Love transforms everything

 [Reflection by Fr Jijo Jose Manjackal MSFS] 

 A Dutch diamond collector was seeking for a very rare diamond. 

 A diamond dealer in New York heard of this inquiry and contacted him letting him know that he believed he possessed the diamond he was looking for. The diamond collector arrived and the dealer had his salesman present the diamond. 

 The salesman described all the technical aspects of the diamond. However, within minutes, the diamond collector rose his hand and said: “I am sorry! This is not the diamond I am looking for” and began to walk away. 

 Watching from a distance, the diamond dealer hurriedly intercepted him and he asked him if he could present the diamond again. Since he had travelled a long distance, the collector agreed to listen once again. The dealer pulled out the same diamond and started describing his admiration for this particular diamond. 

 Within minutes they were signing papers, and the diamond was purchased. 

 As the gentleman was walking out, he asked, what just happened? Why was it so easy for me to say no to your salesman a little while ago, while with you I purchased the diamond? The dealer replied: “That salesman is the best in the business. He knows more about diamonds than anyone, including myself, and I pay him a large salary for his knowledge and expertise. But I would gladly pay him twice as much if I could put into him something I have, which he lacks. You see, he knows diamonds but I love them!” 

 Love transforms everything!

Don Bosco for his boys

At Don Bosco's oratory, there were all sorts of people, at work... but for the same purpose: the well-being of the boys.  His own Mum, Margaret was there.  So were the mother of Don Rua and a couple of other women.  There were the Brothers, all his 'own men'.  Don Borel, the diocesan priest.  And a whole lot of others. 

Nonetheless, the most interesting of these lot were his own boys, now turned into leaders or even animators.  These boys who joined hands with Don Bosco, whether as Salesians or not, were with Don Bosco every step of the way.  I'm sure, not all of them, or any of them, would have come into the oratory with the intention of carrying on doing what Don Bosco was doing.  But being WITH Don Bosco, having EXPERIENCED first hand, the care and concern shown by Don Bosco, they were smitten.  They certainly may not have been able to explain in words their reasons for staying on, quite a few of them, for a lifetime, why they opted to stay on; but they did stay on!  The closest 'explanation' we get to hear is what Cagliero said: Monk, or no monk, with Don Bosco!  

From Don Bosco's perspective, I'm sure he did not work in order to impress his boys, so that they choose to stay by his side.  That was not his agenda.  His purpose was clear - to him, as well as to all those around him: the well-being of his boys.  It was this clarity of vision and passion with which he went about spending his life and energy for it, that attracted those around him to join hands with him.  For his boys, it was more than attraction; it was a deeply personal experience and individual benefit of that passion.  

Don Bosco did not have a vocation promotion strategy; he didn't need one!  He lived it.  The rest was God's work! 

Photography

A couple of months ago when there was a discussion about the selection of photos for the wall calendars and other annual reports or documentation, I made a point: insert or use only those photos which show or capture the natural scene... not a posed or orchestrated still. 

I understand the value and need of posed photos.  But when it comes to showing life and living in its best form, pictures that speak have far more value and add meaning to the text or context.  

I have before me a wall calendar with a photo of a group of women around a tailoring gadget.  It clearly shows an instructor speaking to a dozen women about the work or tailoring skill. It could have been a posed photo, wherein the cameraman or  someone may have asked them to gather around. But the beauty of the photo is that not one among those in the photo are worried or facing the camera.  Each one is so engaged in the words and instructions of the tutor that tells how profoundly they are interested in the skill or art of tailoring.  Their faces endorse the fact that there is training happening!!! That trainees are passionate about their training!  That the instructor is an engaging person.  

Formation criteria

The Salesian formation guide, The Ratio, (at least in its earlier edition) states it clearly that formation guides while helping youngsters and young Salesians discern their vocation to Salesian religious life are to look for 'an abundance of good qualities'; and not just be satisfied by 'an absence of negative or bad qualities'.  

There is a world of difference between the two.  It is not enough to not do anything wrong or bad, or even do nothing at all.  One needs to be passionate and active in doing good and striving to be good.  Without that effort, one is already showing signs of being a parasite!  

Convictions and passion

Someone admiring a very old, large and ornate Cathedral, especially its design, craftsmanship and grandeur, sighed loudly enough for the one standing next to him to hear, "Why can't we build so today? Why can't we build with such pride, such craftsmanship today? After all, we now have better technology and facilities than back then!"

The other man replied, "Well, they had convictions; we, mostly, only opinions!  They had passion; we, mostly, only fashion!"

Transplanted cabbages

Bl. Artimedes Zatti, a Salesian brother, whom we commemorate today was an interesting character.  A nurse or a medic by profession, he did much good to those around him, especially the poor, in Argentina.

