Jesus insults a Canaanite Woman (Mt 15:21-28)
Thanks to our easy means of communication and fast means of travel today, many of us enjoy the privilege of constantly coming in contact with people and places that are new to us, that are strange to us, that are different from our own.  The Word of God today invites us to examine our attitude towards ‘strangers’ in the light of Jesus’ own mission to the nations. Do we still look at others in terms of in-group and out-group categories?
Jesus, being a man of his culture, also had to refine his own attitude towards the “out-group”.  And this ability of Jesus to learn even from a woman of the “out-group”, and his openness to discern the will of His Father through this woman, would determine the future of […]

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“After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.”

The gospel text of today – the 19th Sunday in Cycle A – narrates to us how the disciples encounter Jesus walking on the water. The first reading narrates to us how Elijah encounters the Lord God in a “whispering sound” or as NRSV has it, “a sound of sheer silence,” on Mt Horeb. What would it mean for us?

The first question to ask is: what state is Elijah in before the encounter? As soon as Elijah reaches the cave on Horeb, before the encounter, Yahweh asks him, “Why are you here, Elijah?” (1Kg 18:9). Why would the all-knowing God ask a mere mortal such a question? Can’t he see where is Elijah, and what he is doing? And why he is […]

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When you are one with Jesus, you do what he does!
The gospel narrative of the 18th Sunday in Cycle A is about feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish.  The story in the gospel reading of today is what follows immediately after that feeding.  To understand the meaning of the reading of today, we need to ask an intriguing question: in whose hands did the miracle of the loaves really take place?  What do I mean?  Did Jesus take the loaves and the fish, put a veil around them or ask the people to close their eyes, and say the magic words, ‘Abracadabra’ (by the way, this is Aramaic – the mother-tongue of Jesus, the equivalent of the Indian version, ‘zee-boom-bah’), pull away the veil, and behold, an […]

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Often we confuse needs, wants, and likes. ‘Needs’ are those that are necessary to ensure a quality of life. ‘Likes’ are those that we desire to have beyond our needs, because they are nice and attractive. ‘Wants’ are our desires that we choose to add on to our needs. Sure, needs, likes, and wants are all relative to how individuals respond to possibilities that exist in their environment.
I tend to think, the fundamental needs of human being are rather universal and tend to be relatively stable: in terms of food, clothing and shelter. Legitimately, these needs can progress from the bare minimum to a comfortable level related to quality of life. But there is a threshold point in this progress.
Let me illustrate that with an example. The way we describe the […]

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