One drives, the other gets tired!

This evening we had a long drive to the PIME study house for the Mass and dinner.  They are winding shop in the archdiocese and they had invited for their annual seminary day celebrations. I was more keen to know the location of the seminary as I am to take a three day animation programme for the students from Monday.

While sitting beside the priest who was driving the vehicle I was reminded of something I heard many years ago.  It was a comment made by someone who was tired of sitting beside a rash driver:

He was driving and my leg is aching!

This passenger was all the time pressing the 'imaginary' brake... something which the driver was comfortably ignoring when he should!

Selfies in burqua!

This afternoon while riding through the city for some purchases, Prabhakar was sharing an interesting incident which he experienced just a couple of days ago while at the airport where he went to see someone off.  As those of them were clicking some photos and selfies in the airport lounge, they witnessed a muslim lady in the complete burqua, with only a slit for her eyes, clicking selfies!!

Perhaps we too at times, do the same unconsciously: take thrill in doing something which we are not involved in or passionately committed to.  Except for ourselves, no one else sees the work we do, no one else understands what we do, and worse, none benefits from what we do.  

Meaning and Ritual

Last week during the Holy Week, I had to make a very difficult decision: attending the Easter vigil service in the local parish!  I normally resist, desist and assist in 'guarding the house' rather than attend the midnight vigil services.  I see no thrill in sitting and listening to a long sermon well past midnight, with no indication as to when it would conclude.  Then there are all those ceremonies, which honestly speaking, make not much sense to me. 

But I also know some or rather very many who love, really love to attend these services. While I prefer to attend a short and meaningful celebration of the Holy Mass or Service in the community itself, there are many who prefer to attend a long and boring service in the Parish.  If asked what did the Priest speak about during the sermon or what the Gospel was all about, they have no clue - just like the one giving the sermon!!

Something which was very meaningful and relevant for one age, soon becomes a ritual.  As time goes by the ritual overrides the meaning and there is none of the latter left  - or perceived.  But the ritual has now reached such a "popular" celebrity status that it is what matters.  Ask any of those attending the Easter vigil what the candle procession means, what it means when the priest dips the easter candle into the baptismal water, what it means when the Priest concludes with a double 'Alleluia!'... But they'd all be there in their finest linen and jewellery.  

Food cooked in hair oil

Some years ago Brothers from Kondadaba went on an excursion cum pilgrimage to Kerala, sponsored by the newly consecrated Bishop of Kurnool.  They certainly enjoyed the trip and on return had only one complaint: all the food was cooked in hair oil! 

All in the name...

Mary Magdelene recognises the Risen Jesus when He utters her name. When she hears her name, that too from someone so beloved, the whole attitude of sorrow, anxiety and confusion gives way to a certain awe - or perhaps a great joy.  Some would even go to the extent to say, a confirmation of what she had in mind - that He would rise!

Interesting also to note is how, in spite of this remarkable message of resurrection first being delivered to a 'woman', the female gender is so segregated and ostracised in the Church, not to speak of the society at large. Perhaps it is much to do also with the Bible itself, especially the OT wherein the woman is portrayed as a cause of sin and something to be looked down upon. In that sense, we barely live upto understand Jesus and His true message. Very many times we only pick and choose to follow and live by the Gospel values, not as per their true meaning but as per our convenience.

PS: As I was glancing through the pictures to go with this post, I only found paintings or representations expressing more Jesus' exhortation of "do not cling to me" rather than that genuine "rabboni" expression! 

A year off...

Unfortunately Dennis was not as fortunate as me in this regard...

All of me

His fingers merely seem to be flying barely touching the keys!

Lens: At home... always!

Here's another liner from the autobiography of Fr Lens':

My first visit to Belgium was in 1959, after 10 years in India, six years after my ordination.

I wonder how many of us would dare live with that detachment and commitment today.  Some may say that it was the spirituality of those times... being totally away from home.  But those of us who had the fortune of knowing Fr Lens, know all too well that he was AT home, always, wherever he was! 

Priesthood as means; not as privilege

Reading (or at this stage, editing) the autobiography of Fr Lens, something that struck me very much was this: Fr Lens never made much of his ordination!  In fact in his writing of 25 chapters, he speaks much of his childhood and days in the concentration camps, but there is no chapter dedicated to his ordination.  There is years as a practical trainee, a student of theology and then ministry.  Ordination is merely a small mention.  Nothing is made much of it.

Some may say that perhaps the fact that none of his people were here and hence there was not much of an excitement.  However, knowing Fr Lens, I believe it is because of the fact that he did not really give great (undue) importance to the ceremony of ordination or for that matter, to Priesthood as a privilege.  For him it was a means of service - one involving great sacrifice and commitment, but a service nonetheless.  Certainly not a privilege!  I am almost sure, he never ever used his "priesthood" as a leverage for himself! If at he did, it was for the mission and that too he would have done it grudgingly or as a matter of fact rather than a special privilege.  

Excellence, a habit

... connected to perseverance, priorities and finally values.