What appeals to me most of about him, is the fact that in spite of his own person challenges and difficulties, physical, emotional and circumstantial, he did not let them pull him down.  Not only did he make the best of what he was left with - even if it was frail health, or a dilapidated place far from the town, or giving up his dream of becoming a priest and opting to be a brother - but also was constantly thinking about others.  His thoughts were mostly about how he could be of service to those in difficulties and pain.

Even when the hospital that he painstakingly built was usurped by the local authorities, he did not give up his passion to come to the aid of the sick.  That land grab certainly hit him hard.  He was very much affected by it.  Nonetheless he saw it as a transition period.  An opportunity to carry out his service in a different place, in a different style.  "Cabbages grow best, when transplanted," he said, when he had to give up the hospital and move!  

Urgency

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of Dominic Savio and today in the first reading of the Mass it was Stephen, the young man, who challenged the elders and priests of the times accusing them of murdering Jesus.  Both youngsters in the prime of their life.

In both of them one gets to see a sort of urgency.  A strange kind of recklessness.  No compromises. Nothing short of what is decided.  In Stephen's case, he does not resort to any diplomacy or sugar-talk in dealing with the elders of his time.  His words are direct and brave.  He is not waiting for the Romans to intervene and bring to justice those who falsely accused Jesus and put him to death.  He boldly attacks them, face to face. 

Some may call it imprudence.  Others may call it the power of the Spirit.  Whatever it be, it is a typical youth response: passionate, fearless and uncompromising. 

Passions and spirituality

The word 'passion' is often seen suspiciously in ecclesial circles.  The only time it is looked up with some respect - in fact, with utmost reverence - is when it is spoken in the context of the last moments of Jesus: the passion of Christ. 

The Russian author Merezhkovsky writes,

It is very strange that the Church, considers the 'passions' as something bad and their absence as a sign of holiness, has had the courage to call her greatest mystery a 'passion'.

But honestly speaking, without our passions, we are not really human.  Our emotions and feelings are very much part of our being human.  Not just emotions but even anything mundane cannot be excluded from our spirituality.

Soren Kierkegaard has a very significant point when he states 

It is a greater loss for one to lose his passion than to lose himself in his passion. 

Passion of John the Baptist

Was told the other day that the commemoration of the beheading of John the Baptist is now referred to as the 'passion of John the Baptist'.  I found that weird.

Honestly, John the Baptist did not have any prolonged agony prior to his death.  Most probably even when the soldiers came to his prison to behead him, he would not have known of his imminent death.  So besides being behind bars for a short while, I don't see what great agony he would have undergone to now refer to it as the 'passion'.

However, on deeper reflection it struck me that perhaps he did suffer.  He surely must have struggled a lot with many a thing prior to his death.  I am sure he would have wondered and found it very confusing that he was imprisoned for telling a fact.  He must have wondered if he was sane, because no one else in the whole kingdom felt that Herod taking his brother's wife was wrong.  JB would have asked himself if he was right and the rest wrong, especially given the fact that only he seemed to say that Herod's act was unethical. To have to stand all alone is itself a great task demanding courage and will.  Then over and above it to be hounded for taking a stand, that too a righteous one, would be more hurting.  

Something to live/die for...

From Dag Hammarskjold's Markings:

Pray that your loneliness may spur you to find something to live for, great enough to die for. 

Know not if he found this prayer answered or not during his lifetime, but for others who knew him it certainly did. Know not if this going to be true of me...

Variety of passions

Sitting in the library beside students from the various departments of the college, and when tired of reading, I sometimes glance at what they are studying. Some are pouring over some mathematical equations for hours.  Someone else is scratching her head over some economic theory. Sometime it is a physics student trying to figure out an equation and at other times it is a stats guy trying to get his graphs and curves right.  Each and everyone serious and involved.  Looking at some of them,  I wonder what on earth is so appealing about a chemical formula or a graph?  Some of them staring away at a renaissance painting, of which I can make no head or tail.

The place where I study in the college, Bedford library
The place on the right is my spot! Since I come early there is hardly anyone at all.
Other days when I come after class, it is a real treasure hunt to get a place! 

The answer, I remind myself, is the look that I get when I tell people that I'm studying philosophy!  "Didn't you find anything else to study?" "Oh, gosh, what a headache to even hold a decent conversation with someone studying philosophy. They just seem to be trying to figure of meaning and synthesis and what not.  Couldn't they just chat normal matters?"

I guess, if I were to have tasted something of history or chemistry, I too would have been studying history or chemistry and certainly not philosophy.  The point however, is that each one of us has our own passions, something that we are deeply in love with and the rest is all gooblegookdeek, at least mostly! 

