Fidelity in a mosaic

One of the most appealing aspects of our Chapel is the mosaic of St Joseph, created by Mr Balan in 1995. Drawing inspiration from that I shared the following reflection with the Brothers this evening... 

Like each of the tiny tiles or pieces that make up the mosaic, we Salesians too are varied in practically every sense of the word. Yet when put together we are not always expected to be uniform or straight.  Like the tiles in the mosaic, each tile is a different colour, shape and size.  Nonetheless together the picture emerges.  

The artist chooses each tile carefully with the whole picture in mind!  He trusts that the tiles will not change their colour or texture or position.  Because if they do so, on their own, the overall picture will be totally different - if at all, we can still call that what subsequently emerges as a picture! 

So too with us Salesians. We have been called and placed in the communities, in the Province, in the congregation by God!  It is He who is the master designer.  He trusts each of us to be loyal to His plan, our being and doing so that through our collective lives and deeds, His picture emerges bright and clear. 

Healthy elderly!

I was at the hospital the other day, accompanying Fr AR Jose while he was undergoing a spinal surgery. The doctors were not very optimistic of him being able to walk and offered him on a maximum of 2% chance of being able to walk. Nonetheless the surgery was necessitated to prevent further blocking and damage of nerves. Nonetheless, what was amusing was to see the doctors and their team constantly turn to me to speak about him. 

At first, I found it odd. It took me sometime to realise that they were looking at an 84-year-old man, on a wheel-chair, unable to walk for the last 4 years. And hence they presumed him to be unable to explain himself or atleast speak for himself. So at one point, I told them, not to go by his appearance. Just see him as a teenager, albeit on a wheelchair! After that, they were happy to directly interact with him. 

I guess, the medical staff don’t often get to see rather healthy elderly!!!

Generosity

Two essential traits of a Salesian: joy and generosity. Talking to the young Salesians the other day, I told them that it is against these two virtues that they can gauge the authenticity of their vocation. Because these two qualities are purely my own decisions. They are not dependent on someone else or something else. No matter what others say or do, I can choose to be joyful and generous with myself, FOR OTHERS. 

The case of St Mathias, the saint of the day, is a typical example. He was elected into the group of the apostles, purely on his merit of being close to the mission of Christ. Neither before nor after his election would he have changed! I’m sure it would be the same of Justus too, Mathias’ contemporary who too was considered as a possible replacement of Judas. The fact that he did not get elected would certainly not have deterred him from being and doing the good he was already engaged in. 

This is what I call personal commitment to being joyful and generous when it comes to our purpose in life.

Construction and creativity

Reviewing and inspecting very many construction and civil works in the last three years, that being one of my responsibilities (although without any experience in this field!), I’ve begun to realise how routine or monotonous most contractors and engineers tend to be. 

For most of the contractors, construction is basically building: brick, cement, steel, and stuff. The same stuff, the same way, all the time. They don’t seem to pick up any practical – leave alone, innovative – aspects of constructions which enrich their work, over time. 

I guess, their whole concentration is on completing the work or getting the basics right, that they don’t really bother to add finesse or value or utility enhancing features to their works. Or perhaps, being an outsider to this field, I under-estimate their learning or application of their skills. 

Perhaps, they’d be wondering in similar lines (or worse) about my financial and administrative skills!

Construction and comfort

With new constructions and renovations being planned and executed in very many communities, most confreres prefer to now go for AC-utilisation mode – all in the name of modernisation and better living conditions. This means reduced ventilation spaces and special painting and low-ceiling and tiled floors... However, what I have a difficulty is the inability of our guys foreseeing the additional expenses and inconveniences these modifications incur. Besides laying separate wiring, sockets, and the cost of the AC unit itself, there are the hidden but certain costs of higher electricity bills, extra load on the total consumption, even to the extent of leading to the necessity of having an independent transformer. Add to that the uncertainty of continued power supply in most of our locations. So we’ll sooner or later need to buy generators – that too, those which can support the load of these AC units. 

The greatest disadvantage in planning of exclusively AC rooms is that when the AC is inoperational, the room is as good as an oven, given our hot climate. The greatest risk of enhancing the comforts in our rooms and offices, is that we eventually get stuck to these rather than our active apostolate AMIDST the young. Between the dirty streets or the scorching playground or the sweaty hall and the air-conditioned office or room, the temptation to seek refuge in the latter is too overwhelming. 

