Tuesday, November 3, 2026 - How have you responded to the invitation that God is constantly issuing?

To read the texts click on the texts: Phil 2:5-11; Lk 14:15-24

The setting for the parable in these verses is the meal introduced in 14:1. It is known as the parable of the great supper or banquet. After the host has sent invitations to those whom he desired to come for his banquet, he sent his servants to call those guests when everything was ready. The guests however began to offer excuses.

The first excused himself because he had bought a piece of land which he wanted to go and see. This excuse is absurd, since no one would buy a piece of land without first inspecting it. The second excused himself because he had bought five yoke of oxen, which he had to go and see which again is absurd for the same reason. These excuses bring out the fact that it is material possessions and their hold on the persons concerned which prevent them for responding to the invitation.

The third guest allows family commitments to hinder his response. While such a reason is plausible, it serves to highlight the fact of the total rejection of the host’s invitations. On hearing the excuses through his servants, the host is angry. He now reaches out to the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. This list is identical to the list mentioned in 14:13 and the ones whom Jesus challenged his host to invite. Since there is more room, a second invitation is sent in order to fill the banquet hall.

The point being made by the parable is that many of those who take for granted that their places are reserved will find themselves out of a place and their place taken by those whom they considered unworthy. While the invitation of the host is important to enter the banquet hall, one excludes oneself from it by the choice that one makes.

Procrastination is a sin of many of us. We keep putting off till later what we can and sometimes must do now. To get over this sin one needs to start now and not later.

Monday, November 2, 2026 - Like John Donne, we too can dare to say, "Death thou shalt die", because our God is a God of the living and not of the dead.

 

Monday, November 2, 2026 - Commemoration of the Faithful Departed - “Death thou shalt die”

To read the texts click on the texts: Isa 25:6-9; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Mt 11:25-30

Whenever the Commemoration of the faithful departed (All Souls) falls on a Sunday, the following Sunday is the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Each of these days in its own way is an invitation to reflect on the meaning of God’s people gathered to be church.

The Commemoration of the faithful departed reminds us that we are still one with those who have gone before us into eternal life, and that death is not and can never be the end. Since they are alive we still owe them love and support in Christ’s name, even beyond the grave.

While the readings for the day may be chosen from a great variety found in the Masses for the dead I have taken the ones mentioned above. This gives us an opportunity to look at the mystery of death and the new life that Christ has won and promised for all of us who believe.

The question of where we go when we die is a question that has puzzled and continues to puzzle the minds of many. It is a question that brings out the fact that we realize that this life has to end and all of us no matter how strong we are, no matter how rich or poor have to die someday. Death has been and will continue to be a mystery. While we know that we have to die and today with the advancement of science and technology can delay death by a few days, months or even years in some cases and can tell how a person may have died, what we will never know, what will always remain a mystery is why a person must die at a particular moment in time. The feast of the Commemoration of the faithful departed does not provide the answer to this question, but informs us that for us as believers, death is not and can never be the end.

If in the past the focus of the feast was on praying for the deliverance of the “souls” in purgatory who were regarded as the “Church suffering” and needed our prayers so that they could join in heaven the saints and add to the number of the “Church triumphant”, today the focus is different. This focus is brought out through the readings suggested for this day.

It is quite amazing to find a text like the first reading of today in the Old Testament in which we do not find any clear theology of the resurrection of dead. During most of the time before Christ, only a vague idea of afterlife is found: and "abode of the dead" called Sheol, whose inhabitants had only a shadowy existence. God’s favour or disfavour was understood in terms of the present life only. However, as hard times and tragedies befell the Jewish people, ideas of life beyond this life began to emerge. Isaiah saw this as eternal restoration of the nation where death would be destroyed and the whole people would live forever. The text comes from within the block of material known as 'The Isaiah Apocalypse' (Isa 24-27). The view of the future within these chapters is universal in outlook and speaks of God's power in the cosmic as well as the earthly realm. An invitation to a feast is also issued in the first reading from Isaiah.  Those who will heed the call are invited to the mountain of the Lord, Zion. Here is the choicest of food and drink which is served in abundance. It is an invitation to feast and rejoice and an assurance that all tears will be wiped away and the people who come will be accepted. All reproach will be removed and God will reveal himself as a God who saves. This salvation will be shown in the most tangible of ways in that death itself will be destroyed.

