Giant of gentleness

To tell you the truth, I was afraid of losing in a quarter of an hour this little bit of liquid of gentleness… … which I have attempted to gather for twenty-two years, drop by drop like dew in the vessel of my puny heart!

[St Francis de Sales]

A cheerful giver

 The saint whose name we heard most while at home as kids, was that of St Lawrence.  That's because both Mum and Dad hailed from Karkala, the place of the famous shrine of St Lawrence.  Besides, Papa was a great devotee of him.  

We grew up hearing different stories and hymns of St Lawrence.  So much so, my younger brother's middle name is Lawrence.  

It is said that St Lawrence when he realised that he would be the next to be taken into custody and face persecution, decided to give away the wealth of the Church to the people!  As a deacon he was the treasurer of the property and rather than let it be added to the wealth of the emperor, he decided to give it all to the poor and needy of the place!  

And then there is the famous line he uttered while being grilled! "This side is done, now turn me over!" Humour and charity.  Those were the two great virtues of St Lawrence.  Both of which were fed by a genuine love of Christ.  

Patch work

When Naaman goes to Elisha and expects him to come and cure him of his leprosy, he imagines the prophet coming and applying a balm or something on the part which is affected by leprosy.  Rather, the prophet tells him to take a bath! 

Elisha refusing the gifts of Naaman, by Pieter de Grebber (Wikipedia)

The prescription of a bath, serves many purposes: it addresses his pride, his mindset, his body, his illness.  It is a whole package.  The prescription is an antidote not just for the physical part of the body that is affected but the whole body!  The whole person! 

In life, we often seek and are satisfied with piece-meal solutions to our imminent and grave problems.  However, we fail to see or rather, do not want to see the larger picture and address the root causes.  Saints and seers are those who see life large scale!  They see the bigger picture and thereby take steps accordingly.  The rest of us, merely do what appears to the eye, here and now.  

Christian unity and intolerance

One of the biggest scandal the Church offers to the world is that of the divisions within.  For a body which has unity as one of its primary tenets, to be so splintered, the value of witness is certainly diminished.  Add to that, the fact that some of these splinter groups are archenemies of one another.  And still we claim to be Christians! 

The saint we commemorate today, St Josaphat was martyred not by anti-Christians, but 'faithful' followers of Christ!  It is indeed a strange paradox we comfortably live with: boldly preach in Christ's name and at the same time have no hesitation in killing someone - all in His name.  If only we take a moment to think, leave alone pray, we should be able to see our own religious idiosyncrasies.  But I guess, the very faith we profess often blinds us to see anything beyond that what we hold most precious. 

So good to ask myself, what is it that I hold in such high esteem that I would not sacrifice it for anything else?  And as a Christian, I ask myself: Is it my love for Christ or love for Christ? 

St Gregory

St Gregory, pope and pastor.

The first monk to be made Pope.
The first one to assume the title, 'Servant of servants'
Specially remembered in England for having sent the Catholic missionary expedition, under the leadership of St Augustine, which greatly aided in the nation becoming Christian. 

Far from...

Most of the saints I've come heard of ended up far from where they actually started.  Not just by birth but their very ministry or adult life itself took them places. 

In our contemporary times, this does not seem much of an achievement.  Given that we travel all the time and are hardly in one place all our life, it is easy to think that every one moves all around. Not always.  In bygone days when travel was necessitated only by urgency or desperation, and means of travel were hardly a luxury, leave alone the cost and danger involved.  Most people, never moved away from their place of birth.  There wasn't anywhere they really needed to go to.

Today people move from place to place either for study or work or family needs.  As a religious have been through so many places.  And each place being a home.  Not just as tourists visiting some new place.  People ask me if it is difficult to pick up one's bags and leave for good, only to repeat the process every couple of years.  Not really.  I think it is the whole attitude of 'being at home' that actually matters.  It is not the place as such but if every place one goes to becomes a home (or is made a home) then moving around does not uproot one.  In that sense, I certainly am far from where I started, but certainly not lost or away. Am at home! 

Beheading of St Lawrence

Yesterday was the feast of St Lawrence.  Deacon and Martyr.  My connection with this saint goes way back.  The parish from which my parents hail, from Mangalore, is the famous shrine of St Lawrence.  That's where my parents were baptised, grew up, and later got married.  My brother's middle name is Lawrence.  Even he and my sister-in-law were married at St Lawrence's.  Papa is a great devotee of St Lawrence - and perhaps, that's the greatest connection I can think of. 