I’d rather prefer that we plan and construct rooms, halls or buildings which have the maximum arial ventilation and light. Even those limited and selected rooms where we wish to use AC units, there should be a reasonable option for natural ventilation and/or fans.

 

Trust

Trust is something that is earned. It is not merited purely because one is a priest or a religious. At times there is this tussle in some of our encounters where confreres ask, ‘Do you trust that lay person or his word over and above your own confreres?’ Unfortunately, there is no relation between trust and one’s responsibility or role in an institution. Just because one is a lay person, does not make his or her word less authentic than a priest or nun in the same institution. It is not about one’s state of life that determines whether one is trustworthy or not; rather it is the life lived and the work ethics followed that makes one trustworthy.

Being young

Today, after a very long period, we went out as a community, to a water park.  Playing in the swimming pool, having a good time, especially on the slides, watching children and their eagerness to play in the water.  Nonetheless at some moments it struck me that young couples and children would have found it hard to understand why 'old men' like myself are also having fun!! 

In fact the realisation that I am not 'their' age, that I'm almost double the age of most of those who were there in the theme park hit me quite strong on a couple of occasions.  But that didn't make me feel any 'older'; in fact, I felt happy to realise that contrary to my bald head and greying hair, I still am quite young!! 

Thanks be to God for this grace of being and feeling young at heart; being a Salesian! That's one of the amazing quality of being a Salesian: being with the young and being so focused on them, one never ages!! 

Priorities and finance

 We are at the fag end of the academic year and at this time we usually end up our evaluations and look forward to the next academic year... drawing up plans, strategies... (hopefully) based on the evaluation of the present year! 

One of my long standing criticism of our own functioning as a council is that we do not have a list of priorities to guide us.  Most of our decisions, policies and actions are ad hoc, on a day-to-day basis.  The most serious issue with this is that while we do a lot of good, we end up making no significant progress.  It is like running on a treadmill and expecting to reach the next town!!  Only when we have a clear set of priorities that guide us in our decision-making, and everyone, every sector, every community, also works towards the SAME priorities, albeit in their own ways, can we actually gauge the progress. 

The other challenge that I face is the unhappy marriage of priorities and finances.  I understand that procuring finances can be one of our priorities; but if a priority is linked up so badly to finances, that without the budgeted amount, the priority will not be achievable at all, then my question is 'Is that a priority at all?'  Because a priority is something that is a cause of grave concern, and if overcoming that is entirely based on finances, then finance is a priority, not the concern itself!! 

Even if finances are required (certainly so), they are to be planned for.  It is not that I have a priority to be addressed and someone else should give me the funds for it!! The procurement of the needed funds too is part of the lines of action, addressing the priority concern. 

Last, but perhaps the most important point: in religious life, most of our priorities are (supposed to be) spiritual needs or concerns.  Even if speaking of priorities in our active apostolate, we are gifted with extensive expertise, years of formation and an army of fellow confreres and having all of these yet to wait for money to start (and do) some priority tasks is a sin! We do not turn these gifts into tools and means.  When that does not happen, I question if we do have priorities at all? 

A sense of entitlement

One of the many contagious sicknesses plaguing priests and religious is a sense of entitlement. Unfortunately, the sense of entitlement is not in any spiritual aspect (son of God)! The entitlement is purely on the basis of being a priest or religious… of wearing a cassock or habit. Not on the basis of one’s merit, hard work, depth of personality, confidence, or any other virtue, but just because ‘I am a priest/nun’. By itself, this sense of entitlement is bad; coupled with ignorance, incompetence, lethargy and power, it is lethal!

Why not to canonize Pope Francis?

Now that Pope Francis is no more and that he is laid to rest, the topic of his canonisation is doing the rounds. And I have serious objections to that!!! 

The main issue is that Francis did nothing extraordinary. He merely did and lived as he actually professed to live – as a pastor. And if we start canonising people for merely doing what we choose to do, what’s the relevance of ‘canonisation’? We cannot afford to make living as one is supposed to be, a criteria for sainthood. By making someone a saint for doing and being what one is supposed to do and be, we are subconsciously normalising substandard living, or making corrupt, lethargic life as acceptable and the regular mode of life. 

Another downside of making someone a saint is that he/she is exalted, his/her photos and statues erected, novenas recited, prayed to and all that stuff… except emulated! Unconsciously, we put him/her up so high that imitating that person’s lifestyle and living by that person’s attitudes is considered as beyond liveable.