The Gospel text is addressed to all those who accept the message of Jesus unlike those in Chorazin and Bethsaida. To understand it fully, two points must be kept in mind. The first is that it is placed by Matthew after three “negative” passages which begin at 11:2. These are the response of Jesus to the disciples of John the Baptist to their question whether Jesus was the Messiah, the exasperation with the crowd who do not recognize John nor Jesus, and the denunciation of the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. Indeed, this entire section of Matthew’s Gospel seems to lean on a sense of apparent “failure” on the part of Jesus to measure up to the expectations that all around him had in terms of what a “Messiah” would look like or act like. The second point is that this text is clearly a Matthean composition and is made of three elements. This first two of these are found in Luke but in different contexts and the third is exclusive to Matthew. In Matthew the audience is clearly the crowds and so the words of Jesus here are meant for all. The passage appearing as it does in this context seeks to state that despite so much of doubt and negativity, that despite so much of blindness and closed attitudes, this is not the last word. Despite the fact that Jesus’ message has been questioned by John the Baptist, rejected by many and especially the wise and understanding and not paid heed to by the cities, yet the invitation and message will find acceptance among the open and receptive of which there are still some left. There is no arbitrariness in this. Rather, it is simply true that for the most part the wise tend to become proud and self-sufficient in their wisdom and particularly unreceptive regarding the new and the unexpected. On the other hand the childlike are most often unself-conscious, open, dependent, and receptive. They are willing to let God work in their lives. They have not decided in advance how God must act and are willing to let God be God. They are willing to believe that in Jesus, God has indeed brought salvation from sin, failure and even death itself. Jesus himself is an example of such openness, which allowed him to receive everything directly from God. It is his intimacy with the Father and not his religious genius, which is responsible for this grace.

Even as we commemorate the faithful departed we must remember that the readings of today do not focus on death at all rather they focus on life and life in abundance. In writing to the Thessalonians Paul makes clear that we cannot behave as a people who have no hope. Our grief has to be a controlled grief. It has to be a grief that has its basis in the hope that all who have died in Christ are sure to rise with him. After God has spoken in Jesus, death is seen only as transition from one kind of life to another. In the words of the sixteenth century poet John Donne: “Death, thou shalt die”.

Sunday, November 1, 2026 - To be a Saint means to love unconditionally

 

Sunday, November 1, 2026 - All Saints Day - The Saints could, we also can.

To read the texts click on the texts: Rev 7:2-4,9-14; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12

“I want to be in that number when the Saints go marching in”. These words from the popular spiritual song “When the Saints Go Marching In” can be regarded as one of the two important reasons why we celebrate the feast of All Saints.

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III consecrated a new chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all saints on November 1, and he fixed the anniversary of this dedication as the date of the feast. In the ninth century, Pope Gregory IV extended the celebration of All Saints for the entire Church and since then, the Church celebrates the feast of all Saints on this date.

While the celebration of this solemnity may be seen on the one hand as a remembrance or memorial of the numerous courageous men and women who lived lives of selfless love, it may also be seen as an event which makes each of us aware that we, too, as those who have gone before, are capable of living such lives. It is a celebration of possibilities, potential and promise. They could, we also can.

This possibility and potential is brought out vividly in the first reading from the Book of Revelation. While on the one hand there are the chosen one hundred and forty four thousand made up of twelve thousand each from the twelve tribes of Israel, there is also the great multitude from every nation and tribe and language. This great multitude is a demonstration that the possibility of being included is a very real one and that everyone who desires it can receive it. While it is true that the choice is made by God, we as humans can desire it by being willing to be washed in the blood of the lamb. This means the willingness to undergo persecution, trials and tribulations and resisting the pressure to conform to values of the “world” which include selfishness and self centeredness.

This willingness not to conform is precisely the reason why, in the Gospel text of today, Jesus can declare as “blessed”, those who in the eyes of the world might seem as those who are cursed. This declaration is a confident assertion of the reality that is now and here. The beatitudes are not a “wish list” nor a projection of the future state of what is to come. They are not conditions for discipleship or preliminary requirements for an initiate. Rather, they describe those who belong to the community of the Lord. They describe the Saints.