And of course, there is that unforgettable incident of the cricket ball 'beheading' St Lawrence! My brother and I were so shaken by this accident! We managed, with Mum's help to stick back the head and place him back on the family altar.  That evening when Papa returned home and, as usual, went up to the altar to pray, he did not notice anything unusual.  The three of us however, breathed only after he finished his prayer!  We never told him of that incident! 

Only of late did I come to know that St Lawrence is the patron saint of comedians and cooks.  The latter I understand, given that he died being grilled - literally!  The former attribution took time for me to connect.  Comedians??  Well, only after a while it hit me, that even that is associated with his martyrdom, being roasted on fire!  It is said, that while being grilled, he said to his executioners, "This side is done. Now turn me over!"  Am not sure, how humorously did his tormentors take that, but for one to be so 'cool' when on fire and at the point of certain death, one indeed has to have lots of courage.  However, am not sure if he was that humorous during his life as well.  Would have been, I guess.  Only, haven't found any evidence for it yet! 

Devotion to Don Bosco

During his lifetime, Don Bosco constantly advocated his boys and those around to grow in three devotions: to the Eucharist, to Mother Mary and to the Holy Father.  However, if we review the impact of this in the Salesian tradition, one can very well grade them in the order of devotion to Mother Mary, to the Eucharist and to the Holy Father, in order of importance.  Not that there is some sort of competition or conscious grading.  It is just that devotion to Mother Mary stands out in the Salesian tradition, much more than the other two. 

However, there is one devotion we Salesians of Don Bosco have not really bothered about: devotion to Don Bosco himself.  After all, he is a Saint. A well known and worthy saint, at that.  But somehow we never promoted among those with and around us the devotion to Don Bosco.  A couple of years ago, just before the relic of Don Bosco was making its rounds in India, there was a move in one particular parish or place where the Salesians tried this out: spreading devotion to Don Bosco.  I did not hear much about it anytime afterwards!   The relic came and went, nothing much happened.  I'm yet to meet any family or even individual who really 'reveres' Don Bosco as a saint, as most do with regard to saints like St Anthony, St Joseph, and so on. 

That said, I don't think there is any need of making a great effort at 'spreading devotion to Don Bosco'.  That very attempt would go against what Don Bosco wanted all his life.  He wanted us all, especially young people, to grow up as loving children of Mother Mary and genuine disciples of Christ, with respect for the Church.  He would hate himself being promoted at the cost of any or either of these.  

Romero, a saint?

The other day someone expressed their doubt if Romero was actually a martyr or a case of political assassination. He was not contesting the canonization of the person but expressing a sentiment that one gets to see in quite some believers.  The point is that he did not 'die' for 'religious' reasons.  That the circumstances in which he was killed wasn't a question or threat to faith, rather a political turmoil. 

I for one, firmly believe that Romero is a saint - so is anyone who takes a stand for some value, especially not for himself but on behalf of others, especially those who cannot really take that step.  Romero is for me a saint who did not restrict himself to his office or Cathedral.  As a priest, a bishop, he stood with his people.  He stood against some of his own clergy who took up arms.  He was not hesitant to call what is wrong, wrong.  Even if it was the one's he was representing within the Church.  He stood for values, not compromises. 

Furthermore, he stood with his people, and distinctively with the poor.  And as a bishop and minister of God, he used the sacraments as a means of pointing to the values, not as belittling them, as some accuse him of, but of pointing to what is right, what is good and true.  Standing with his people, he upheld hope, and showed them, by example, what love truly entails - loving all, even those who cause harm.  The same love also entails courage, the courage to stand up to oppression, injustice and violence, but not out of hatred but for love.

Last of all, if Romero's death was a mere political assassination, so was Jesus' crucifixion.  The Romans did not sentence Jesus to death for any religious reasons - those accusations brought forth by the religious authorities meant nothing to the Romans.  He was sentenced in order to avoid social unrest and political chaos.  What marks out a martyr is not merely how he or she died, but how he or she lived as well.  In that sense, Romero is a saint, not merely in the death he died but in the life he lived.  

Deep-fried for God

Today is the feast of St Laurence.  My family, especially Papa, has been a great devotee of St Laurence.  The fact that Attur, in Karnataka has a large shrine dedicated to St Laurence and to which both my parents belonged to, has much to do with this attachment.  And so, the first and most 'exciting' martyrs tale that we as children heard was that of St Laurence.  That too what a tale it was: being burnt on the iron grid!  I always tried to imagine how they would have burned him and which side they burned first for I always found it amusing that after a while on the grid, he told his tormentors that one side of his was sufficiently burnt and that they should turn him over to the other side! 

