"Kamchor" labourers?

Some weird idea crossed my mind at the end of the Gospel reading this morning. The last line says, "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send in more labourers to collect the harvest." I was wondering labourers only for collecting the harvest? What happened to those who planted the crop? Those who were looking after it so long? Where did they disappear? Why not call them back again? Is it that these labourers employed earlier, turned out to be like most of our government employees who are very much present on the payroll and no where else... least of all at their job/desk?

Whatever be the case, there is work at hand!!

Love strengthens...

Today evening I had to rush to the hospital (once again) to check on one of our staff members who met with an accident along with his would-be! They were on their way back from the city in a shared auto when the auto rammed into a road divider and she was badly injured due to the shattered glass of the auto. She received nearly 12 stitches on her face!!! When I reached with a couple of other staff members in the evening, the guy was sitting outside the room where she was being 'stitched up' and wailing away!! He had nothing to complain about his injuries - in fact he had none!! I first thought that it must be out of real love for her. But I sincerely had my doubts the way that guy was behaving. The best part was, that she while being attended upon was trying to calm him!

I lost my mind after a couple of minutes and went up to him and asked him, "What's wrong with you? Why are you crying? Just shut up and get out of the place!" I asked Raju (our receptionist) to take him out of the room altogether. Even later when I met the doctor and spoke with him about the extent of injury and other precautions, this guy was always trying to sneak in and cry! At one moment I sternly commanded him to sit quiet and not make another sound!

I know that love is a very strong emotion. It makes people do all sort of crazy and weird things. But I also very firmly believe that love is very strengthening and supportive. Especially in moments like these, we need to stand by and support one and another, not act like sissies! I hope both these young people learn from this experience and not rush into marriage now. I fear she would end up looking after him and she'd have no one to support her truly!

Perhaps, this is what Paul meant this morning... when I am weak then I am strong. I am strengthened because the One who loves me is my support. But if the one whom I love is so weak that seeing my weakness, he/she collapses, then God save me!!

Church and mundane matters

These days the regional CRI (Hyderabad) is having a workshop on Ecology and the Church. This is perhaps one of the themes yet to catch up in the Church. Nearly 10 years ago when Fr Joshtrom was all for it and in his own humble ways drawing our attention to it, this never struck me. But today as I look around and realise the growing consciousness about ecology and nature, I feel, much can be wrought if the Church too gets involved in this. May be the Church - beginning with me and including me - is 'suspicious' of becoming too 'earthy' if it gets 'imbroigled' in all these issues: ecology, human rights, media... May be the 'spiritual' character of the Church may get watered down or we are frightened to get 'dirty'. Anyway, one good thing is that the Church is making a valiant effort. There are people in the Church who are integrating life and living and are thus convincingly able to guide others to a more integrated and unified living - something more than just prayers and novenas!

Gospel and food

The readings of this morning still baffle me. The only connection I see is food! But that's a very silly connection! What else do I read into the readings? One states how Isaac (with the help of his mother, Rebecca) cheats Esau of his birthright and Jesus talking about fasting and feasting. Perhaps it is something like the vows that we religious are called to practice: not for their own sake (no merit whatsoever, in heaven) but for something greater. We renounce, we forgo, we sacrifice, we take 'the road less travelled' not for saying that we are great men of renunciation but to joyfully live it for Christ and His people. If the latter is missing, then we may certainly gain a lot of merit but only here on earth and that too at the cost of our true joy and effective mission. Our focus is not living the vows; they are only the means!

May be for Isaac, food was a means of achieving something that someone God wanted him to have (that I find it difficult to understand and accept, is another point for discussion!). Jesus too was 'justifying' his apostles about eating is only to say that in the context of what they were to do (or called to do), food was not the primary focus, only a means.

The Shawshank Redemption (2)

Here's another dialogue from the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption'... it is all about how human being becomes conditioned... institutionalised. The dialogue here is in the context of a prison (long term). But it is not very much different from how we as religious get 'institutionalised'. (Thanks to Chris for pointing this out to me!).

RED: Heywood, enough. Ain't nothing wrong with Brooksie. He's just institutionalized, that's all.

HEYWOOD: Institutionalized, my ass.

RED: Man's been here fifty years. This place is all he knows. In here, he's an important man, an educated man. A librarian. Out there, he's nothing but a used-up old con with arthritis in both hands. Couldn't even get a library card if he applied. You see what I'm saying?

