At last!! I finished my MA exams yesterday and am now breathing a bit free. Have lot to say, since I haven't been posting for quite some time now. Anyway, let me begin with what's still fresh and uppermost in my mind.
On the day of the inauguration of the academic year (June 12, 2013) Fr K. M. Sebastian said something very beautiful during the Mass as well as the inaugural address. He almost exhausted what I wanted to share with the Brothers the same evening, when I met them as the Dean of studies.
During the homily for the Mass, Fr KM reminded us all that our formation time is basically a period of being with Him. Taking off from the passage of Mark 3: 14, he stated that Jesus called his apostles to be with him and then sent forth. We often interchange the order: sent forth and then be with Him! Or sometimes we conveniently leave out the part of being with Him. More than before, there is a tendency now to launch out and therefore all our focus is on preparing ourselves by way of acquisition of skills and talents needed to attract crowds and people. While as formees in initial stages of formation, we are called upon to savour His presence. Once we encounter Him personally, the rest will automatically follow.
The danger with the reversal of the procedure is that we would end up doing many thing, perhaps even good things, but without a real reason or relevance. He explained using an incident from his experience here at Kondadaba itself, years ago, when he was the Rector here. One fine day, he observed a few Brothers playing cricket inside the circle of buildings. One of them was all geared up and padded up as the wicket keeper standing behind the stumps but too afraid to catch the ball. So he'd conveniently leave the ball, only to collect the ball after it was stopped by the wall behind where they were practicing. For all appearances he was a wicket keeper, only that he never did what he actually was supposed to do.
Therefore Fr KM's challenge: May the formation period be a time of growing through and not merely 'going through'.
On the day of the inauguration of the academic year (June 12, 2013) Fr K. M. Sebastian said something very beautiful during the Mass as well as the inaugural address. He almost exhausted what I wanted to share with the Brothers the same evening, when I met them as the Dean of studies.
During the homily for the Mass, Fr KM reminded us all that our formation time is basically a period of being with Him. Taking off from the passage of Mark 3: 14, he stated that Jesus called his apostles to be with him and then sent forth. We often interchange the order: sent forth and then be with Him! Or sometimes we conveniently leave out the part of being with Him. More than before, there is a tendency now to launch out and therefore all our focus is on preparing ourselves by way of acquisition of skills and talents needed to attract crowds and people. While as formees in initial stages of formation, we are called upon to savour His presence. Once we encounter Him personally, the rest will automatically follow. The danger with the reversal of the procedure is that we would end up doing many thing, perhaps even good things, but without a real reason or relevance. He explained using an incident from his experience here at Kondadaba itself, years ago, when he was the Rector here. One fine day, he observed a few Brothers playing cricket inside the circle of buildings. One of them was all geared up and padded up as the wicket keeper standing behind the stumps but too afraid to catch the ball. So he'd conveniently leave the ball, only to collect the ball after it was stopped by the wall behind where they were practicing. For all appearances he was a wicket keeper, only that he never did what he actually was supposed to do.
Therefore Fr KM's challenge: May the formation period be a time of growing through and not merely 'going through'.
No comments:
Post a Comment