Faith

Hit List or Prayer List ? – 7th Sunday in ordinary time – Matthew 5: 38-48

 Jesus, in Matthew Chapter 5, after having given his disciples identity and taught them a radical way of living, as seen in the beatitudes, now teaches his disciples to be faithful to the commandments and not to the traditional interpretations as taught by the Scribes and Pharisees. What makes these six teaching so radical is that Jesus teaches his disciples to go beyond the text of the law to the spirit from which it evolved. The disciple had to live like a citizen of heaven among citizens on earth; marked with the behaviour of being salt and light to ‘the world’.

Today’s gospel deals with the last two teachings in Matthew 5; teachings that are set apart by the words of Jesus when he says, ‘you have heard it said’. At the heart of these teaching is love, but a love that could be lost in hatred and un-forgiveness.

Studying the first of these teachings, (38- 44) one realizes that these words of the OT have often been misunderstood as a vengeful command. Gandhiji misunderstood ‘an eye for and eye’ when he added the words ‘will make the whole world blind’. At the heart of this commandment was not a ‘MEASURE OF REVENGE’ but a measure to PREVENT DISPROPORTIONATE REVENGE. The ancient Israelite set limits to justice. If I knocked one tooth out, you could not knock ten in return. Having said this, the law never DEMANDED proportionate revenge; you were most free to forgive. It was simply a law to set limits. So the ‘lex talionis’ regulated revenge and retaliation for damages. Its original intention was humanitarian. However the Rabbis felt that this was too harsh and began commuting the penalty to fines.

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading
Faith

TEN simple things you can do this Lent (that does not require you to stand on your head)

Sadly Lent has been painted with the same brush every year; its purple and that translates for many to being a downer. I have long advocated for a change in mind-set. Personally, the transformation for me took place when I read the collect (opening prayer at mass) in the old translation of the missal on the first Sunday of Lent. It read, “Lord we thank you for this JOYFUL season when your renew heart and mind.”

So Lent is most certainly not about what you can’t do but really about what you could do. It’s a time when you get affirmed and encouraged to make positive changes. You can’t defeat the darkness of your life by sitting in the room and cursing the devil. What you need to do is strike a match, a flame of love for God, by loving others.

To achieve the results we so desire, we must prepare ourselves and while Lent is often seen (not necessarily) as preparation for the Holy Tridum, culminating with Easter, we need to be in preparatory mode before we enter the season itself. We need a preparation for the preparation and that should begin right now!

So what can you do this Lent?

1. Head to confession on or before Ash Wednesday!

You don’t have to look like the cat that ate the canary all through the season on Lent! So why wait for the last week before the Holy Tridum to go to confession? You can’t share sacred space with the devil. If this time is LENT to you by Jesus then wipe the slate clean and don’t share air space with satan. The season of Lent is not a time of visitation (by the Lord) but habitation. He wants to dwell in you. God does not want a part of you; he wants all of you beginning with your heart. This lent, have a heart to heart conversation with your one true love, Jesus.

2. Clear your closet – sharing is caring

Many of us have things that we truly don’t use. Look through your stuff and you will find things that you have not used for more than six months. If you have not used it you don’t really need it. Make a list of 40 things that you have and can share it with others.

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading
Opinion

The Citizenship Amendment Act – Sharp Arguments against an Unjust Law

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed into law in December 2019. The law and its accompanying statements seek to provide Indian citizenship to people from six religious minorities (Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs and Christians) from three countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh) on the basis that, having been subjected to religious persecution, they entered India before 31 December 2014. The exclusion of other communities (in particular, Muslims from the same three countries, or Tamils from Sri Lanka) has triggered widespread public opposition to the law, including the following arguments: (a) it is discriminatory against Muslims; (b) it is violative of human rights by denying access to citizenship solely based on religious identity; (c) it violates the secular nature of the Constitution of India.

In order to execute its intent, the CAA has amended the Citizenship Act of 1955. In addition, to give it full effect, connected amendments have been made to the Passport Act of 1920 (and Rules) and Foreigners Act of 1946. While this may seem to be a complex legal maze, the relevant parts of each of these laws is no more than 2-3 pages, and anyone can decode these laws in a few minutes.  A reading of the four sets of laws throws up some obvious limitations. Below is a summary…

Firstly, it needs to be understood that as a legal principle, any law that is intended to apply to historical facts must be interpreted narrowly, so that its implication is limited to precisely the historical fact pattern around which it seeks to legislate. This principle is important, because the CAA seeks to address the historical fact of persons who entered India prior to 31 December 2014.

Among the various conditions to be satisfied in aggregate, one is that persons sought to be provided citizenship under CAA were compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution. Note that this language is explicitly in the Past. Tense.  This means that the fact of flight under religious persecution should have been established at the time they entered India, prior to 31 December 2014. Therefore, the sharper arguments should be as follows: (a) There should be a register of such persecuted migrants already existing in the Government records and the CAA should be applied only to such documented migrants; (b) The Government must be directed by the Supreme Court to apply the CAA only to already documented migrants; (b) The Government must be directed by the Supreme Court to apply the CAA only to already documented migrants, without expanding the list by documenting additional migrants after 31 December 2014; (c) For a migrant discovered today with no documentation, it cannot be credibly verified now whether entry into India more than five years ago was under religious persecution or otherwise; and therefore (d) It would be a violation of the law if entry under religious persecution is inserted today as a reason for migration that occurred more than five years ago – reports suggests that the UP State Government Is already attempting this.

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading
Food

Soni’s Besan Papadi

Just the other day, Soni D’souza nee Bhalerao, a parishioner and the chef for our ashram, made palm sized deep fried papads. She said the presence of nachni prevents to a large extent the absorption of oil. I tried a modified bite sized version which is baked in the microwave and can be eaten as a healthy snack,

Ingredients

Black chick pea powder ( Kala Chana)  – 5 tablespoons

Chick pea powder ( Besan)  – 1 tablespoons

Nachni powder ( finger lillet)  – 2 tablespoons

Jeera poder – two pinches

Dhani powder – ½ teaspoon

Turmeric – 4 pinches

Chilli powder – ½ teaspoon

Whole jeera – ½ teaspoon

Ajwain – ¼ teaspoon

Salt – ½ teaspoon

Oil – 1 tablespoon to mix

Water – to mix (about three table spoons)

Additional oil to deep fry if you decide not to microwave

Method

Mix all the above ingredients together with one tablespoon of oil and water to mix. Add the water gradually as you want the dough to be firm. Roll the dough out into a ‘snake’ and divide and shape them into small roundels, the size of a rupee coin. On a marble top, roll out these roundels into flat shapes as you would with a chapatti. Note the edges will always look jagged. If you don’t have a marble table top these may tend to stick in which case place the roundels between two sheets of transparent plastic and roll it out.

Once rolled out you could deep fry or try the non-deep fried version in the microwave (I know many consider the micro unhealthy). I placed about five or six of the rolled besan papdi on a microwavable plate that was greased with a little oil (or else they stick to the plate). I ran the microwave at two minutes. You will need to test the first batch in your microwave.

If you make the healthy snack version you can keep them in an air tight box and eat them whenever you are hungry. The fried version is delicious and looks very different from the snack version when ready.  

Fr Warner Dsouza

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading