Tuesday of the 9th week in Ordinary Time (6th June 2023)

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For the times we have failed to realize that we belong to God, Lord, have mercy...

For the times we have treated things of this word as things in heaven, Christ, have mercy...

For the times we have failed to realize the difference between the things of this world and the things in heaven, Lord, have mercy...

Reading 1, Tobit 2:9-14

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 112:1-2, 7-8, 9

Gospel, Mark 12:13-17

My dear sisters and brothers,

As human beings, we make choices all the time…Even now, you may be making a choice between actively listening to the homily and passively listening to me/or not listening to me at all…

When was the last time you were in a dilemma wherein you had to make a choice between two equally undesirable options? 

Or between two seemingly attractive alternatives wherein choosing one would eventually exclude the privileges of the other?

In the gospel text of today, we find that such a situation is forced upon Jesus wherein whatever choice that he would make was gonna offend either one group of people or the other. 

The context is this: At the time of Jesus, Jerusalem, and the surrounding area were occupied by the Romans, and they imposed census or senses taxes/state taxes that had to be paid by every adult of that time. But the people were not for it. Because they didn’t wanna pay taxes to foreigners or foreign rule. So, it is in this background that religious leaders, the adversaries of Jesus at that time, come to Jesus with this double-edged, loaded question the intention of which they themselves knew, as the evangelist Mark puts it, to test Jesus: Tell us, is it right to pay taxes to the emperor?

Now, if Jesus were to support the payment, then he would have made himself highly unpopular among the people. On the other hand, if he were to say No, then he would have been considered a political suspect by the Roman authorities.

I tend to think that caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, Jesus in his time seemed to have practiced a method of answering that modern psychology reaffirms today. That is, where the problem is, there lies the answer also. It is often because the issue is so overwhelming that one finds it difficult to see the answer through and through by himself or herself. 

So Jesus, ask his own adversaries, the ones who questioned him, to present him with a coin in which was an image of Cesar, the emperor…

And in there, he found the answer… Whatever belongs to Cesar, the emperor, the state, and the government, give to it. But, Jesus doesn’t stop at that. He added…” What belongs to God, give to God…”

What has he done, he has not only made them find their own answers, but in so doing, Jesus had also elevated his adversaries to a higher level by making them aware that even though the denarius in their hand belonged to the state, the hands that held them, in other words, they themselves, belonged to God…

“What belongs to God, Give to God…”

What is it that belongs to God? It’s you and I - the Human Person.

Perhaps the denarius you hold, the dollar in your wallet, the bill in your pocket, the money in your bank, the treasures you possess, and the properties your own, belong to the state… But, you who hold them ultimately belong to God.

It is so true because in Genesis we read that “Human being is made after the image and likeness of God”.

And, St. Augustine adds, “Our Hearts are made for you Lord, and they find no rest until they find their rest in you…”

Can I understand this difference today? 

What Changes am I gonna bring inside as well as outside of me as a person who has realized that I belong to God? 

Accordingly, in my choices made hereafter, be it choosing between two or more equally undesirable alternatives, or between two or more seemingly attractive options, how indifferent am I gonna be with regard to the things of this world?

As St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises puts it, in my making choices, what is the extent to which I am gonna seek that which brings greater glory to God and more help to one another? 

Trinity Sunday (4th June 2023)

Reading 1, Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9

Responsorial Psalm, Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56

Gospel, John 3:16-18

Reading 2, Second Corinthians 13:11-13

My dear sisters and brothers,

Being the Trinity Sunday, I asked Fr. Matt whether he would be planning to call the bishop to come and celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity with us today… He was quite apprehensive about my inquiry… Then I said, I asked it because it is always easier to invite the Bishop and ask him to give a homily on the Holy Trinity than trying to do it on our own…

Since the bishop isn’t here today, and since Fr. Matt too has another Mass to celebrate, here I am, standing before you, trying to talk to you about the Holy Trinity…

So, shall I talk about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and give you an elaborated talk about what God is? Will that make you happy? Will that show you how learned I am? I am afraid, I am only gonna make myself a fool…

But nevertheless, I should speak… What shall I say, then? 

