actions.
4. Fruitfulness requires docility that is humble and prompt (unlike the roadside soil), a depth that remains rooted and firm in God (unlike the rocky ground), resistance and perseverance to grow amidst bushes and thorns (unlike the thorny soil), and assiduity to cultivate and produce an abundant harvest (like the fertile soil).
5. At this point, it is also good to bear in mind the magnanimity of God. He is never tired of supplying seeds in abundance irrespective of the type of response. However, there is not much use in extolling the greatness of God’s Word which is the seed. It is more useful to examine and improve the quality of the soil of our hearts and lives.
Direction: Let us be abundant in fruits and not merely in seeds of good desires, intentions, and words. Let us toil diligently and cultivate responsibly and bear fruits of good actions abundantly
(REFLECTION 4 FROM 2020, SEPTEMBER 19, LUKE 8. 4-15)
Focus: The Effectivity of life is not merely a matter of efficiency but more a matter of profundity, receptivity, productivity, and fecundity. The whole issue is how one receives God’s grace and produces abundant fruits
In the gospel, we have the familiar parable of the sower. We have already reflected on this a couple of times in quite recent times. Normally, this parable is interpreted as referring to the different modes of responding to God’s Word, which is the seed, while Jesus is the sower. The four types of soil are made to refer to four categories of people, and we are called to reflect and discover which category we represent. Of course, this can be the basic frame of thought. However, let us try to be slightly different, at least in our emphasis and focus.
Few pointers for our reflection: See how the sower is gracious, gratuitous, and generous. He is so lavish in throwing the seed, he is indiscriminate about where the seed fell, and he is also least bothered about even the produce. He is abundant. He is unbounded. He is unexpectant. There are no calculations, no discriminations, no restrictions with His grace and mercies. This must be very comforting, assuring, encouraging, and challenging as well. This must make us more grateful and responsible. How much do we understand this free giving of God? How much do we respond responsibly and generously to God’s Word and insights?
There is no one who is totally only one category of soil. As humans we are, we can be all four types of soil at different times, in different situations. We can be totally negligent and indifferent, like the first soil by the wayside. We can be shallow and superficial, with no roots, no depth, no interiority, like the second soil of the rock. We can be too preoccupied, too busy needlessly, and too much carried away by worldly interests and pursuits that we feel choked up and suffocated, hindering growth, like the third thorny soil. Or, we can be fertile, open and receptive, responsive and responsible, diligent and productive, like the fourth fertile soil.
Finally, we too are called to be like the sower, gratuitous, gracious, and generous, rising above demarcations and discriminations, rising above minimums and half-measures, rising above self-interest, wrong motivations, and undue expectations.
Direction: Our constant striving must be to be more and more attentive, active, and productive like the fertile soil in the gospel
21 JULY 2022: JER 2. 1-3, 7-8, 12-13; MATTHEW 13. 10-17
Thrust: Know but do not follow!
Indicative: The problem often with many is that they know what is good and right but they do not follow it. They knowingly make wrong choices because they are pleasurable or promoting in the worldly sense
1. Both the readings of the day reveal to us a certain tone of disappointment and disillusionment on the part of God. He is truly upset. But why? It is because of the instability and infidelity of His people. Initially, the chosen people were bubbling with enthusiasm. There was a youthful devotion, bridal love, and steady holiness.
2. But, as time passes, they become ungrateful and deviant. They forsake the true God and run after false gods. It is like abandoning the fountain of living waters and hewing out broken cisterns. In the words of Jesus that refer to Isaiah, these are the people, “who hear but do not understand, see but do not perceive”
3. Their heart has grown dull, and their ears and eyes are closed. Consequently, the Lord cannot heal them. They are given in abundance but they resent and resist and fail to cooperate. Therefore, even the little they have will be taken away and will be given to those who are open and cooperative. In this way, the disciples are “blessed” because they receive it joyfully and fructify it abundantly.
4. This is what Jesus means when he says, “For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away”. There are no guarantees of God’s grace. The effect of God’s grace depends on our reception and cooperation.
Imperative: How often we too make the same mistakes as the chosen people of Israel! We forsake the living fountains and frantically go after the false and broken cisterns
(REFLECTION 2 FROM 2020, JULY 23)
Focus: Ingratitude and infidelity are the two greatest evils that disfigure the beauty of human relationships, disrupt the joy of interaction, and diminish the value of life
How vivid and impressing is the pain of God in the first reading in the voice of Jeremiah regarding the sin of His people: a total memory loss about the events of His mighty intervention and height of ingratitude; a wholesale rejection and rebellion against His will and ways; and further a deep-sinking alliance and fidelity to false gods and wrong ways.
This is the same spirit of closedness and stubbornness, indifference, and non-cooperation of the people that confronted Jesus as well and disturbed him so much. This is what the prophet Isaiah already prophesied: They look but do not see, they hear but do not listen, they know but do not understand.
Today’s situation is also not much different or better. There is so much a non-committal mediocrity with regard to God and godly things. There is steep selfishness and destructive harmfulness towards others. All this is because of the lack of a personal touch and relation with God. This results in a lack of wisdom that mistakes the priorities and pursues falsities. This is precisely what God says through Jeremiah: “They have forsaken me, the source of living waters; they have dug for themselves broken cisterns that hold no water”.
