Rethinking apostolate

 We Salesians have earned for ourselves a reputation for 'going big'. Our interventions on behalf of the young are often mega events and involving large numbers.

Our buildings and homes are huge. So much so, that if we have a small residence or building we feel claustrophobic - the young therein are absolutely not bothered by the size of the building though! 

Perhaps this has been one of our characteristic style of operating. But we need to realise that we have huge multiple buildings but no children therein! If we do, they are so few that even if we allot a room for each, we will still have rooms to spare! We may still be blessed with 6-7 digit figure project funding, but those projects define our apostolate; not the need of the place or the poor that define our mission. 

Sooner than later we will need to radically rewire ourselves, our attitude and our approach to see apostolate as disjoint from buildings, projects, and a 'me-first' outlook. Move from 'going big' to 'going deep'.

Don Bosco's boys spilled all over the place and then he built bigger places; he didn't build mega houses and then look for boys to fill the house!

What's my real need?

 The first reading of the day offers us a glimpse of why and on what basis was Jesus' coming as messiah read - or misinterpreted - by the people of His time. That he was looked upon as a saviour, a political liberator of the Jews from the rule of the Romans should not come as a surprise given the history of what the Jews have all along been fed.  

The reading from the book of Judges tells of the circumstances in which Samson is born and what the angel tells his mother prior to his conception and birth... 

"As for the son you will conceive and bear, no razor shall touch his head, for this boy is to be consecrated to God from the womb. It is he who will begin the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Philistines."

Moreover I do understand the angst of the Jews, especially those who felt burdened by the yoke of the Romans - and perhaps their own religious elders.  One would naturally want to be delivered and saved from such an existential risk and danger, than seek spiritual emancipation. Given this situation, spiritual emancipation appears more of a luxury in comparison to the basic question of survival posed by other existential circumstances.  To a person on the brink of starvation, if one were to offer a choice between food and the Eucharist, what would the person choose?  I certainly would choose food.  That the Eucharist is also food, and all that theology comes only later.  Not at that moment of extreme hunger and need.  

Zaccheus and the rich young man

Kevin offered an interesting insight into the reading of this day.  The passage is that of Zaccheus.  He said, he was wondering what new or different could he share about his passage from the Gospel that we have heard so many times. 

He then said that he noticed something in the structure of the Gospel itself.  The story of Zaccheus follows that of the rich young man and the poor blind man.  The curing of the blind beggar is so to say, sandwiched in between the stories of the two rich men. 

The young man and Zaccheus were both rich in wealth.  Both of them were keen to meet Jesus.  The young man had some idea of how to become better, but that he had already mastered.  He knew not what next.  Zaccheus, on the other hand, knew exactly what he had to do.  He was aware of his corrupt dealings and what needed to be done to shun that burden of guilt.  Once Jesus arrives on the scene, all that Jesus does is give that final push!  The young man, asks for further instructions.  However, on knowing what that entails, he is hesitant to go down that road.  Zaccheus, does not need further instructions.  All that he has is a self-invitation of Jesus to dine with him.  He then rattles off his next mode of living! 

At what stage of life am I?  Am I aware of what the Lord wants of me? If aware, am I willing to undertake that what He wants of me?  Am I conscious of what I need to give up, if I am to follow the Lord?  Am I ready for that? 

I suppose, the same questions arise in the intermediary context of poor blind man.  Another lesson, we can draw from these three stories together is that no matter what our financial situation is, we are always in need!  

Needs and wants

Knowing the need and thereby shaping our wants is the ideal way forward.  Our liturgies and devotional practices are basically meant to help us come close to God.  But at times they become so repetitive that they lose their meaning.  On the other hand, they become repetitive because people find them meaningful.  However if our focus is on the need, then the want to have something 'usual' is fine.  However if our focus is merely on maintaining the 'usual' rather than the need, then we tend to miss the point. 

When we eat food, we consume it to sustain our physical well being and carry out our daily tasks.  Energy is our need.  Steak is our want.  Indeed steak gives energy, but if we are so stuck on steak we tend to forget that there are other foods too which give us energy.  And from common experience we know even if one desires steak much, one does not have it for meal everyday!  Knowing our real deep inner needs and fulfilling them is more important than merely going by our wants. 

Creativity in liturgy and what some call 'healthy distraction' during Mass does not make us less Catholic, as long as it helps all of us grow deeper in our love and communion with God.

Jesus, the leper and me

The gospel reading of tomorrow is that of Jesus healing the leper (Mark 1: 40-45).  In fact the theme running through all the readings of the day is that of healing by touch. 

As I prepared for a meditation for the university students on this particular gospel passage, I tried to get involved in this particular event by viewing it from the perspective of one individual present in the narration.  So I chose to be one of the spectators watching the leper cry out to Jesus and the latter healing him.  In a way I felt jealous of this leper because he got what he wanted.  There were many things I could have asked the Lord but I just stood there waiting for something to happen to think, to act.  This leper really needed something and he did not feel ashamed or embarrassed to beg Jesus for the same.  Perhaps my needs were not really needs but merely wants! 