Shall I speak to you about St. Patrick’s analogy of the Holy Trinity as the Three-Leaf Clover or Shamrock in which three leaves are parts of one and the same clover?

Or, St. Augustine’s analogy of the Sun, Light, and Heat wherein each of them cannot exist without the other two?

Or, shall I speak to you about St. Bonaventure’s analogy of the holy Trinity given as a triune relationship among a Lover, the Beloved, and the Love between them? 

Or, shall I speak to you about the divine trinity after the analogy of St. John Damascene given as Fountain, River, and Water? 

Or after the analogy of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas as Mind, Word, and Love?

Or, after the vision of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, as three musical notes needed to form one basic chord? Or, still better, after the invitation of St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises to to imagine how the divine Trinity is looking down upon the earth in their economy or plan of saving humankind? 

Or, quite the contrary, shall I speak to you then about St. Augustine’s encounter with a little girl on the seashore who was trying to empty the ocean into a tiny little hole that she had dug on the shore? And in so doing, shall I try to explain to you how futile our efforts are and would be, no matter how smart and sophisticated they could be, in trying to fix this unfathomable Holy Trinity within our limited human languages, categories, and parameters? 

No. I would not do that. 

But what about, on a day like this, trying to understand our own trinitarian relationships in and around us and reflect upon how authentically and truly we try to live them after whatever knowledge we have, whether big or small, about the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? 

First, as human beings, let’s ask ourselves, how pure, how authentic, and how true is my triune relationship with God, with one another, and with the creation? Are we in the right relationship? Are there hurts around us? Have I hurt God? Have I hurt my brothers and sisters? Have I hurt the creation? Either with my acts of commission or my acts of omission?  Pope Francis, in his encyclical, Laudato si, reminds us that Mother Earth is groaning today like a woman in labor pain. Can we hear her cry today, and how loudly we hear her pain?

Then, coming to the context of family, what about my triune relationship with my spouse, my children, and with everybody else around me? Be it my in-laws, my neighbors, my friends, etc. Am I in the right relationship that I am called to and that I vowed to live, with love and respect? Where have I gone wrong because of my acts of commission as well as acts of omission?  Where should I need to change in order to restore the triune relationship in my family?

Then, in the context of our work environment, be it in the context of Creighton University and our parish family, or wherever you are called to serve, how much I work hard to promote unity among us? Not just to promote unity, but to consciously make an effort to do so even in diversity? Because the beauty that we understand in the Holy Trinity is the unity even in diversity?  Where in my life I have failed to appreciate unity even in diversity? Diversity in unity? And thereby acknowledge and enjoy the beauty around me? 

Therefore, my dear sisters and brothers, today, when we celebrate the feast of the holy trinity, the feast of God, is also our feast, a feast of humanity. It is also about us to ponder and celebrate our own triune relationships around in and us. 

It is all the more so because as Karl Rahner would say, if at all Divine Trinity had ever left its trinitarian glory, in other words, if God has ever become something else other than being God, even for a second, my dear sisters and brothers, the good news is that, God became not a cat, rabbit, puppy, or anything else that we could name. But  God became a human being like you and me, fully alive and fully divine in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity. 

Therefore, this trinitarian God is within us, in us, and around us. The feast of the Holy Trinity, the feast of God, therefore, is also the feast of humanity. But the difference is that we can celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity and we should rightly do so because the relationship among the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is so spotless, so uncanny, so true, so authentic, and so full of mutual understanding, patience, and give and take. 

But when it comes to us, we have questions. We got to ask ourselves,  the way we live our triune relationships, the way we have lived them thus far, have we lived them in such a way that we could celebrate it today, that we could celebrate it at each and every given point in time? Be it in our personal lives, in our families, and in our common history of humanity in the world? 

If not, how are we gonna plan it from now on to celebrate it better in the next year? What more should I/should we do both individually and collectively to put this triune relationship with God, with one another, and with the creation right in our lives? What plans do I have to get this right within me, within my family, within my workplace, and within humanity wherein exist more differences than similarities? 

