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)

Remove the false way from me. Psalm: 119: 29

If you are a parent you know the anxiety you went through when your child was growing up as a teenager. Did you not wake up in the morning hoping that your child will choose the right thing that day and will return home safe? If you did love your child, you would have told your child what are some of the good things to do in their life and where to go and where not to go. Did you take sometime to talk to your child about who they should be friends with and keep from people who do wrong things. Because you know those who do evil things will walk away from the ways of God.

You probably have learned from your experience that walking in the wrong path will lead you to wrong places. If you don’t know the directions to a place, better ask for it before you get lost and left with no one around to ask for directions. I have read somewhere that the “Y” chromosomes in men make them wander all over the world before the pride gets them lost. So, why not ask for directions. Why not believe in the one who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. Why not ask the one who is the way itself, to tell us what it is that we need to choose to reach the place we ought to?

Don’t you sometime or another wonder where to go and what to choose next? If you don’t, I like to hear from you. May be you are the wisest person on earth, sharing the wisdom of God or you are a foolish person who in his or her pride seem to think like the serpent in the garden who invited the first parents to a knowledge like that of God. Adam and Eve, whatever is the story behind it, fell for it. So the days of fall are not far for such a person. Watch out.

(CR Fr. Jos Tharakan)

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things. Psalm: 119: 37

I wonder if we waste our time looking at worthless things. What are those things that are worthless in our eyes? What are those things that destroy human dignity? Sometimes I wonder all that we watch on our televisions and in the news are worth watching and wasting our time? Where is God in all this? The dirt people dish out on others is incredible. A television crew recording painful story of someone’s life as if it is hot news for the entire world to know is worthless in my opinion.

Yes, but on our own as addicted we are to the news, to the TV and to the news around the world about us is hard to get out without God’s help. Even if we do not know what is worthless and what is of worth, what is vanity and what is not, God does. All we have to do is simply share our inability to turn our eyes away from looking at worthless things that will capture our hearts for a long time.

What we see many times stays within us dormant to raise its ugly head at a time when it is appropriate. So, why not ask the Lord to turn our eyes from such scenes that captures the soul of our hearts from seeing the Lord. Blessed are the pure, for they shall see the Lord. Blessed are those whose eyes see what is worth in the eyes of God for they will see the manifestation of God all around them. Blessed are those who have the courage to look upon that is raised up above on the Cross, for there is nothing worthier than that in this or next world.

Lord turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and turn my eyes towards what is worthy of our attention.

(C&R; Fr. Jos Tharakan)

In you O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. Psalm 71

Taking refuge is an admission that he or she is unable to handle it on her/his own. When we feel lost and alone, feel lonely and abandoned then we take refuge. Status of a refugee is a state of helplessness. A refugee is already humiliated and has lost all what he thought was dear to him. This was the state of human race after sin. When man sinned against God as we read in the bible he fell into a no-man’s or God’s land where there was nothing that he could be proud of. He lost his eternity, friendship and freedom and all at once. Man needed a shelter and he needed to find someone who will provide just a little respect. He didn’t need any more humiliation than he already suffered when he walked out of eternal security.

This is where the beauty of God comes in. God does not put us to shame more than we have put ourselves into. Rather God takes the shame on Himself and takes the cross of the sinner onto His own shoulders. Shame of the sinner, shame of the lost, shame of torn, shame of the poor and all kinds of shames were taken away to be laid finally and forever at the foot of the Cross. Here the Psalmist is crying for God’s understanding of his situation, while we are blessed with this grace through the Cross. We are the recipients of God’s kindness and compassion, God’s enriching grace that gives us the wealth of worth in the eyes of God. For our worth comes from the worthiness of Christ and our wealth comes from the grace of the Cross. When we take refuge in our God, we will be never be put to shame as shame is been taken away from the lives of those who entrust themselves to the folly of the Cross. Ironically it is the two negatives here, the folly and the shame that together gives us the positive, namely the worth of the Children of God.