Shepherdess to Education Minister

An inspiring news article that I came across today:
Once A Shepherd Girl In Morocco, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem Is Now France's Education Minister!

It tells the story of the present Education minister of France who in her childhood looked after sheep that too in Morocco.  She never learnt French till she reached college.  Circumstances led her to France and once there she gave her best.  She learnt French. Mastered the political scenario of the country.  Learnt to reflect.  Tried to give back to the country which helped her so much.  And put it all together, she is now the Education minister deciding policies and affecting changes in France!!

It is no fairy-tale.  It is one of hard work and determination. Commitment and passion. Discipline and sacrifices.  One of transforming difficulties and hurdles into opportunities and moments of learning and growth.

Her advice to young people:

The best way to be happy with your future is by playing a part in it. If you’re just a spectator of collective fate, you’re bound to feel frustrated.

Someone else's life...

One thing the gentleman who offered me a lift in Bangalore told me was quite true - we religious live as if we are immortal!  We honestly don't have a sense of time and show some urgency about going about with our life and activities.  Somehow we are convinced that there is 'sufficient time'.  He said this is something he realized as an ex-Salesian and now a businessman.  In his present state of life he has deadlines and commitments he cannot afford to miss or jeopardize.  That's his bread and butter. He better not take it lightly.  While for us religious, fine... nothing is really really 'urgent'.

The article that I was reading today had the following line in its conclusion.  An article written by a teenager who owes her life to someone elderly who lost his life in the process of saving her. She speaks of her wayward life earlier and her present state of life wherein she is balancing the guilt/burden and the strength for a renewed life.

When you owe your life to someone, you better live it!  

Reminded me of Don Bosco's promise to his boys, when he begins his recovery after than near fatal illness that almost killed him.

From now on, my life is yours.  I'll dedicate my whole life for you! 

When driven by that commitment one cannot really take things in a lax manner... one cannot afford to have a laid back attitude. It is almost like you've lost your one chance at life and now you're living someone else's life - a sort of second chance at life! 

Descent of the Holy Spirit

Practically this whole week's readings, office of readings, scripture passages and all the intercessory prayers somehow lead to the event of the Pentecost.  A curtain raiser on the Holy Spirit.

The image of the whole feast of Pentecost too is a bit dramatic!  I guess there was no other way of expressing somethig which is not so common a phenomenon.  The flames landing on each individual!  Somehow I find it odd also.  Not the event but the interpretation and the way this descent of the spirit is treated by very many in the Church.

It is a top-down event!  God giving and we receiving... now that's fine with me.  But what I find it difficult to understand and accept (or even accept and understand) is that the moment that 'flame' lands on one, the whole person is 'ablaze'!!  Too dramatic!  Too charismatic (pun intended!)!

I'd like to see the picture as a spark which triggers.  Now for a spark to trigger off a fire, it has to feed on something.  If the spark lands on a sheet of ice, don't expect fireworks or a furnace!!  But if it does fall on something even remotely inflammable, not necessarily petrol or jet fuel but even something that can catch fire, if not immediately but after a while, then fine one can expect a fire, sooner or later.  Bereft of that basic requirement of 'combustibleness' no spark can launch a fire!  If it did, then there was something else that caught fire, not the 'ice'!

P.S.: Sparks are in galore!

Like a potato...

Mummy began her conversation with me today with a direct statement:

You seem to be like a potato which can be put in any dish! People take you here or there and seem to insert you in to any job, ask you to take up anything, none of which is really related to your initial training.  

Being a Salesian I consider that a compliment!  Truly, I believe a Salesian is one who is able to insert himself into any situation, any context and make the most of what he is/has for the best of those around him.  I suppose it is something that is within that matters and not merely some limited acquired skills.  If one is genuinely interested in the children or young people, I suppose one will do one's best.  If one is already prepared or equipped with skills related to that context, good. If not, then one will acquire the related skills.  As simple as that!

Merely having skills and qualifications which do not get translated into empowering young people, is like having a transport vehicle and using it only as a show piece... one might as well have a coconut!  Bereft of zeal for those whom we work for, no amount of qualification will be enough.  The best and ideal is zeal + skill.  

The 20-60 formula

A couple of days ago, a person was sharing his experience about one of his friends.  At the end of that sharing he added, someone driven by a passionate desire to learn something new and different, even though aged 60 will behave like a 20 year old - fresh, energetic and dynamic.  Bereft of any desire to learn something, even a 20 year old will behave as a 60 year old - dehydrated and constipated!