From today, how am I gonna promote beauty in and around me by consciously making an effort to appreciate unity even in diversity and diversity in unity, after the very example of the Holy Trinity?  

Tuesday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Times (30th May 2023)

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For the times we have failed to give things up for the sake of Christ, Lord, have mercy...

For the times we gave up things for our own good, Christ, have mercy...

For the times we have failed to realize the difference between giving things up for the sake of Christ and for our own good, Lord, have mercy...

Reading 1, Sirach 35:1-12

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 50:5-6, 7-8, 14, 23

Gospel, Mark 10:28-31

My dear sisters and brothers,

When was the last time you could recall that you did something for Christ and you realized that the reward of your action was in the action or mere doing of it itself? 

I might say that I am a religious and I gave up everything for you Lod… Very good…

You might say, my entire life of marriage itself is a total giving up for you Lord… 100% agree.

Or you could say, my job itself is a total sacrifice for you, you Lord… Totally agree…

Or I have given up so many of my wishes and made penance during the season of Lent and I do continue to do them every Friday… Very good.

Realizing what it means to do things for Christ is essential for understanding the ‘dynamism of the kingdom of God…

The gospel text of today is from the Gospel of Saint Mark and it is the immediate follow-up of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man. It is where Jesus said that it is not easy for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

And when this happened, Peter and the disciples were there at the scene.

So they became curious. So Peter being the spokesperson for the disciples, speak up and that’s where we have the Gospel text of today.

In that he asks, so then Lord, we have given up everything, unlike that rich man - our fathers, mothers, families, fishing boats and nets, and so our earthly occupations..for you whom we believe to be the Christ and for the truth you live by and proclaim… And so, “What now”? “what awaits us” 

Jesus realizing the existential question posed by Peter, is trying to make him aware of the pain and the gain of the discipleship…. The sacrifice and the reward of being a disciple…

And it’s where Jesus is making the disciples aware, as much as he is making us aware today, of how things are in the kingdom of heaven…

Those who are last now for my sake will be considered first in the kingdom of God;

Those who are first now for their sake will be considered last in the kingdom of heaven; 

and 

Those who give up and are persecuted and in pain because of me will receive a hundred folds here as well as in the kingdom of God.

My dear sisters and brothers these are just three examples of Gospel paradoxes and, I believe, understanding them is crucial to get a better grasp of the kingdom of God.

What must Jesus be saying to us then:

Of course, he is making us aware of the difference between doing things for Christ and doing them for our own good;

The difference between sacrificing things for Christ and doing them for our good; and 

In so doing he is making us aware of the reward here on earth as well as the reward to come. 

This reward is nothing but the action itself. Mere giving up itself. Mere sacrificing itself. If we have done it for the Lord, our reward is in our action itself. 

Therefore, Jesus is trying to make us aware that we should not wait until we receive our rewards in heaven. 

Rather, by doing things for Christ, our reward is already a hundred folds here on earth as well…

So my dear sisters and brothers, when is the next time that you are going to do something for Christ and you realize that the reward of your action is in your action itself? 

Cosmess: Our Immanent & Transcendent Realities

Cosmess 

Our Immanent & Transcendent Realities

We understand the word ‘cosmos’ as alluding to the Greek ‘kosmos’ (κόσμος) meaning ‘order’, ‘arrangement’, or ‘harmony’. For the ancient Greeks, however, while the term referred to the order and harmony of the universe as a whole, they also used it in contrast to the words ‘chaos’ and ‘disorder’ on the opposite extreme of the spectrum. Unlike the term ‘disordered mess’, which would be, though redundant, easily understood and justified, therefore, how novel and thought-provoking would it be to coin the word “cosmess” (cosmos + mess, meaning ‘ordered mess’) as a more apt and pertinent way to refer to the intrinsic human nature and its consequences in the world today? Let me make an attempt here, therefore, to shed some light on the word, especially through the lens of Ignatian spirituality. In so doing, I make a distinction between two types of understanding of the term – ‘immanent cosmess’ and ‘transcendent cosmess’.   

