Art/ Heritage

SACRED ART IN 100 WORDS

The Incredulity of St Thomas
Caravaggio
1601-02
Sanssouci, Potsdam

The painting dwells on the famously dubbed doubting Thomas. Four meticulously rendered figures complete the canvas. Although Christ’s face is shadowed, his chest and white garments are bathed in light. The radiance leads our gaze from Jesus to Thomas and from Thomas to the other two apostles. Completing the circle, we are drawn back to Christ, the first and last figure we behold. Notice the ripped garb of Thomas. It indicates his seeking state. As Thomas bends low, Christ indulgently guides his quivering finger into the gaping open wound. Thomas gasps in amazement and his quests result in belief. It was not a ghostly Christ. Let us not ghost Him. Let’s join the apostle of our land in proclaiming – My Lord and My God.

– Archdiocesan Heritage Museum

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Faith

‘Baiting the tax man’ -Monday, 19th week in ordinary time – Matthew 17:22-27

The text of today finds Jesus in Capernaum. The transfiguration has recently taken place and Jesus is back in his de-facto headquarters. This is the village of Peter’s mother-in-law and Peter would certainly be a known figure, even more due to his association with Jesus. It is no wonder then that Peter is accosted by the temple tax collectors with a question that rather seems to throw aspersions on the religiosity of Jesus. Were they insinuating that Jesus was a bad Jewish Rabbi? Perhaps they were attempting to prove Jesus’ disloyalty to the temple or His violation of the Law? The question asked could have been one that sought clarification but was designed more to embarrass Jesus. “Does your teacher NOT pay the temple tax?”

So, what then was this temple tax and even more what were these temple tax collectors doing so far in the North, away from Jerusalem? By Jewish religious law, as commanded in the Bible itself (Exodus 30:13; 38:25) Moses instituted a half shekel sanctuary tax to help fund the tabernacle (Exodus 30:12-13). Every male Jew over the age of 20 had to give an annual contribution of “half a shekel”. However, this tax was only collected when Israel performed a national census.

In time the Jewish priests connected with Herod’s temple instituted another tax, a voluntary tax for the temple which was fixed at half a shekel for each male over the age of 20. The priests cleverly patterned it after the temple tax as mandated by Moses in the Old Testament. According to the Talmud, the temple tax was to be collected during any one of the Jewish festivals, namely the Passover, Pentecost, or feast of the Tabernacles. This Temple tax was not enforceable under Roman law, so they couldn’t make it compulsory. However, the priests considered it a sin if you didn’t pay it. So, you can call it a temple guilt tax, if you want and clearly there was pressure to pay it. So strong was this pressure that one can only suspect that temple tax collectors were probably going door to door to collect the tax and landed as far as Capernaum.

Scripture tells us that when Peter was asked if Jesus paid the tax, he said that he does. Perhaps as the evidence shows us, he did pay the tax but not in this year. Why do I say this? We are told that finally Jesus instruct Peter to cast a line and take from the mouth of a fish a coin enough to pay for both of them. It’s obvious that Peter was caught in a difficult situation, perhaps not sure if Jesus had paid the tax or not and to avoid embarrassment affirmed that Jesus did pay the temple tax. Poor Peter, he must have felt caught between a rock and a hard place.

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Faith

Saturday, 16th week in ordinary time – Matthew 13:24-30

Chapter 13 is the third of Matthew’s five discourses found in the Gospel. In this chapter, Matthew will line up seven parables. We have already heard the parable of the soil (not sower as I have argued so passionately in the earlier talk). In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells a second parable about sowing seeds, this time about two sowers — one who sows good seed to grow wheat, and the enemy who sows weeds among the wheat. The audience seems to comprise both disciples, the audience for 13:18-23, and crowds (13:34, 36).