Blessings
Fr. Jos

The river of God is full of water. Psalm 65: 9c

A river is that stream of water which constantly flows and moves. It is never stagnant. It is always fresh and new. It is never the same. River takes its own course and river goes wherever it wills. The path that it takes new life emerges and new people move towards. Life is abundant around rivers and that is the history of mankind. For centuries civilizations found their way to full and rich rivers. For life got hope from water that moved and changed.

If a river is ever stagnant and unmoving and if you can step into the same river a second time, then life will soon disappear from it and around it. If the water is not flowing and changing, if it is not making new path ways then all that is in it will be dead soon. A stream of water becomes a river only when it can move from where it started making changes and new paths along the way. It finds its own way and it is powerful.

That is what God’s river is. God’s river is full and flowing. It is not empty or stagnant. It is not dead. It is full of water and that water will give life. God shared that water, the water that he took out of His River, which was dynamic and changing and baptized you. Therefore it is within you to be dynamic, changing, new, powerful and never dying even when a draught in life hits at an unwanted time.

For God’s river is full of water. God’s river softens with showers, blesses with growth, crowns with bounty, overflows with richness, girds with joy and fills the valleys of our lives with new direction. It is only natural for us to go towards God. We only become heavely civilization when we can settle down in the banks of God’s rivers that is filled with life-giving waters.

Fr. Jos

Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage, Yes, wait for the Lord. Psalm 27: 14

People of Israel waited long and hard for their Messiah. Some of them are still waiting for the Messiah to show up. Waiting is not an easy time of life. It is a very hard because there is a certain amount of anxiety in waiting. There is fear and uncertainty. Whatever you are waiting for is beyond your control and that is why you wait and you have to wait. If it is in your control you could make it happen when you want it and then there is no surprise, fear or anxiety. Waiting takes your power over things, events, situations and people. It makes you lose power but gain strength. Strength to live in this world over which man has no control.

Gaining power over people, places, things and situations make one more vulnerable than others who have no power over others. A man with great power over people makes him fear of losing it at any time. Someone with control of situations in life is always under great stress for those times that may arise beyond one’s control. Waiting and allowing things to happen as it happens requires strength and lose of power. It is allowing someone to come forward to your life and situation that changes the way you behave and believe about things.

So waiting brings about a change in our personality. It gives us patience, it brings humility, it makes us candid, it makes our heart real and throbbing. Waiting is hard but that is what makes us people who have given their power to God, and thus the people of God. Look at the Israelites. They are the chosen people of God as they are still waiting for their Messiah and it gives them strength. We are the chosen people of God for we are waiting for the Lord to come. Waiting is good, for it gives us strength of character in the adverse situations of life. For what we are waiting in all waiting is for the Lord who changes us through it. So, if you are waiting for something or someone in your life, let it be for God. For God can change the course of your life for ever to come.

Fr. Jos Tharakan

C & R

O Lord, I call upon Thee; hasten to me!  Psalm 141: 1

Have you ever been in trouble in your life? If yes, what was the first thought that came to your mind then? Yes of course, I can imagine, it would be how to get out of it. But then if you could not come out of it yourself, you would want someone to help you out of it. There is an inner cry in every human being when in trouble or sorrow for someone to hasten to help him or her out of that trouble and lead them to a better place of peace and quietness.

But some of us get disappointed because people don’t respond or hasten to rescue us from such situations. I have heard a lot of people tell me that no one cares and no one bothers to come by or help out. We take it for granted that people are supposed to rush to our aid in time of need. Some think it is their right to be helped even when they have not asked for it.  Some expect people to understand what is going on in their lives even when they don’t like to share what is going on with them. We all do want someone to hasten to us. Have you ever called upon others to ask for it?  

Here the Psalmist tells us how to get help. He is calling upon the all knowing God to tell God what is going on in his life. He did not take it for granted, even when he could have, that God needs to come to his rescue everytime he wanted God to come. Rather he chose to call upon the Lord in humility. He chose to talk to God like a child. He cried for help and wanted it in a hurry – yesterday. Nothing was hidden. He talked to like a child. I wish we could all do the same and ask God to rush even if our hearts tell us God knows everything. I wish we could share with those around us what is going on in our lives before we take offence at someone not showing up or responding to when we needed them. If God likes to be called upon, be sure your friends and family would like to hear from you too. In God’s case, he can understand everything regardless. But your family and friends can not easily understand what is going on until you share. Call upon God and call upon your friends and be assured that someone will hasten to be on your side. Trust in God and God will trust you in return to entrust you with greater things.