Another insight that one of the youngsters shared was that he felt irritated that the leper, after being healed did the opposite of what Jesus had asked him to do.  Instead of appearing before the priest quietly, he went about the whole town shouting about his cure!  How disrespectful of him to do so!  Disobey the explicit command of the one who granted him his only request!  But then he said, perhaps I too am the same: doing what I want to do rather than what Jesus asks me to do, especially after I've been blessed with something!  

Contemporary Need

I remember two weeks ago when I had accompanied Fr John and a group of youngsters for a retreat to Battersea.  After Steve explained the basic fire drill of the house and the keys and timings of the main door and all that stuff, he gave out the wifi password.  At that moment there was a sudden spurt of life in the group.  Till then they were there, passively listening.  The moment the wifi was mentioned it was 'aggressive listening'!

Contemporary individuals constantly rewrite the definition and chart of human needs.  Here's an amusing example (reworked Maslow's hierarchy of human needs):

Needs vs fulfillment of needs

With regard to human rights there is always this dilemma: are we asking for too much?  Is the ideal so high, that the real is unable to live up to it?  Like in the case of some African country which I'm told has the best child-protection policy, really superb.  Unfortunately there is no infrastructure to realize this policy. Hence the very policy meant for protection, turns out to trap children and cause harm!  But 'how much' is 'too much'?

So there is the idea of minimalism: human rights for sustenance and not for good or luxury.  They set the least standards to be met, rather than the highest goals to be achieved.  Makes sense. "It is one thing to establish a need, another to show that there are serious grounds for doubting whether that need can be met" (Price 2013, p. 11).

What's surprising is that I'm beginning to see very close links between the human rights discussions and the philosophy of the neo-pragmatists.  It is as if, they are speaking the same thing, from either end of the platform.

Of vehicles and wants

Summer has come to an end and it is quite cloudy since the past two days.  Rains have already set in and quite a few parts of the state have enjoyed good rains.  Farmers all over are busy plowing their fields and getting them ready for sowing the seed.

One thing that I noticed much during this summer was the increase in the number of a/c vehicles on road.  There were practically very very few vehicles with their windows open.  There was a time when we could count on our finger tips the number of vehicles zipping through the city roads with their window glasses all up.  As a boy I used to initially wonder what kind of people preferred to suffocate in their vehicles with everything shut than enjoy the natural open air.  Only later I came to know of a/c vehicles and sort.

However now, almost every vehicle is a/c.  Growing economy or growing wants?

Of Wants and Needs

While some of our senior boys have a sense of saving money they earn while they learn, most of them have absolutely no desire or will to save or plan for the future.  All that they know and do, as soon as they get some money in hand, is spend it.  And what do they spend it on?  Clothes and phones!!

The former I understand if they do so once in a way, but every month?  The latter, is purchased or attempted to be bought every month!!  There is one boy who is an orphan and has known no one else other than those inside in the house, practically he is living with them all here in the same campus, in the same house and practically in the same section.  But his craze is a new phone, every time he gets some money!

And what's the phone for? Certainly not for talking (if that were the case, any phone would have done and that too bought once).  It is for music, and camera!

I guess this is what it means when wants become needs! 

Need or fear?

Why is it that we always impress others by our strength and not as a whole being replete with our positive as well as the not-so-positive aspects?  Why do we only project our strengths while we are also composed of potholes and craters? Why not show our complete self so that the other sees who we truly are and not be cheated into believing the visible part of us as the whole and true self?

Once could say that that influence of media and its role in deciding factor of what is cool, trendy, in vogue, sexy ... and their subsequent elevation to success indicators, is much to blame. However, there is more to it than media and its presentation. Are we frightened of ourselves?  Of our true and complete self?  Or is it merely a social / primal need?  Or is it both? 

Care and need

An sms that I received today:

Express yourself to someone who cares for you, not to someone who needs you. Because care means personal commitment and need means personal requirement.

Am yet to grasp the full meaning of it. Shall dwell on it a while later.

Unlucky Jesus

Here's an amusing but thought-provoking piece of conversation between two kids. It is from the movie Evelyn.

Dermot (the younger brother): Evelyn, did Jesus have a big sister?
Evelyn: No Dermot, he wasn't as lucky as you!

We look at what we do not have or lack. Children on the other hand, see things as their own. They are the owners of everything. They get to see life big, grand and solemn. They see what grown ups do not because they 'have' everything.

Needs and energies

Fr TV's reflection this morning was inspiring and simple: We spend most of our energies in fulfilling our primary need. If that primary need happens to be food, then we end up spending our whole time, energy and thought centred on food. (Something the disciples were upto in the Gospel of this day!) If our primary need is God and His will, we would make every effort to discern His will and constantly be with him.