To begin with, in Ignatian spirituality, one of the best ways available to differentiate between the terms ‘ordered’ and ‘disordered’ is to look at how Saint Ignatius of Loyola understands them in his Spiritual Exercises. He uses the word ‘disordered’ when speaking of “disordered attachments”, referring to the state in which we human beings become overly attached to things or relationships in such a way that keep us from growing in our relationship with God. Also known as “inordinate attachments”, such disordered dispositions can take many forms, such as an excessive desire for material possessions, a preoccupation with work or achievements, an unhealthy inclination toward a particular person or relationship, or an addiction to a substance or behavior or ideology, etc. 

Accordingly, when these attachments overwhelm human beings, when we become immune to our disordered mess within, and when we behave as if our conscience is dead (often for the sake of our vested interests), it is when we begin to justify the external manifestations of our disordered mess within as normal and ordinary. Either by way of our active indulgence in these disordered attachments or being passively but excessively exposed to them, either by being unaware of these inordinate fetters or willfully ignoring to accept them, we human beings tend to perceive and justify our own cosmess as ‘that is how things are usually done in the world’. This, according to me, is the ‘immanent cosmess’ or the existing, human-made, ordered mess we experience within and in the world outside. 

In the context of Africa, the immanent cosmess is quite felt today as long as 3.8 million people do not have enough to eat in Angola; 50 percent of people live on $ 1.90 dollars a day in Zambia; 4.4 million people are in acute food insecurity in Niger; and Chad has the second highest maternity mortality rate in the world, to mention a few. Skewed distribution of wealth and resources in the world and across Africa has given way to this ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, the well-offs and the malnourished, the privileged and the marginalized, the healthy and the sick, the learned and the uneducated, the equals and the differents, etc. The immanent cosmess is far from being absent today as long as there escalates systematic violence against the ‘black’ across the world. It is far from being absent in Sub-Saharan Africa today as long as there exist unjust structures – be it one person against another person, or one tribe against another, or one religion against another, or one nation against another as we increasingly witness in the case of lopsided geo-political, socio-economic, religious, and cultural ties established within and across the world — as a way of establishing one’s superiority and control over the ‘other’. The immanent cosmess is ineradicable in Africa today as long as there exists the wanton destruction of nature which increases water scarcity, desertification, loss of biodiversity, and depleting crop yields and, as a result, which, as Pope Francis puts it in his encyclical Laudato Sí, groans today like a woman in labor pains. It is because, immunized by our immanent cosmess, either personally or collectively, we have become oblivious to the truth that John Ferguson speaks about in his Songs for the Seventies (Stainer & Bell, 1975): “As long as people hunger, as long as people thirst, and ignorance and illness and warfare do their worst; as long as there’s injustice in any of God’s lands, I am my ‘Brother’s keeper’, I dare not wash my hands.” 

Therefore, in the ‘Contemplation on the Incarnation’, one of the key meditations in the Spiritual Exercises (## 101-109), Saint Ignatius invites us to imagine how the three Divine Persons, upon looking down upon the earth with love and compassion and seeing the chaos and brokenness (the immanent cosmess) in the world, consider what they wish to do about it. Put differently, one could say that God’s economy of salvation or His saving plan was to enlighten the human mind and heart to differentiate between the immanent cosmess that they believed in and lived in and its authentic form, which I call the ‘transcendent cosmess’, that they should take heed to and live by. 