This is the statue of St Laurence we always had on our family altar

While at Mass today, the most immediate instance in our times that flashed across my mind, was the news reports of the recent wild fires in Greece. Remember reading about the firefighters discovering bodies of victims in a group. When they knew that they could not outrun the fire or escape it they formed a huddle, placing the younger ones in the centre, trying to shield them from the fire. Gives an insight into the great love that parents have for their children and dear ones.  Even in the face of agonizing death, their priority and thoughts are all about the well being of their loved ones.  Even so was St Laurence, when even faced with death, all he was concerned was God and the poor. 

Extending the boundary

When I was small and along with friends about to play a cricket match, one of the first things we collectively would decide is the boundary line.  If the place was limited or inaccessible, then certain spots would be declared 2-runs by default.

We grown ups do the same with our relationships too.  There are people and I mean certain groups as a whole, certain sections of humanity as such which are either within or without the boundary.  I distinctly remember one of the first conversations I had with someone in Kondadaba when I reached the place for my first year of practical training, way back in 2000.  It was the one who regularly supplied the seminary with the chicken.  Since the Brothers had not yet arrived, I went to shop (as directed by the cooks) and introduced myself.  Since my name wasn't revealing any "affiliation" they gently stated that very many of the Brothers in the seminary were "their" people.  I had no clue of what he was talking! After repeated and creative attempts and only when he realised that I wasn't getting what he wanted to know did he bluntly ask me, "What's your caste?"

The further the boundary we set by which we consciously or unconsciously exclude people is the better human beings we will be.  Some set nationality, colour of the skin, or religion as the boundary.  Greater are the souls who have extended the boundary beyond human beings to include animals (if not all, at least most) within one's relationship circle.  I'm not talking of those who love animals more than human beings, but of those who love animals as much as all human beings!  The greatest see no boundary at all.

We celebrate today the feast of St Francis of Assissi, one of the rare gems of humanity who saw no boundaries at all in relating to the world.

St Bede's and the English

Realized that today is the feast of St Bede.  During his homily Fr Hugh Preston stated that he was one who straddled the 7 and 8th century.  Interestingly he lived his whole religious life in only two monasteries.  That too, which were not more than 10 miles away from the other.  So in all his life he would have travelled not more than 40-50 miles!! (At this point some of the confreres were looking at one another and there was a round of laughter in the whole Chapel... for some today travel that distance everyday!).

However, what I remembered as I heard of this saint was that one Salesian house in Chennai province is named after St Bede's.  And then it struck me, that it was the school for the Anglo-Indian boys!  So naturally whoever started that house was most probably a Britisher!

You never know how and where you see connections! 

Political sanctity?

The recent turn of events like the US elections, the change of currency back in India by the PM, the prolonged war in Syria, the constant flow of refugees into Europe from across the Mediterranean, the whole politics of Brexit and more especially all that goes behind these apparent policy changes got me thinking this morning of one particular fact: Could sanctity and politics ever go hand in hand?

It is then that it occurred to me that perhaps there is no politician in the history of the world who has been canonized as a saint.  The closest who came to this was Thomas Moore, but then if he were to continue being a real politician he would never have been made a saint!  Politicians have never been canonized!  Perhaps only Dag Hammarskjold, Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela I'd consider as noble politicians (Gandhiji was more a leader and neatly resisted politics). But alas, none of them were Catholic!

So what's it with politics that makes it incompatible with Christian sanctity?  I guess it has something to do with the inherent system failure of politics.  Honestly, if politicians were true to their calling, the liturgical calendar would be most filled with their names - with the prefix St. That's one profession which truly facilitates the service of fellow human beings legally and literally. Unfortunately that's the only thing that never happens.

To be a politician one has to kill one's conscience.  No one can continue to have an altruistic attitude while being a politician.  Such is the state of political affairs - everywhere!

Everyone is called to be a Saint

The militant Church

Only today did I come to know that the Church considers those living on earth and making their way up to heaven, as the 'militant Church'.  Furthermore that the 'communion of saints' meant that the three categories of saints, the triumphant (those already in heaven), the militant (those of us still alive) and the suffering (those in purgatory) are always in support of one another.