The nine pronouncements, or declarations, are thus not statements about general human virtues. Rather, they pronounce blessing on authentic disciples in the Christian community. All the beatitudes apply to one group of people. They do not describe nine different kinds of good people who get to go to heaven, but are nine declarations about the blessedness, contrary to all appearances, of the eschatological community living in anticipation of God’s reign.

“Poor in spirit” definitely includes being economically poor, but goes further than literal poverty. It refers also to an absence of arrogance and the presence of dependence. It refers to an absence of ego and a presence of awareness that one’s true identity is found only in God.

The “mourning” of disciples is not because of the loss of something personal or because of the death of a loved one. It is a mourning that is outward in that the mourning is because things are the way they are. The mourning is because God’s will is not being done and represents also a desire to do it. It is mourning because of what is not and also because of what can be.

 Meekness in the third beatitude represents not a passive attitude of endurance or as is sometimes understood: gullibility. Rather it is an active disposition that will refuse to use violent means. This refusal does not represent inability, weakness or impotence. It represents instead a deliberate choice of one’s way of proceeding.

This is also what is meant by the desire or hunger for righteousness or justice. It is the courage to do God’s will here and now with the confidence and optimism that the kingdom is indeed now and here.

The disciples are pure in heart or have a single-minded devotion to God and will not be swayed by things that are temporary and passing. They will not be divided or serve two masters. They will serve the Lord and the Lord alone.

This single-minded service of the Lord will also enable them to work for peace and reconciliation. They will bring together people of different experiences, races, religions, and languages not through any kind of coercion or force, but through the example of consecrated and selfless lives. All this they will do with a deep sense of joy, because they know that this is really the only way to live fully and completely the life that God in his graciousness has bestowed.

It is the same God who calls them his children and to whom he is Father. The disciples know that this is indeed what they are because they live lives that are in keeping with their call.

The elder who invited John to identify those robed in white continues to invite us not only to identify them today, but also to have the confidence that, if we dare to live as Jesus has lived and shown us and as the Saints who have gone before us have lived, then we too can be counted in that number.

Saturday, October 31, 2026 - When one realises that God accepts one unconditionally, the result is practical humility.

 

Saturday, October 31, 2026 - Do you agree with this statement, “Humility is a funny thing, once you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it”? Why?

To read the texts click on the texts: Phil 1:18-26; Lk 14:1,7-11

Since the text of today includes 14:1, which spoke of a Sabbath setting, this text must be seen in that light. The text is set in the context of a meal, and contains instructions on behaviour to guests who were invited. Meals were important social ceremonies, and very little was left to chance.

In his instructions, Jesus advocates what may be termed as practical humility, with words from Proverbs 25:6-7. It must be noticed that when the host asks the guest to move down from the place of honour, no term of address, respect or affection is used, whereas when the host invites the guest to move up, the guest is addressed as “friend”. The future tense that is used in 14,11 (“will be humbled”, “will be exalted”) points beyond the immediate situation to the reversal of values that is characteristic of the economy of God’s kingdom.

When one realises that God accepts one unconditionally, the result is practical humility.

Friday, October 30, 2026 - God is love and when we love we reveal God.

 

Friday, October 30, 2026 - Do you “try to be good” or do you “do the right thing”?

To read the texts click on the texts: Phil 1:1-11; Lk 14:1-6

The scene described in the Gospel text is the third scene describing a healing on the Sabbath (see 6,6-11; 13,10-17). However, in this scene the setting is a meal rather than in the synagogue. The issue, however, is the same namely whether a person’s needs takes precedence over rules and regulations.

The man in the story suffers from dropsy or edema, which is the abnormal accumulation of fluids in the body. It is a symptom of serious physical problems. Unlike in the previous Sabbath healings, here there is no dialogue with the man (as there was with the woman in 13,12) or questioning by the Pharisees (as there was in 6,8; 13,14). Instead Jesus poses the question of whether one is allowed to heal on the Sabbath. The healing is narrated simply, and hence the focus is removed from it and placed on the second question of Jesus, which is connected with the first. Since there is the mention of “son/child” who has fallen into well, the point seems to be the urgency of the situation and not as in the case of the question asked in 13,15 where the argument is from the lesser to the greater. The silence of Jesus’ opponents to both questions concedes to him the victory. The point has been made; human need even if not urgent takes precedence over rules and regulations.

Thursday, October 29, 2026 - When things get difficult in life, do you persevere or do you cave in?