FLOYD: Red, I do believe you're talking out of your ass.

RED: Believe what you want. These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. After long enough, you get so you depend on 'em. That's "institutionalized."

JIGGER: Shit. I could never get that way.

ERNIE: Say that when you been inside as long as Brooks has.

RED: Goddamn right. They send you here for life, and that's just what they take. Part that counts, anyway.

The Shawshank Redemption

I started watching this movie two days ago and it took me all of three days to reach the end!! But no regrets! It is truly a lovely movie... as one reviewer comments 'a dull at the box office then but a hit with critics, especially today!' Here are some dialogues I picked up from the movie:

• Andy telling Red: Outside (the prison) I was as straight as an arrow, honest! I had to come in here to become a crook!
• Andy to Red and co.: There's something not made of stone but something within. That no one can touch. No one can take it from you. It is hope.
• Andy to Tommy, the new prisoner: Perhaps you should try some new profession. After all you're not a good thief. Then why not try something new?
• Andy to Red: Get busy living or get busy dying!
• Andy's letter to Red: Hope is a good thing, and good things never die.

My favourite, however, is this:

Red, when told by his boss (after he's freed from prison) not to ask him permission every time to go for a break: Forty years I asked for permission to piss. Can't squeeze a drop without saying so!

Oh, it's a beautiful movie of hope, patience and friendship. Great! Tim Robbins is excellent: cool, reserved and precise! Morgan Freeman... oh, boy! No words to describe him. It was a great idea to get him to narrate the whole movie. Not another soul would have done better!

The best thing of the movie is the style and message: simple, clear and always loyal!

Life and money matters

The other day was a hard day for Tirupathi, our gardener. He had to shell out Rs 4,000 just for one night in the hospital! Considering that it is equivalent to his salary for one month, it is really HUGE!! I could sense his anguish and pain when he called me in the morning to "bail" him out of the hospital. It was a simple case of some food poisoning or something didn't go well with his stomach. But life is dear to all. And Tirupathi knows that though life is very dear it comes at a cost too!!

Deepening faith vs making priests

This evening though I tried to wriggle out of an opportunity to preach a recollection, I accepted it!! (I'm still wondering who told Fr Thaddeus MHM about me?? I have a strong feeling that it is Fr Noel who suggested my name... but really him??) Anyway, as I squeezed in a day for the Mill Hill aspirants at Paragi, I sat with Fr Thaddeus discussing with him what he really wanted me to focus on. He was plain and straight-forward. "They are aspirants, yes but first we want them to know their faith - understand it, accept it and cherish it. Priest or no priest, we shall see later!" Really, that struck me very much. Perhaps that's the reason, their society (not a congregation) is so flexible. Like Fr TD John saying, 'Priesthood is not a vocation, living a life of commitment is!'. It was nice he told me that. Perhaps in our Salesian formation, our whole focus is on making the young who enter our aspirantate, 'Salesians'. Endorsing and deepening faith is something taken for granted. But I think it does not just 'happen' that way. Grace of God works, but not best on rocky soil!!

Being/Becoming a Catholic!

(I just can't wait to pull Fr PE Abraham's leg with this!!!)
Each Friday night after work, Santa Singh would fire up his outdoor grill and cook a tandoori chicken and some meat kebabs. But, all of his neighbours were strict Catholics ... and since it was Lent, they were forbidden from eating chicken and meat on a Friday. The delicious aroma from the grilled meats was causing such a problem for the Catholic faithful that they finally talked
to their Priest. The Priest came to visit Santa, and suggested that he become a Catholic. After several classes and much study, Santa attended Mass ... and as the priest sprinkled holy water over him, he said, You were born a Sikh, and raised a Sikh, but now, you are a Catholic."

Santa's neighbors were greatly relieved, until Friday night arrived. The wonderful aroma of tandoori chicken and meat kebabs filled the neighborhood. The Priest was called immediately
by the neighbors and, as he rushed into Santa's backyard, clutching a rosary and prepared to scold him, he stopped and watched in amazement.

There stood Santa, holding a small bottle of holy water which he carefully sprinkled over the grilling meats and chanted: "Oye, you waz born a chicken, and you waz born a lamb, you waz raised a chicken, and you waz raised a lamb but now yara (dear), you are a potato and tomato!"

Why go to Church?

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now… In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this.. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"

When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something!
Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!