Fidelity in a mosaic

One of the most appealing aspects of our Chapel is the mosaic of St Joseph, created by Mr Balan in 1995. Drawing inspiration from that I shared the following reflection with the Brothers this evening... 

Like each of the tiny tiles or pieces that make up the mosaic, we Salesians too are varied in practically every sense of the word. Yet when put together we are not always expected to be uniform or straight.  Like the tiles in the mosaic, each tile is a different colour, shape and size.  Nonetheless together the picture emerges.  

The artist chooses each tile carefully with the whole picture in mind!  He trusts that the tiles will not change their colour or texture or position.  Because if they do so, on their own, the overall picture will be totally different - if at all, we can still call that what subsequently emerges as a picture! 

So too with us Salesians. We have been called and placed in the communities, in the Province, in the congregation by God!  It is He who is the master designer.  He trusts each of us to be loyal to His plan, our being and doing so that through our collective lives and deeds, His picture emerges bright and clear. 

Healthy elderly!

I was at the hospital the other day, accompanying Fr AR Jose while he was undergoing a spinal surgery. The doctors were not very optimistic of him being able to walk and offered him on a maximum of 2% chance of being able to walk. Nonetheless the surgery was necessitated to prevent further blocking and damage of nerves. Nonetheless, what was amusing was to see the doctors and their team constantly turn to me to speak about him. 

At first, I found it odd. It took me sometime to realise that they were looking at an 84-year-old man, on a wheel-chair, unable to walk for the last 4 years. And hence they presumed him to be unable to explain himself or atleast speak for himself. So at one point, I told them, not to go by his appearance. Just see him as a teenager, albeit on a wheelchair! After that, they were happy to directly interact with him. 

I guess, the medical staff don’t often get to see rather healthy elderly!!!

Generosity

Two essential traits of a Salesian: joy and generosity. Talking to the young Salesians the other day, I told them that it is against these two virtues that they can gauge the authenticity of their vocation. Because these two qualities are purely my own decisions. They are not dependent on someone else or something else. No matter what others say or do, I can choose to be joyful and generous with myself, FOR OTHERS. 

The case of St Mathias, the saint of the day, is a typical example. He was elected into the group of the apostles, purely on his merit of being close to the mission of Christ. Neither before nor after his election would he have changed! I’m sure it would be the same of Justus too, Mathias’ contemporary who too was considered as a possible replacement of Judas. The fact that he did not get elected would certainly not have deterred him from being and doing the good he was already engaged in. 

This is what I call personal commitment to being joyful and generous when it comes to our purpose in life.

Construction and creativity

Reviewing and inspecting very many construction and civil works in the last three years, that being one of my responsibilities (although without any experience in this field!), I’ve begun to realise how routine or monotonous most contractors and engineers tend to be. 

For most of the contractors, construction is basically building: brick, cement, steel, and stuff. The same stuff, the same way, all the time. They don’t seem to pick up any practical – leave alone, innovative – aspects of constructions which enrich their work, over time. 

I guess, their whole concentration is on completing the work or getting the basics right, that they don’t really bother to add finesse or value or utility enhancing features to their works. Or perhaps, being an outsider to this field, I under-estimate their learning or application of their skills. 

Perhaps, they’d be wondering in similar lines (or worse) about my financial and administrative skills!

Construction and comfort

With new constructions and renovations being planned and executed in very many communities, most confreres prefer to now go for AC-utilisation mode – all in the name of modernisation and better living conditions. This means reduced ventilation spaces and special painting and low-ceiling and tiled floors... However, what I have a difficulty is the inability of our guys foreseeing the additional expenses and inconveniences these modifications incur. Besides laying separate wiring, sockets, and the cost of the AC unit itself, there are the hidden but certain costs of higher electricity bills, extra load on the total consumption, even to the extent of leading to the necessity of having an independent transformer. Add to that the uncertainty of continued power supply in most of our locations. So we’ll sooner or later need to buy generators – that too, those which can support the load of these AC units. 

The greatest disadvantage in planning of exclusively AC rooms is that when the AC is inoperational, the room is as good as an oven, given our hot climate. The greatest risk of enhancing the comforts in our rooms and offices, is that we eventually get stuck to these rather than our active apostolate AMIDST the young. Between the dirty streets or the scorching playground or the sweaty hall and the air-conditioned office or room, the temptation to seek refuge in the latter is too overwhelming. 

I’d rather prefer that we plan and construct rooms, halls or buildings which have the maximum arial ventilation and light. Even those limited and selected rooms where we wish to use AC units, there should be a reasonable option for natural ventilation and/or fans.

 

Trust

Trust is something that is earned. It is not merited purely because one is a priest or a religious. At times there is this tussle in some of our encounters where confreres ask, ‘Do you trust that lay person or his word over and above your own confreres?’ Unfortunately, there is no relation between trust and one’s responsibility or role in an institution. Just because one is a lay person, does not make his or her word less authentic than a priest or nun in the same institution. It is not about one’s state of life that determines whether one is trustworthy or not; rather it is the life lived and the work ethics followed that makes one trustworthy.

Being young

Today, after a very long period, we went out as a community, to a water park.  Playing in the swimming pool, having a good time, especially on the slides, watching children and their eagerness to play in the water.  Nonetheless at some moments it struck me that young couples and children would have found it hard to understand why 'old men' like myself are also having fun!! 

In fact the realisation that I am not 'their' age, that I'm almost double the age of most of those who were there in the theme park hit me quite strong on a couple of occasions.  But that didn't make me feel any 'older'; in fact, I felt happy to realise that contrary to my bald head and greying hair, I still am quite young!! 

Thanks be to God for this grace of being and feeling young at heart; being a Salesian! That's one of the amazing quality of being a Salesian: being with the young and being so focused on them, one never ages!!