Accordingly, through the ‘Contemplation on the Incarnation’ Saint Ignatius invites us to reflect upon not only God’s becoming one among us to transform our human-made immanent cosmess. In so doing, he also invites us to contemplate the authentic form of our ordered mess in our relationship with God, put into effect in the person of Jesus Christ. I esteem, therefore, that in his Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius makes Jesus Christ the epitome of our transcendent cosmess as Scripture attests: 

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God…” (John 1:1)

“…Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:5-8) 

After the example of Christ, therefore, we are called to the realization of our transcendent cosmess within us and our corresponding actions in the world. As Saint Ignatius encourages it in his ‘Contemplation to Attain God’s Love’ (Spiritual Exercises ## 230-237), realizing this authentic form of cosmess in us is nothing but coming to a felt understanding that it is God who took the first lead, not only to love us and to choose us to be His own but, despite our fall, who also made (and continues to make) Himself vulnerable to restore order in our relationship with him. Put differently, in the unfathomable economy of God’s salvation, we human beings are called to realize not only God’s continuing labor in and amidst us. Through that realization, we are also called to pay heed to our transcendent cosmess or the authentic form of ordered mess as ‘pardoned and loved sinners’ or ‘sinners called to be saints’ or ‘wounded healers’. It is in so doing that we are called to a sincere contemplation of not only the ways in which our immanent cosmes and its consequent actions contribute to the chaos and brokenness in the world but also of the ways in which we can work (both individually and collectively) to bring about healing, wholeness, and transformation in the world as the agents of transcendent cosmess. 

To conclude, therefore, it is sufficient to say that the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola provides us, human beings, with an efficient toolbox useful for realizing our transcendent cosmess. Accordingly, the Exercises help us toward developing the awareness of our higher form of ordered mess or healthy ‘ordered attachments’ that support our growth in the effort of living our lives more fully in God’s love. This is to say that Saint Ignatius invites us not only to be detached from our disordered and immanent messes that, caused by our inordinate attachments, hinder our true relationship with God, with one another, with our own selves, and with the creation. But he also invites us to be attached to all that is good and helpful toward becoming ever more united with the ultimate good, God himself. In so doing, the Spiritual Exercises identifies prayer, self-examination, Ignatian indifference, two standards, discernment (each of which deserves a separate elaboration), and spiritual practices such as fasting, acts of charity, and service to others as the means toward realizing and emancipating our disordered and immanent messes and instilling in their place the transforming potentials of transcendent cosmess instead. 

(Image courtesy - M Ordered Mess) 

 

 

Your Are A Blessing - A Short Story

“You Are A Blessing…” 

“I stand here today….,” 

Began Nina, a final-year Social Work student on whom the college auditorium’s spotlight was focused.

“As the university’s best achievement award winner 2022, and…and…” Her voice trembled as she continued. 

“I am grateful to all my professors, faculty members, staff, and my dear colleagues, for having not only recognized but also helped me to realize my potential within to become what I am today”. 

She then stopped for a while and took a deep breath while her eyes spanned across the length and breadth of the college auditorium. It was, though filled with university professors, students, and their family members, yet having a resounding silence to listen to her speech. Her eyes were pensive but steady. As she exhaled her breath, she began to talk again. 

“You have seen and evaluated my potential. Thank you very much! But do you know me?”

The audience was startled for a moment and there heard some whispers in the crowd as well. The college officials and the invitees in the first row became a bit uneasy, though attentive still. Yet, Nina’s eyes were determined though her voice was still bleak when she inquired again. 

“Do you know me? Because, all of these wouldn’t have been possible except for one person in my life, whose name I didn’t know until I came to college.” 

There was an ‘Ooooo…’ in the crowd. But it faded away and came to a quiet halt as Nina continued her speech. 

“Three years ago, when I first came to the college to collect the degree enrolment application form, it was the first time I realized that I had to fill in my parents’ names in the application. All I knew about my mom’s name, if at all I had ever wanted it, was that she was called Mrs. Kumar after my dad. I called her on her WhatsApp number to ask for her full name. Yes, you heard it right, I called her up on her WhatsApp number since she was in Thiruvananthapuram because ever since I was in Grade 3 and came to the convent hostel, I have not seen my mother”. 

“She was silent. But I asked for her name again: Amma, I am so sorry. I did not want to offend you. But it has never occurred to me to fill in your full name in a document. And there, she started to sob.” 