Blessings

Fr. Jos

Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments. Psalm 119: 73b

This is a wonderful prayer of the Psalmist. We live in a shrinking world with varieties of cultures, languages and races. One word seem to mean many things when we add the cultural, ethnic and language differences. Understanding is not an easy thing as each word in a cultural context might be slightly different from another. When the psalmist prays for understanding, the psalmist is asking God’s help to know the intended meaning of a word and a phrase rather than the emotion seem to have contained in a word.

Every time when we hear someone say something that does not make any sense to us or if a word hurts us may be we can start praying the same, “Lord bless me with knowledge of the intended meaning of a word that hurts us rather than the sound of a few syllables”. Many wars, feuds, heartaches and trouble in this world can be avoided if only we can ask for more understanding from God, and of course from the other, each time we hear a word that did not sound right. As every word that is spoken is a powerful weapon, another word spoken in retaliation might bring more havoc. We carry a weapon with us that can stab the other in the back and us in the front at the same time. Our words are powerful and our understanding of it makes us spacious within.

Only when we learn the intended meaning of words we can really start learning and living the Ten commandments. Each commandment in itself has more than just the a few phrases and nuances. Each commandment is rich with more and more meaning when it reaches from culture to languages to races to people. We need God’s help to learn, grasp and keep God’s law. Pray with me please saying, give me understanding O Lord, that I may keep your law in my heart. Make my understanding spacious that my words may be gracious.

Blessings
Fr. Jos

O God, in the greatness of Thy loving-kindness, Answer me with Thy saving truth. Psalm: 69: 13

God’s kindness is always accompanied with love that makes kindness simply something to be desired for. Only great souls on earth can be lovingly kind. This would require a person to be non-judging and non-arrogant, in touch with truth within. It is this attitude which makes a person great.

Now the question is, can loving kindness be always pleasant and easy to take? For the Psalmist is praying to the Lord for truth. Truth sometimes can be convenient and inconvenient. It is convenient when it pertains to others around us and it is inconvenient when it is about ourselves. When we ask the Lord to teach us the truth, we are also asking the Lord to make truth saving and freeing. Every prayer said and lived genuinely is a plea to the Lord to reveal the truth about God and ourselves. It is from this knowledge of ourselves which sometimes can be inconvenient truths, the Lord makes us saved and redeeming people.

So today when you hear the voice of the Lord coming to you through someone or another or a situation, remember this, is this the truth I hate because it challenges me to change my heart? If it is the Lord is near and it is an acceptable time of the Lord in your life. Or the moment you hear it, does it feel like finally I have an answer for my friend, family or any others, may be the truth has become too convenient where the Lord is very distant. Truth hurts but truth also gives freedom with redeeming and loving kindness. Speak the truth today or hear it even if it is inconvenient. For it is an acceptable time of the Lord.

Fr. Jos

Teach me to do Thy will. Psalm 143: 10

Every day we pray Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Our prayers are constant invitations to the Lord to manifest in our lives. God’s presence in our lives constitutes God’s Kingdom and Will. So, it is simply living with Christ every moment of our lives that makes Kingdom real and Will practical.

No matter though how practical God’s will for us is, still we need God to teach us to do it. No matter how learned or what all degrees we can add to the end of our names, we are still children who need step by step guide to put our lives together. What it ultimately boils down to is our helplessness in this world to do what God wants of us to do, without God himself helping us to do it. Like it or not, we have to be co-dependant! God needs us as well to make things happen and we need God to learn how to do things in this life.

Now that sounds like a family! Yes, it is becoming a family with God that makes all the difference in the world. For only God can teach us the wisdom of the age and God can teach us the changes of the new world. Only God can teach us to do His will without conflict with the past, present or future. Teach me O Lord, for you have the wisdom and knowledge what I can’t find around. Teach me to do your will