Burning with a hunger

I spent the morning at our novitiate house interacting with the 8 novices of our Province.  It was good.  After long, engaging myself in a discussion and that too discussing matters concerning vocation and religious life... it felt good.  Moreover it was good to be questioned about some of the things I said or what they had heard of religious, or priestly life.  Though most of it was the usual set of questions that I am asked: Difference between Brs and Priests? Response of my parents to my decision to be a Br?  Formation course of both?  My experience as a Br among Priests?

However, there was something that I emphasised most during the interaction with them: A diminishing HUNGER or PASSION for anything in life.  That they seemed to have grasped and acknowledged too.  I did not speak of passion for Christ or God, at all but rather insisted on having a passion for atleast something in life.  Unless there is that hunger we live a very complacent life ... and modern notion of religious life, further strengthens that lethargy and mediocrity, I added.

Changing times

Some years ago, when it was time for the young confreres to be assigned their primary mission field, the most studious would be earmarked for formation, mostly M.Ph. It was then an honour to be sent for studies in Philosophy.

Then came a time when young confreres were 'told' to go for philosophical studies.  There was not much of honour in it for it basically meant, that one is destined to be in formation houses, at least for most of one's Salesian life. That was not a very comforting or easy proposal.

I wonder what time are we now in? Do we have people capable at all to be sent for studies in Philosophy?  B. Ph. itself seems a herculean task (for that matter, any studies!). Do young confreres show an aptitude for anything at all?  What of that passion, the fire, the zeal...?

Misplaced Charity vs Truth

Today Fr Thomas Anchukandam (in the pic, the top left corner) laid down office as the Provincial of Bangalore province to let Fr Joyce take it up.  Fr Anchu has always been acclaimed as a straight-forward man.  He came across to me as a man of principles and values.  He clearly had his priorities sorted out.  Most importantly he never budged when it was a matter of values and convictions.  Even as the Provincial he did stand for what is right and demanded that others too follow the same - "without fear or favour!"  It goes without saying that such a stance where "credibility, transparency and accountability" are stressed, things are never rosy or comfortable - neither for the one leading the charge nor for the one from whom it is demanded!

In his last Circular (TJA/Cir-LXIII.01/2015), he gives a very beautiful message, which I reproduce here below:

Ludwig von Pastor (1854-1928), the author of the History of the Popes, was known for his scientific approach to history and unafraid to speak the truth even if it meant offending the carefully nurtured image of the papacy despite its very human aspects. He believed that the fact of the Popes being the Vicars of Christ, did not insulate them from reflecting in their persons and in their decisions the flaws of their times. Naturally enough this caused some unease in the spacious corridors of the Vatican despite the generally open approach of Pope Leo XIII himself. 

One day Pastor received an invitation to tea by the Secretary of State. After the initial pleasantries, the Secretary of State finally came to the actual reason for his having invited Pastor to tea. The Cardinal told Pastor: “It is a great contribution that you will be making to the Church and to the world when you complete your History of the Popes. But remember that in writing the history of the Popes you should be guided above everything else by charity!” Pastor who understood that what was intended by the Prelate was that he should leave out the more embarrassing or the less edifying aspects of the papacy, answered without the least hesitation: “But the Lord did not say “I am charity”, but He did say “I am the Truth!” Indeed Pastor knew, as also anyone else dealing with human institutions despite their claims to lofty ideals, that misplaced charity only helps to cover up a multitude of defects! (emphasis added)

The choice, I think is very clear: choose values/take a stand and be ready to pay the price (but let everyone reap a rich harvest later) or choose passivity and breed mediocrity, now and for ages to come!

Of dreams, passion and priorities

Today in the college, the students are busy celebrating the Cultural Day.  The whole students group was divided into some 8 to 9 groups based on their language and cultural background. India being rich in its cultural diversity, there is quite a bit of excitement and enthusiasm in the air.  Watching the level of involvement and excitement that has been so since the last couple of days, brings to mind a comment made by one well-intentioned gentleman a couple of years ago after viewing a cultural programme put up by Seminarians, "Is this place an academy of dance and performing arts or an institute of spirituality and religious academics?"

He had a point in making that comment.  Our students love these sort of extra-curricular activities.  Which student or youngster wouldn't? Well that's not what I grudge.  What nags me is the disproportional investment and misplaced enthusiasm. There is a philosophical symposium coming up this weekend, besides the regular classes and academic assignments or take even the daily class participation.  It is mostly lacklustre or involving just a handful.  There isn't a balance at all!

One particular reason that I can think of is the following:  students here are here not because they want to, but because they have to!  Other places, whichever field of specialization the institute is offering, have students who are keen and are there because they love to be there!  Being there and getting involved in what the place has to offer is their dream, their passion. Most seminarians seem to lack precisely that: dream(s), passion!