Direction: It is high time that the so-called intelligent and competent modern man stop being foolish in mistaking and running after false cisterns, leaving the true and deep sources of living waters
22 JULY 2022: SONG 3. 1-4B; JOHN 20. 1-2, 11-18, Feast of Mary Magdalene
Thrust: Love and Seek what you love!
Indicative: We find always many seek many things. But seeking can be intense and persevering only when there is a passionate love for what is sought
1. Today’s feast of Mary Magdalene shows us who is a true lover of Christ, and what happens when one loves the Lord. Her life is a consistent journey of love. What are the ingredients of this love? Transparency and Docility: She is docile to his healing touch and she is healed of seven spirits. Passion and thirst: her love is like a fire that burns ablaze; she loves him passionately and intensely. It is like an unquenchable thirst.
2. Intimacy and communion: she remains ever so close to him; she is in a deep encounter and personal experience with the Lord. She feels ever united with him. It is an inseparable union like the body and its limbs, like the vine and its branches, like the fire and its flames, like the candle and its light. Her intimacy is such that she cannot bear his separation. She misses him terribly. She weeps for him. She is around his tomb. She clings to him as soon as she recognizes him.
3. Fellowship and accompaniment: She accompanies him all through her life. She accompanies him in his ministry. She accompanies him on his way to the cross. She stands with him at the foot of his cross. She is present at his death, at his burial, at his resurrection, and during his resurrected formative period.
4. Service and sharing: She serves him and thus shares in his ministry. She is a true servant who follows the footsteps of her master. She is an active and generous disciple who serves her Lord and supports and enhances his mission.
5. Fidelity and perseverance: She is faithful to the end and till the end. She does not abandon him and run away from him in times of trials and troubles. She does not shy away from embarrassing or unpleasant and unfavourable situations. She follows him to the death on the cross. She follows him to his tomb.
6. Witness and mission: Her love is not a private affair or personal experience. It is missionary love. She undertakes the mission of bearing witness to the presence and power of the risen Lord. What she has seen and heard, she would proclaim to others. The new life, the love, the light, the power that she has personally discovered and experienced, she would transmit to others. She becomes a herald and channel of God’s grace.
Imperative: We can summarise the whole life of Mary Magdalene in three aspects: Love, seek, and witness. What about our love, seeking, and witness? Is our love intense? Is our seeking constant and ardent? Is our witness integral and authentic?
(REFLECTION 2 FROM 2020, JULY 22)
Focus: What is important and what makes a person important and great is not so much the past history but the present story of change and consistency
We celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalene, a close disciple of the Lord. But Who is this Mary Magdalene? The repentant prostitute? Sister of Martha? Mary the disciple? One from whom seven demons were expelled? Are all these one and the same? There is no agreement or clarity. And there is no need to worry much about it because it is not necessary to have exactitude. But what is important to note is: that she was touched and transformed by the Lord; she loved the Lord passionately and clung to him in intimacy. She was duly rewarded to see the risen Lord. She was committed to being his witness. Mary Magdalene is truly an epitome and an icon of Love and lover.
Love leads to seeking and seeking leads to intimacy and intimacy leads to witness. True love cannot bear the separation. It restlessly searches for the loved one. It weeps bitterly at the absence in profound anguish. How is our love for the Lord? How much touched and changed we are? How much craving and anguish for his presence? How much intimacy and surrender to him? How many witnesses to the Lord?
Direction: Help us, Lord, to love you passionately so that we cling to you always and seek you as our greatest priority.
(REFLECTION 3 FROM 2021, JULY 22)
Focus: Seek and you will find. But you can seek if only you love what you seek. And you can love what you seek, if only you realize the value of what you love. And you can know the value of what you love, if only you personally experience the value of it
Today we celebrate the feast day of St Mary Magdalene. She stands as an icon of the lover, depicted in the Song of songs. She loves the beloved. And she seeks him. Mary Magdalene too loves the Lord passionately as her most beloved. She feels totally united with him and intimate with him. She cannot bear any separation from him. But with Jesus’ death, there was an irredeemable distancing. She misses him terribly. So she suffers excruciating pain and anguish. She weeps bitterly. She begins to search for him. She finds him. She is consoled. She is strengthened. She is renewed because she is charged with a new mission. She shares her personal experience with others. She becomes a live and convincing witness for the Lord.
Mary Magdalene can be a great teacher and guide for all of us. The greatest lesson for us is: Love him and seek him. This is the power charge of our whole life. Then, find him and bear witness to him. This is the power discharging through our mission. Those who love and seek him will surely find and witness him. But, there is a process and this does not happen all of a sudden. That is, healing by the Lord, turning to him, keeping close to him, following him in his footsteps, serving him in ministry, accompanying and walking with him on the way of the cross, standing near the cross, sharing in his agony and abandonment, and nurturing an undying love even after death. In fact, these are the concrete ways and expressions of our loving him and seeking him.