In the parable of the weeds and wheat, an “enemy” comes when everyone is sleeping and sows’ weeds”. In the scriptures, Matthew uses the Greek term ‘zizania’ to describe the weeds. In modern botanical terms zizania refers to wild rice grasses. What Matthew most likely refers to, however, is darnel or cockle, a noxious weed that closely resembles wheat and is plentiful in Israel. Darnel looked very similar to wheat in the initial stages of growth but revealed their true identity closer to the harvest when the pant matured and the ears appeared. The ears of the real wheat are heavy and will droop, while the ears of the darnel stand up straight.

In the previous parable, the seed experiences difficulties. This time, the difficulties involve not the types of ground on which it falls, but the actions of an enemy person, “while everyone was asleep.” When the householder’s slaves notice the weeds, their first response is to question the quality of the seed. “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” (13:27) When the master replies that an enemy has sown the weeds, the slaves are anxious to take care of the problem, to root those nasty weeds right out. But the master restrains his servants, saying that in gathering the weeds they would uproot the wheat along with them. He orders them to let both grow together until the harvest. Then he will send out his reapers to collect and burn the weeds and to gather the wheat into his barn (13:28-30). The farmer’s strange practice of allowing the wheat and weeds to grow up together can best be understood as a symbol of God’s patience.

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Food

Goan Beef Roulade (Beef Rolls)

Ingredients

600 grams thinly sliced beef

Grind together the following
Ten cloves of garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
1 inch cinnamon stick
10 cloves
3 green chillies
1 tsp turmeric
1tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp vinegar
Juice of one lime

Ingredients for the stuffing

Goan sausages (pork) – in Goa you buy them in beads
1 Carrots (cut like French fries)
1 potato cut into thick juliennes (like French fries)
1 Capsicum (cut long and fine)
1 onion sliced lengthwise

For the gravy

2 onions -finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
½ tsp salt
2 tablespoons oil
½ tsp sugar
Remaining sausage meat
2 tablespoons of the ground masala

Grind together all the ingredients mentioned above with the vinegar and lime juice. Now marinate the beef steaks with salt and four tablespoons of the ground masala. Keep about 2 tablespoons of the ground masala for making the gravy. Take the marinated meat and place a piece each of carrot, potato, capsicum and onion. Add some Goan sausage and roll it up. Tie this with some thread tightly. Do this for all the steaks. Heat the oil in deep pan and add onions and salt an saute till translucent. Add the sausage meat and continue to saute. Add the tomatoes and continue to cook for a while. When cooked add the remaining ground masala and ¼ cup water. Bring this to a boil. Add some sugar and add the beef rolls to the gravy. Cover and cook on slow head for 30 to 40 minutes and allow the gravy to thicken. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander

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Faith

Be the sign not the sigh – 17th Sunday in ordinary time – John 6: 1- 15

Each of the four Gospels narrate the multiplication of the loaves and fish and while the synoptics tell it as a miracle story the Gospel of John wraps it up in greater theological meaning. The Gospel of John is the only Gospel that tells us that this ‘sign’ (remember that the Gospel of John has signs and not miracles) takes place close to the celebration of the Passover and that Jesus leads the people not into a ‘deserted place’ as in the synoptics but up a mountain. Why would John give us these details if not to pique our interest?

So, in order to understand today’s text, you need to read the closing verses of the previous chapter 5:39-47. Jesus gets into a verbal spat with the Jewish religious leaders. He pointedly accuses them of a failure to see in the scriptures they read the very message pertaining to himself as the source of life. He clearly tells them that they do not have the love of God in them and that it is Moses whom they revere, who will be their accuser. It is here that our text begins with these little clues. The very word Moses would jog one’s mind to the Passover and now St John tells us that the Passover was at hand.

St John’s Gospel has seven signs, not miracles. A sign always points to a greater reality and so in the feeding of the five thousand we are called to see the greater reality. The focus therefore is not the multiplication in itself but the person of Jesus who is responsible for it and on his divine nature. Thus, Jesus is presented as the new Moses. So, let’s see the similarities and comparisons in the text.

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