“That day, as I left my mother’s name on the application, blank, I could not quite put myself together to complete the rest of the items in the application. Since then, I had zero hopes of getting into a college. Neither had I wanted to attempt in any other college because I thought that I would have to go through the same process again and again, which means, that I would have to make my mother cry by asking her to reveal that which she doesn’t want to do by herself for some reasons.” 

As her audience was becoming more and more serious in listening to her, she continued. 

“As I came home that day, there came my school principal to see me that evening, a dedicated Jesuit missionary who used to visit us when we were in rehabilitation camps at Killinochchi.” 

“Welcome, Father. It is so nice to see you after so many years. What brought you here, Father?” I asked.”

“”Ah… I was passing this way and I just thought of stopping by to see how you, my little child, are doing in life. You are a grown-up girl now, ha… Aren’t you?” He answered.”

“He sounded joyful and interesting as he always did and it made me forget my worries for a while. Having talked life over a cup of tea, he was about to leave when he pulled out an envelope from his khadi bag hanging on his left shoulder.”

“My child, complete your application and hand it over to the college office tomorrow with the letter you’ll find inside this envelope”, said he with his usual witty smile at the corner of his mouth.” 

“Should I open the letter or should I not?  Should I attach it to the application with the envelope or without it? I wondered for a while.”

“I was so restless the whole evening and I couldn’t sleep that night at all. There was something that troubled me about the envelope, about his witty smile, about the letter inside. ‘Am I missing something in life?’ I asked myself. ‘Is there something that I have not known so far in my life’, I became curious. 

“On the following day, as I was going to submit the college application, I received a call from that Jesuit Priest and his voice sounded still cheerful over the phone.”

“Did you read the letter I gave to you to attach to the application?” He sounded exceptionally witty. “ 

“Oh… Should I?” I was scrupulous.” 

“It’s better you didn’t. Save it for the right time. Please keep a copy of it safe with you and you can read it on the day of your graduation.”” I thought he was hilarious for a second.” 

“And so, today, as I am honored with this best achievement award, I feel all the more honored to read that letter in front of him who made all this possible for me, who helped me to reach the stars, and who came all the way to participate in this ceremony on my behalf.” 

She unfolded the copy of the letter she had kept in her pocket, and as she opened it, her fingers trembled and her heart was soaring high. She knew that she wanted to cry. Yet, to fight her tears within, she closed her eyes tight. As she opened her eyes, she saw that the priest was standing next to her holding her by her shoulder as she read: 

“Dear Sir, 

Please accept this child to your college. I have known her ever since her family was in rehabilitation camps after the war. She grew up with her foster mother until she was about 8 years old. When she was about a year old, her parents were……………”

When Nina saw what was written next in the letter, she sank into an uncontrollable pool of tears while those eyes fixed on her in the audience cried as well. The priest took the letter in one hand and held Nina in the other as he said, 

“let me finish it for her”.  

He began… 

“When she was about a year old, her parents were killed in the crossfire between the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam) and the Sri Lankan Army while they were hiding inside the jungle. Since then, it was Nina’s aunt whom she calls ‘mother’ who brought her up until she handed her over to the Sisters when she fled to Tamil Nadu in the late 90s. Since then, she has been in touch with me inquiring about her well-being and her studies.” 

“Therefore, what she has gone through in life is tremendous. Yet, I believe God has blessed her with greater gifts and talents in life. Educate her to become what she is truly capable of. Let her know that, starting from her own self, understanding is more rewarding than being understood, and giving makes her more joyous than receiving.”  

“May she be a blessing to your institute, to the field of her expertise, and to society at large! Thank you!”

As the priest finished reading the letter, Nina fell to his feet, sobbing uncontrollably. 

As she was slowly raised to her feet by the priest, the audience soared to their feet chanting:

“Nina is a blessing…” “Nina is a blessing…” “Nina is a Blessing…”  

As the chanting increases, the chief guest, the college officials, and the special invitees joined her on the stage with the award on which is written, “The Best Achievement of The Year 2022”. 

As Nina was awarded, the principal of the College said to the audience as she was approaching the microphone “You are indeed a blessing to our institute and to our society. We are very proud of you, Nina”.  

 

-End-