The former fact surprised me, not so much the concept but the title itself, 'militant'.  Somehow I did not expect the Church, of yesteryear to be so 'radical', even in according titles.  Besides it is also good to see that the Church does accord some status to us living, not so much as sinful and dreaded but as 'saints'.  That's truly very encouraging and affirmative.  

Widening the meaning of Martyrdom

The celebration  or commemoration of the beheading of John the Baptist, (or as the latest ordo puts it euphemistically, 'the passion of John the Baptist') proves a very significant point about martyrdom.  Very often the Church has considered only those who have been slain 'for Christs' name' as the sole criterion for declaring some one a martyr.  If one analyses the life, or more particularly, the death of John the Baptist, it is clear that he never died because of his association with Jesus Christ.  He died just because he spoke the truth and dared to stand by it, come what may.  He paid a heavy price not for proclaiming Christ but for standing for truth and values.

The recent uplifting of the ban on the canonisation process of Oscar Romero is indeed a step in the right direction - once again, hats off to Pope Francis.  If John the Baptist can be venerated as a saint for laying down his life, because he chose to stick on to the truth and not because he was an ardent follower or proclaimer of Christ, so can Romero.  Truly speaking, Christ Himself stated: I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life!

John Vianney

Often St Vianney is cited as a precedent of permitting one without some basic intelligence to continue his priestly formation and get ordained. I beg to differ.  I believe that a certain minimal standard of intellectual ability is a MUST for a candidate to Priesthood or Religious life.  That does not mean that studies are the only criterion by which a candidate is to be judged as fit or unfit for consecrated life.

It should be noted that though Vianney lacked a 'brilliant mind' he made up for it with a determined effort.  Though asked to discontinue his studies and seminary life, he returned and sweated it out at his desk to secure at least the minimal marks required.

And then for those who claim that intellectual standards are non-significant for Priestly / Religious life, I suggest that when they do get ordained or make their perpetual profession, they better be ready to go the 'remote' and 'most unwanted places' for ministry... after all, Vianney did that, didn't he??... that too joyfully and poured out his heart and soul there.  And if the latter is not acceptable, neither is the former! 

Passing through the darkness...

The life of the Saint of the day, St Ignatius of Loyola, reminded me of what I had earlier spoke of Saul turning to Paul. Like Saul, Ignatius too had the courage to go through the dark uncertainty and helplessness after his initial encounter with the Lord.  He did spend time in prayer and reflection before taking the plunge. His reading of The Imitation of Christ was only the trigger, so was his personal encounter with Jesus or Mary.  What really saw him take the bold step was his personal wrestling with God and his own conscience when everything seemed a blur, in the dark, silent spaces of his room or the monastery where he spent almost a year after his initial taste of the Lord.  

For that courage and patience of Ignatius, I salute him.  Not everyone of us has that amount of courage or patience, though each one of us has the great 'wow' moments in galore all our life! 

John of the Cross, the Reformer

Today we commemorate the feast of St John of the Cross, a mystic who was specially called to reform the Carmelite order.  Knowing his life story offers a real challenge to all religious and consecrated persons of today.  In spite of all the hardships, misunderstandings and humiliations he underwent - that too for doing right! - he never gave up the path of being a reformer. Add to that the mystical dimension of his spirituality. That certainly would have added enough confusion to the already 'disturbed normalcy'.

I wonder how many of us would have the courage, patience and humility to take up a challenge, such as that of John of the Cross.  I also believe, he had to transform himself prior to spearheading the reform of his own religious order.  

Being Truthful Inspires

This morning our b'fast talk ran into the canonization process of Mother Teresa. Fr Balaswamy said that her canonization process is facing some hurdles given her writings that are being scrutinised now.  In some of these Mother Teresa is to have expressed her great challenge and difficulty of finding Jesus in her daily works.  The rest of us at table found that ridiculous.  I was of the opinion that since she was so truthful, I am better able to relate to her, than if she were to write some pious quotations while within she was being troubled.  Going by the objects being aired, it is perhaps easier for an actor or actress - or better still, professional liars - to be canonized fast and easy, for they would certainly have nothing that would go against this whole process surface anywhere anytime!

During my theological studies, I remember disagreeing with my Professor (that too in the examination hall!) on the point of the letter to the Corinthians by St Paul being the best of his letters. The reason I cited was that I personally prefer St Paul of the Galatians for the letter was written when he was all enraged and discouraged - yet the letter stays on course. The one to the Corinthians was written and dispatched at a more relaxed time.

To sum it all, it is easy to be an angel when nobody ruffles your feathers.