Teach me good, discernment and knowledge: Psalm 119: 66

Garden of Eden was the school for Adam and Eve. God created them, gave life to them and watched every step they took. He enjoyed His time with them. He took walks with them in the evenings. And then one day God found that they are growing up and they need to learn good and bad, right and wrong, discernment and knowledge. He then took them to the school of knowledge and world of choices.

God does the same thing today. God takes us through the garden of Eden. God creates, sustains and leads us to a world of good, bad, knowledge, discernment and then we are told to choose wisely. What God did to our first parents and to us is show us good and right, what to do and what not to do, where is knowledge and where is wisdom. Sometimes we have too many choices and too much knowledge to know the difference. This is slightly different from that of our forefathers.

So how do we know if we are choosing wisely? According to St. Paul when Love starts flowing from your heart, know you are in the path of good and knowledge. When your life, actions and thoughts are filled with love there will be more and more knowledge and full of insights. Knowledge is the insight you gain when you love without judgment. Discernment is the knowledge you gain from knowing your limitedness and God’s unlimited power to affect peoples’ lives. Goodness is the result of humility from knowing the limit and the love that arises out of God’s forgiveness.

 

(CR-Fr. Jos Tharakan)

The earth is full of Thy loving Kindness, O Lord Psalm: 119: 64

It is spring time. If we look around we see flowers all over. They are of different colors, sizes and figures. One is different from the other and am yet to find one that looks exactly the same in every manner. Flowers of all kinds capture our imaginations. It takes people to different places of memories and creates new ones for the future.

Then there are forests, mountains and rivers. If not for man’s innovative spirit, this world will be full of trees and plants, forests and all kinds of wildlife. Earth gives life and earth sustains them.

This reminds me what happens every time someone tells me I love you. When I know it is true, I like to write some music. I feel like my heart is light and my world is a beautiful place. Colors are brighter and figures are crispier. Life throbbed when love is perceived.

I pray that I could see God’s steadfast love in the nature around me. If not there is something wrong with me. If God’s love is not in the nature around you, and if you are still hanging on to the hurt and harm of the past then it is time to replant in our hearts new seeds of love. Remove the weeds and insects that eat the colors and figures. Let our hearts be filled with fruits of love that will re-generate the lost garden of Eden right within us.

Earth is full of God’s steadfast love, for life is throbbing all around. Look around, for God is alive right outside where you look.

CR- Fr. Jos Tharakan

The Lord is my portion: Psalm 119: 57

We live in a world of lotteries and of spinning of coins and cards. All kinds of lotteries are available which make people millionaires overnight. Some people become wise and others become arrogant and foolish when money flows into their lives totally unexpected. Most people like to be pleasantly surprised and that is what lottery is supposed to do. I am lucky today, they say, and they wait for unlucky days ahead. They enjoy now and wait to mourn when they lose.

Being lucky is not an experience for most people on a daily basis. We struggle in life to make both ends meet, or at least that is for most people. We don’t know what awaits us the next day goes for all people. What we know is what we know just right now. The one who knows the rest of the stuff is God. The one who knows what awaits as a pleasant or unpleasant surprise in the next moment is the One for us to hold on to, as a lot in life. For the One who knows them beforehand knows how to guide us through it as it happens.

When God is the portion, the lot, the luck and the charm of life all the spinning of the coins and cards around us would sound like metal crashing down. When God is the magic of your life, the bundle you go away with will be destiny you share with God.

Let us make the Lord our Portion and share our destiny with God.

 

(CR Fr. Jos Tharakan)