Do I love and seek him? Then do I also allow the Lord to expel the seven demons from me like Mary Magdalene, maybe, symbolizing the seven capital sins? Do I make an about turn, a changeover, a shift in my life to the Lord, away from evil? Do I keep close to him? Do I follow him in his footsteps? Do I serve him in ministry here and now through small little acts of service and support to the community and others as Mary Magdalene did? Do I have the courage and the loyalty to walk the way of the cross? Do I persevere till the end to stand near the cross on Calvary? Can I share the same anguish and thirst of the Lord? Do I miss him deeply? Do I seek him anxiously? Can I weep for him because I cannot bear the separation from him? Can I also encounter the risen and living Jesus even among the tomb experiences? Do I also shoulder the responsibility of bearing witness to the Lord? Can I say “I have seen the Lord” like Mary Magdalene?
Direction: The whole journey and project of our life may be synthesized into four words: Love, seek, find and witness the Lord. And two vital questions can help us in this direction: “Why am I weeping?” and “What and whom do I seek?”
23 JULY 2022: JEREMIAH 7. 1-11; MATTHEW 13. 24-30
Thrust: Evil prevails and good fails for a while!
Indicative: Good and evil co-exist. Good seems to lose its ground while evil seems to dominate and defeat. But the ultimate victory is good’s
1. The parable of the good seeds and weeds in the gospel is not just a moral story with some lesson. It is a perennial and existential reality of human life. There is good and evil everywhere and every time. There is constant tension, struggle, and conflict between the two. Evil always tries to suppress the growth of the good. Weeds try to overpower the good seeds and choke their flourishing.
2. Unfortunately, in spite of all progress and education, evil is prevalent and aggressive. And its growth is often very subtle and in disguised forms. Just as the weeds are planted by the enemy while all are asleep, so too the evil slowly but steadily spreads often unnoticed. Very often, evil is presented in the garbs of modernity, change, and fashion. Sin is equated with fun. Pleasure is taken as self-fulfillment. Aberrations are okayed as doing differently. Selfishness is justified as self-promotion.
3. In such a context, certainly, we wish that God must intervene and should eliminate all weeds sooner the possible. A world that is on a fast track and is accustomed to fast food and quick results, seeks also instant action and justice.
4. But there is no use of simply lamenting and criticizing about the uncontrolled reign of evil? There is no use in blaming God that He is not acting; that He is noncommittal about the eradication of evil. We need to understand that God’s outlook and way of acting are different. He is patient.
5. He continuously offers possibilities and opportunities for clearing the weeds in life, both individually and collectively. Personally, he waits patiently so that we become self-responsible and weed out the wrong and the negative and cultivate the good grain.
6. God cautions us not to trust deceptive words and worldly assurances. He urges us to put a stop to our evil-doings. We must stop our worship of false gods like money, sex, pleasure, and power. We must give up our ways of injustice, manipulation, and violence. We must stop turning our house of life and society into a “den of robbers”.
7. Instead, let us truly amend our ways and deeds. Let us feel personally responsible and be committed to this kind of renewal? Let us question and see how much are we are sincere and humble to see the evil in our own hearts and lives? How much do we feel concerned to eradicate evil from us?
Imperative: Let us not apply to God our human logic and terms of justice. Let us not be intolerant toward injustice in the world or in others but indulgent toward our own injustice and unfairness
(REFLECTION 2 FROM 2021, JULY 24 )
Focus: We should remember that we are living in a world where there is a wild growth of weeds of evil. We need not be frightened or disheartened. Rather, we must continue to cultivate the good seeds patiently, hopefully, and diligently till the end
The problem of evil poses a perennial puzzle to humanity. Why is there evil? Why is it prevalent and overpowering? Why is it so contagious and pernicious? Is God silent and inactive? Is He indifferent? Why should the good and the sincere suffer so much at the hands of the bad? How can the unjust prosper so much detrimental to the honest people? Will there not be an end to this sad story? More or less, this is the crux of the problem of evil. The formulations may slightly vary but the main content is the same.
The parable of seeds and weeds in the gospel Matthew 13. 24-30 is an attempt to address this perennial issue. In fact, the parable states the reality of evil and also the way to respond to it. It affirms that there is evil, there are weeds among the good seeds in the field of life. But interestingly, Jesus does not give an answer to why there is evil? The simple answer is, that it is the work of the enemy, the evil one. But this cannot be an adequate answer because of the question, how can the enemy plant the weeds? remains. This question as well as the answer are not so important.
What is really important is to be aware of and accept the reality that there are weeds in the field. We cannot expect only good seeds and plants. We must realistically accept the presence of weeds. Otherwise, we can become too idealistic to digest reality; or we may become too agitated to keep trusting and cool. In the presence of the weeds, what should be our response and plan of action? Keep growing. Wait patiently for the day of harvest. Confide in God’s just judgment. The wild growth of the weeds should not discourage the growth of the seeds. Evil will never leave us. Many times, weeds seem to overpower the seeds.
Direction: True it is that there is wild growth of weeds in our world. This is truly the reign of evil. The weeds of evil cause enormous trouble to the good seeds. There is every possibility of fear or discouragement or retaliation. But patience and hope are the need of the hour!
No comments:
Post a Comment